Tom Cruise had a morbid motivation for shooting Mission Impossible stunt on the first day

Tom Cruise has revealed he completed Mission Impossible’s most insane stunt on the first day of filming for a very specific reason.

In the latest instalment of the franchise, Dead Reckoning – Part One, super spy Ethan Hunt (Cruise) has to track down a terrifying new weapon with the help of the illusive Grace (Hayley Atwell).

Despite having appeared in all seven films, it wasn’t plain sailing for the veteran action hero who had a pretty morbid reason behind the timing of the stunt.

It’s pretty understandable when you hear what the dangerous scene entailed, with Cruise driving a motorbike at speed and hurtling off a cliff in Hellesylt, Norwary (yes, really).

The Mission Impossible star would have to then pull his parachute and slowly descend to safety below – hardly something most people would do in their sixties.

Dubbed the ‘the most dangerous stunt of his career’, the actor performed the stunt six times following months of preparation.

Paramount/ Skydance

Even with the countless safety precautions, the Top Gun actor was understandably a little nervous about the stunt and even scheduled it for the first day of filming, just in case the worst happened.

Filmed back in 2020, Cruise recently reflected on the risky stunt during his press tour for the upcoming film.

He even joked to Entertainment Tonight that it would have caused a ‘major rewrite’ if he’d of been killed or seriously injured – hence the intense start to the shoot.

"Well, we know either we will continue with the film or we’re not. Let’s know day one!” he explained. “Let us know day one what is going to happen: Do we all continue or is it a major rewrite?”

Given that the movie was also being shot during the pandemic and at a cost of $290 million (£226m), it was crucial to get the epic motorbike jump right.

“I was training and I was ready,” he continued. “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.”

Director Christopher McQuarrie also spoke about the stunt to Empire Magazine, further explaining why it was scheduled for day one of the shoot.

“Doing that on day one gave us all the time in the world to understand why he [Ethan] was doing what he was doing,” he revealed.

“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.”

We’ll stick to watching it on the big screen, thanks very much.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One speeds into cinemas on July 12.