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How Tom Cruise Executed His 'Most Dangerous' Stunt in 'Mission: Impossible –Dead Reckoning Part One'

The death-defying moment in the franchise's seventh installment involves Cruise driving a motorbike off a cliff

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Tom Cruise  turned up the action for Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning   Part One .

While the film marks the seventh installment in the highly successful franchise, Cruise, 61, made the occasion even more special by challenging himself to perform one of his most dangerous stunts yet.

The death-defying moment involved Cruise driving a motorbike off a cliff, fly off the bike, and parachute to the ground. While fans got a glimpse of the stunt through the film's action-packed trailer in May, Cruise, along with writer-director  Christopher McQuarrie , first teased the big moment in 2021 at CinemaCon.

The pair explained in a special behind-the-scenes video at the event that the stunt took 500 hours of skydiving training and 13,000 motorbike jumps to get it just right. The stunt involved Cruise being attached to a set of wires as he rides a speeding motorcycle off of a large ramp before he throws himself from the bike, backed by the safety wires attached to his back.

Speaking about its execution, McQuarrie, 54, explained in the video that it was "by far the most dangerous stunt we've ever done." The clip then ended with Cruise performing the stunt himself, with a crew member saying, " Tom Cruise  rode a motorcycle off a cliff six times today."

McQuarrie "tried to kill me," joked Cruise at the New York City premiere.

Christian Black/Paramount Pictures

The film's long-awaited release comes after multiple delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic . According to an official synopsis, it finds Cruise's Ethan Hunt as he and his team are tasked with tracking down "a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands."

During its world premiere in June , Cruise gave a speech about his passion for the franchise and filmmaking. He said in part, "It’s something that I grew up with, that made me and inspired me to dream and want to travel the world. My goal since I was little was to make movies and travel. And not just be a tourist but work in that world and understand their culture."

"Through my movies, I’ve been able to have that because everyone here has allowed me to entertain them," he continued. "It’s a privilege that I have never taken for granted."

Never miss a story — sign up for  PEOPLE's free daily newsletter  to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.

Mission: Impossible   - Dead Reckoning Part One is out now.

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Watch CBS News

Tom Cruise just performed his most dangerous stunt yet – riding a motorcycle off a cliff and BASE jumping

By Caitlin O'Kane

December 21, 2022 / 10:00 AM EST / CBS News

Tom Cruise has performed another daring stunt for the "Mission: Impossible" film series. 

He called this one the most dangerous thing he's ever attempted. Shot in Norway, the stunt required Cruise to ride a motorcycle off a cliff and BASE jump — something he said he's wanted to do since he was a kid. 

Cruise, 60, is currently working on the two-part "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning" film. He's known for performing his own stunts, but this one took years to plan, he said in a video shared on Twitter. 

So excited to share what we’ve been working on. #MissionImpossible pic.twitter.com/rIyiLzQdMG — Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) December 19, 2022

In the video, writer and director Christopher McQuarrie said Cruise put together a "master plan" using experts to help execute the stunt.

He had a year of sky diving training, during which he was doing 30 jumps a day – more than 500 skydives, said Wade Eastwood, the film's stunt coordinator. He also had motocross training, doing over 13,000 motocross jumps. Once he got those skills down, the production team created 3D models to try and predict how Cruise would fly through the air during the stunt so they could film it.

Then, it came time for Cruise to execute the stunt — driving a motorcycle up a long ramp, which lead to a cliff, launching off of it and BASE jumping to the bottom. Cruise first jumped out of a helicopter over the cliff to practice, before attempting the full stunt for the cameras.

"The only things you have to avoid while doing a stunt like this are serious injury or death," BASE jumping coach Miles Daisher said. "You're riding a motorcycle, which is pretty dangerous, on top of a ramp that's elevated off the ground, so if you fall off the ramp, that's pretty bad. You're falling, so if you don't get a clean exit from the bike and you get tangled up with it, or if you don't open your parachute, you're not going to make it."

The behind-the-scenes video show Cruise not only execute the stunt once, but six times in one day. 

"Pretty much the biggest stunt in cinematic history," said BASE jumping coach John DeVore. Viewers can see the final product when part one of the film premieres July 2023. The "Mission: Impossible" series is from Paramount Pictures. (Paramount is also the parent company of CBS.)

Cruise has performed countless hair-raising stunts, including jumping off of scaffolding while filming "Mission: Impossible 6" in —  a stunt that left him injured and limping. 

Cruise has been in Europe filming the seventh and eight "Mission: Impossible" films for several years. The seventh movie was scheduled to premiere in November 2021, but the COVD-19 pandemic shut down production and was pushed to May 27, 2022,  according to Variety . The date was pushed several time after that, and the film will now premier next year. 

While shooting in the U.K. last year, Cruise, who was traveling by helicopter, needed a place to land,  BBC News reports.  He ended up landing in a family's backyard, and then let their kids go for a ride in the helicopter, making headlines.

Caitlin O'Kane is a New York City journalist who works on the CBS News social media team as a senior manager of content and production. She writes about a variety of topics and produces "The Uplift," CBS News' streaming show that focuses on good news.

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Tom Cruise Pulled Off The Biggest Stunt In Cinema History in ‘Mission: Impossible 7’

"You know the only thing you have to avoid while doing a stunt like this is serious injury or death..."

Image: Paramount Pictures

Tom Cruise’s latest movie Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has received widespread acclaim since it premiered worldwide this week, with Cruise upping the stakes for the seventh instalment in the Mission: Impossible franchise. But ahead of release to the general public, there’s one unbelievable stunt that has left everybody wondering… ‘How did they do it?!’

One cold September day in 2020, on Norway’s picturesque Helsetkopen mountain range, the ripples of a modified Honda CRF 250 motorbike engine cascaded across the vast glacial scene, as Tom Cruise and a Hollywood film crew put years of preparation into practice, to undertake the biggest stunt in cinema history.

The stunt was filmed on the first day of principal photography, “in classic Mission form,” says director Christopher McQuarrie, in which Cruise would charge a custom-built motorcycle over a sheer mountain edge and freefall almost 4000 feet before deploying a parachute canopy before certain death.

To pull something off of this magnitude required years of meticulous planning and training to achieve perfect execution. “There’s a lot going into this stunt. So Tom put together this master plan to coordinate all of these experts in each of the particular disciplines involved, to make this whole thing happen.”

WATCH Tom Cruise’s biggest stunt ever below.

“Don’t be careful. Be competent.” Tom Cruise

Hollywood’s movie maverick Tom Cruise is well known for his daring on-screen stunts, whether it’s climbing a 2000-foot cliff in the opening scene of  Mission: Impossible II ; hanging onto the edge of a huge Airbus A400M plane as it takes off in  Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation ; or ascending 1700 feet up the tallest building in the world with no more than a harness for  Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol , Cruise is the king of on-camera chaos, bringing the Mission: Impossible story to dizzying new heights with each subsequent flick – literally.

The preparation for such a stunt was immense that Cruise had to master a year of BASE training and advanced skydive training, doing 30 jumps a day and 500 skydives to perfect his canopy skills and spacial awareness, tracking, freefalling and positioning.

This continued with specialised motocross training, carrying out over 13,000 individual jumps to determine the perfect speed, distance and overall trajectory of the final stunt. This is a feat in itself, not considering the fact that Cruise’s bike had no internal speedometer, so with each successive launch, he had to become so perfectly aligned with the determining factors of his jumps, using no more than his body to land effectively and safely.

“The key is me hitting certain speeds and being consistent with that. There’s no speedometer, so I do it by sound and feel of the bike. And then as I depart the bike, I’m using the wind that’s hitting me here and I’m cupping my chest. That will give me lift,” Cruise explains.

In Norway, where the final stunt was to take place for Mission: Impossible 7 , a swarm of helicopters were brought in to expertly assemble the “masterful” track and ramp. Following years of precise preparation, the conditions were right for the real thing.

Defying gravity, fear and limitations require a specific piece of kit. For his death-defying stunt, Tom Cruise’s goggles in Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning – Part One were Oakley’s one-of-a-kind ECLP23, featuring High-Speed Protection, an expanded field of view and Zero Gravity making sure that the eyewear was a perfect fit for his face, leaving no room for error as Cruise freefalls over a cliff edge with no stunt double in sight.

