Tom Cruise has revealed the extreme lengths he went to for his latest Mission: Impossible stunt - one that involved tumbling inside a rotating water tank while breathing in carbon dioxide.
The 62-year-old actor, known for pushing the limits in each instalment of the franchise, has opened up about his most recent challenge in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.
Due to hit cinemas this month, the film promises more of the jaw-dropping action fans have come to expect.
This time, Cruise filmed scenes inside a massive water tank designed to mimic a submarine interior.
The tank could rotate a full 360 degrees, effectively turning the entire set into a giant washing machine.
“You’re not going to feel as connected with the character if I went with a regular mask and a thing in my mouth to breathe,” Cruise told People, explaining why he opted for a clear scuba mask.
That choice meant the actor had to breathe in recycled air containing carbon dioxide, risking hypercapnia — a potentially dangerous condition where too much CO2 builds up in the blood.
“Luckily when you’re flying jets you train for hypoxia and for carbon dioxide buildup,” he said. “You start to be able to perceive your body and how it’s reacting so that I knew when to stop.”
Director Christopher McQuarrie admitted the stunt was far more intense than anyone anticipated.
“If we knew what it took to do it, we would not have done it,” he told the outlet. But Cruise, unfazed, added: “On Mission, if it was easy, I guess we wouldn’t want to do it.”
Cruise has made a career out of death-defying sequences; from clinging to the side of an airborne plane to scaling the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.
In Final Reckoning, he’s not slowing down. In another scene, Ethan Hunt dangles from and crawls across the wings of a 1940s biplane flying above South Africa’s Drakensberg mountains.
Stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood assured fans there was no Hollywood trickery behind it.
He shared: “Everyone will think we did some on green screen on the ground…I guarantee there was not one single shot that was not on a plane flying for real.’”
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning will be released in cinemas on May 23
