Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Star Tom Cruise Reveals Why Huge Motorcycle Stunt Was Filmed First

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is finally being released in theaters next month, and it will be Tom Cruise's seventh outing as Ethan Hunt. Over the years, Cruise has done some crazy stunts, but it's been teased that the next film will include the most dangerous one of the series so far. Back in December, fans got a behind-the-scenes look at Cruise riding his motorcycle off a cliff and then parachuting to safety. During a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, Cruise explained why they filmed the movie's most dangerous stunt first.

"Well, we know either we will continue with the film or we're not. Let's know day one!" Cruise explained. "Let us know day one what is going to happen: Do we all continue or is it a major rewrite?" He added, "I was training and I was ready ... You have to be razor sharp when you're doing something like that. It was very important as we were prepping the film that it was actually the first thing. I don't want to drop that and go shoot other things and have my mind somewhere else. Everyone was prepped. Let's just get it done."

"Doing that on day one gave us all the time in the world to understand why he [Ethan] was doing what he was doing," McQuarrie told Empire Magazine. "If we sat around and tried to figure out these movies the old-fashioned way, you'd never find it, simply because it's such a living, breathing thing."

"There's not a chicken, there's not an egg," director Christopher McQuarrie recently told ComicBook.com's Brandon Davis. "Sometimes we start with...like, Fallout started with the emotional story of Ethan and Julia, and the stunts were kind of put around in the periphery. The beginning of this one, I said, 'What do you want to do?' He said, 'I want to ride a motorcycle off a cliff. What do you want to do?' And I said, 'I want to wreck a train. Let's just wreck a train.' Of course, both of us at one point or another would remind the other, 'You know, this was your idea. You wanted to do this.' Tom was very fortunate in one respect becuase he got his stunt out of the way day one. I'm still shooting that train. That just took forever, and it was very, very challenging."

This is reminding us of the time Die Hard director John McTiernan decided to film Bruce Willis jumping off the side of Nakatomi Plaza on the first day of filming just in case the actor died. Moviemaking is wild!

What Is Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One About?

Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, which premieres in theaters on July 12th. It's the beginning of the end for the action-packed franchise, as Cruise reteams with longtime collaborator and filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie for more death-defying and breathtaking stunts. Hunt and allies Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) attempt to track down a new weapon with the power to tear the world apart. Actors Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, and Esai Morales join the cast for the latest installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise, which is set to wrap up with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two.