Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1's Wildest Stunt Included Wrecking A 70-Ton Locomotive

In a new interview, writer-director Christopher McQuarrie told Entertainment Weekly about some of the more intense stunts in the upcoming movie Mission: Impossible--Dead Reckoning Part One. The movie's train stunts have been discussed before, but some new information to come out of this interview is that a 70-ton locomotive was destroyed for the film.

"When Tom [Cruise] and I began discussing what we would like to include in this film, we each zeroed in on a different stunt we wanted to achieve," McQuarrie said. "He said, 'I want to drive a motorcycle off of a cliff. What do you want to do?' And I said, 'I want to wreck a train.'"

Cruise's stunt was filmed in Hellesylt, Norway, on the very first day of shooting in September 2020. He repeatedly rode a motorcycle off a ramp and over a cliff, safely base-jumping down to the ground far below each time. McQuarrie's train stunt was a bit more complicated and took longer to achieve.

"I've earned that, I want to wreck one too," said McQuarrie, referring to his desire to stage a train wreck in the movie. Eventually, the train sequence was shot in the United Kingdom, with the production finally sending a 70-ton train plunging into England's Darlton Quarry. "We're enormous fans of Buster Keaton, John Frankenheimer, David Lean, all of these filmmakers who at one time or another had a fabulous train wreck."

"I think the energy that went into developing it, designing that, building it, and then making a sequence that justified its existence was probably the biggest challenge of my entire life," said McQuarrie about the train stunt. "I am all set with trains until the end of time."

Mission: Impossible--Dead Reckoning Part One is set to be released on July 12. The story will continue in Mission: Impossible--Dead Reckoning Part Two, set to release in July 2024.