Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol The Movie in Sapporo, Japan

• Info
• Cast & Crew

• Genre: Action
  
  Synopsis:
  After the IMF is implicated in a global terrorist plot and shut down, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team must go under cover and ``off the grid'' to clear the organization's name.
  
  Release Date: 12/21/2011
  Running Time: 133
  
  Rating: PG-13 - Parents Strongly Cautioned
  
  http://www.missionimpossible.com/
  
• Cast:
  Ethan Hunt: Tom Cruise,William Brandt: Jeremy Renner,Benji Dunn: Simon Pegg,Jane Carter: Paula Patton,Kurt Hendricks: Michael Nyqvist,Anatoly Sidirov: Vladimir Mashkov,Sabine Moreau: Léa Seydoux,Brji Nath: Anil Kapoor,Trevor Hanaway: Josh Holloway
  
  Crew:
  Director: Brad Bird,Screenwriter: Josh Appelbaum,Screenwriter: Andre Nemec,Producer: Tom Cruise,Producer: J.J. Abrams,Producer: Bryan Burk,Executive Producer: Jeffrey Chernov,Executive Producer: David Ellison,Executive Producer: Paul Schwake,Executive Producer: Dana Goldberg,Cinematographer: Robert Elswit,Production Design: Jim Bissell,Film Editor: Paul Hirsch,Costume Designer: Michael Kaplan,Original Music: Michael Giacchino
  
  Production Companies:
  Bad Robot
  
  Distributors:
  Paramount Pictures
  
  Notes:
  Production Notes - Notes provided by Paramount Pictures - Blamed for the terrorist bombing of the Kremlin, IMF operative Ethan Hunt is disavowed along with the rest of the agency when the President initiates ``Ghost Protocol. Left without any resources or backup, Ethan must find a way to clear his agency's name and prevent another attack. To complicate matters further, Ethan is forced to embark on this mission with a team of fellow IMF fugitives whose personal motives he does not fully know. Tom Cruise returns in the starring role as Ethan Hunt and is joined by an international cast that includes Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton, Michael Nyqvist, Vladimir Mashkov, Josh Holloway, Anil Kapoor and Léa Seydoux. Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions present a Tom Cruise / Bad Robot Production: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL. The film is directed by Brad Bird and the executive producers are Jeffrey Chernov, David Ellison, Paul Schwake and Dana Goldberg. The film is produced by Tom Cruise, J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk and is based on the television series created by Bruce Geller. The screenplay is written by Josh Appelbaum & André Nemec. The incredible crew includes director of photography Robert Elswit, production designer Jim Bissell, editor Paul Hirsch and visual effects supervisor John Knoll. The costume designer is Michael Kaplan, the sound is designed by Gary Rydstrom and the music is by Michael Giacchino. TEAM GHOST PROTOCOL ETHAN HUNT (Tom Cruise) must evolve as an agent, going from lone wolf to a true team leader. ``Ethan has really relied on himself in the previous three movies, but in this movie he has to rely on others. It's a great challenge for him because he's been betrayed so many times by team members and his organization and now he has no choice but to trust these three people whom he hardly knows. For this film, Appelbaum and Nemec also liked the idea of having a strong female agent. As Brad Bird describes her, AGENT JANE CARTER (Paula Patton) ``is a badass. Though she has yet had a lot of experience as a field agent, she is driven by something besides her desire to complete the mission: revenge. ``She's enormously talented, very charismatic and really took the physicality the role required head-on, Cruise notes. Jane, Patton says, ``is as fierce as the boys, if not fiercer - she's someone to contend with. Returning from MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III is the team's technical wizard, BENJI DUNN (Simon Pegg), who has graduated to field agent. Pegg describes the character as ``the ultimate I.T. guy. He's the computer guy who just knows everything about everything. Josh Appelbaum recalls, ``J.J. said, 'I would love to see Benji come out from behind the desk and be in the field.' So we just had some fun with the idea because we were so used to seeing those hardened agents that have been on mission after mission and, instead, having Ethan with this guy who hasn't been in the field that long. This is all sort of new to him. Pegg also brings a great amount of wit and humor to his character, which is unique to this film in a franchise that is known for its intense, action packed sequences. For AGENT WILLIAM BRANDT (Jeremy Renner), ``We liked the idea of meeting this character as more of a desk jockey - a suit, explains Appelbaum. ``We only later realize that he has these great capabilities. Brandt gives Ethan another agent to be