RELATED :  Tom Cruise Touches Down In Sydney Wearing A Lowkey $200,000 Watch

Cruise would perform the final stunt a total of eight times off the sheer edge of the Helsetkopen mountains, at a height of 4,000 feet into a jagged and unforgiving ravine. “Every time I went off the ramp, it was dangerous,” explained Cruise. “It was risking my life. And we wanted to keep that to a minimum.”

The final cut is pure cinematic perfection; an addictive action sequence that raises the stakes in this latest saga of Ethan Hunt’s adrenaline-filled anthology. So there’s no surprise then that Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has received a score of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and is set to be the highest-rated movie of the Mission: Impossible franchise.

As director, Christopher McQuarrie says: “This is far and away the most dangerous thing we’ve ever attempted. The only thing that scares me more is what we have planned for Mission 8 …”

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The ending of the new ‘Mission: Impossible’ is a real train wreck. Just as they planned it

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“ Tom [Cruise] said, ‘I want to drive a motorcycle off a cliff .’ And I said, ‘OK, I want to wreck a train,’” says “ Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One ” director, co-writer and producer Christopher McQuarrie . “We’ll figure out what the emotional story is later for each character. These are the big action beats.”

So the production built a working replica of the luxurious Orient Express — three of them, actually — with the 70-ton locomotive’s ultimate destination being the bottom of a gorge. For the film’s gripping final sequence, the biggest in one of Hollywood‘s biggest action franchises, that spectacular crash is just the beginning.

“Watching it with an audience, I love it, because when the first carriage goes off the cliff, they give it a round of applause like they think that’s it,” says co-star Hayley Atwell in an interview conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike. “My joy is knowing, ‘Oh, just you wait.’ ”

The extended conclusion finds tenacious spy Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and enigmatic thief Grace (Atwell) scrambling, climbing and jumping through cars as the train is slowly pulled over a wrecked bridge into a chasm. (Not a spoiler: It’s in the ads.) You could call the sequence a neat metaphorical trick too, with one of the movie’s themes being inevitability — it’s a word these villains are especially fond of — and our heroes caught on a literal runaway train.

“Buster Keaton is obviously a big inspiration for ‘Mission: Impossible,’ and specifically Ethan Hunt,” McQuarrie says. “ Charlie Chaplin , Harold Lloyd — we always go back to those silent films. ‘ The General ’ is a movie I really admire. There are great train wreck sequences in ‘ Lawrence of Arabia ’ and ‘ Bridge on the River Kwai .’ So I knew trains were hugely challenging and wanted to take that on.

“I immediately regretted that choice,” he adds, laughing. “It was extremely difficult, time-consuming and limited based on where you could physically shoot it. Knowing this is ‘Mission: Impossible,’ it had to be practical .” (Meaning the production relied on actually performing physical stunts for the camera, rather than adding visual effects in post-production.)

McQuarrie acknowledges that train wrecks make for slam-bang finishes, but they’re something actors can’t realistically be involved in.

“So how do I make this more of a subjective event?” he says. “That’s when the idea of the train slowly going over and Ethan and Grace trying to navigate their way out of what is essentially a train wreck happening in slow motion came about,” he says. “The real challenge was getting the team to slow down. They’re all used to making big action sequences that are happening very quickly. I kept explaining, the actors are going to be fighting every square inch of the way. It’s a suspense sequence disguised as an action sequence.”

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Production designer Gary Freeman explains, “Basically, you were doing everything three times: You were dressing the real [train cars] on the location; you were building the dialogue-exposition ones on the stage; and then you were building the ones that went on the rigs. And they all had to match — they all were subtly different. Special effects built reinforced-steel versions because, obviously, everything had to be structurally secure.”

Sound designer James Mather says, “What is causing the train to keep spilling out over the edge of this canyon? It was the bridge falling apart. So the rumble and the crumble of rocks was a really important storyline to give the audience an understanding.”

Speaking in the same video chat with Freeman and Mather, cinematographer Fraser Taggart says he and gaffer Martin Smith built an external lighting rig for the scenes shot on a soundstage to simulate the perceived shifting of the sun around the moving train — which, in this case, wasn’t just driving horizontally on a track but tilting completely vertically into oblivion.

“The hardest thing in the world is to do natural lighting, to re-create what God gives,” Taggart says. “We shot lots of [test] footage on ordinary, modern trains, and not a lot happens. It’s a fine balance of going, ‘There’s got to be some movement there.’ ”

Speaking of movement, Taggart says the furniture falling as the cars turned on end created chaos: “It was hellish for all of us. We tried to do it with rigs and cables, with cameras on cables, but it lost the reality — it became a bit too mechanical. So we literally dangled our operator, Chunky [Jonathan “Chunky” Richmond], on wires amongst them. You’ve got to feel that you are another character in there. So we dangled Chunky with blood rushing to his head and spitting expletives, many expletives, which I think made it work.”

Hidden footholds and ‘ unicorns’

“I’ve been in the business 26, 27 years, and I’ve never hung a train at 90 degrees and had someone climb up inside of it,” production designer Freeman says with a chuckle.

He describes a close collaboration among his team, Cruise and the director they’ve come to call “McQ.”

“We would build a proxy set and then the stunt guys would, obviously with Tom, work out what they needed. Then we would massage the design — maybe there was a little ledge that we would extend by three inches or something — just so he could get a foothold.

“Tom can only reach a certain distance. Hayley can only step a certain distance. Tom and McQ were very much in that mold, that it shouldn’t look superheroic. It should look real.”

Atwell credits the married couple of stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood and the film’s fitness instructor, Sam Eastwood (“a unicorn,” the actor calls her), with enabling her to “maintain the physicality Grace had in the movie.” Sam trained her to climb on rock walls in preparation for the sequence. Wade, meanwhile, apparently got the fun part.

“He took me to a racetrack and taught me how to drift ,” Atwell says of the stunt-driving technique that oversteers a car sideways at high speed. “Tom, out of nowhere, came down [piloting] a helicopter behind the car on the racetrack. Wade went, ‘Oh, Tom’s here. He just wanted to see how you’re getting on. Just play with him.’ So he would come down low and chase the car and I’d drift around the corner and get away, and we’d be laughing, and I’d be like, ‘Oh, my God, this is amazing.’ ”

Atwell followed Cruise’s personal training program. “On set, he’s very protective,” she says. “He’ll kind of read what your face is conveying and give you what you need.”

Even when those needs include chocolate.

“There was a moment when he looked at me and was like, ‘Are you OK?’ He said, ‘You have adrenal fatigue. We’ve been working for so long on this train-carriage sequence. Do you need some chocolate?’ I was like, ‘Yes, of course. Chocolate all the time.’ And he produces a beautiful box of chocolate, seemingly out of nowhere.”

Emotional gravity and zero gravity

Sound designer Mather recalls, “Literally days before we shipped the movie, Tom was talking about the height. Tom’s always about: ‘I wanna feel this.’ So it had to have a moment of subtle, high-altitude wind whistle. It’s so brief and there’s so little time for it, but it gives you that kind of, ‘Ah, they’re really high.’”

Atwell remembers the cars being hoisted high, even on the soundstage. For an instant, Grace and Ethan experience zero gravity as the carriage they’re in suddenly drops. Atwell says they achieved it the old-fashioned way — by suddenly dropping the carriage. With them in it.

“We had a crash mat that was covered in a sheet, so it looked like it was just part of the scenery,” she explains. “You are harnessed in a way that if anything happens, it will catch your weight. But of course, you don’t want that to happen because you still bang into things and get bruised.”

But there’s more.

“When you see the train going from horizontal to vertical — that happens in about six seconds,” Atwell says. “So Tom and I would sprint on an incline and reach the bar to grab onto before we were vertically suspended. There was a lot of upper-body strength training I had to do to make sure I could hold my own weight for that long and grab hold of that bar in time.”

“After we’ve been hanging, Ethan jumps down onto this platform and I climb up to it,” she says. “We’re standing on this tiny platform together. Tom was like, ‘Don’t look down.’ I’m like, ‘Well, OK, I’m going to try not to,’ and I have to jump across this thing. I’m definitely aware of how high up we are — we can see treetops. We were way above the trees when we shot that.

“When Ethan asks me, ‘Do you trust me?’ and I sort of shake my head, that’s real. [But] I knew I was capable of doing it at that point, and it gave me the freedom to add more fear into the performance.”

