In a third spectacular jump off a building, Ethan Hunt dives from the roof of one skyscraper to another. “After Tom jumps off the skyscraper, he comes to the end of his tether and a pendulum effect starts snatching him in another direction,” says Armstrong. “Crashing down, he is hooked on a lamppost upside down; releasing himself, he finds himself on a busy street with a semi hurtling towards him.
“For this stunt, Tom lay in the street as a jackknifed rig, which is a forty foot truck with a tractor unit on the front of it, drives over him,” continues Armstrong. “If any of those cylinders failed, the truck would straighten out and flatten Tom. To test it out, I laid under it once and felt it go over my head; it was a very scary experience. For the real thing, I was standing on a hill beside one of the cameras and it seemed that the truck was driving straight at him forever before it started jackknifing around. You can imagine how I was feeling.”
“Tom Cruise raises the bar in this movie by doing his most intricate and amazing stunts to date,” says Wagner. “Not only is he a great actor, producer, and the premiere movie star in the world, but he is also a stuntman. He is very precise. When I stand there as a producer and I see Tom with a truck sliding over him, it’s a little nerve-wracking, but I know he is totally in control of what he is doing.”
For Keri Russell – who had no major stunt experience before taking on “M:i:III” – Cruise’s expertise was essential. “Jumping off a six story building isn’t exactly something I had done before,” Russell laughs. “It was very scary the first time – my heart was pounding – but having Tom with me really helped. He said, ‘It’s a breeze, let’s do it. Are you excited?’ And we jumped.”
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