Your mission… should you chose to accept it… is to give stunt performers the praise they deserve.
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One arrives in cinemas on Monday 10 July, and just like every previous entry in the series so far, all eyes are on the incredible stunt work within the movie.
There has already been a huge amount of publicity around one particular set piece which sees franchise star Tom Cruise involved in a stunt on a bike… on a mountain… with a parachute… aiming for a moving train. It is, to put it mildly, absolutely insane and incredibly dangerous and entirely for our entertainment.
Which got us thinking about how there is absolutely no Academy Award love for stunt work in cinema, so when we sat down to chat to the stars of the movie, we discussed at length the best Mission Impossible stunt of all time, and their thoughts on stunts getting more Oscar attention.
Up first, here is what Simon Pegg had to say about it: “Just for stunt professionals, and our stunt team, we do have a very, very accomplished stunt co-ordinator [Wade Eastwood, who JOE previously interviewed at length here], and his team are amazing. Absolutely, what a cinematic device.”
His co-star Rebecca Ferguson added: “When you know the amount of work that must go, the preciseness, the mathematical genius that [is required].” You can check out our full interview with Ferguson and Pegg right here:
Next up, we chatted to new Mission Impossible cast addition Hayley Atwell. Here is what the actress had to say about the topic: “I’m so pleased you said that. I really agree, because the thing about the stunt team, and I include Tom in that – he’s an athlete, he’s a stunt person – there is the one thing about having physical discipline, to study and learn how to do these things effectively.
“And then to really understand what the camera needs from every angle at some particular moment, and then to repeat the stunt. Selling an idea that a punch now seems to be more impactful, or now perform it where you don’t know what your next move is going to be, now perform it as if you are totally out of your depth, now perform where you are so bold you feel you’ve won it before you’ve even begun.
“The technical understanding of how to perform within a stunt and making it look real, that is extraordinary art form that goes hand in hand with the athletic side of it. And I worked full time with [the stunt team] for five months. I was in the studio with them every single every day, training with the teams in the morning and the afternoon.
“And what it did to my brain, for my level of co-ordination and my understanding of how to control my body, so that I was fit for purpose, it blew my mind. And then just watching them do things, just create the choreography.
“They’re extraordinary in what they can do in that way, because they’re looking for action that tells a story that is following the characters, and therefore what would that character do? Not just what would a generic person that looks cool do?” Check out our full interview with Hayley right here:
Mission Impossible cast on Tom Cruise being the greatest stunt man ever
Next we chatted to Cary Elwes, who is also new to the world of Mission Impossible, but had previously acted opposite Cruise in 1990 action movie Days of Thunder. Elwes told us the following:
“How about not just stunt work? How about action thrillers don’t get Oscars? Because if they did, Tom and [director] Christopher McQuarrie would be getting them all the time, as producers and Tom as a stunt man. I mean, he’s the greatest stunt man on the planet, lets face it! There is nobody that will ever top him in terms of stunts, ever! The guy is unbelievable!
“I watched him rehearse a stunt, I can’t say which one, but I got sweaty palms just watching him get into his harness. And I was like ‘Oh my god, he’s not really gonna do that?’ And I thought to myself, what this must have felt like for the insurance people? You know, if I was nervous watching it, how is the insurance bond company feeling??” Check out our full interview with Cary right here:
And finally, returning as the Mission Impossible sorta-villain, Vanessa Kirby revealed she had been having similar thoughts on the subject: “I was actually thinking about that as I fell asleep last night. I thought of Wade Eastwood, and I thought I know him so well for years, we all know him really well, and you see how he works day to day.
“And then you watch this movie, and you think how on Earth did they conceive of it, let alone pull it off? And you’ve got someone who is responsible for all of this! Someone goes ‘Right, we want this kind of thing’, Wade then has to go develop it and carry it out and make it happen. And even co-ordinating every grab on the train, when they’re hanging off the carriage to make it look it real, and one wrong grab and you’ll think ‘Oh, a human couldn’t do that’, so he has to make it look real. So I think he is an absolute hero, he deserves an Oscar, for sure.”
Pom Klementieff closed off the chat with: “And Tom should’ve won an Oscar anyway, for any of his roles, but that’s a different story!” Check out our interview with Pom and Vanessa right here:
Some of these quotes were slightly edited for brevity.
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