[0:03]This is far and away the most dangerous thing we've ever attempted. We've been working on this for years. We're going to shoot it in Norway, and there'll be a motorcycle jump off a cliff into a base jump. I wanted to do it since I was a little kid. It all comes down to one thing, the audience.
[0:33]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. John and I are jumping out of a helicopter. He's going to chase me. That's what we say to each other. Don't be careful, just be confident. Confident.
[0:52]A year of base training, advanced skydiving training, a lot of canopy skills, a lot of tracking. Tom Cruise, he's an amazing individual. You tell him something and he just locks it in. His sense of spatial awareness, he's the most aware person I've ever met. Lots of practice on stability in freefall. Tracking with John and Miles in the air, doing lots of different positioning like they were a two-man team in the air, coming on top of each other, below each other, back tracking, front tracking. You know, we've drilled and drilled and drilled. When you do a lot of jumps back-to-back, the canopy control skills improve a lot. We have three open canopies, which is a good thing. The training has gone really well, it's progressed massively. Thank you, Cube. How are you? Great day, man. This is the next part of training right here, motocross. Let's do it. So we built a motocross track. Getting competent at the motocross so that he's comfortable jumping 70, 80 foot tabletops. Great time in the air, great positioning on the bike, landing well. I have to get so good at this that there's just no way that I miss my marks. That's good. Come a little closer to me. Coming up with the stunt is only one of the technical challenges. The other is putting a camera in a place that you can see where Tom is doing it. Finding the right lens, the right platform, the right medium. Even two years ago, the cameras didn't exist that would allow us to do what we're trying to do today. How do we involve the audience? I just want to give them that thrill. That means the camera has to be in front of Tom and as close to him as possible. It feels like you're going over the camera. Yes, very cool.
[2:27]You train and drill every little aspect over and over and over and over again. They were doing 30 jumps a day. Getting to a point where he was just a machine. I mean, over 500 skydives. That's what we do. Over 13,000 Motocross jumps. Alright, it's going to be fun. It's great. We replicated this ramp in England at a quarry. We filled the quarry with cardboard boxes, which were there to catch the motorcycle. And the reason why we did that is so that Tom could simulate the jump. How fast should I go off, what distance do I travel? We built models of different ramps at different angles to calculate what Tom's trajectory would be.
[3:15]We have to be able to consistently predict where Tom is going to be in three-dimensional space. We're going to have a GPS chip on me, and that recorded every single one of Tom's jumps, along with his ground speed, whether there was a headwind, whether there was a crosswind. And by doing this multiple times, we were able to get a consistent set of data. So that each take, we can see what height I am, so this way we can set drones and cameras in places where I can go right into close-up. Rule one. Don't hit me with the drone. Because if we do it all, we don't capture it right, what's the point? Let's do it, guys. Ready? Yeah. Always wear my earplugs so I don't hear myself scream. We are ready, ready.
[4:00]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.
[4:11]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.
[4:29]Thank you all very much for your help, guys.
[4:49]We're here in Norway.
[4:53]We've been constructing this ramp over a number of months. Everything here has to be brought in by helicopter. Engineers and technicians. It's incredible what they've done. This is masterful. Today is day one of principal photography and we are starting in classic Mission form with the biggest stunt in the film. What we're doing here is I'm just doing jumps just to warm up the body. Let's do it. Just to get my tracking going and make sure everything's working all right. I tried not to smile. Basically, when he gets down and puts a parachute on and goes and does the bike jump, he'll actually know the weather conditions in this area, in the valley and on the ground.
[5:35]And then he has to safely deploy a parachute. Now he's in a rock bowl with walls all around him, and he's got to fly out of it.
[5:54]For a jump like this, the challenge is finding the cameras, it's the amount of preparation, and then it's weather. You want the light to be right, you want the clouds to be right. Misty, but not foggy. This weather right here is exactly what we're looking for. He is about 10 minutes away from coming up here, landing and doing the actual stunt. Sounds good. We're in motion. See you soon.
[6:16]Now we're going to set the frames with this camera ship, with the drone just to verify everything. Then we're going to get ready. You know, the only things you really have to avoid while doing a stunt like this is a serious injury or death. You're riding a motorcycle, which is pretty dangerous, on top of a ramp that's elevated off the ground, so if you come off the ramp, that's going to be very bad. You're falling. If you don't get a clean exit from the bike and you get tangled up with it. If you don't open your parachute, you're not going to make it.
[6:56]Action.
[7:24]I saw a canopy, I saw a canopy. Good canopy deployment, nice.
[7:37]See you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Absolutely beautiful, not a thing wrong. Bike went away. I mean, the track was perfect. It was absolutely great. Thanks mate. I think I can hold to the bike a little longer. Action.
[7:57]Pretty much the biggest stunt in cinema history. Tom Cruise just rode a motorcycle off a cliff six times today.
[9:03]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.