McQuarrie says, “One of the biggest laughs in the movie is when he says, ‘Do you trust me?’ and Hayley just [shakes her head, wide-eyed]. That was found in the moment. Those are things you can’t write and plan for. You have to discover them. The performance Hayley gives in that moment kills me. Every time, I believe she’s not going to jump. Hayley is so profoundly empathetic. It’s why we spent 10 years trying to find the right thing for her.”

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Atwell recalls, “Tom jumps across and says, ‘Jump, I’ll catch you,’ and the piano is falling, and they rigged it so the tiny platform I’m on starts to break. I never got used to that feeling. As soon as it starts to break, I have no choice but to jump across and aim for his arm, knowing he would catch me and hold my body weight if I secured my feet on the luggage rail. It’s such an edge-of-your-seat moment because you can feel my adrenaline there.”

For McQuarrie, that kind of emotional transparency is essential to any of this working. “It’s the thing that allows you to overlook the many hoops of logic that we’re asking you to jump through,” he says. “That’s what gets you invested in these sequences, the actors expressing to you how dangerous it is.”

Did it ever get too dangerous? Once or twice. Worse, McQuarrie had to cut the footage. At one point, Cruise and Atwell had to dodge falling furniture, which was impossible to do in a wholly controlled way.

“It was extremely dangerous,” the director admits. “It was the hairiest thing we’ve ever done because it was so chaotic and impossible to plan. And when I pulled those seconds out, the sequence flew. It was brutal to have to do it.”

Production designer Freeman remembers, “When the [engine] went over the edge, I was watching it live with the engineer, a guy called Colin Umpelby who built that whole rig. I palpably felt his fear because if he [messed up], that’s millions of dollars. I remember sitting next to him, and it landed pitch-perfect in the exact spot where it had been designed. I was so happy for him. The guy had the biggest smile on his face.”

Taggart adds, “It was like going to an amusement park every day.”

“Was it always amusing, though?” Mather asks. Their laugh is a sound made only by survivors.

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Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One

Ethan Hunt and his IMF team must track down a dangerous weapon before it falls into the wrong hands. Ethan Hunt and his IMF team must track down a dangerous weapon before it falls into the wrong hands. Ethan Hunt and his IMF team must track down a dangerous weapon before it falls into the wrong hands.

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• Trivia The frequent delays caused by COVID-19 ballooned the budget to $291 million, making it the most expensive Mission: Impossible film (surpassing Fallout, $178 million), the most expensive film of Tom Cruise 's career (again surpassing Fallout), and the most expensive film ever produced by Paramount (surpassing Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) , $217 million). The insurance company Chubb originally gave Paramount only £4.4 million (about $5.4 million) for the delays, arguing that the cast and crew could still fulfill their duties to the production despite being infected with COVID-19. Paramount sued Chubb in 2021, and the two companies settled in 2022. In 2023, Chubb gave Paramount a £57 million (about $71 million) payout for the COVID-caused delays, reducing the film's budget to about $220 million, which still makes it the most expensive film for Cruise, Paramount, and the franchise.
• Goofs Steam trains, especially moving at high speeds, need to be continuously provided with fuel, in this case coal. With the engineers killed and the controls opened all the way, the locomotive would have gradually slowed down and come to a halt as the pressure in the boiler dropped. That train would never have reached the bridge for that distance with no coal provided. Since the early 1900s, when firebox coal consumption exceeded the efforts of two men, the trains have used mechanical stokers. The coal would continue feeding without one missing coal shoveler.

Ethan Hunt : [speaking in italian] Thank you officers. Please. You can wait ouside. Thank you.

[the police leave the area]

Grace : You. You did this.

Ethan Hunt : I called the police. I didn't tell them about your colorful past.

[throwing a file folder]

Ethan Hunt : That's on you. You put-pocleted that the key on another passenger before you were arrested. You exchanged details and arranged to meet later on. Right now somewhere out there hasn't the slighest clue they're holding on to that key for you. An unwitting courier. The perfect accomplice

[describing the person Grace has used as a mule to carry an item]

Ethan Hunt : I'm guessing a man... middle aged? A man waiting his whole life to be noticed by a woman like you. An orphan. Higly intelligent. Inherntly resourceful. Growing up in the poverty left you longing for the finer things. Other's people's things. Someone saw your potential and helped you hone your skills. Skills that gave you the life thought you wanted. Tailored clothes, fine dining, luxury hotels. Skills that kept you one step ahead of the law, until now.

Grace : You can't blame a girl for trying to make a dishonest living.

Ethan Hunt : You had no idea what you stealing. Otherwise you never would stolen it.

Grace : Tell you what. You get me out of here, and I'll take you straight to the key.

Ethan Hunt : I have a better idea. You're gonna tell me everything. Then I'll think about getting out of here. Now start with who hired you. And don't lie to me, because I'll know.

Grace : I have no idea who hired me. Contact with the client was almost entirely electronic.

Ethan Hunt : Email?

Grace : Texts.

Ethan Hunt : Encrypted?

Grace : Naturally.

Ethan Hunt : Almost?

Grace : Pardon?

Ethan Hunt : You said contact with client was "almost" entirely electronic.

Grace : There was a dead drop in a cafe in Luxembourg. An envelope.

Ethan Hunt : What was in the envelope?

Grace : A ticket to Abu Dhabi. And... a picture of you. My instructions were to follow you at the airport. You'd be taling a mark. Said mark would have a key and four million in criptocurrency. That drive was useless, by the way. It was empty. The only hope I have of getting paid is to deliver your half of the key.

Ethan Hunt : And you were instructed to deliever it to...

Grace : Venice. Party at Ducake Palace, Tomorrow. Midnight Venice.

Ethan Hunt : [looking at the door] You expecting someone?

Grace : Your friends from the airport. Saw them in the halleay a few minutes ago.

Ethan Hunt : You could have said something sooner.

Grace : Well, they we're chaising you, not me.

• Crazy credits Disclaimer as one of the last entries in the end credits scroll: "The Producers wish to express that in no way, shape or form were the Rome Spanish Steps used to drive a moving vehicle down. This segment of the film was re-created with a set built on a Studio backlot."
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Tom Cruise explains that death-defying Mission: Impossible 7 stunt captured in an amazing photo

The actor says riding a motorcycle off a cliff was one of the riskiest stunts of his career.

Christian Holub is a writer covering comics and other geeky pop culture. He's still mad about 'Firefly' getting canceled.

This time last year, the much-anticipated seventh Mission: Impossible film was stuck in a production pause as the world reckoned with the COVID-19 pandemic . But now it's 2021, people are getting vaccinated, and film sets have strict health protocols in place. So Tom Cruise is talking about Mission: Impossible 7 as a movie that's going to come out in the near future, which means viewers will soon get to see the superstar actor perform death-defying action stunts.

Cruise always does his own stunts on the Mission: Impossible films, and each installment in the franchise tries to outdo its predecessor. Set photos have already previewed what looks to be one of the actor's most thrilling feats yet: Riding a motorcycle off the edge of a cliff. In a new interview with Empire , Cruise explained why this jump was "the single most dangerous thing he'd ever done." Check out the photo of it below and you'll get an idea of the risk.

"If the wind was too strong, it would blow me off the ramp," Cruise said. "The helicopter [filming the stunt] was a problem, because I didn't want to be hammering down that ramp at top speed and get hit by a stone. Or if I departed in a weird way, we didn't know what was going to happen with the bike. I had about six seconds once I departed the ramp to pull the chute and I don't want to get tangled in the bike. If I do, that's not going to end well."

Thankfully, all's well that ends well. Cruise is still in one piece, and he still loves this stuff. As he recently said on The Graham Norton Show , Cruise has even been told sometimes to stop smiling while performing his stunts because it ruins takes.

Mission: Impossible 7 is currently set to hit theaters on May 27, 2022, and will start streaming on Paramount+ some time after that.

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It's no secret that Tom Cruise is serious about his stunt work, and in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One , he wasted no time taking on a death-defying scene!

Cruise sat down with ET's Nischelle Turner in Rome this week to preview the upcoming action flick, and he shared an interesting fact about the production, revealing that the  most dangerous stunt of his career -- a motorcycle jump off of a cliff into a base jump -- was the first-ever scene filmed for Dead Reckoning Part One .

"Well, we know either we're gonna continue with the film or we're not," Cruise said with a laugh of planning the death-defying stunt. "Let's know day one... Do we all continue, or is it a major rewrite?"

