Tom Cruise and writer/director Christopher McQuarrie have been working over time to get production restarted on Mission: Impossible 7, but just as things were starting to turn around for the action spy movie that’s been stuck in a holding pattern due to the pandemic, filming has already been shut down after a motorcycle crash led to a $2 million fire on set.
The good news is nobody was hurt, and surprisingly, Cruise wasn’t part of the stunt. (He was filming with parachutes in a separate area, so just assume he was busy plummeting to the earth as Tom Cruise does.) According to the Daily Mail a multimillion dollar setback occurred when a motorcycle exploded during a stunt. The Sun has more fiery details about how the stuntman missed his mark:
“The idea was for the stuntman to land on some huge pillows filled with card to cushion the blow, while the bike safely crashed to the ground a few metres away.
“Unfortunately, it was miscalculated.
“The heat and the friction of the tyres meant that when the bike crashed, the cardboard padding sparked and went up in flames. The smoke was so bad they had to close a nearby RAF airfield.
Production on the film has now been delayed (again) due to the fire damage, and Cruise is reportedly “frustrated.” The actor has been anxious to get Mission: Impossible 7 back on track ever since it was one of the first films to shut down during the pandemic. He’s been personally contacting government officials in Norway to grease the wheels so the film can make its 2021 release.
The motorcycle crash also arrives just as writer/director McQuarrie defused a growing controversy over the production allegedly blowing up a historic bridge in Poland. A media outcry threatened to derail that explosive stunt, but it appears that things were smoothed over only for disaster to strike again.
(Via Daily Mail & The Sun)