Mission Impossible 7 is out and fans are beyond ecstatic. There’s a reason why the highly-venerated Tom Cruise-produced and starring film series has been hailed by critics as one of the best action franchises to ever exist. The influence that the past six releases have had on popular culture is immense and extraordinary. The seventh installment, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, is a testament to such claims, further proving the credibility of the franchise in offering its audiences high-octane action and adventure with each new film.
When it concerns the bizarre, laborious, and strenuous stunts that Cruise is usually known for pulling off in each of these films, one of the scenes from the latest installment which garnered quite a buzz on the internet featured an unbelievably exhilarating train sequence. For this endeavor to be a success, the production team, as claimed by director Christopher McQuarrie, had to construct the train from scratch to be able to destroy it effectively. How’s that for extreme action?
In a recent interview, Shea Whigham, who starred in the movie as Jasper Briggs, revealed how a friend of his was astonished by the scene and wondered whether or not Whigham was involved in it.
Shea Whigham On The Mission Impossible 7 Train Scene
Shea Whigham’s role in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One sees him primarily chasing down Tom Cruise‘s Ethan Hunt across different parts of the world. Getting to work with Cruise allowed Whigham to witness the reality behind all the seemingly impossible (no pun intended) stunts that the former is regularly willing to undertake. In the seventh installment, we see a variety of such dangerous feats being executed by the Hollywood icon and his castmates. Take the train sequence shot in Norway and the UK as an example.
Having a train built just to conduct movie stunts encapsulates the essence of practical filmmaking. What is even more astonishing, however, is witnessing Cruise, engaging in a knife fight with Esai Morales’ character, atop the moving train which was running at a speed of 60-70 miles per hour. Not only does the adrenaline-pumping scene flabbergasts audiences, but it also raises questions regarding its credibility. It’s quite a dangerous sequence to tackle, after all.
Shea Whigham made it a point to explain how such doubts fall in the face of Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie‘s sense of practicality. “You know Tom does his own stuff, everything,” the actor affirmed to GQ in an interview. In saying so, he recounted an anecdote involving a friend of his who was shocked by the seemingly unbelievable train stunt.
Mission Impossible 7‘s Train Stunt Had Shea Whigham’s Friend In Disbelief
In the GQ interview, the Boardwalk Empire actor was requested to shed some light on the character he plays in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. As someone new to the acclaimed film franchise, Whigham was grateful to have been allowed by Cruise and McQuarrie to develop and flesh out his character in the film. “Danny and Tom are both very gracious, generous actors and bosses. They allow everyone to have their moment,” elaborated the star. He further stated that when audiences watch the film, they’ll easily notice that every character has their own “moment.”
Whigham then praised Mission Impossible 7 for its commitment to executing dangerous, implausible action sequences; a quality that is quite uncommon in movies these days. “It’s amazing because they don’t make films like this anymore,” stated the 54-year-old actor.
To follow up on this remark, the talent elaborated on an instance that happened to him during the premiere of Mission Impossible 7 where a buddy of Whigham’s had a question about the train sequence. The actor’s friend had a hard time believing that it was Shea Whigham on top of the train with Tom Cruise in the high-octane, rip-roaring stunt scene. Here’s what he said:
“… When you see the train, I had a buddy that came with me [to the premiere] asked, “Was that you really up on top of the train with Tom?” I said, “Yeah, that’s us in Norway, going 65, 70 miles an hour on top of the speeding train.” Everything is practical with these guys.”
This is not the first instance where Shea Whigham has emphasized the reality behind these mesmerizing action sequences. During the premiere of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the actor told Variety, “He [Tom Cruise] does everything himself. He really does.”
While the highly-discussed train scene was a “tough” endeavor for Whigham, he recalled enjoying it thoroughly. The sequence for the actor has now become his chef-d’œuvre; a challenging feat that was difficult to pull off, but was executed perfectly nevertheless. Mission Impossible 7 simply fails to disappoint when it comes to fulfilling the promise of unpredictable action and adventure. Here’s to hoping we will see more of Shea Whigham’s Jasper Briggs in the upcoming eighth installment of the franchise.
Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One is out in theatres now.
Source: GQ
