Did Tom Cruise Climb Mission: Impossible 2's Mountain Without A Safety Cable?
Mission: Impossible 2 opens with an incredible sequence where Ethan Hunt climbs a mountain with no safety cables, but did Tom Cruise really perform the scene with no gear? Mission: Impossible 2 marked something of a turning point for Cruise. Before the sequel, the actor appeared in a variety of genres, with his star power alone often enough to make a given film a success. With Mission: Impossible 2 — which almost saw Ethan fight a monster — he set out to make himself an action hero, and to that end hired genre master John Woo as director and performed several impressive stunts himself.
Mission: Impossible 2 was a gigantic success in 2000, with even its soundtrack becoming a bestseller. Sadly, the sequel hasn't aged well and to modern eyes feels like the odd one out of the saga. Regardless, the movie sold viewers on Cruise being an action star, and in addition to the Mission: Impossible sequels, he fronted the likes of Minority Report and the Jack Reacher films. Since the 2010s, the majority of Cruise's projects have involved some kind of action element, with the marketing often focusing on his stuntwork.
Related: Mission: Impossible 2's MTV Parody Cast Ben Stiller as Stuntman Tom Crooze
Mission: Impossible 2 was the beginning of this trend, especially thanks to Ethan Hunt's introduction scene. In this opening, Hunt — who is on vacation from the IMF — is scaling up a cliff at Utah's picturesque Dead Horse Point. Hunt is free soloing up the cliff with no safety cables or harness, and at one point, even skids down an overhang and is left dangling in the air. While Hunt might be climbing with no safety gear, Cruise did use a harness and — briefly — a stunt double.
In a 2000 interview with UKC, Mission: Impossible 2
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