Last year, an audio clip was leaked of Tom Cruise scolding members of the Mission: Impossible 7 crew for breaking COVID-19 safety measures. Cruise has since told Empire Magazine that he has no regrets.
The internet was divided on Cruise’s response at the time. Some praise was poured on Cruise for taking COVID-19 regulations seriously, but others saw his outburst as an abuse of power that was inappropriate in the workplace.
Many thought he was scolding his entire crew, but Cruise clarified to Empire (via The Los Angeles Times) that it wasn’t the entire crew, he had asked them to leave the set while he told off ‘select people’ for their behaviour.
Cruise states that the reason for this was because he could not bear the idea of production shutting down after the film had already been delayed twice. Once during the first wave of COVID-19 in Europe and later once filming had resumed there was an outbreak on set.
“I said what I said… There was a lot at stake at that point,” Cruise told Empire. Cruise elaborated further,
“All those emotions were going through my mind. I was thinking about the people I work with, and my industry. And for the whole crew to know that we’d started rolling on a movie was just a huge relief. And here we are, continuing to film.”
What did Cruise say that got people so riled up? Well, it went like this,
I am beyond your apologies. We are not shutting this f****** movie down. Is it understood? If I see it again, you’re f****** gone. And so are you. So you’re gonna cost him his job. If I see it on the set, you’re gone and you’re gone. That’s it. Am I clear? Do you understand what I want? Do you understand the responsibility that you have? Because I will deal with your reason, and if you can’t be reasonable, and I can’t deal with your logic, you’re fired. That’s it.”
But it wasn’t all Cruise spoke about to Empire. Cruise performing his own stunts is common knowledge but this time he’s once again performed a stunt that was even more dangerous than anything he’s done previously.
Cruise rides a motorbike off the edge of cliff in the upcoming film and told Empire about the technical eventualities that were in his head on the first day of filming. He spent months of training but still he was worried,
“If the wind was too strong, it would blow me off the ramp. The helicopter [filming the stunt] was a problem, because I didn’t want to be hammering down that ramp at top speed and get hit by a stone. Or if I departed in a weird way, we didn’t know what was going to happen with the bike. I had about six seconds once I departed the ramp to pull the chute and I don’t want to get tangled in the bike. If I do, that’s not going to end well.”
Is this more dangerous than hanging on the outside of a plane? I don’t know but I guess there is more that can go wrong with this motorbike stunt than just strapping yourself to the outside of a plane. I guess only Tom Cruise can make strapping yourself to a plane sound like the safer option.
Mission: Impossible 7 is set to release in cinemas May 27, 2022.