How Tom Cruise clung to the side of an Airbus A400M in flight
American actor Tom Cruise is known for starring in the action film series Mission: Impossible. These movies often feature a series of daring stunts, and Cruise is known for pulling off these thrilling sequences himself rather than resorting to a body double. In one of them he hung himself from the side of an Airbus A400M in mid-flight, but how did he do it?
The scene in question
This is a scene from the fifth Mission: Impossible film, known as Rogue Nation, in which an Airbus A400M ‘Atlas’ participates. This four-engine military transporter first flew in December 2009, before entering service with the French Armée de l'Air et de l'Espace (Air and Space Force) in 2013. As of May 2021, Airbus had produced 100 A400Ms. from 174 orders.
The A400M is a versatile transport aircraft capable of landing on gravel runways and in the desert. The German Luftwaffe is the largest operator of the A400M, which ranks between two of its fellow carriers, the Lockheed C-130 "Hercules" and the Boeing C-17 "Globemaster III", in terms of size. The Luftwaffe operates 35 A400Ms out of a total order of 53.
You can see the finished version of the scene in the clip below. The incredible image of Cruise hanging from the plane surely made many viewers wonder how such a shot could be filmed without a green screen. Without further ado, let's take a look.
Film and aviation are two very similar industries when it comes to their focus on safety. Therefore, when the two worlds collided to film this scene, many procedures were applied to keep security levels high. The film's cinematographer, Robert Elswit, explained to The Hollywood Reporter that Cruise was securely attached to the plane. He affirms:
“Tom was wearing a full body harness, and it's wired and connected to the plane through [his his] his door. Inside the plane was an aluminum frame that was carefully bolted to the plane, which held the cables that passed through the door, which held Tom down. "
You can also see at the end of the clip below that Cruise removes special contact lenses from his eyes after shooting the scene. Elswit adds that “if something hit him at those speeds it could be really bad. They were very careful to clean the track so that there were no stones.
A limited window
What made the scene even more impressive was how little time the team involved had to pull it off. In total, they only had 48 hours to perfect the shot using the F-WWMZ, one of the five A400M test benches. According to ch-aviation.com, it now carries the Spanish registration EC-406, but remains in the hands of Airbus.
During this period, the plane took off with Cruise docked eight times before the team got the sequence they wanted. Filming took place at RAF Wittering, Cambridgeshire (UK). At times, the plane was 1,500 meters above the ground. Elswit adds that:
«They go up, they go up, they do a complete circuit and they land. I think it is in the air between 6 and 8 minutes before landing again. It had to be at least 1,000 feet high.
The final task was to digitally remove the harnesses from the socket. This gave the impression that Cruise, in his role as Ethan Hunt, was holding onto the plane with only his hands. Even with the harness, the daring maneuver undoubtedly made the blood of Cruise, the seasoned stuntman, pump even more than that of the spectators.
