Judging by the trailer and a new featurette for Brad Bird's Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) running around the outside of the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, is going to be almost as important as having a stylish hoodie.  It certainly looks like Cruise did his own stunts, which raises two questions: 1) What insurance company would cover such a risky stunt? and 2) What if he had died?  It would be a spectacular and silly death.  Yes, he would have fallen off the world's tallest building, but at the same time, people would wonder, "Why didn't he just use a professional—and let's be honest—expendable stuntman?"  I guess the set piece just wouldn't work if you had any doubt that Tom Cruise was risking his life to make an action movie.

Hit the jump to check out the featurette.  Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol opens in IMAX on December 16th and wide on December 21st.

Featurette via MSN.

Here's the official synopsis for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol:

This is not just another mission. The IMF is shut down when it's implicated in a global terrorist bombing plot. Ghost Protocol is initiated and Ethan Hunt and his rogue new team must go undercover to clear their organization's name. No help, no contact, off the grid. You have never seen a mission grittier and more intense than this.

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