Tom Cruise Performs His 'Most Dangerous Stunt Ever' In New Mission: Impossible

The 58-year-old actor, who has been playing Ethan Hunt since 1996, drove off the 1,246-metre Helsetkopen mountain in Stranda, Norway, on a motorbike, before parachuting down to safety.

"The helicopter [filming the stunt] was a problem, because I didn't want to be hammering down that ramp at top speed and get hit by a stone. Or if I departed in a weird way, we didn't know what was going to happen with the bike.

"I had about six seconds once I departed the ramp to pull the chute and I don't want to get tangled in the bike. If I do, that's not going to end well."

That's a good point, what did happen to the bike? Massive crash mat, perhaps?

Work on the film came to a halt last year, before resuming in September, and Cruise said it was 'emotional' getting back to work.

He said: "All those emotions were going through my mind.

"I was thinking about the people I work with, and my industry. And for the whole crew to know that we'd started rolling on a movie was just a huge relief. It was very emotional, I gotta tell you."

However, while he may well be dedicated to keeping people in the film industry working through the pandemic, this passion appeared to tip him over the edge in December, when leaked audio captured him raging at crew members for breaking Covid-19 social distancing rules.

In the audio, he shouted: "If I see you do it again, you're f***ing gone. And if anyone in this crew does it, that's it - and you too and you too.

"And you, don't you ever f***ing do it again."

He continued: "I'm on the phone with every f***ing studio at night, insurance companies, producers, and they're looking at us and using us to make their movies. We are creating thousands of jobs, you motherf***ers.

"I don't ever want to see it again, ever! And if you don't do it, you're fired. If I see you do it again, you're f***ing gone. And if anyone in this crew does it - that's it, and you too and you too. And you, don't you ever f***ing do it again.

"That's it! No apologies. You can tell it to the people that are losing their f***ing homes because our industry is shut down. It's not going to put food on their table or pay for their college education.

"That's what I sleep with every night. The future of this f***ing industry! So I'm sorry, I am beyond your apologies. I have told you and now I want it - and if you don't do it, you're out. We are not shutting this f***ing movie down! Is it understood?

"If I see it again, you're f***ing gone - and you are - so you're going to cost him his job. If I see it on the set, you're gone and you're gone."

So here's hoping the film is more fun to watch than it sounds like it was to make.

You can read more on Mission Impossible 7 in the upcoming Tom Cruise issue of Empire magazine, on sale Thursday 13 May. The film lands in UK cinemas in May 2022.