In all seriousness, the actor added, it all came down to focus. "It was years preparing. I mean, I've been riding motorcycles since I was a little kid, raced cars and spent a lot of time just with aerobatics, airplanes, helicopters and parachutes... It all kind of came to that moment."

"You have to be razor sharp when you do something like that, so it was very important as we were prepping the film that that actually was the first thing [to shoot], because I don't want to drop that and go shoot other things and then have my mind somewhere else," he continued. "Everyone was prepped, let's just get it done."

And it wasn't just the one stunt that Cruise was hyper-focused on throughout the film's production. He did his own stunt driving for an intense chase scene throughout the streets of Rome -- while his character was handcuffed to franchise newcomer Hayley Atwel l, no less -- saying the challenges he takes on as a performer are indicative of his devotion to the action-packed franchise.

"Mission: Impossible is the first film I ever produced," he recalled of the impact the films have had on his career, dating back to the 1996 original. "There's certain things that I felt that we could tell with motion, with action and with stories and to be able to travel the world, that I really wanted to- I hoped that I could be able to accomplish with Mission: Impossible."

" I really always wanted to travel the world and be part of that community and then celebrate that community," he added. " Mission: Impossible allows me to do that."

Cruise's legacy as a box-office star is without question, and he hit a new major milestone last year, when Top Gun: Maverick became his first film to bring in over a billion dollars, bringing his career total box office to over $10 billion.

"You know, it was important last summer because of what we went through in [COVID shutdowns]," he noted. "For me, I love movies on the big screen and we have, you know, our families, how it spreads out to the other platforms, I understand that, but the way that I make movies, what I love about films is -- and I've always been someone who's promoted the big screen experience -- I make movies for audiences and to see how much they enjoyed it."

"To see [ Maverick ] open up the way it did, it meant a lot to me in so many ways," Cruise continued. "I mean, for me, when we're in Cannes, I was looking at all of [the cast]. I was like, I want you to have this experience. I wanted them to have that kind of experience, that we all worked hard and we all created this together. It was very special."

And, no surprise, he's not planning to slow down anytime soon. While Cruise and Mission: Impossible writer-director Christopher McQuarrie still have some work to do on Dead Reckoning Part Two --  due out in June 2024 and set to be Cruise's final bow as Ethan Hunt -- the actor said they're already planning for what comes next.

"A few days ago, I turned to McQ like, you know, we've got to start thinking about what we're gonna do next summer when we're done with this," he shared with a laugh. "This is what I do, I make movies... I absolutely love it."

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is in theaters July 12.

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• Mission Impossible

Watch Tom Cruise Rehearse and Perform the 'Biggest Stunt in Cinema History'

Here's how the movie star prepared for his most ambitious action sequence yet in 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning.'

Tom Cruise is known for committing fully to the part in each of his movies, including doing much of his own flying in Top Gun: Maverick and throwing himself into doing his own stunt work on the increasingly explosive action sequences in the Mission: Impossible franchise. The latest installment in the spy thriller series, due to be released on July 12, features the actor's most ambitious stunt yet, and has been dubbed the "biggest stunt in cinema history."

A mini-documentary released on YouTube by Paramount Pictures follows the months of preparation that went into planning and executing a heart-stopping chase scene in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One , in which Cruise's character, secret agent Ethan Hunt, rides a motorcycle off the edge of a cliff and goes into a base jump, free-falling towards the earth before pulling his parachute cord.

"There's a lot going into this stunt," says director Christopher McQuarrie. "So Tom put together this master plan to coordinate all of these experts in each of the particular disciplines involved, to make this whole thing happen.

Prior to the shoot in Hellesylt, Norway in 2020, Cruise undertook a year of training to master motocross, base jumping and advanced skydiving, including working on his strength and stability to ensure he can control his own position mid-air, and manoeuver the parachute canopy in the right way.

"You train and drill every little aspect over and over and over and over again," says Cruise.

When the prep for the shoot was at its most intense, Cruise was doing 30 jumps per day, and he racked up more than 500 skydives and 13,000 motocross jumps over the course of rehearsal. Throughout this entire process, Cruise also wore a GPS chip so that they were able to track his speed and location in three-dimensional space at every stage of the stunt, which then enabled them to plan exactly where the drone cameras needed to be for the shoot.

"The key is me hitting certain speeds and being consistent with that," says Cruise. "There's no speedometer, so I do it by sound and feel of the bike. And then as I depart the bike, I'm using the wind that's hitting me, I'm pumping my chest, that will give me lift."

On the day of the shoot, all conditions have to be perfect for Cruise to pull off the staggering feat, and things are tense behind the camera as the actor shoots off the edge of the precipice and plummets into the valley below... a total of six times.

"We've been working on this for years," says Cruise. "I've wanted to do it since I was a little kid."

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106 skydives with a broken ankle: Inside how Tom Cruise pulled off the thrilling HALO jump in 'Mission: Impossible — Fallout'

Tom Cruise does a lot of amazing stunts in "Mission: Impossible — Fallout," but the one that took the most work to pull off was the HALO jump over Paris at the beginning of the movie.

To get into Paris undetected, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and CIA tagalong August Walker (Henry Cavill) decide to do a HALO jump — a high-altitude, low-open skydive, in which you open your parachute at a low altitude after free-falling for a period of time — at dusk out of a giant C-17 plane.

But things get dangerous when Walker insists on jumping out of the plane even though there's a lightning storm brewing below them. Walker is so determined to do so that he disconnects Hunt's oxygen line to his mask and jumps. Hunt scrambles to reattach his line and jumps after Walker.

Before the audience knows it, they're free-falling with Hunt. The camera follows as Hunt catches up to Walker just before lightning strikes them both.

If you have seen any movie in the "Mission: Impossible" franchise, this next fact won't surprise you: Cruise did the entire HALO sequence without a stuntman. But pulling off the sequence — which included 106 total jumps to get three scenes and was all done after Cruise broke his ankle earlier in production — was as epic as what is on the screen.

Business Insider spoke to the key members of the HALO-jump sequence, including the director Christopher McQuarrie, to break down its yearlong planning and execution.

Finding a unique way to get into Paris

Generally, a movie is born from a screenwriter's pen, but it turns out the recent "Mission: Impossible" movies are done a little differently.

McQuarrie said the script is actually the last thing to be developed in the making of the movies. The movie is first fueled by the stunts that Cruise, McQuarrie, and others close to the franchise come up with.

"The script is more or less the instruction manual for this thing we all discussed at length," McQuarrie said.

In the case of the HALO jump, they had developed a lot of action to take place in Paris, but the question remained: How does Hunt get to the City of Lights?

"A HALO jump came up, and we started talking about what that would take — this many jumps, learning this and that," said Wade Eastwood, the "Fallout" stunt coordinator. "Everyone thought that kind of time didn't fit in the film schedule, but we made it fit, even though on paper it didn't."

With the stunt decided, the hard part started: how to fit Cruise's HALO training in a schedule already filled with training for driving motorcycles, fighting, and flying helicopters. (Yes, he flew that helicopter himself in the movie.)

More on that later.

Creating a helmet so we could see Cruise's face

If you were to do a HALO jump in real life, you wouldn't need a clear helmet showing your whole face. But this is Tom Cruise we're talking about.

When Cruise and the "Fallout" team learned that the proper gear for a HALO jump is an oxygen mask covering most of the face and a helmet leaving just the eyes to be seen, there was a rush to come up with something better for Cruise to wear.

"We created a helmet that had a good look and the oxygen sustained," Eastwood said.

But the mask also had to have lights in it so that we, the audience, could see that it is in fact Cruise doing the jump. That brought another set of concerns.

"It took extensive pressure testing and altitude testing to get the lighting system consistently safe," Eastwood said. "We didn't want them to explode. A fiery Tom Cruise head, that's very bad."

Building the largest wind tunnel in the world

Before getting in a plane and jumping enough times to get a certified skydiver license, Cruise started his HALO training in a wind tunnel at Leavesden Studios in the UK. And as you can probably guess, a normal wind tunnel just wouldn't do.

"I suggested we get a vertical wind tunnel; they said that was a good idea," said Neil Corbould, the "Fallout" special-effects supervisor. "We found a portable wind tunnel and brought it to England but found out very quickly that it was too small."

