After a number of breaks in filming due to positive Covid tests on set, Mission: Impossible 7 is almost done shooting, but not before we have been given sight of one of the movie’s big action set pieces being filmed after video arrived online of a steam locomotive hurtling off a bridge while being flanked by a production helicopter. The video was recorded on one of the many sets that have been build and used around the UK for filming of the movie, which last month included sites in the north-east where Harrison Ford was seen a week later as he started work on Indiana Jones 5.
From a set and event that reportedly took months to set up, locals in Derbyshire, England, were able to film the last moments of a purpose built locomotive as it sped along a piece of track which came to an abrupt end over a quarry. The train flew through the air before crashing to pieces on the quarry floor in a scene that will no doubt be covered in fire and explosions in post-production. Helicopters filmed the stunt from above, while more cameras are expected to have caught the action from the ground, as it is not the kind of thing you get to do twice on a movie.
According to reports by the BBC, the movie’s lead Tom Cruise was on the set to witness the carnage first hand, although he has been pretty elusive during shooting, however this isn’t the first bit of train action to be seen from the Mission Impossible 7 set. Previously, clips featuring Tom Cruise having a hand to hand fight with actor Esai Morales were leaked from one of the sets. The movie’s director Christopher McQuarrie was asked what he thought about the leaks and their potential to spoil some of the movie’s secrets, to which he replied, “Did they spell my name right?”
There have been a number still shots also released featuring the very prominent steam locomotive, as well as shooting having taken place on a stretch of railway in the north-east last month, suggesting that the sequence is going to be one of the big, dominating events of the movie. It also shows that with an actual train – albeit one that was reportedly made of wood – being destroyed in such an epic way, that McQuarrie is making the most of practical effects for the movie rather than a reliance on CGI. This was something that Cruise recently discussed in an interview with Empire.
In that interview he said, “This is a practical movie. You have to think of rigs that are needed to be built. How do we get them built? We had to figure out how to open shops safely. How do we ADR the actors?”
All in all, it sounds like Mission Impossible 7 is ticking all the right boxes to ensure another smash hit, but we will need to wait until May 27, 2022 to find out how it all comes together on screen.