Following a temporary shutdown due to COVID-19, it appears filming has restarted on Mission Impossible 7, and the production resumed with an epic action scene.
Director Christopher McQuarrie (who also directed previous Mission Impossible films Rogue Nation and Fallout) shared an image on Instagram showing a long ramp on a mountaintop that appears to be the set of a motorcycle stunt. The figure of a person can be see standing on the ramp, but it's not clear who it is.
Norwegian news site NRK has video footage of this scene, and in it, Tom Cruise rides a motorcycle off the ramp and parachutes to safety on the ground. The motorcycle, however, did not survive the fall. You can see the breathtaking stunt at NRK, while the site also has a gallery of images that showcase the daring feat.
VGTV has obtained a video of its own, showing the stunt from a different angle. Cruise is followed by a camera-mounted helicopter as well as a drone to capture footage for the film.
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Action... #MI7 Day 1
A post shared by Christopher McQuarrie (@christophermcquarrie) on Sep 6, 2020 at 9:14am PDT
The Mission Impossible series is known for its epic stunts, and for Cruise being the one to put himself in harm's way instead of enlisting a stunt performer. In Ghost Protocol, Cruise actually dangled from the world's tallest building. Things got crazier with Rogue Nation, when Cruise held onto the side of airplane as it took off. For Fallout, Cruise piloted a helicopter in one of the movie's more memorable action sequences.
For Mission Impossible 7, McQuarrie has said the film will have at least three jaw-dropping action scenes that will make the helicopter scene from Fallout look like child's play.
"We've figured out three obscene things that [Cruise is] doing that I'm terrified of, that make the helicopter chase look like tinker toys," McQuarrie told Empire (via Collider).
Mission Impossible 7 and 8 are being filmed back-to-back, and McQuarrie is writing and directing both. New additions to the cast include Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, and Shea Whigham. MI7 is scheduled to come to theatres in November 2021, with its sequel slated for November 2022. Both movies were delayed due to COVID-19.