Through the years, the Mission: Not possible franchise has featured no scarcity of wonderful motion sequences and wild stunts. Lots of the stunts are legitimately carried out by Tom Cruise, as he’s risked life and limb to push the envelope for a number of the franchise’s largest moments. A few of these stunts embody performing a dwell HALO soar in Mission: Not possible – Fallout, hanging from the aspect of the Burj Khalifa in Mission: Not possible – Ghost Protocol, and scaling the Lifeless Horse Level in Mission: Not possible 2. In each entry of the franchise, Cruise performs a number of wild new stunts to proceed wowing audiences throughout the globe and delivering a novel cinematic expertise. Nonetheless, one of many wildest stunts ever is undoubtedly the underwater heist sequence featured in Mission: Not possible – Rogue Nation. That is simply one of many extra distinctive and boldest stunt sequences featured within the franchise, one through which Cruise really skilled to carry his breath extremely lengthy underwater, and we’re going to focus on why this sequence was so particular.

Why Is ‘Mission: Not possible – Rogue Nation’s Underwater Heist the Franchise’s Finest Stunt?

Going again to the 1996 unique Mission: Not possible movie by Brian De Palma, the finest sequences within the franchise are people who have a tense sluggish burn and buildup, normally with Cruise’s Ethan Hunt making an attempt some insanely scary feat in a high-security facility to realize his objective. Within the first film, the just lately disavowed and rogue IMF agent Hunt and his group should stage a daring break-in at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia to steal the NOC Listing. This entails Hunt sneaking right into a extremely safe laptop database room via the air flow system. If he makes any sort of noise or touches the bottom in any respect, it will set off an alarm, and the group can be completed. The underwater heist sequence in Rogue Nation is nice as a result of it very a lot honors the custom and magnificence of the unique movie’s distinctive heist scene that grew to become an iconic and trendsetting scene for 90s thrillers and motion films.

One other nice characteristic of the underwater heist sequence from Rogue Nation is its originality. The Mission: Not possible movies had by no means tried a water-based sequence resembling this earlier than, the place Ethan was compelled to dive underwater and compelled to carry his breath for a frighteningly lengthy time frame. So whereas this was already the fifth entry of the movie sequence, writer-director Christopher McQuarrie and producer and star Tom Cruise have been good to stage a brand new sort of scene the franchise had by no means actually tried earlier than.

The premise of the underwater sequence is easy sufficient. Hunt has to infiltrate an underwater safety vault so his good friend and teammate Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) can infiltrate a knowledge facility to steal a digital file to assist expose The Syndicate, led by Solomon Lane (Sean Harris). Nonetheless, the underwater vault has sensors that may detect any steel, so Hunt can’t use any oxygen tanks whereas coping with the underwater vault, that means he should maintain his breath for so long as three minutes to help Benji to covertly enter the ability and steal the digital file.

The underwater vault is a veritable loss of life lure. Apart from its metal-detecting censors, it has swerving robotic arms shifting round its middle, and a fast-moving, swirling present. This isn’t a easy dip round a swimming pool. McQuarrie raises the stress and suspense for the sequence by specializing in Hunt’s bodily battle. It’s an immersive sequence with distinctive sound design and mixing. There’s no music as Hunt makes an attempt to infiltrate the underwater vault, however you’ll be able to hear equipment whirring underwater and Hunt’s pained grunts as he struggles in opposition to the present and his lack of oxygen. McQuarrie raises the stakes and rigidity because the sound of Hunt’s heartbeat is piped into the sound combine, and the heartbeat slows to a halt as Hunt begins to lose consciousness earlier than he’s ultimately rescued by Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson).

What makes this sequence so efficient is its immersion, together with the sure peril Ethan Hunt is going through. Hunt, at this level, is well-established as a reliable IMF agent within the franchise, however he’s not superhuman. Even Hunt can’t maintain his breath perpetually. The sequence places a primal concern, the concern of drowning, to the forefront, and it makes the sequence that rather more visceral, immersive, and palpable. As a result of sound mixing and delayed use of any music, till Ilsa seems to heroically rescue Ethan, the viewers looks like they’re on this underwater vault with Ethan. Viewers can actually hear and really feel his coronary heart that’s about to cease as his physique is working out of oxygen. It’s not solely a novel sequence, nevertheless it’s constructed on good old school cinematic suspense and rigidity.