squaring off with through the course of the movie and that's something that hadn't been done before. The character had immediate appeal to Renner. ``Brandt is an analyst, a seemingly tight-wound desk guy who is smart as a whip, and that's his job. He's not very emotional about things. Then, you slowly start to see the revealing of who he really is - particularly through seeing this physical skill set you would not expect out of a tight, blue shirt-wearing analyst. He doesn't really want to be part of the team, but circumstances force him to join the group, says Renner. Renner came to the project almost by chance, after a quick meeting with Abrams regarding another project, on a day when Cruise happened to be visiting for a production meeting. ``Then, literally, from that meeting, I just came over to Paramount and sat down with Brad Bird, Bryan Burk and Tom, and they pitched me the story - there wasn't even a script yet. They described the character and it seemed pretty interesting. I couldn't say no. Bird couldn't have been happier with the team and its casting. ``All of these people are terrific screen presences, and together they were like four different rhythms and voices and tempos that synchronized really well onscreen, he says. Cruise agrees. ``I'm a fan of their work and you see the characters they create. Each member is a unique piece creating a wonderful dynamic for the team. This fourth installment also features an international cast with actors and characters from Russia, India, Sweden and France. ``KURT HENDRICKS (Michael Nyqvist) hearkens back to that Cold War-era kind of bad guy - he's got a wildly destructive plan and he's bent on executing, says André Nemec. ``He's very old school, agrees Swedish-born actor Michael Nyqvist. The idea for a sociopathic bad guy with a plan bent on world destruction came out of discussions between Bird, Cruise and Abrams. ``There was a real desire to not make his plan too complicated or too abstract, explains Appelbaum. ``It's a big, old school bad guy plan. What's new school is the modern manner in which we go after him, and the manner in which he's trying to avoid us. ``What's really weird, though, is that he believes he's morally correct, and that's always a very dangerous enemy to face because they believe they're justified in what they're doing. As far as he's concerned, he's fighting for good, says Simon Pegg. SABINE MOREAU, played by Léa Seydoux, is straight out of the classic spy films. ``She's an assassin - she kills for money - or, in the case of GHOST PROTOCOL, diamonds will do just fine, says the French actress of her character. ``She's brutal, but with a little tenderness, which makes it even more evil, marks Josh Holloway who plays TREVOR HANAWAY, an IMF Agent who has a very significant encounter with Moreau. Rounding out the cast are Indian star ANIL KAPOOR, widely known for his performance in the Academy Award(R)-winning ``Slumdog Millionaire, as an Indian communications magnate and Russian actor VLADIMIR MASHKOV as Russian intelligence operative ANATOLY SIDIROV. This incredible team of international characters celebrates the worldwide audiences that have long supported the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE Franchise. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DISAVOWED, DISCONNECTED IMPOSSIBLE MISSIONS FORCE (IMF) agents JANE CARTER (Paula Patton) and TREVOR HANAWAY (Josh Holloway) and brilliant tech whiz, BENJI DUNN (Simon Pegg) are tasked with finding a courier carrying nuclear launch codes. Very unfortunately, their mission goes awry and the codes fall into the hands of a sultry assassin, SABINE MOREAU (Léa Seydoux). Meanwhile, team leader ETHAN HUNT (Tom Cruise) must be extracted from a Moscow prison and the group is assigned the task of breaking into the Kremlin to retrieve information about the intended recipient of the codes; a man code-named Cobalt. Shortly thereafter, Cobalt blows their cover and, before Ethan and Benji can escape, a tremendous explosion rocks Red Square. Ethan finds himself and the entire IMF being blamed to the point that the President invokes ``Ghost Protocol - a complete dissemination of the agency. Having inherited a new team member, WILLIAM BRANDT (Jeremy Renner), Hunt finds himself, for the first time, working with a team he did not choose. On the surface, Brandt is a desk-bound analyst, but he carries a more complicated past. Begrudgingly, Ethan and this new team must work together as one - all without any support or backup from the now-defunct IMF - if they are to clear their names, complete their mission and prevent nuclear annihilation. In developing this plot, Appelbaum recalls, ``J.J. called us and asked if we could come up with a story with a way to show Ethan in a