- Insider spoke to Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie at the UK premiere of "Mission: Impossible 7."
- The film's biggest stunt involves Cruise riding a motorcycle off the edge of a cliff.
Tom Cruise has always been known to do his own stunts, especially when it comes to the "Mission: Impossible" franchise.
Each movie follows Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and a team of agents who are tasked with stopping nefarious forces, and this usually involves a death-defying act by Cruise.
And "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One" sees the star undertake his biggest stunt yet in a literal leap of faith, as he rides a motorcycle off the edge of a cliff before opening his parachute and gliding down to reach a train.
Speaking to Insider on the red carpet at the film's UK premiere on Thursday, director Christopher McQuarrie said that the ambitious stunt was something of a surprise to the film's studio, Paramount, as well as fans.
"Well, fortunately, we were in one country, they were in another country, and communication was pretty fuzzy at that time in the world," McQuarrie said of pitching the stunt during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I don't think they really knew what they were getting involved in until we sent it to them, which is kind of the case," the director added.
"We talk about things in the abstract, but until they really see it… I don't think any of us fully grasped what we were getting ourselves into until we did it."
It's a jaw-dropping moment, and Paramount previously released a making-of featurette detailing what went into the stunt, with Cruise practicing the scene numerous times before production started in Norway.
But the stunt sets the bar quite high for 2024's "Dead Reckoning Part Two." However, Cruise told Insider that he's more than up for the challenge.
"I'm always pushing. I just remember, every time they say, 'Can you top it? Can you not top it?' we're always pushing," the actor told Insider. "Every film I do, whatever genre it's in, I want to make it as entertaining as possible for that audience. I know I can do things better."
Cruise's costar Pom Klementieff also spoke to Insider about the challenge of filming a brutal fight scene in a confined alleyway in Venice.
"It was incredible. It was very hard to shoot because it was very challenging and very narrow. So we had to think of where to place the camera, where to place the lighting, because we were also shooting at night time, you know?" said the "Guardians of the Galaxy" star.
Klementieff added: "But at the same time, there was not a better person to do it with than Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie, so I felt really lucky to be able to do that."
See all the highlights from the "Mission: Impossible" premiere on our Instagram.
"Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One" is in theaters on July 12.