Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning: The Train Stunt Was

When it comes to what stunt they have been focusing on with the marketing of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, all eyes seem to be on the motorcycle jump. However, we all know that is far from the biggest or most insane stunt this movie will have. We have already seen the car chase that takes place early in the film, but we also know there is an extended scene involving a train. Director Christopher McQuarrie has not been shy about just how backbreaking that stunt was. “I am all set with trains until the end of time,” McQuarrie says to Entertainment Weekly, and he went into more detail to Empire Magazine (via Collider).

“All the days on the train are exhausting. The train just sucks you dry. But in a good way. We’re making a movie that involves sequences that they just don’t shoot practically anymoe, and haven’t in a long, long time,” said McQuarrie in an interview with Empire Magazine. “The sequence that we’re shooting right now is no exception. And like most things on Mission: Impossible, if we had known what the challenges were when we started out, we would never have done it.”

Everyone always expects these movies to be bigger and better than the last one. While “better” or at least “as good as” is something worth attaining, “bigger” isn’t always possible when you’re dealing with stunts as insane as the Mission: Impossible movies. When it comes to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, you’re looking to top the previous film, which was not only massive on a box office level but also on a critical level.

“When you subtract the action from these action movies, there’s very little tune for story and character. I said to Tom, ‘Look, I want to do what we did with Fallout, but I want to take it beyond that. We know that’s going to mean an even bigger movie, so let’s just make a bigger movie and break it into two parts.’ We’re telling a much bigger, overarching story about Ethan and the team that goes a lot deeper than previous installments without compromising on the action.”

When in doubt, break it up into multiple parts, and that isn’t a bad way of approaching it. We don’t know what the future holds for this franchise after Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two comes out in 2024, but considering the absolute hell they have gone through to get these two made with COVID and everything else? No one would be surprised if everyone needed a break.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One: Cast, Summary, Release Date

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, directed by Christopher McQuarrie, stars Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Hayley Atwell, Shea Whigham, Pom Klementieff, Esai Morales, Henry Czerny, Rob Delaney, Cary Elwes, Indira Varma, Mark Gatiss, Charles Parnell, Greg Tarzan Davis, and Frederick Schmidt. Produced by Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie and executive produced by David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, and Tommy Gormley. It will be released on July 12, 2023.