The wind tunnel would be used to learn the choreography for the HALO-jump sequence devised by Eastwood, but to train properly there would need to be six people in the wind tunnel at the same time (including actors, stunt specialists, and camera operators). The wind tunnel Corbould provided could have only two people in it.

"Tom said, 'Can we make a bigger one?' and I asked, 'How big?' And he said, 'As big as you can make it,'" Corbould said.

So Corbould found a company to build in 12 weeks what would turn out to be one of the biggest wind tunnels ever created.

Housed in an empty exterior water tank at Leavesden, the wind tunnel was 20 feet wide by 10 feet high. Powered by four 1-megawatt generators — enough to power a small town, Corbould noted — it would have blades that could spin at 150 mph and raise the people in the tunnel 7 feet.

The size of the wind tunnel also helped Cruise, who wanted to keep from bumping into the sides, as he was still trying to heal his broken ankle while training.

"He had to be rolled into the wind tunnel and then would lay there flat until the power went on, and then he would take off," said Allan Hewitt, the "Fallout" skydiving coordinator. "We put some orange tape around his foot so we knew which was the bad foot. We didn't want to touch the wrong one."

Flying a helicopter to Cruise's skydiving training

With only so many hours in the day, Cruise had to often do multiple stunt trainings on the same day in the months leading up to filming the movie.

Cruise needed experience flying a helicopter for the movie's concluding action sequence, which involves a helicopter chase — one in which he flies himself. So he would often pilot a helicopter to the drop zone where he would do his HALO jumps.

Sometimes he would even skydive into his HALO training.

"He would take off from a local airfield next to the studio, and the airplane would take him to the drop zone, and he would jump out, so that's one jump done," Eastwood said. "He'd land, get another parachute on, get in the plane waiting, and go do his jumps for the HALO."

Why Cruise's broken ankle was a good thing

You could only imagine how the Paramount executives took the news that Cruise broke his ankle while rooftop-jumping for an action sequence for "Fallout." But it actually forced the movie to do the HALO jump as it was planned.

According to Hewitt, before Cruise's injury, the HALO jump was not going to be a true 25,000-foot jump. Because the production was working with the UK's Royal Air Force, it was agreed that the movie would use the RAF plane to do the stunt. But the RAF would fly them to only 12,000 feet.

"Tom didn't want to fake it — he wanted to do it for real at 25,000 feet," Hewitt said. "But the producers said they weren't going to another country. It really looked like we were going to fake it with the RAF."

But because of Cruise’s injury, the movie missed its scheduled jump with the RAF. That opened the door for the production to end in Abu Dhabi shooting the HALO scene at 25,000 feet.

"If Tom didn't break his ankle, we would have ended up faking it, which nobody wanted," Hewitt said.

The quick decision that saved the HALO sequence

In March, "Fallout" production wrapped up in Abu Dhabi with the HALO sequence. The months of training and creation of prototype equipment for Cruise to wear on the jump finally came together on film.

And luckily, the team had finally found a skydiver who would strap the 20-pound camera rig on his head to film Cruise's jump: Craig O'Brien.

"There was a lot of reluctance," McQuarrie said of trying to find someone who would film the HALO sequence. "The first two cameramen, they gave us a lot of rules and telling us what was and wasn't possible, and we're not into that at all. We're not reckless, but what we want to hear are solutions, not restrictions."

Enter O'Brien, who had experience as a skydiving camera operator, though he had to learn a more cinematic way of shooting.

"Narrative storytelling is a very different style of framing. You're not just capturing an event — you're directing the eye," McQuarrie said. "I'm making you look where I want you to look. He had to learn how to do that."

—Christopher McQuarrie (@chrismcquarrie) July 25, 2018

And O'Brien wasn't looking through a camera lens — the camera was strapped to the top of his head — so he had to do all of that while, as McQuarrie put it, "shooting a scene through a periscope, and you're not looking through the periscope."

Not only did O'Brien pull it off amazingly, but he also solved one of the biggest problems that had befuddled everyone for the first seven jumps: out-of-focus footage.

Because the scene starts inside the C-17 plane, a focus puller was in there, responsible for that part of the sequence. For Cruise's jump (Cavill, playing Walker, never did the jump, as a stuntman went in his place), O'Brien jumped out first and had to slow himself down as Cruise sped up to him. When Cruise got 3 feet from O'Brien's helmet camera, O'Brien would then have to become the focus puller and put the dial in his hand to its closest focus.

But when they would land and look at the footage, Cruise would be out of focus.

"Tom said, 'I was there,' and Craig said, 'I had the dial buried,'" McQuarrie said. "Someone was f---ing up, and we couldn't figure out who."

The next day, O'Brien told the focus puller on the plane to shut off his remote once Cruise jumped out of the plane. To everyone's surprise, that was the problem — the equipment inside the plane was fighting with O'Brien's camera.

Two weeks and 106 jumps later — many done at "magic hour," at dusk, when they had only three minutes of perfect light to shoot — the three parts of the HALO sequence were in the can.

In postproduction, the Abu Dhabi ground was replaced with Paris lights, and a CGI lightning storm was added. But other than that, it was all Cruise, diving and twisting 25,000 feet above the ground (with O'Brien following him the whole way).

Now all that's left is: Can "Mission: Impossible" top this stunt?

"I know there's something out there. We just don't know what it is yet," McQuarrie said. "Whether it's me or someone else, as long as Tom is willing to do it, you can think up crazy s---."

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'Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning’ Featurette Teases the “Biggest Stunt in Cinema History”

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What happens when Tom Cruise jumps off a cliff in Norway. No, that's not a setup for a joke, it's one of the notoriously dedicated action star's most dangerous stunts in the long-awaited upcoming Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One . Paramount Pictures has just released a new behind-the-scenes featurette taking a look at the making of one of Cruise's most daring stunts to date. The new stunt was created for the long-awaited film, which is set to be released to theaters on July 14, 2023.

The featurette starts with an ominous overhead shot rolling over a cliff in Hellesylt, Norway. A long ramp curls up over the rocky edge, looking over a deep plummet. "This is far and away the most dangerous thing we have ever attempted," Cruise says in voice-over. Cruise then goes on to detail the exact set-up of the stunt, and that this particular scenario has been in the works for several years. The stunt is complex, involving a motorcycle chase over a cliff, which then terminates in a jump. All of this is to happen over some of the most dangerous and beautiful terrain on earth.

The featurette then rolls into the signature Mission: Impossible theme and the process of bringing about this dangerous but thrilling new stunt is revealed. And it looks like Cruise has taken the driver's seat when it comes to stunt coordination. The film's director, Christopher McQuarrie , noted that Cruise was responsible for bringing together the experts needed to pull off such a high-risk act.

'Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning' Director Christopher McQuarrie Shares a High-Flying Behind the Scene Image

The featurette does not shy away from Cruise's dedication to his stunt work. From gauging his motorcycle's speed by ear to flying over quarries filled with cardboard with nothing but a wire to keep him aloft, it's clear that Cruise's dedication is more than just talk. "It all comes down to one thing," Cruise says, "the audience." And the audience will soon be able to see the fruit of the film crew's labor, as the new film will finally be coming to theaters four years after it was originally announced.

Cruise, of course, stars in the new film. And he is again joined by costars Simon Pegg and Vanessa Kirby among others. Filming for the movie was complicated not just by elaborate stunt work, but also by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it looks like even with all of those extenuating circumstances, Cruise and his crew have managed to do the (mission) impossible.

Check out the featurette below:

• Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

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The Peculiar Joy of Watching Tom Cruise Jump From the Sky

The most entertaining part of what we will call the Tom Cruise Movement of the Paris Olympics Closing Ceremony wasn’t so much the stunts. The live jump into the Stade de France was unremarkable for an event that had performers dropping from great heights all evening, and the prerecorded leap out of an airplane into Los Angeles didn’t quite have the razzle-dazzle of what he’s done in movies like Mission: Impossible — Fallout . Rather, it was the live moment — orchestrated, certainly — that immediately followed his arrival in the stadium, as Cruise walked through a gauntlet of Olympic athletes eager to hug, high-five, and take selfies with him. The actor is an old hand at red carpets by now, but he seemed genuinely surprised and charmed by this outpouring of love. How appropriate for the times we live in that people who achieve incredible feats of power and speed in real life would be so starstruck by someone who does them onscreen. It made some kind of thematic sense too. Cruise was there to carry the flag from Paris to Los Angeles, and this was an intriguing (and very Hollywood) reminder from the organizers of the upcoming 2028 Summer Olympics that while superhuman athletic achievement is nice and everything, celebrity trumps all.