Tom Cruise Over-Achieved for ‘Rogue Nation’s Underwater Sequence

The underwater sequence in Rogue Nation was Tom Cruise’s thought, and it was one thing he wished to aim as a result of he’d by no means beforehand executed an prolonged underwater scene in a film. His instincts served him nicely in serving to to plot this sequence. As a expertise and performer, Cruise is just not one to relaxation on his laurels the place the Mission: Not possible franchise is anxious, and he’s all the time eager to strive new and totally different issues that audiences have by no means seen earlier than. In behind-the-scenes materials, Cruise indicated that he wished a sequence the place audiences might expertise what it’s like to carry their breath for an prolonged interval.

Manufacturing designer Jim Bissell designed the underwater vault, dubbed the Taurus, as depicted within the film. The manufacturing group painstakingly mapped out the sequence utilizing previsualization to determine what Cruise would have the ability to virtually movie underwater and what required CG visuals. The sequence is a posh mixture of sensible results, dwell underwater stunts, CG visuals, digital compositing and enhancing, and underwater images. Filming underwater is a really harmful and painstaking course of, and it is particularly harmful when performers have to carry their breath for any interval, which Cruise and Ferguson each did on this sequence.

For the advanced sequence, Cruise and Ferguson skilled extensively with underwater freediving skilled Kirk Krack. They utilized an underwater coaching program designed for army troopers to discover ways to maintain their breaths for longer durations below excessive situations. Cruise was adamant concerning the underwater coaching to assist make the scene look extra genuine, which paid off in the long term. Throughout his prep work for the sequence, Cruise over-trained to some extent the place he was capable of maintain his breath underwater for as much as six minutes. The profit is that the breath coaching allowed for longer takes and fewer cuts within the sequence since Cruise and Ferguson have been each well-prepared for the difficult underwater stunts. Behind-the-scenes footage confirmed that every one the motion beats within the sequence involving Ilsa Faust and Ethan Hunt have been carried out by Ferguson and Cruise. It grants the sequence the next stage of authenticity and verisimilitude. Whereas the scene does make the most of CG visuals and digital results for the backgrounds, together with the digital removals, it seems seamless.

RELATED: Here is How A lot Is Left to Movie for ‘Mission: Not possible — Lifeless Reckoning Half 2’

Why Did not Tom Cruise & Christopher McQuarrie Just like the Underwater Vault Scene?

Whereas the underwater heist sequence was an enormous achievement for the manufacturing and franchise, it was one the place McQuarrie and Cruise weren’t proud of the outcomes. Whereas selling the latest launch of Mission: Not possible – Lifeless Reckoning Half One, McQuarrie revealed to Collider’s Steven Weintraub that he and Cruise have been “left very dissatisfied” with the underwater sequence from Rogue Nation, whereas additionally noting their newest work in Lifeless Reckoning is “the applying of data from earlier sequences” and studying from their previous errors.

McQuarrie indicated {that a} lack of “actual data in that space” was one of many elements working in opposition to them in crafting the underwater scene in Rogue Nation. The filmmaker knowledgeable Collider concerning the underwater sequence within the movie, “Tom and I are always reevaluating our personal work and asking ourselves how we might have executed it higher. We have executed underwater sequences beforehand. We have labored underwater in Fringe of Tomorrow, and we labored underwater in Rogue Nation, and we left very dissatisfied with these sequences. And we analyze why we have been dissatisfied. What have been all of the elements working in opposition to us? The largest being, not having actual data in that space. Every thing you are taking a look at in Lifeless Reckoning is the applying of data from earlier sequences.”

Moviegoers who’ve already seen Lifeless Reckoning Half One will notice that the movie units up a significant underwater sequence that’s certain to come back with Mission: Not possible – Lifeless Reckoning Half Two. Primarily based on McQuarrie’s feedback, it appears that evidently he and Cruise discovered from their experiences engaged on underwater sequences for Fringe of Tomorrow and Rogue Nation for one thing that would probably even high the underwater vault scene in Rogue Nation. Whereas it was a novel, recent, and wild scene for the franchise, Cruise and McQuarrie are clearly perfectionists on the subject of their work. They don’t seem to be prepared to relaxation on their laurels, and they’re all the time striving to high their earlier work. In the event that they comply with via with the apparent underwater sequence Lifeless Reckoning Half One units up for Half Two, it may very well be one of many largest, finest, and most memorable underwater sequences in cinematic historical past.

There’s a little bit of a query mark surrounding Mission: Not possible Lifeless Reckoning Half Two. As a result of ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, manufacturing will be unable to renew on the sequel till the strike points with the guilds and the Alliance of Movement Image and Tv Producers (AMPTP) are resolved. Meaning Lifeless Reckoning Half Two might face a possible delay from its present June 28, 2024 launch date. Nonetheless, Paramount is opting to carry onto the discharge date for now. Mission: Not possible – Lifeless Reckoning Half One is enjoying now in theaters.