STACK #169 Nov 2018

FILM FEATURE

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The sixth installment in the franchise, Mission: Impossible – Fallout is simply one of the most jaw-dropping action offerings of the year. Here, in their own words,Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie break down the six action sequences you need to see to believe. Words Adam Colby

I f you’re a fan of the M:I franchise, you would know by now that Tom Cruise does most of his own stunts. For Fallout , Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie took the quest for death-defying action realism to extreme lengths. If you think that Ethan Hunt and team are slowing down anytime soon, think again. 6. Rooftop chase Filmed in London, what was meant to be a comparatively simple chase sequence almost landed the entire production in hot water. “Tom nailed the stunt but he knew right away he had broken his ankle,” recalls McQuarrie. Filming had to shut down for six weeks. Mild spoilers follow:

to me and asked what I wanted to do. I just started the bike up and said, ‘My friend, we have got to shoot. You just put the camera out there and I will come around this corner as fast as this bike will possibly go.’ We just lit it up.” According to stunt director Wade Eastwood, “It only takes one knock in the wrong place on your head and it can be a fatal accident. I was so relieved when it was all over.” 4. Hanging by a thread This stunt sequence shot in New Zealand involved Cruise climbing up a rope dangling from a helicopter flying at roughly 2,000 feet, and then free-falling 40 feet onto the payload at the end of the rope and bouncing off of it. According to Cruise, the stunt was in the design and planning stages for two years. “It was definitely one of the most extreme things we did on this movie, but you can’t get this stuff on a green screen. It’s very technical: you have to figure out what the helicopter can hold, the payload, where you can put the cameras, what the angles can be. All the rigs have to check out, any little particle that comes off and hits the rotor blades is a real problem.”

5. The opening chase The first major stunt sequence in Fallout takes place in Paris, where Ethan Hunt is at the centre of a high-speed chase involving a motorcycle, a classic 1986 BMW M5 automobile, and an armored truck. The shoot required briefly shutting down some of the most popular tourist sites in central Paris, including the Arc de Triomphe and the Avenue de l’Opéra leading up to the Grand Opera itself. There was one hitch though, recalls Cruise. “A safety rig for my motorcycle wasn’t working correctly, and we were losing time. McQ came

3. A real cliffhanger The climactic fight sequence between Ethan Hunt and Henry Cavill’s villain, August Walker, was set on Norway’s Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock), a small plateau with a razor-sharp cliff that drops more than 600 meters into a fjord. While the spot made a spectacular location for the fight scene, it proved to be an intensely challenging place to shoot. “Tom and Henry were up there in the freezing cold on very treacherous terrain,” says McQuarrie. “At that point Tom still

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NOVEMBER 2018

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