different light from the previous films. Ethan Hunt is the heart of the franchise, but they were looking for a way to tell a story that's really about him trying to lead a team, and keep the team intact, against great odds. Thus was born the concept of the Ghost Protocol, in which the entire IMF agency was being disavowed. ``We thought that without having resources, it would be a great way to instantly bond Ethan to his team and to help us fall in love with these other characters. We wanted to challenge Ethan as both player and coach - a guy who's not only in it, but is in it with a team that isn't fully gelling. So, he's got to try and pull the team together, all while working on the fly. Another caveat unique to this film is they are also stripped of their usual support - no resources, no extractions, no backup. ``In the world of technology and information that we live in, we wanted to strip the agents of their ability to rely on immediate intel and access. We wanted the gadgets that they use to not always be working properly. To not necessarily make their jobs easier, says Nemec. Ethan's Gecko Gloves, which he uses to climb the outside of a building, and the otherwise-indispensible mask making machine both fail the team when most needed. Adds Appelbaum, ``It's the idea that everything in life doesn't go off exactly like planned and we wanted that to be true for our agents, as well. They couldn't rely on their agency, they couldn't always rely on the tools and gadgets and tricks that they had. They really had to rely on themselves. This movie isn't about unlimited firepower. These people are smart in their intuition and their training, in really clever and inventive ways. The producers even encouraged Bird to incorporate his own ideas about what makes a spy movie cool. ``When I first got involved, they said, 'Well, we have this story line but, other than that, are there any cool things you've always wanted to see in a spy movie?' It was like looking at it from a moviegoer level, in terms of what kinds of things you'd want to see if you were sitting in the audience watching this. Things such as Brandt's Eyecam lens (a contact lens which functions as a video display), throwing off a meet-and-swap meeting with Moreau, a sandstorm chase and, after Ethan retrieves his mission assignment from a payphone, which ``will self-destruct in five seconds - but doesn't, at least not without a swift kick from Mr. Hunt, all came from Bird. ``He really brought that constant sense that the mission plan is not 100 working. says Nemec. ``Brad was able to look at things with a little bit of a 'fun' lens, which we loved. Complicating matters is the team members' knowledge of Ethan's reputation within the agency. ``Part of starting off with finding him imprisoned is wanting to play into a character that isn't necessarily coming into this with a bunch of medals on his chest. The team isn't going, 'Of course I'll follow that guy into battle!' It's more like, 'Well, that guy did something that earned him being imprisoned.' So, they're always wondering if he's making the right calls along the way. The producers also wished to create a film that, though part of a series franchise, could stand alone, story-wise, so that audiences didn't have to be familiar with what had gone on in the previous MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movies to enjoy or follow GHOST PROTOCOL. ``We made a conscious effort to make it so if you had never seen the other films, it didn't matter, Burk explains. ``You could watch this film and easily follow the story and understand Ethan's backstory and where he is because the movie is completely self-contained. And, if you have seen the previous films, then you'll be able to draw more from it. Building THE TEAM ``I loved the show when I was a kid, says Cruise. ``I felt that, as a film, it could take us to different locations, have pulse-racing action sequences and smart, innovative tech. It was the first film I ever produced. As a filmmaker and as an actor, I'm always thinking about the audience. I want to entertain them and give them a new adventure every time. The last film, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III, was directed by J.J. Abrams who returns as a producer on MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL. ``I like to work with people who I admire, like J.J., who are really smart and talented. I really loved the television work he had done, particularly with 'Alias,' and I wanted him to make his first movie with me. We had an amazing time on M:I 3 and I love J.J., so to work with him again on this would mean we'd get to have some fun together and create another amazing movie. To write the new film, Abrams brought in two of his collaborators from his