Mission: Impossible Cut “The Biggest Stunt” of the Franchise, Here’s Why and What It Was

Christopher McQuarrie has revealed that they had to cut the biggest stunt of the Mission: Impossible franchise and it nearly killed Tom Cruise (unsurprisingly). The Mission: Impossible series is known for its death-defying stunts, particularly in the Christopher McQuarrie-directed entries. They are largely defined by what ungodly thing Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt has to do in order to save the day. These films pride themselves on being a stunt show just as much as they are spy movies. It has led to some of the most incredible action filmmaking we’ve ever seen and there’s a very good chance that we won’t see it again given the unique circumstances surrounding them.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning undoubtedly goes big with its stunts, featuring a nail-biting underwater sequence with giant torpedoes crashing around near Cruise’s body and an unbelievable aerial sequence where Tom Cruise hangs off of bi-planes. It’s a tremendous feat and one that results in some incredibly tense moments in the movie. A lot of effort went into creating them so that they could be done not only safely, but also practically. They created a rig to allow Tom Cruise to do the scene in a gigantic water tank with the set rolling around and of course, he also just hung off of the planes because there’s not really any other way to do it practically.

Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning‘s Biggest Stunt Was Cut from the Film

Despite how dangerous all of this was and how epic it is, there was one moment that was cut from The Final Reckoning that is considered the biggest stunt of the series. When speaking with Empire Magazine, director Christopher McQuarrie revealed that they shot a moment where the red bi-plane that Ethan Hunt is trying to commandeer flips over. This then leads to him having to hang on to the plane while it’s upside down, leading him to dangle with the threat of falling to his death. This stunt was briefly featured in the marketing for the last Mission: Impossible, but McQuarrie revealed that editor Eddie Hamilton advised him to cut it.

Despite McQuarrie being extremely enthusiastic about this shot and claiming they nearly died trying to get it, Hamilton argued that it was hurting the pacing and “repetitious.” He told McQuarrie that Hunt just needed to get into the plane and keep moving the story along. Even though McQuarrie didn’t agree in the moment due to the effort it took to get there, the moment got cut and he seems to be at peace with it now. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened with the series either.

There was a shot in the trailers for Mission: Impossible – Fallout where Cruise narrowly avoids flying his helicopter into a truck. It was a really great moment, but it was cut out of the movie for similar reasons as this plane stunt.

Of course, there are still some extremely intense stunts elsewhere in this movie. The final stunt of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning sees Tom Cruise bailing out of his flaming plane with a parachute while fiddling with a device that will stop the end of the world. He attempts to deploy his chute, only for it to burn up. This may not be surprising, but yes, Tom Cruise really put himself in a free fall with a parachute that was rigged to catch fire and he even set a Guinness World Record for the stunt.