Christopher McQuarrie’s upcoming seventh “Mission: Impossible” film has been hit by a major setback as a complicated stunt involving a motorcycle went horribly wrong.
According to The Sun, the scene takes place in a quarry and is described as a “snow scene”. Tom Cruise was heading to the quarry to film the sequence when a stuntman’s motorcycle exploded after taking off from a ramp.
Nobody was injured but the incident cost the production a lot of time and money as a huge fire erupted on the set. The sequence is also said to have taken six weeks to prepare and construct and is among one of the most expensive ever filmed in the United Kingdom. A source tells the outlet:
“When it came to the big day, it went horribly wrong. 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.
Fortunately, nobody was hurt but it’s a total catastrophe, not to mention extremely expensive for all concerned. Tom is very frustrated. Nobody wants more delays.”
Fire and safety crews were dispatched and the set has been temporarily shut down as executives are trying to figure out exactly what went wrong. The film was already delayed by months as most Hollywood productions have been shut down due to the global pandemic.
Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Henry Czerny and Vanessa Kirby are returning while Esai Morales, Hayley Atwell, Shea Whigham and Pom Klementieff join the ensemble in the new films with the seventh arriving November 19th 2021 and the eighth on November 4th 2022.