popular television show, ``Alias, Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec, who had worked on that series for three years. ``When Tom approached us about doing this film, they immediately came to mind, says Abrams' producing partner Bryan Burk. ``We know their ability to work in this genre, to craft interesting and unique stories in the espionage world and to create really big set pieces. They know how to bring the characters to life and make them rich. ``These are the hardest movies to make, says Cruise. ``It's always about coming up with a fresh story - how do we make it interesting and keep up the suspense? The first three films were mammoth hits, collectively grossing more than $2 billion worldwide. Each helmed by a different director, it gives each Mission film a unique look and feel. Animation director Brad Bird may not have been the most obvious choice for a huge action film, but he did end up being the easiest. Having only made three movies to date - and all of them animated - he won Academy Awards(R) for Best Animated Feature Film for two of them: ``The Incredibles and ``Ratatouille so he certainly had an incredible track record. The fact that the director came from an animation background didn't affect the producers' choice, but his skill as a filmmaker did. ``Brad was someone we'd been a longtime fan of. It was only a matter of time before he jumped over to live action. Thankfully, it was with us. says Bryan Burk. Cruise had also admired Brad's work ever since he first saw his animated films. Recalls Bird, ``Tom had seen 'Incredibles' and liked it a lot and just wanted to meet with me. So, I went over to his house and we just talked about movies. We were immediately very comfortable with each other and about our attitudes towards the medium of film. Cruise adds, ``I called him up and said, 'Look, you wanna come by? I've got to meet you.' And it was like an old friend talking about our favorite movies. When we were talking, I said, 'If you ever want to direct live action, please direct me.' Even in his animated work, he shoots like a live action director. His sequences are amazing, as are his characters. He has great wit and sense of composition and he knows how to keep the tension and suspense in his stories. Recalls Bird, ``I had known J.J. for years and we'd been trying to find something that we could collaborate on, but the timing never seemed to work out. I came to J.J. and told him, 'I've got this project that I've put aside - is there anything cool?' And he goes, 'Mission: Impossible?' He told me the idea and I was immediately intrigued, and it just suddenly went into hyperspace from there. Echoing Tom's approach to giving each director their own voice, Bird says ``They don't try to get the directors to conform to the style of the franchise, which would mean just plugging yourself in and being a robot, he explains. ``All of the films contain similar elements, with Ethan Hunt addressing unsolvable problems, but each one has its own distinct flavor and style. It was an opportunity Bird couldn't pass up. ``It was a chance to work with J.J. and Tom, all in one fell swoop. Traveling the INTERNATIONAL GLOBE MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL is an action-packed thrill ride, filled with mind-boggling stunts, rich characters, the coolest gadgets and stunning locations. Filmed over a five month period from October 2010 to March 2011, production took the film from Los Angeles to Moscow, Prague, Dubai, Mumbai, and Vancouver. ``These are globe-trotting movies, says Brad Bird of the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE series. ``That's part of their appeal. Adds executive producer Jeffrey Chernov, ``Looking for locations for GHOST PROTOCOL was always about finding the most exotic places. That was something that was really important for Tom. What we're out to do is really deliver entertainment in the most exotic locales. Production began in Prague in October 2010. ``I think Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, says Bird. The prison where they filmed was actually the long-closed Mladá Boleslav Prison, northeast of Prague. ``It was super creepy to walk through on our initial scout - thinking it was a real prison where people, albeit criminals, had been interned, recalls André Nemec. The facility was spruced up by production designer Jim Bissell for the three-day shoot. ``It was a very old building, but we needed to go in and make it look hi-tech, something Jim melded together very well, notes Bird. The spectacular explosion of Red Square in Moscow and a portion of The Kremlin was actually created using background plate photography of the actual Red Square, shot by Oscar(R) -winning visual effects supervisor John Knoll (``Star