[15:15 Wed,1.August 2018 by blip] |
Tom Cruise -- who is known to do this himself -- has put down his probably most daring and cumbersome stunt for the latest Mission Impossible film (Fallout): you can see a so-called HALO jump (short for high altitude, low opening) from a C-17 transport plane, at an altitude of over 7.5 km. "Low opening" means that the parachute is opened as late as possible, i.e. a large part of the distance is covered in free fall, at top speeds of up to 320 km/h. This jump is highly dangerous due to the low oxygen content at these altitudes, special precautions must be taken to avoid decompression accidents or hypoxia. ;) Still from HALO Jump Stunt Behind The Scenes (Paramount Pictures)
Although a corresponding scene could also be simulated in front of a green screen, the special appeal of the Mission Impossible series is finally to show largely "real" action, and so these shots were also shot under real conditions on (or about) a US military base in Abu Dhabi, with considerable effort and after long preparations, of course. Among other things a special helmet with oxygen supply and built-in lights had to be made (a potentially explosive mixture), Cruise had to "step in" with the stunt team and the choreography had to be practiced, down to the smallest detail including camera work. Because during the jump not the regular DoP Rob Hardy, but an experienced skydiver, Craig O´Brien, led the camera -- on his head. He had photographic experience, but no narrative film camera experience, and no image preview either. So the entire sequence in the plane and during the jump is filmed blind. ;) Still from HALO Jump Stunt Behind The Scenes (Paramount Pictures) It wasn´t particularly easy for the team around director Christopher McQuarrie, because for example Tom Cruise isn´t shown from behind when he jumps out of the plane, but from the front -- O´Brien jumped backwards in front of him with the camera. Due to the dark environment -- the scene takes place after sunset -- the depth of field was very small, about 7.6cm. Cruise therefore had to move towards the camera in free fall for a closer shot and then keep a precisely defined distance to it in order to be in focus. For the film scene, three jump stages were to be mounted invisibly to form a whole; however, only a single jump could be filmed daily, in a time window of approx. 3 minutes exactly after sunset, before it became too dark. 12 days of shooting were effectively needed to get the HALO sequences into the box, a total of 106 jumps including the exercises. By the way, this part was shot only after all other shots were done, and Cruise had already broken his ankle during another stunt. ;) Still from HALO Jump Stunt Behind The Scenes (Paramount Pictures) Very interesting is this (not professional) recording of a performance at the Cinemacon, where Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie talk about the HALO recordings and show both animatics and the jumps themselves as raw footage, i.e. files directly from the camera without post-processing. Of course, a thorough postproduction followed, because the jump in the film is not about Abu Dhabi, but about Paris, and that in a proper thunderstorm. If you prefer to read,  find here a short shooting report of McQuarri. A Paramount promo featurette is also available -- the film itself can be seen in German cinemas starting tomorrow (August 2).  more infos at bei paramount.dedeutsche Version dieser Seite: Freier Fall -- wie der rekordverdächtige Stunt für Mission: Impossible-Fallout gefilmt wurde |
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