XM2 has covered the biggest stunt in cinema history for Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. The upcoming film is the seventh instalment in the Mission: Impossible franchise and the XM2 team worked closely with Director, Christopher McQuarrie to capture the epic action from every angle. This stunt required over a year of planning, preparation, and rehearsals in the UK to achieve the necessary level of camera precision.
XM2 provided a strong Australian representation on this project, with Drone Pilots, Camera Operators, Focus Pullers and Drone Techs present for this stunt. Further, XM2 provided multiple heavy-lift drones that were designed and built in Melbourne by Australian engineers.
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Tom Cruise reprises his role as Ethan Hunt and kicked off principal photography in Norway by launching his motorbike off a cliff and parachuting to the ground, with multiple drones and a helicopter filming the primary shots. XM2 also developed a system to log Tom’s flight data during his jump rehearsals, which was invaluable to help determine the best speeds and trajectories.
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XM2 simultaneously utilized multiple heavy-lift drones as well as several smaller drones to capture behind-the-scenes footage. These aircraft enabled the Director and Cinematographer to be flexible in their framing, shooting from various angles and altitudes.
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XM2 also provided a multi-camera array to capture background plates. Utilizing seven, synchronized ARRI Alexa Mini LF cameras with Zeiss CP3 lenses, enabled the capture of an ultra-wide field of view at ultra-high resolution for use in post-production.
As well as aerial footage and arrays, XM2 provided LIDAR and photogrammetry capture of environments and structures for the Visual Effects department.
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Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is in cinemas 14 July 2023. Check out some of the epic behind-the-scenes in the video below.