Wars, ``Avatar). ``We planned out the geography of where everybody is and when, and then shot these hi-resolution panoramas and running shots of the square, Knoll explains. Those shots were then combined with combined with footage of Cruise and other cast members being hurled through the air, filmed in Vancouver at Canadian Motion Picture Park, where the production shot on as many as six stages and served as the film's North American production base. One of the most magnificent locations used in the film is the city of Dubai, located in the United Arab Emirates - not only used for its striking beauty, but also as the backdrop for one of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTCOL's most memorable and impressive stunts. ``When you arrive in Dubai, it's just striking. It's this incredible 21st century city that literally just rises out of the desert, says producer Bryan Burk. ``The city had never truly been photographed for a motion picture portraying itself, Brad Bird notes. Filmmakers had not yet taken advantage of the vertical scale of Dubai. ``It's cinematic from the get-go, notes Bird. ``A lot of the architecture is very imaginative and seems so futuristic. The fact that it's surrounded by desert is such a surreal sight, because it's just dunes and flatness, and there's this city rising up like Oz. It's understandable why other filmmakers were attracted to Dubai as a visual playground. In 2009, while Burk and Abrams were traveling the world to promote ``Star Trek, they stopped one night in Dubai, on their way to show their new film to the troops in Kuwait. ``We got a tour of the city, and J.J. turned to me and said, 'We HAVE to come back here and shoot a movie.' A year later, when conversations about a new MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movie were taking place, Burk says, ``We started asking ourselves, 'Well, where would be a great place to set it?' And J.J. just said, 'Well, what about Dubai? We could set a scene at the Burj Khalifa.' THE BURJ KHALIFA Located in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai is visually striking. ``It's cinematic from the get-go, notes Bird. ``A lot of the architecture is very imaginative and seems so futuristic. The fact that it's surrounded by desert is such a surreal sight because it's just dunes and flatness, and then there's this city rising up like Oz. The city had never truly been photographed for a motion picture portraying itself before. Filmmakers had not yet taken advantage of the vertical scale of the Dubai until GHOST PROTOCOL. The producers had suggested using the Burj Khalifa for something to the writers, Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec. ``It's one of the first things you look at, says Bird. ``It's this gleaming, really quite beautiful building that sticks up like a needle touching space. The Burj had also been on Tom Cruise's radar who had seen the structure under construction. ``I'm always looking at different structures, thinking, 'How can I climb that? How can I jump out of that?' he says. Recalls Nemec, ``We were talking about the building sequence and we thought, 'What's the scariest, most bad-ass thing we could imagine?' Well, the answer was, 'Let's make him climb the outside of that building, in the interest of keeping the mission alive.' Tom loved the idea. In the film, Ethan must climb the exterior of the Burj - the tallest building in the world, topping out at 2,716.5 feet (828 meters) to reach an upper floor security control area without being detected. The building, which has three uses - a hotel, corporate suites and condominium residences - was scouted several times by stunt coordinator Gregg Smrz and his team who bravely examined the structure's exterior themselves to figure out how to safely get Cruise out on the outside of the building for the various stunts called for in the script. The production team began planning the obvious way to implement the scene: build a set on a soundstage representing a piece of the building, and have Cruise climb that, under controlled conditions. ``We were going to build this set, have Ethan climb it, and then digitally extend all the shots to show the rest of the building, explains Visual Effects Producer Tom C. Peitzman. ``We sat around in meetings, went through previz and storyboards and spent lots of time designing all these shots. Then we sat down with Tom and, of course, he wanted to climb the real building. That put a whole new spin on things. The rehearsals and training took months, with Cruise practicing his moves enough times that, by the time he would reach the actual building surface, they would be routine. Scaffolding was constructed around the practice set on which lights were placed to heat up its surface to temperatures