Tom Cruise reveals morbid reason why Mission: Impossible 7 stunt was shot on the first day of filming

Tom Cruise had a good reason for filming Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’s most dangerous stunt on the first day of production.

In the seventh film in the Mission: Impossible franchise, Cruise join forces with Avengers star Hayley Atwell to track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens humanity.

In what is being billed as “the most dangerous stunt of his career”, Cruise’s Ethan Hunt rides a motorcycle off a cliff before pulling a parachute and drifting off to safety.

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Cruise explained that if anything went wrong while filming the stunt, at least they wouldn’t waste any time with filming.

“Well, we know either we will continue with the film or we’re not. Let’s know day one!” Cruise explained. “Let us know day one what is going to happen: Do we all continue or is it a major rewrite?”

“I was training and I was ready,” Cruise added. “You have to be razor sharp when you’re doing something like that. It was very important as we were prepping the film that it was actually the first thing. I don’t want to drop that and go shoot other things and have my mind somewhere else. Everyone was prepped. Let’s just get it done.”

In a recent interview with Empire magazine, Dead Reckoning director Christopher McQuarrie further explained: “Doing that on day one gave us all the time in the world to understand why he [Ethan] was doing what he was doing.

“If we sat around and tried to figure out these movies the old-fashioned way, you’d never find it, simply because it’s such a living, breathing thing.”

Critics got a chance to see the movie for the first time this week at its red-carpet premiere in Rome.

For the most part, reviewers fawned over Cruise and the film’s breathtaking action sequences. Back in April, the star treated Cinemacon attendees to an “epic” 20-minute motorcycle chase sequence from the movie, which saw the 60-year-old action star bombing around the Italian capital.

Dead Reckoning sees the return of cast members including Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Henry Czerny, Vanessa Kirby and Frederick Schmidt.

They are joined by newcomers Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Cary Elwes, Rob Delaney, Indira Varma, Shea Whigham, Mark Gatiss, Esai Morales and Charles Parnell.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is out 12 July in cinemas.