Summary

  • VFX artists have reacted to the train crash in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, detailing how the impressive action scene was created.
  • The train crash was a mixture of practical effects and CGI, with a real locomotive being thrown off a mountain against a rendered background.
  • Despite the use of CGI in the recent Mission: Impossible movie, it doesn't make Tom Cruise's stunts any less impressive.

VFX artists have detailed how Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning made a train crash that looked so real during the movie's climactic final action sequence. The end of the film sees Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) rescuing Grace (Hayley Atwell) on a train, detaching parts of the vehicle to save everyone else aboard. This involves a scene where the train crashes into a lake, the sequence looking highly realistic and adding to the final act's tension.

Now, Corridor Crew, on their show "VFX Artists React," has analyzed the movie's train crash scene, revealing how the Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning stunt came to fruition.

Starting at 16:42, the VFX artists discuss how the train scene in the action-packed spy movie utilized a mixture of both a real, simulated train crash and CGI to create the effect found in the final product. Check out what Corrider Crew had to say about the train scene below:

What I find nuts about [the train crash] sequence here is that they actually threw a train off of a bridge.... The entire train was replaced [with CGI]. But they kept the crash of the train. Which I thought was very smart because they specifically left in the real composited footage over the gray render background. So you're like, "Oh, yeah, those splashes, the train hitting the ground? That was real."

They have gone out of their way to create these real sets that move and transform like this, so at the end here when Tom Cruise actually grabs [a train seat railing], he's actually hanging, even though at the beginning of the shot he's walking. And again, it all gets replaced in CG, because it, at this point, they can make it look as good as the real thing in CG. But the thing they are keeping that is real are the actors.

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tom cruise from top gun maverick and mission impossible dead reckoning

The Corridor Crew's analysis of the scene also points out how, despite the Mission: Impossible movies often being marketed as having real stunts, it still utilizes some CGI atop the practical effects. This includes the environment throughout the final sequence of the movie, with the landscape around the train actually being a computer-generated render. Footage shown in the video includes Cruise's motorcycle jumping off a cliff, which used a ramp that was replaced by a computerized mountain in the final movie.

However, despite the use of CGI to help enhance the many eye-catching stunts throughout the movie, it's never utilized to fully replace everything Cruise and other cast members are doing in its action-packed sequences. Practical sets were used for the train crash sequence, including a real locomotive being thrown off a mountain and mock train cars being built for Cruise and Atwell to climb. The environment for the motorcycle jump also may have been computer-generated, but the series star still jumped, making it impressive despite the falsified background.

The same mixture of practical stunts with CGI enhancements will likely be used in the upcoming Mission: Impossible 8, which will seemingly show the story of Dead Reckoning continue. This means impressive effects like those seen in the train crash are going to be normalized for the whole franchise. It hints at a wide number of new stunts that, no matter their effects, are still carefully-designed parts of the movie. With the train crash setting a precedent for the series, more sequences like it are probable for future installments.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning is now streaming on Paramount+.

Source: Corridor Crew/YouTube