Cruise would encounter on the real Burj in Dubai. ``We had taken measurements of the temperature of the building, Smrz says. ``Tom was very adamant about that. We heated the glass until it was 100 degrees. The crew was given access to the 123rd floor, which was still unfinished, to bring in camera rigs, cranes and other gear necessary to film Cruise's moves outside the building. To gain access to the outside of the building, between 15 and 20 windows were removed from the façade on a number of floors, through which camera jib arms and other gear could be extended outwards. It was determined that, during the day, the glass exterior of the building became so hot that it wasn't possible to work in direct sunlight. ``You couldn't even touch the glass, Smrz says. The team found one area - fortuitously just above one of the building's several public observation decks -out of direct sunlight that allowed Smrz to set stunt rigging and still allowed director of photography, Robert Elswit, adequate lighting for principal photography. ``When we arrived on set, we had rehearsed it so much, it felt like we had been there 100 times, Smrz explains. ``We just walked in, and climbed the building. It felt like a military operation. Cruise himself was rigged with a form-fitting - and somewhat painful - harness attached to a cable system, which was attached at their ``pick points. A special cable the size of a piano wire ran along the face of the building that whole length, attached to Cruise's harness through a miniature pulley (called a ``belly sheave) to control how tightly he was held against the building façade. That cable was attached to the building structure at various points along its length, where small windows had been removed just for that purpose. ``That's what held him against the building, Smrz explains. ``Our pull had to be choreographed with Tom's action. We tried marionetting him, but the best thing turned out to be a combination of his energy and us assisting him. To make sure things went smoothly, Smrz brought in veteran rock climber Dave Schultz, known for his work on other climb-related films, such as ``Cliffhanger and ``Vertical Limit. ``Dave worked with Tom to make sure that the climbing was all accurate to how a climber would climb the building, Brad Bird explains. For Cruise's ``drop shot - where, after losing a tool, he also loses his grip and drops 30 feet before catching himself - even seasoned veterans were blown away. ``We dropped him several stories and he was willing to do that several times, Bird recalls. ``When he did his four-story free fall, recalls production designer Jim Bissell, ``it was pretty astonishing watching him do it. Another shot Cruise accomplished with finesse involved a move called an Australian Rappel (or just ``Aussie Rappel), as Ethan, unable to return to the floor where his fellow agents are the way he originally came, is forced to essentially run across the face of the building to launch himself back into an open window. ``You're basically running face down the building, running towards the ground, Smrz explains. ``It's quite unique and terrifying. What was originally planned as a two-day shoot on the surface of the building, followed by eight days on a mock-up set, turned into four days on the outside of the building. Recalls Jeffrey Chernov, ``As we got more comfortable in the building and started rehearsing, Bob Elwsit, Gregg Smrz and Tom came up to me and said, 'Jeffrey, we can get more done here, we want to shoot more days here.' ``We ended up taking 13 shots that were going to be done on our set and moved them to the actual Burj. So we were able to get all the really intricate storytelling and closeups on our building. The shoot also left a great impression on Paula Patton. ``We were shooting a scene where Brandt catches Ethan's leg, and then I catch Brandt, and we're pulling him back in through the window. I saw Tom hanging there, outside the Burj Khalifa, and he just looked at me and said calmly, 'Hey, Paula,' and I'm, like, 'Hi.' I looked down and realized I had inched my way outside the window somehow. It was astounding to be looking out that building. In many ways, you are overcome by the beauty of the city. I couldn't believe I was doing it. Proving yet again his lack of fear of heights, sometime during the shoot, Cruise, Smrz and a photographer took a trip up to the very top of the Burj Khalifa for a photo shoot. ``You have to take multiple elevators and even more flights of stairs before you reach the top, Bryan Burk describes. ``Then you go inside this tube, where the spire is, and climb a single ladder. It took Tom 20 minutes to climb that, which means it would have taken me 45 minutes. At the very top is a submarine-style hatch, to keep wind from