Tom Cruise is one crazy…….stuntman

With the emergence of computer generated images (CGI), filmmakers can create new worlds, monsters or anything their imagination can dream up.  Because of this moviegoers have been treated to many films like Avatar and the Star Wars prequels that we made possible with CGI.  One of the drawbacks to using CGI is overusing it.  Too much of it can ruin a movie, last year’s Green Lantern is a prime example.   In that movie, creatures and aliens looked way to fake. Another drawback to CGI is it eliminates good old fashion stunt work.  Because of the dangerous nature and planning time involved in creating physical stunts, some filmmakers opt to shoot these scenes in a soundstage where there is more control.

Last night I watching Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol on Blu-Ray and there is some amazing stunt work in this film, specifically by Tom Cruise.  There is a scene in the middle of the film were Tom Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt and his team of spies are in the Burj Khalifa building in Dubai and need to get to a secure room a few floors above their current position.  So Ethan needs to go outside and scale the building to get to the secure room.  

Now most filmmakers and actors would have shot this scene in a controlled environment.  Not Tom Cruise and Brad Bird (the film’s director) they choose to go for as much realism as possible and decided to shoot outside the Burj Khalifa building.

Let me give you some facts about the Burj Khalifa according to the building’s official website http://www.burjkhalifa.ae/

At 2,716.5 feet and more than 160 stories, Burj Khalifa holds the following records:

• Tallest building in the world
• Tallest free-standing structure in the world
• Highest number of stories in the world
• Highest occupied floor in the world
• Highest outdoor observation deck in the world
• Elevator with the longest travel distance in the world
• Tallest service elevator in the world

I have to give Cruise credit for doing this stunt, which was shot at 127 stories up and where he’s hanging from just a few wires.  

I don’t think many actors, would be doing their own stunts let alone hanging from 2000 ft in the air.  He has nerves of steel, because if I was hanging from that building I would be absolutely terrified.

Anybody want to hang up side down 2000 ft in the air?

That scene is one of the best in the entire film because there’s a sense of realism as Cruise is climbing the outside of this building.  The entire sequence carries a level of uneasiness as he’s climbing the building with just a pair of super glue gloves.  This action scene made the movie for me.  I thought it was great and thrilling which made Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol one of the better action films I have seen.

What are some of the movies you've seen that have great stunts in them?