Chasing increasingly hazardous “impossible missions” in pursuit of higher Hollywood franchise profits is only a viable form of career Russian roulette when you and your advisors have nothing to lose.
Tom Cruise makes a lot of money defying death. The last Mission Impossible movie saw him walk across a jet wing at 5,000 feet.
Hit a high-flying bird or the wrong air pocket and a fall would end his career and his life. He did the stunt eight times to make sure the editors had enough footage.
They paid him at least $25 million to make the risk worthwhile. And he’s apparently eager to raise the stakes in terms of both danger and realism once filming on the next installment starts.
It’s a problem his advisors need to address.
No efficient frontier
A lot of young wealthy people enjoy extreme sports. Kayaking over a waterfall, driving a high-performance car across the desert or jumping off a cliff is guaranteed to get tired blood pumping and make you glad you’re alive.
Unfortunately, that adrenaline rush happens because every time you do something dangerous, you’re raising the odds that you’re going to get killed or seriously hurt.
That’s the risk Tom Cruise embraces every time he agrees to do his own stunts. While the studio builds as many failsafes into each shot as it can, mistakes happen when you steer a real plane into a dive to stage a fight for the cameras.