entering the building. Once at the top, Cruise was unable to resist, and asked Smrz to lower him down by a rope 15 feet over the edge - to autograph the building. ``The only person who will ever see that is the guy that paints the building years down the road, Smrz says. Stunting for ACTION In another action packed scene, Ethan slips out of a fourth-story window and, while Russian operatives wait for him to give up, grabs his belt, leaps from the building ledge, slides down a nearby power line to the roof of a moving van and rolls off safely onto the street. ``That was actually one of the most challenging stunts of the whole movie, as far as difficulty goes, says stunt coordinator Gregg Smrz. ``We rehearsed that on stage over and over and over, until it was just old hat, and then went and put it into place. Tom nailed it in just a few takes. The key word here is: ``Tom. That stunt - only a sign of things to come for the audience as they watch the rest of the film - was performed by Cruise himself as was the case throughout the movie. ``Tom wants to do everything, says Smrz, ``even when he doesn't have to. There are shots where the producers were really getting nervous, and he wanted to take it further and further. I told him, 'Tom, nobody is going to know it's not you. There's no reason for you to do this - your double could do it and you can watch.' He just looked at me and said, 'But I'm having fun. Bird concurs: ``I agree with Tom that when the real guy is there, you get something extra, and the audience can feel it. It's not just that you're seeing the actor's face, but somebody like Tom adds intensity to it because he's an actor. When he falls, he shows you the fear of somebody who's suddenly being dropped. It's a performance and I think people can tell the difference. Cruise is intimately involved with every step of the stunt process. ``He loves action films, and he takes them very seriously and does his homework, says Bird. ``He's a stunt coordinator's dream because he invests himself completely. He wants to understand every aspect of how you execute a stunt, how it's planned. By the time the day arrives to do the stunt, he's completely prepared. He's made to order for this kind of movie. Adds Paula Patton, ``It's why he's the perfect Ethan Hunt. He's fearless. He lives for danger and excitement and doing the impossible, which he's done his whole career. The rest of the cast followed Cruise's example, both in work ethic and in the desire for a realistic experience for the audience, performing many of their own stunts as well, particularly in the fight arena. Cast members trained for four months, every day, with trainer and fight coordinator Rob Alonzo. Alonzo's approach focused mainly on making certain the actors knew all the moves, so they could drop in and create a realistic-looking fight. ``He trained us to learn all the moves that would be helpful to you in a fight, not an actual choreographed fight, explains Paula Patton. ``Then, as you get close to shooting the fight, you start to create some choreography, so when you go in to shoot the scene, you're not thinking about it, you're just making it look as real as possible. The training came to the proof for both Patton and actress Léa Seydoux in a fight when Jane finally confronts Moreau. ``We wanted to do a fight that had a fast, vicious, slightly out-of-control feel to it, says director Bird. ``Léa originally was only supposed to do a few close-ups and then we would have a stunt woman do the rest, but she got into the spirit and said she wanted to do this stuff. The two worked together with Smrz and Alonzo for months to perfect the scene. Another intensely complicated stunt sequence in the film, involving one of the most complex sets ever built for an action movie, appears as Ethan fights with Kurt Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist) to recover the cheget, the Russian nuclear launch briefcase, to prevent the start of a nuclear holocaust. The two battle it out in an old-fashioned fistfight in a 3D automated parking garage with machinery and automobiles constantly on the move. ``That went along with our desire for this movie to not fire a lot of guns and unleash a ton of ordinance, André Nemec explains. ``Josh and I talked about setting an old school fistfight in a crazy environment. I recalled a conversation I had with an architect friend, who told me about these automated parking garages. So, Josh and I went online and found one that VW had. We were looking at pictures of it and thought 'This literally could be the most insane environment for a brawl,' then pepper in playing hot potato with a nuclear briefcase - wild. Special Effects Supervisor Mike Meinardus and his crew then spent the next six months building the