Scene of the Week: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol Climb
Tom Cruise is one crazy bastard !
As he gets older he must think that he has to do more and more dangerous stunts in order to keep himself at the top of the action game. Personally, I love it! It’s not my life at risk and I do enjoy watching a 50+ year old man dangling from stupidly dangerous places.
The Mission Impossible series has been around since the mid 90’s. It’s seen its ebbs and flows, and even its less successful entries have given a lot to the action film genre in terms of stuntwork and style. Even John Woo’s not so great Mission Impossible 2 had some really killer action scenes. Remember that flying motorcycle bullshit? Okay, that was kind of dumb but the rock climbing scene was cool and it has been spoofed or reused in about 300 movies since.
The following scene is taken from the 4th film in the franchise, Ghost Protocol. If you haven’t seen it yet it features Cruise’s crazy ass climbing the Burj Khalifa tower, which is the tallest building on Earth. He hangs out there for a few minutes at around 1,700 feet. That’s a height that would have most people’s eyes popping out of their heads with shit rolling down their legs. I’ve been skydiving before and I’ve pooped my pants but I’ve never done them at the same time. If you put me out there on that building next to Tom, though, it’s possible I would at least need a cautionary wipe.
