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Movies & TV

31st Jul 2018

“We dropped Tom out of a helicopter…” – the stunt coordinator for the Mission: Impossible movies has some great stories

Rory Cashin

We imagine being the guy who looks after the stunts for Tom Cruise probably has the hardest job in Hollywood.

One of the most recognisable A-listers, who insists on doing all of his own stunts, often to his own detriment, and it is your job to make sure that not only does it look cool, but that it is safe enough for the star of your movie to do it without accidentally killing himself in the process.

That is the position that stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood finds himself in, but he must surely be used to it by now, no?

When we speak to him, he is on the set of the currently untitled Men In Black reboot with Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson (“I was just working with Tessa, she’s great.”) and he’s previously worked on everything from Spectre to Godzilla, and has worked with Tom on the likes of Edge Of Tomorrow, The Mummy, and Jack Reacher.

He has been responsible for the stunt coordination on both Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and the newly released Mission: Impossible – Fallout, an action movie that really pushes the envelope when it comes to set pieces and sequences, so we had to ask him about the work that went into putting those action scenes together.

Also, as a man with a lot of experience in the field, we asked him about the biggest stunts in the previous Mission: Impossible movies, too. He might not have personally worked on them all, but he would know exactly what was needed to make them work.

And finally, yes, we also had to find out how he reacted when he found out that Tom had broken his ankle while performing a stunt on Fallout. You can check out our full conversation here:

Meanwhile, we also talked to the entire cast of Mission: Impossible – Fallout (well, everyone except Tom Cruise), so if you’d like to hear what Henry Cavill, Simon Pegg, Angela Bassett, writer/director Christopher McQuarrie and everyone else had to say about the new blockbuster, then you can find all their conversations here.

Also, we’ve done a deep dive on the Mission: Impossible series to date, how different they all could have turned out to be, and how the movies have changed alongside the career of Tom Cruise himself, and you can check that out right here.

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