I must admit, I found this whole spectacle strangely moving. It wasn’t so long ago that Cruise’s career seemed to be in free fall. We don’t need to spend much time on the sordid details — the notorious couch jump, the Matt Lauer interview, the Brooke Shields contretemps, the secretive and messy divorces, the Scientology of it all — but back in the late 2000s and early 2010s, it really did seem like American moviegoers (as well as critics, who had always kept him at a bit of a distance) had had enough of Cruise. Internationally, he remained a big draw, but Stateside he was becoming poison. If he hadn’t held onto some form of domestic box-office viability through the Mission: Impossible movies … who knows? He might be starring in on-demand action flicks and Exorcist pictures now.

That’s where stunts come in. This might be hard to remember, but Cruise hasn’t always been a stunt guy. He hadn’t even been an action guy. Sure, he enjoyed riding motorcycles and flying planes and all that stuff, but before the premiere of the first Mission: Impossible in 1996, there was a real question as to whether he could carry an action movie that didn’t feature fighter jets. There was a lot of buzz around him doing his own climbing during the opening sequence of Mission: Impossible 2 , but that was just his character Ethan Hunt relaxing, and free climbing was one of Cruise’s favorite sports.

The Watch Tom Do Stunts thing really kicked into high gear in 2011, with Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol and its now-immortal sequence atop and around and alongside and occasionally inside the Burj Khalifa. Importantly, this film came out shortly after a yearslong string of PR disasters for the actor, starting with his chaotic press tour for War of the Worlds. Stunts allowed Cruise to claw his way back into audiences’ good graces. These feats demanded attention because they had become increasingly elaborate and deadly: Tom Cruise hanging on the outside of a plane as it takes off. Tom Cruise running vertically down the tallest building in the world. Tom Cruise hanging off a helicopter then free-falling down the tow line. There was a quality of self-punishment to these actions. They came at just the right time and in just the right manner for this seemingly fallen movie star: They allowed him to suffer onscreen for our entertainment, and slowly win back the good will he had lost.

For those of us who witnessed this bizarre, one-of-a-kind, decades-long roller-coaster ride, it’s been enthralling to watch. And it’s hard not to see symbolism, be it real or imagined, everywhere in Sunday night’s event with Tom Cruise as the avatar of an international flag handoff. It kicked off in France with the adoration of athletes from the world over, a kind of acknowledgement of how Cruise remained popular overseas even as American audiences turned away from him. But then he biked down the streets of Paris, got on that plane, and sky-dived into Los Angeles, the sequence (at least the Cruise part) ending on one final, sublime crane shot of him standing atop the Hollywood sign. The last true movie star was back home.

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Tom Cruise performs daredevil stunt jump from stadium roof during Olympics closing ceremony

The Olympic Games are about to go Hollywood, and Tom Cruise just gave everyone a taste of what it's going to be like.

• In p ictures: Stunning photos and big wins at Paris 2024

During Sunday's closing ceremony, the "Mission: Impossible" star performed a daredevil stunt jump from the top of the Stade de France.

As the spotlight found Cruise on the roof, he was lowered down to the arena floor on a cable. He then made his way through the athletes to the stage, shaking hands and taking selfies along the way, including one very enthusiastic embrace from a female athlete.

That wasn't all.

As part of the Hollywood handoff to Los Angeles, who will host the Games in 2028, Cruise took the Olympic flag, fixed it to a motorcycle and drove out of the stadium through a crowd of athletes. (No one appeared to be harmed.)

In a bit of movie magic, Cruise was next seen in an apparent pre-taped segment riding through Paris until he reached a plane that defied space and time to reach Los Angeles.

As the camera zoomed out, Cruise was seen at the Hollywood sign, where the Olympic rings replaced the double "o" s in the word Hollywood.

Yes, all of that really happened.

Cruise is, of course, known for his love of stunt work.

The actor famously has put his body on the line for many films, especially the multibillion-dollar "Mission" franchise, in which he plays spy Ethan Hunt. An eighth installment is expected in 2025.

"It's not that I don't get scared," the actor told CNN last year. "It's that I don't mind being scared."

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In Maniwaki, Que., local radio station CHGA 97.3 has been playing their version of 'Catch the Ace' for nearly a year without a winner. There's only one card left in the deck, so on Thursday, the winning ticketholder is guaranteed to take home a huge cash prize.

Republican Liz Cheney crosses party lines to endorse Kamala Harris

Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney on Wednesday said she would support Kamala Harris for president, ending weeks of speculation about how fully the member of a GOP dynasty-turned-Trump critic would embrace the Democratic ticket.

Footage of motorcade racing JFK to the hospital after he was shot is set to go to auction

Newly emerged film footage of former U.S. president John F. Kennedy's motorcade speeding down a Dallas freeway toward a hospital after he was fatally wounded will go up for auction later this month.

Wildlife trafficking ring killed at least 118 eagles, prosecutors say

A man helped kill at least 118 eagles to sell their feathers and body parts on the black market as part of a long-running wildlife trafficking ring in the western U.S. that authorities allege killed thousands of birds, court filings from prosecutors show.

Federal agents seize US$33 million worth of cocaine on Puerto Rican island popular with tourists

Federal agents on Wednesday seized US$33 million worth of cocaine aboard a boat that was trying to smuggle the drug into the tiny Puerto Rican island of Vieques, according to officials.

Harris breaks with Biden on capital gains tax, proposing a smaller increase

U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris proposed increasing the long-term capital gains tax rate to 28 per cent for wealthy Americans during an economic speech in New Hampshire on Wednesday, breaking with the policy laid out by President Joe Biden in his 2025 budget by suggesting a lower rate.

White House signalling it will likely stop Nippon Steel's plans to buy U.S. Steel

The White House is signalling an openness to blocking the acquisition of U.S. Steel by Nippon Steel, as a government review of the proposed takeover by the Japanese company is on the cusp of ending.

Health Canada orders provinces to destroy old COVID-19 vaccines amid wait for new batch

Ontario has been directed to withdraw and destroy all remaining supplies of last year's COVID-19 vaccines while it awaits delivery of an updated shot, which is only expected to arrive in October, the health ministry confirms.

Canadian researchers find signs of awareness in comatose patient, study says

Researchers in London, Ont., say they were able to detect awareness in a comatose patient with a brain injury -- a finding they say 'opens the door' to providing better care with the hope of more accurately predicting critically injured patients' prognosis for recovery.

'I wouldn't be here': Ontario supervised consumption site users speak out on closures

Reggie Garrett weeps as he speaks about the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre, which houses the supervised consumption site he uses. It is one of 10 such sites slated for closure after the province announced new rules.

Small asteroid burns up in Earth's atmosphere over the Philippines

A small asteroid discovered on Wednesday harmlessly burned up in Earth's atmosphere the same day, NASA said.

'Enthusiastic amateur' finds 'remarkable' Pictish ring buried for more than 1,000 years

A 'remarkable' Pictish ring with 'an intricate setting' was discovered in Scotland by an amateur archeologist after being buried for more than 1,000 years.

'It's pretty unique to see them': Salamander migration in full swing in Manitoba

Herds of salamanders are crossing the road in western Manitoba by the dozens.

Entertainment

k.d. lang & The Reclines reunite at CCMA for first time in 35 years

The 2024 Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) Awards being held in Edmonton later this month will feature a special reunion.

Giller Prize releases long list, drops Scotiabank from name

The group of authors in contention for this year’s $100,000 Giller Prize has been whittled down to 12, but one name is notably absent from the list: Scotiabank.

Cummings, Bachman reach settlement over the Guess Who name with former bandmates

A long-running battle over the Guess Who name has come to an end.

Some banks rethinking strategy on home mortgage competition

Some Canadian banks say they're starting to question how aggressively they go after mortgage customers amid intense competition.

Four natural disasters across Canada led to record number of insurance claims: bureau

The Insurance Bureau of Canada says this summer saw a record number of insurance claims driven by four major weather events and natural disasters over the span of four weeks.

Farmers caught in crossfire as China targets Canadian canola for investigation

Prairie farmers are bracing for a financial hit in the wake of China saying it will launch an anti-dumping investigation into Canadian canola imports.

