All about dangling Tom Cruise 1,700 feet over Dubai for 'Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol'
Star did his own stunt and though precautions were taken, nobody breathed until it was over
Originally Published: Sunday, December 11 2011, 6:00 AM
Updated: Sunday, December 11 2011, 6:00 AM
Updated: Sunday, December 11 2011, 6:00 AM
David James/Paramount Picture
Jeremy Renner holds on to Tom Cruise in a scene from ‘Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol.’ Big-budget action blockbusters usually boast over-the-top sequences that demand the audience suspend their disbelief — we have to buy the reality.
For “Mission: Impossible - The Ghost Protocol” that suspension takes place more than a quarter-mile off the ground.
After all, only in a screenwriter’s vivid imagination would a sane person willingly scale the outside of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, 123 stories up the sheer face of the world’s tallest building, just to reach a computer server room. It seems pretty far-fetched.
Only it really did happen, with the film’s star, Tom Cruise, putting himself in the harness dangling 1,700 feet off the ground. That’s nearly 250 feet higher than the Empire State Building, counting its spire.
During the eight days of shooting the sequence, only a cable with the thickness of a piano wire separated the 49-year-old actor from going from one of Hollywood’s biggest draws to one of its biggest cautionary tales.
“One night, after one of the earliest shooting days, I bolted up in bed realizing that we had our star dangling about a mile up in the air on a thin wire and my brain was screaming, ‘What the hell are we doing,’” director Brad Bird told the News by email. “The whole thing was one, extended, hair-raising moment but we planned well.
“It was one of the parts of the film planned as carefully as a D-Day invasion.”
Reporters at this week’s “Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol” debut at the Dubai Film Festival asked Cruise what went through his mind when he first stepped out of the window and into the intense cross-winds that slammed him into the side of the building like a kite on the first day of shooting the scene.
“I hope I don’t fall,” he answered.
He didn’t. Audiences can see the result when the movie is released on IMAX screens Thursday.
The movie-history-making shot was an even craftier publicity stunt in a crowded holiday season at the multiplex, says Leonard Maltin, film critic for “Entertainment Tonight.”
“The fact that we’re all talking about this stunt answers the question,” says the movie historian. “They obviously went to great lengths or rather you could say great heights to do this and it has paid them back in terms of the kind of attention they’re getting before the film even comes out.”
For “Mission: Impossible - The Ghost Protocol” that suspension takes place more than a quarter-mile off the ground.
After all, only in a screenwriter’s vivid imagination would a sane person willingly scale the outside of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, 123 stories up the sheer face of the world’s tallest building, just to reach a computer server room. It seems pretty far-fetched.
Only it really did happen, with the film’s star, Tom Cruise, putting himself in the harness dangling 1,700 feet off the ground. That’s nearly 250 feet higher than the Empire State Building, counting its spire.
During the eight days of shooting the sequence, only a cable with the thickness of a piano wire separated the 49-year-old actor from going from one of Hollywood’s biggest draws to one of its biggest cautionary tales.
“One night, after one of the earliest shooting days, I bolted up in bed realizing that we had our star dangling about a mile up in the air on a thin wire and my brain was screaming, ‘What the hell are we doing,’” director Brad Bird told the News by email. “The whole thing was one, extended, hair-raising moment but we planned well.
“It was one of the parts of the film planned as carefully as a D-Day invasion.”
Reporters at this week’s “Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol” debut at the Dubai Film Festival asked Cruise what went through his mind when he first stepped out of the window and into the intense cross-winds that slammed him into the side of the building like a kite on the first day of shooting the scene.
“I hope I don’t fall,” he answered.
He didn’t. Audiences can see the result when the movie is released on IMAX screens Thursday.
The movie-history-making shot was an even craftier publicity stunt in a crowded holiday season at the multiplex, says Leonard Maltin, film critic for “Entertainment Tonight.”
“The fact that we’re all talking about this stunt answers the question,” says the movie historian. “They obviously went to great lengths or rather you could say great heights to do this and it has paid them back in terms of the kind of attention they’re getting before the film even comes out.”
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/dangling-tom-cruise-1-700-feet-dubai-mission-impossible-ghost-protocol-article-1.988566#ixzz1gMu6vHIa
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