Pictures have surfaced of Tom Cruise, as Impossible Mission Force agent Ethan Hunt, filming a stunt for Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol--the fourth picture in the series--that is sure to send his insurance rates as high as the building he’s shown dangling from. The scene in question involves what appears to be a foot chase across the vertical exterior of the tallest scraper on this planet, the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai which stands at a staggering 828 meters. To achieve this feat, Cruise and his pursuer were harnessed to safety lines running out from a top floor window while the action was shot by cameras in a helicopter hovering a little too close for comfort.
Hit the jump for images of the stunt and comments from Cruise. The Brad Bird (The Incredibles)-helmed film also stars Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, and Paula Patton. It is slated for a December 16th, 2011 release.
The stunt comes as no surprise given Cruise’s comments in a press conference last week:
“I’ll be spending many days, many hours on the side of this building. I can’t give you details, but I will be up there.”
Well, we have the details now. Tom Cruise has never been one to shy away from a stunt though, particularly with the Mission: Impossible series. His philosophy (via Mail Online):
“I want to entertain the audience and part of making these movies is doing my own stunts…I love having the camera right there in front of me, where you can see me holding a shot all the way through… I think it adds to the excitement for an audience…It's something that is challenging to do and fun for me. There's always that adrenaline before you do a stunt. But we go through everything, we prepare and we make sure we are ready.”
It’s a shame more action stars don’t share the same sentiment. Thankfully for popcorn-chomping moviegoers, the 48-year-old Cruise still doesn’t bat an eye when a scene requires some risky business (see what I did there?).
Check out the images below:
