Tom Cruise performs jaw-dropping motorbike stunt on Mission: Impossible 7 set

In the course of making the Mission: Impossible movies, Tom Cruise has scaled the Burj Khalifa and clung to the outside of an airborne plane. However, this year's coronavirus chaos is unlike anything he's faced before, temporarily throwing production of the seventh Mission movie off-course.

However, it's now back underway, overseen by writer-director Christopher McQuarrie who pushed the stuntwork to astonishing degrees in 2015's Rogue Nation and, especially, 2018's Fallout. The hair-raising climax of the latter, a breakneck helicopter pursuit culminating in a clifftop fight, was one of the most impressive action finales in years.

The inevitable question raises its head: how can they top what's come before? Well, here's a teaser of the on-set action in Norway, in which Cruise drives a bike over a ramp off a cliff, free-falls and activates a parachute. Any of us mortal folk would be happy with completing just one of those acts. Cruise goes the extra mile and commits to all three – we dread to think what the insurance premiums looked like.

If that's how breathless the behind the scenes footage is, just imagine what the movie will be like. Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt, joined as before by Rebecca Ferguson's Ilsa, Simon Pegg's Benji and Ving Rhames' Luther Stickell. Also returning: Vanessa Kirby's White Widow, who made a strong impression in Fallout, and Henry Czerny's Kitteridge, who hasn't been seen since the Mission: Impossible movie franchise made its debut in 1996.

Additional actors include Esai Morales, Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff and Shea Whigham. Mission: Impossible 7 is due for release on 19th November 2021, having been delayed from July of that year. It will be followed by the eighth instalment, scheduled for release in November 2022.

Has Tom Cruise once again taken himself to new heights? Let us know @Cineworld.

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