There are breathtaking stunts throughout the “Mission: Impossible” series, like when Tom Cruise rides a motorcycle off a cliff or climbs the Burj Khalifa, but “Mission: Impossible 2” — considered the weakest despite having the most subversive visuals — includes a memorable stunt on a much smaller scale. It’s far more intimate but incredibly visceral.
On a sandy beach with the background of crashing waves, the hot-tempered villain Ambrose and Ethan Hunt engage in hand-to-hand combat. In the midst of their slamming punches and leaping kicks, Ambrose sneakily pulls out a knife. In a behind-the-scenes video, director John Woo describes Ambrose’s combative approach as “evil” and “dirty.”
Woo came up with the choreography where “he jumps up in the air and lands on Tom and this knife almost cuts his face, and also pretty close to his eye.” However, Tom Cruise — always committed to making the audience’s moviegoing experience as thrilling as possible — wanted to raise the stakes.
According to Woo, Cruise suggested putting the real knife “just right into my eye.” Woo was afraid of his star potentially getting hurt and kept trying to find other ways to shoot the effect, but Cruise — the enduring daredevil — did not want to play it safe and insisted on performing the stunt: “But he’s so stubborn, you know. He said, ‘No, no, no. This one’s right in the eyes.'” Cruise persisted that it would be more scary this way. Since Cruise wouldn’t take no for an answer, it was just a matter of figuring out how to pull the moment off.
Staring down the edge of a knife
Stunt coordinator Brian Smrz reveals in the behind-the-scenes footage how they created one of the frightening “Mission: Impossible 2” moments:
“Now, we had a real knife that was really sharp and really pointy. There was no faking that. What we did do was we had a cable attached to it in the knife which was hooked to an overhead bar that, so the knife could only go so far.”
Keith Campbell, who performed the overhang stunt in the pulse-pounding cliff scene, describes the stunt as “nerve-wracking” because the knife would actually stop one-quarter-inch from Tom Cruise’s eyeball. And miraculously, Cruise doesn’t even flinch! Campbell also explains that despite the well-designed mechanics behind the effect, there were still a lot of risks involved:
“If he’d sit up or move or twitch or the cable were to slip or … There’s a lot of ‘maybes’ that make it an interesting shot to watch. But he did do that part with a real knife.”
While it is not as elaborate as other stunts in the “Mission: Impossible” series, this simple effect is terrifying. The close-up shot of a knife barely penetrating Tom Cruise’s eye, less than an inch away from squishing into his skull, feels like something out of a horror film. This shocking and stomach-twisting image exemplifies John Woo’s flamboyant style that makes “Mission: Impossible 2” such a daring entry in the franchise.
While filming this unsettling scene, Woo says, “It was pretty scary. And I’m so glad the scene had such a greater impact because Tom was really risking his life for the shot.” 23 years later, Cruise is still risking his life for the shot and doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.