Watch Tom Cruise’s Wild Mission Impossible 7 Stunt With and Without CGI
I thought the giant ramp was just a happy coincidence.
It's no secret that Tom Cruise likes to do a lot of his own stunts, but we often only see the aftermath of the actor's impressive onscreen feats. This time, that's not the case. A keen Twitter user named William Wilkinson noticed that some behind-the-scenes shots showing Tom Cruise driving a dirtbike off a cliff were exactly the same as the finals that made it into the trailer, and probably the movie. The result is a precise side-by-side view of the stunt before and after any CGI was applied.
If you thought the big white ramp was going to make it into the final cut, well, you might be disappointed.
The ramp wasn't the only thing digitally removed from the final shot. A helicopter chasing Cruise and some other supporting equipment off to the sides of the frame were erased as well. You might think seeing a precise before and after like this would make it easy to spot where CGI was hastily applied, but it all seems pretty well done. If you look carefully, you can see a border between where the real mountain ends and where the CGI begins. When the camera is actually moving, though, that would be pretty hard to spot.
The only obvious thing you notice that isn't quite right in the final shot is how glass smooth the rocky cliffside ramp is. It seems like there might have been an attempt to add a little bumpiness to the ride in post-production.
All of these shots come from Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One, which will be released in theaters starting July 12. A steam locomotive is also driven off a cliff in the movie if you were curious about all of the vehicles driven into ravines during production.
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