OPINION | Opinion: I'm 36 — when do I have to give up crop tops?

Having recently turned 36, CNN Style producer Jacqui Palumbo asks readers if she is too old to still be wearing a crop top.

The US$10-million cocktail everyone is drinking at the U.S. Open

At the U.S. Open currently underway in New York, a single cocktail will surpass US$10 million in sales before the tennis grand slam event ends Sept. 8.

Swimmer known as the The Shark is trying again to cross Lake Michigan

An ultra swimmer is trying again to cross Lake Michigan, from Michigan to Wisconsin, just a few weeks after trouble with a GPS device forced him to give up after 60 miles (96 kilometers).

LIVE @ 8 P.M. MT | Calgary Flames host vigil to mourn Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau

The Calgary Flames are preparing to mourn the loss of Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau at a vigil on Wednesday night.

Ballon d'Or: Lionel Messi is left off list of contenders for soccer's biggest individual prize

Lionel Messi may be considered by many as the greatest soccer player of all time, but the Argentina star was omitted from the list of nominations to win this year's Ballon d'Or award — the sport's most prized individual honor.

Clemens leads Phillies past Blue Jays 4-2; Schwarber hits fourth homer in two games

Kody Clemens's two-run homer lifted the Philadelphia Phillies to a 4-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday for a two-game sweep.

Volvo Cars revamps SUV hybrid as it shifts plans away from pure electric

Volvo Cars said on Wednesday that plug-in hybrids would continue to be a critical part of its profit growth plans over the next few years and that it would revamp its XC90 hybrid sports utility vehicle.

Ontario man told his EV needs $33K battery. Software update fixes the problem

An Ontario man said he couldn't believe an electric car he bought three years ago for $20,000 would need a new battery at a cost of more than $33,000.

U.S. reports 28th death caused by exploding Takata air bag inflators

Another death has been linked to dangerous Takata air bag inflators by U.S. regulators, the 28th in the United States.

Local Spotlight

B.C. woman who sought $5K from neighbour over noise ordered to pay $50 for nuisance

A British Columbia woman who unsuccessfully sued her downstairs neighbour last fall for making too much noise has now failed in a bid to sue her upstairs neighbour for being too loud.

Windsor musician receives rare honour of taking the stage at Detroit Jazz Festival

A trumpeter from Windsor is performing at the Detroit Jazz Festival this weekend — a rare honour for a musician from the Rose City.

Humpback whale calf struck by BC Ferries vessel 'likely to survive,' research society says

A humpback whale calf that was struck by a BC Ferries vessel off of northern Vancouver Island last Thursday is expected to recover, a local marine research society says.

Meet the man living in the middle of a Kitchener, Ont. roundabout

Drivers going by a Kitchener roundabout may have noticed something unusual – a tent set up on the centre island.

This wilderness resort designed and built by the Timber Kings just hit the market in B.C.

A family-owned B.C. wilderness resort designed and built by HGTV's Timber Kings – who said it was one of the "coolest and most challenging" projects they have undertaken – has hit the market for $21.5 million.

'I don't know what we're going to do': Historic Saskatchewan theatre floods, owners fear closure

Alan Dougherty, co-owner of Estevan's Orpheum Theatre believes the historic theatre’s future is up in the air following recent flooding.

'Mini Thni': Alta. First Nations community reclaims traditional Stoney Nakoda name

A First Nations community west of Calgary has officially reclaimed its traditional Stoney Nakoda name. The Stoney Nakoda Nations held an event on Thursday to officially rename Morley to Mînî Thnî.

Accused's actions after Vancouver double-murder should leave no doubt as to guilt, Crown argues

With one last chance to address the jury, Crown prosecutors argued that Kane Carter's actions after two people were killed in Vancouver should leave them with no doubt he was the person who fired the fatal gunshots.

'It's going to happen,' but not yet: Premier explains pause of Richmond supportive housing project

A planned six-storey, 90-unit supportive housing complex at Cambie and Sexsmith roads in Richmond is no longer going forward. Unless it does. Which it definitely will, but maybe at a different site.

Man in his 20s sought after 2 women, 96 and 66, sexually assaulted in Mississauga

A man in his early 20s is wanted for allegedly sexually assaulting a 96-year-old woman and a 66-year-old woman in separate instances in Mississauga on Tuesday.

Calgary no longer able to afford Green Line project following provincial scope change: mayor

The City of Calgary is no longer able to afford the cost of the CTrain Green Line project, following a “significant scope change” by the provincial government.

Alberta ordered by Health Canada to destroy COVID-19 vaccines

A spokesperson for Alberta Health says that as of Aug. 31, all old-strain COVID-19 vaccines are no longer available, but neither is the new formula.

Ottawa Senators unveil new menu items and goodies at Canadian Tire Centre this season

The timeline for a downtown arena for the Ottawa Senators remains uncertain so, for now, the club is taking steps to enhance the fan experience at the Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata, introducing several new features and foods for the upcoming season.

Whooping cough cases surging in Quebec: public health

Cases of whooping cough are surging in Quebec, and the number of cases during the current outbreak is much higher than the few hundred seen in the average year.

Parents questioning Quebec Education Ministry grading system

The parents of Olivier Boulerice are calling the Quebec Education Ministry's grading system that may cause him to need to repeat a class.

Urban farmers bring the Montreal melon back on old horse race track site

With the exception of two huge U2 concerts on the site, the Hippodrome Blue Bonnets has been dormant since 2009, and while Montreal and Quebec plant to build the green space is being used to grow food, including the once thought lost Montreal melon.

'We lost our lives back there in Jasper': Non-essential evacuees waiting to get temporary housing approval

More than a month has passed since wildfires tore through the Town of Jasper and many evacuees are still waiting to return to the community. With emergency support ending as of Tuesday, the province is finding temporary solutions for its residents.

Several businesses, public areas in Jasper National Park and townsite now open, slated to open soon

Several Jasper businesses, trails and areas are now open or soon-to-be accessible.

City councillor decries elimination of road safety 'tools' in wake of Alberta move to limit photo radar

An Edmonton city councillor says the provincial government's decision to eliminate the use of photo radar on the bulk of roadways crews currently patrol will mean denying residents safer roads.

Halifax police find human remains near Long Lake

Halifax Regional Police found human remains near Long Lake on Tuesday.

Five things to know heading into the fall season for the Maritimes

The Maritime provinces prepare to transition from summer to fall.

Cyclist struck by car during Winnipeg protest

A car struck a cyclist during a demonstration at Portage and Main Wednesday afternoon.

Winnipeg guitarist searching for two prized instruments stolen from home

A Winnipeg guitarist who's worked with artists like Corb Lund, Del Barber and Romi Mayes is asking for his two favourite guitars to be returned.

Sask. leaders speak on federal NDP's announcement to end deal with Liberals

Saskatchewan leaders reacted to the news that the federal NDP pulled out of the supply-and-confidence agreement with the Liberals.

'Frustrated': Riders return to practice following Labour Day Classic loss

The Saskatchewan Roughrider’s 35-33 loss in the annual Labour Day Classic against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers marked the team’s sixth straight game without a win.

Sask. RCMP arrest driver travelling at 'extremely high rates of speed' near resort community

Saskatchewan RCMP say a 19-year-old is facing a lengthy list of charges after he was seen driving at 'extremely high rates of speed' between Kenosee Lake and Carlyle Saturday night.

Abdullah Haredo sentenced for fatal 2019 shooting of Kitchener man

A Kitchener man has been sentenced to eight years in prison for the fatal shooting of Irshad Sabriye. But he'll only spend two more years behind bars.

43 reported overdoses, two drug deaths over six-day period in Waterloo Region

Another community alert has been issued in Waterloo Region after dangerous substances were found in the local drug supply. We also get the region's reaction to the CTS shutdown.

Waterloo garage fire causes heavy smoke and $150K in damages

No injuries were reported after a garage fire in Waterloo Wednesday morning.

Saskatchewan judge orders Vern's Pizza location to stop using the name after franchise feud

A judge has ordered the Vern's Pizza in Saskatoon’s Sutherland neighbourhood to stop using the Vern's name after finding its franchise agreement expired in 2016.

'Send your water': Sask. village loses hotel, Canada Post and town office in fire

A small Saskatchewan village has lost several important landmarks following a fire earlier this week.

