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.

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.

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.

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.

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.