By Lonnie Harris
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Maybe it’s because his new film “Mission:Impossible
2″ opens against the new Jackie Chan vehicle, “Shanghai
Noon,” that Tom Cruise felt the need to do all his own
stunts, a demand that’s more a trademark of the off-kilter
Hong Kong star.
It certainly wasn’t the suggestion of director John Woo
(“Hard-Boiled,” “Face/Off”) who would have
preferred a professional stuntman to hang off the precipitous peaks
of Moab, Utah in the film’s opening sequence, instead of his
internationally famous leading man.
“I think that was the worst time for me,” Woo said
at a recent Los Angeles press interview.
“Tom was hanging over the side of a cliff thousands of
feet in the air with a helicopter almost touching him. He
wouldn’t just do the stunt once either. He’d do it time
and time again to get it perfect.”
Many of the cast and crew of the film were impressed with
Cruise’s considerable physicality and eagerness to risk his
life to get the needed shot. In fact, for many of those who have
worked with Cruise on the film and other action projects, the line
between the actor and the heroes he portrays begins to blur
slightly by the shoot’s completion.
On screen, Cruise reprises the role of Ethan Hunt, the new head
of the secret government agency Impossible Mission Force, or IMF.
But this is where the similarities to the first film, and the
television show that inspired it, pretty much end. This was
apparently star/producer Cruise’s intent all along.
“Tom had always wanted the series to have different
directors for each film,” Woo said. “We both wanted to
make this one a really romantic, dramatic spy film.”
That’s pretty much what they’ve ended up with.
“M:I-2″ features significantly less blood-letting and
gore than previous Woo efforts, in favor of a more complicated
storyline and a focus on the romantic interplay between Hunt and
his new associate and lover, Nyah (Thandie Newton).
That’s not to say that there isn’t a good deal of
action in the new film, as the movie follows Hunt on his mission
across Australia and Spain to stop a vile agent (Dougray Scott).
The sequel’s release is scheduled just two days before
Memorial Day weekend, typically one of the biggest opening weekends
of the year. Many industry insiders are predicting
“M:I-2″ will be one of the summer’s biggest
moneymakers.
In fact, by the time veteran screenwriter Robert Towne was
brought on board to write the sequel, a number of action sequences
for use in the film had already been storyboarded and some
pre-production work had already begun in Australia, where the
majority of the film is set.
Thus, the screenwriter not only had to create an interesting
story in which to place his characters, all of whom had already
been cast, but he had to fit several action sequences already
imagined by Woo. As a result, his job was considerably more
difficult.
“Storyboards for the action sequences were already laid
out,” Towne said. “It was a matter of taking that
action, and very often it was a change in tone. You take advantage
of the characters that you’ve got. Tom’s persona in
life is that “˜I can get it done and I don’t care what
it takes.’ It’s an inescapable part of him, so you want
to take advantage of that.”
That’s where Cruise’s considerable bravery came into
play. The opening sequence of the film finds Hunt on vacation,
hanging off the side of a cliff while rock-climbing in Utah.
Filming the extremely perilous scene, in which only a small safety
cable held Cruise approximately 1,500 feet above the canyon floor,
proved the movie star’s mettle to those on the set. Everyone
had expected to use a stunt crew for the complicated series of
shots.
“They had a stunt guy, but I don’t know if they ever
used him,” Towne said. “That’s Tom jumping and
falling. He had a cable around him, but that cable could snap, and
if you see the dailies, you can see Tom asking the crew not to put
any pressure on the cable.”
“He said, “˜I want to make that jump by
myself.’ And he did,” Towne continued. “He made
that jump. You know you’ve got this guy who’s ready and
willing to do it. I heard John was a little uneasy.”
Cruise’s producing partner, Paula Wagner, has assured the
media on multiple occasions that Cruise always had safety in mind.
While performing his own stunts is just the star’s way of
“connecting with the audience,” Towne (who previously
worked with the actor on the racecar drama “Days of
Thunder”) claims that a daredevil spirit spurned the megastar
to risk his neck for the sake of a shot.
“Yes, he is a daredevil,” Towne said. “He
always feels that he has it under control, and the truth of it is,
I’ve never seen him not be in control. It’s actually
more amazing than it sounds. He’s the only guy I know
that’s physical like that in that way. It’s quite
impressive. It’s just the way he is.”
Still, Wagner sees her partner’s willingness to put it all
on the line for his films as just another facet of his famed
perfectionism and commitment to his vision.
The original “Mission: Impossible” film was indeed
Cruise’s brainchild, as he had been a longtime fan of the
series during its television run. His enthusiasm for getting
everything right in his films apparently fueled his bravery in the
face of extreme challenges on the set.
“He knows his own limits,” Wagner said. “He
takes ultimate responsibility for himself and he relies on the
great team of people around him. Physically, he is very impressive,
and he has the most incredible concentration.”
FILM: “M:I-2″ opens in theaters nationwide this
Wednesday.