Mission: Impossible 7 Has One Tom Cruise Stunt That Genuinely Terrified Simon Pegg
The "Mission: Impossible" franchise has become very well known for its continued existence as a showcase for Impossible Mission Force agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) to do the most death-defying stunts he can come up with, all in the service of the greater good. Simon Pegg, who has played humorous sidekick Benji going back to "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol" in 2011, has seen his co-star and friend risk his neck on multiple occasions. According to him, the one that was the scariest is one that Cruise pulls off in the most recent installment: "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One."
Pegg was recently asked by Collider whether there's been any Cruise "Mission: Impossible" stunt in particular that has made him the most nervous for his movie star friend's physical safety, and his answer puts one particular stunt above all the rest in terms of the anxiety it provoked within him. "The ones that I've been present for, like literally on the day, I'm there while it's happening, I would say number one would be the cliff jump," Pegg answered, referencing the motorcycle jump onto a moving train that Cruise performs in "Dead Reckoning Part One."
Pegg says that the gap between the jump and the parachute deploying was a heart-stopper
"Just because the gap that would occur between when he disappeared to the radio saying, 'Good canopy,' which is when we know he deployed his parachute, that space was like an eternity," Simon Pegg recalled on Tom Cruise's incredible motorcycle cliff jump stunt in "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One."
According to Pegg, it was that suspenseful gap that created more anxiety than any other Cruise stunt in the franchise — and, he said, it wasn't just him that was feeling the tension. "It would be silence. Everybody was up there — me, Pom [Klementieff], Tarzan [Greg Davis], Hayley [Atwell], Esai [Morales], Shea [Whigham] — we're all up there, and we're just waiting for that 'good canopy,' and we'd all just relax. It was genuinely terrifying."
"Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One" is in theaters now, so you can see for yourself whether those moments of pure terror for the cast were ultimately worth it for excitement and entertainment value.