Northern Ontario

So long, Superstack – Vale to dismantle Sudbury's famous landmark

Vale is moving ahead with dismantling the Superstack in Greater Sudbury, the mining giant announced Wednesday. The Superstack, along with the less famous Copperstack, are being taken down at the Copper Cliff Smelter Complex.

Increased police presence in Newbury following an investigation

Currently there are no concerns for public safety, however the public is being advised to avoid the area of Broadway Street between Henry Street, James Street, and Emmot Street for the time being.

Some signs of progress, but frustration still grows over former McCormick’s site

There are signs of progress at the site of the former McCormick’s cookie factory in London’s Old East Village, but the condition of the historic building continues to be a concern for both the ward councillor and neighbours.

Back to school for London kids as new provincial cellphone ban takes effect

The new school year got underway for most London area students today – and this year new province-wide rules for cell phones will be impacting classrooms.

City to dismantle homeless encampment at Barrie Park

Roughly two dozen people living in Berczy Park in Barrie will have to vacate after the city issued an eviction notice.

Dump truck driver with 19 beer cans charged after allegedly blowing 2.5x over limit

A dump truck driver is facing charges for allegedly being behind the wheel intoxicated after police said he failed to stop for a stop sign in Oro-Medonte.

Road extension in Barrie's south end to open ahead of schedule

The opening of a much-anticipated new road in Barrie that is expected to relieve traffic congestion in the city's south end is ahead of schedule.

Child drowns in Harrow swimming pool over Labour Day weekend

Essex County OPP say that a child was located unresponsive in a swimming pool at an address on Huffman Road on Saturday.

Windsor police welcome new paws to the squad

The Windsor Police Service (WPS) has welcomed two new pups to the K9 Unit.

Final phase of Wheatley gas investigation underway; ‘we're prepping for what's going to happen next’

"There's something really special about the people that live in this town and there's something really special about going through hard times and how everybody comes together and supports each other." stated West Kent Councillor Lauren Anderson.

Vancouver Island

Elephant seals used deep sea sonar equipment as 'dinner bell': b.c. researchers.

Scientists say new research shows how northern elephant seals used sonar from a deep sea research facility off the British Columbia coast like a "dinner bell" as they hunted for prey.

Veteran BC United legislator Mike Bernier to run as independent in fall election

Veteran British Columbia legislator Mike Bernier will run in the fall provincial election as an independent instead of joining several former BC United candidates in running under the B.C. Conservatives banner.

Have you seen Lulu? Kelowna RCMP searching for stolen puppy

Mounties in Kelowna are appealing to the public for help reuniting a stolen puppy named Lulu with its owner.

RCMP issue 'strong warning' against unsanctioned pre-grad parties in B.C.'s Okanagan

Authorities are urging parents in B.C.'s Okanagan to speak with their teenagers about the dangers of attending "unsanctioned" pre-graduation parties.

Commercial truck plunges off bridge in B.C. Interior, driver unaccounted for, RCMP say

The driver of a semi truck and trailer that plunged off of a bridge in the B.C. Interior Saturday morning has not been located, according to police.

Southern Alberta farmers caught in the middle of Canada, China dispute

Southern Alberta farmers appear to be caught in the middle of a trade war, as the Canadian and Chinese governments face off on the international stage.

Lethbridge post-secondary students return to class with more financial support options

Students at the University of Lethbridge and Lethbridge Polytechnic were out in full force Wednesday as a new semester got underway.

Alleged Lethbridge drug house shut down by Alberta sheriffs

Alberta sheriffs have closed a problem property in Lethbridge, saying they were called to the home over alleged drug activity more than a dozen times since 2022.

Sault Ste. Marie

Sault addictions worker calls for emotional management education for young people

The head of a Sault Ste. Marie recovery centre is calling for changes from both upper levels of government.

Algoma OPP say impaired driver struck tree, beer cans were strewn around vehicle

Ontario Provincial Police say they found beer cans strewn on the road after hearing reports that a pickup truck hit a tree in Hilton Beach on St. Joseph Island.

$106K prize attracting international teams to Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., curling tournament

It is only the second annual fall classic curling tournament in Sault Ste. Marie, but the number of teams and amount of the prize purse has grown exponentially.

Dispute over unrecognized Inuit group halts major conference for Canadian North

A 16-year-old biennial event aimed at fostering business in the country's eastern Arctic and northern regions has been cancelled indefinitely as a dispute unfolds between Inuit in Canada and a Labrador group claiming to share their heritage.

Cow cuddling: Why a Newfoundland farm is offering quality time with these 'gentle creatures'

Jim Lester’s farm hopped on the cow-cuddling trend in early August, and his time slots have been pretty well sold out ever since.

Newly reinstated Newfoundland cod fishery temporarily paused as landings hit limit

The federal government has temporarily paused parts of the newly reinstated commercial northern cod fishery off the east coast of Newfoundland as landings approach the seasonal limit.

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Screen Rant

Tom cruise’s most extreme method acting preparation addressed by director 20 years later.

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This 20-Year-Old Tom Cruise Movie Can Lay The Blueprint For His Future After Mission: Impossible

Marvel confirms the official name for tom holland spider-man's mcu trilogy, tom hardy & aaron taylor-johnson join james bond director to adapt popular crime thriller.

Collateral director Michael Mann recalls Tom Cruise's extreme hitman training for the 2004 crime thriller. Marking Mann's follow-up to Ali (2001) and The Insider (1999), Collateral stars Jamie Foxx as Max, a Los Angeles cab driver who finds himself tangled up in the violent business dealings of Vincent (Cruise), a ruthless hitman. The film, which also stars Jada Pinkett Smith and Mark Ruffalo, earned positive reviews from critics, with particular praise directed at Cruise in one of his few villain roles .

In a recent interview with Empire magazine, Mann recalls Cruise's intense training for the role of Vincent in Collateral , which, in addition to fight and weapons training, involved stalking the film's assistant director as if for a hit. Mann, who was in on the Method antics, even reveals that he sent Cruise undercover as a deliveryman. Check out Mann's comments about Cruise's preparation below:

"We knew that [the assistant director] went to the gym three mornings a week, and that he came to work early at 7.30. And here's where he parked, and that's the place to get him because there was one way in and three exits. Which is good tradecraft. "I had him deliver a calendar to a liquor store in downtown Los Angeles, strike up conversations with three people, and nobody knew it was Tom Cruise. There was a sign on him that said 'FedEx' and he had a cap that said ‘FedEx' and when people see a sign, they believe it."

Tom Cruise won’t be able to do Mission: Impossible movies forever, but one of his old movies may have paved the way for his acting future.

Collateral Remains An All-Time Tom Cruise Movie

Vincent was a major departure for the movie star.

Though Cruise's couch-jumping interview with Oprah in 2005 was certainly a major blow to his public image, prior to that he was seen as one of the most charismatic leading men in Hollywood (a status he's since reclaimed). The actor was well known at the time for his roles in movies like Top Gun (1986), Jerry Maguire (1996), and the first two Mission: Impossible movies . Just prior to Collateral , he also starred in Minority Report (2002) and The Last Samurai (2003), cementing a shift toward more standard Hollywood leading man fare.

Though Cruise had certainly played some very flawed characters in the '80s and '90s, Collateral marked his first time playing a cold-blooded killer, and he was remarkably good at it . No doubt a result of some of his training and preparation, Cruise, sporting gray hair and a matching suit, comes across in Collateral as someone who is truly dangerous and terrifyingly efficient at killing. The film currently sports a strong 86% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes and an 84% Popcornmeter score (previously called the audience score), suggesting movie-goers enjoyed this surprising turn from the actor.

Unfortunately, Cruise has never really returned to this well in the last 20 years, and most of his recent roles, including those in 2022's Top Gun: Maverick and 2023's Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning , see him playing more traditional Hollywood protagonists. Cruise is one of the best actors in Hollywood at playing these types of roles, so it's not a total loss, but it's also a shame he hasn't delivered another performance like Vincent . While it remains unclear what the next two decades of Cruise's career will look like, Collateral still remains a standout film in his impressive filmography.

Source: Empire

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Directed by Michael Mann, the crime thriller Collateral features Tom Cruise as a hitman hired to take out witnesses before a big trial and Jamie Foxx as the cab driver who unwittingly becomes his accomplice. With Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo, and Javier Bardem in its cast, the 2004 film received critical acclaim for its direction, performances, and suspenseful plot.