It's always the way - there you are soloing some desperate
sandstone slab in Moab when, bang, it's goodbye friction and only a
handy jug stops you from doing a Jonathan Livingstone Seagull off the
lip. Or at least it is if you're Tom Cruise, or maybe, er Ethan
Hunt.
Tom doing some rad' free slab soloing in Moab, dudes
Yep, if you haven't caught the buzz yet, you should know that the
imminent Mission Impossible 2 movie - it premiered in London last
night - features Cruise's desert rock climbing vacation being
interrupted by a pair of speaking Oakleys who summon him, should he
choose to accept it, off to yet another quite difficult task.
If you've got a fast link, a fast computer, loads of money or
someone else pays for your access, you can get a taste of the action
by taking a look at this handy
preview trailer. If you're even richer and more patient you can
go via the official
site and look at the high or medium resolution versions, but be
warned, you'll be downloading forever and a day.
Dead slick it is though, as you'd expect from Hollywood, but what
you're really wondering is if Cruise did his own climbing action. Er,
yes, says Cruise, he did his own stunts, but the film's credits
apparently list top American climber Ron Kauk as a stuntman. It was
Kauk who stood in for Sli 'Bolt Gun' Stallone during the filming of
the notoriously realistic Cliffhanger, a source of sleepless nights
for all Black Diamond Bod harness owners.
For the terminally anal, the climbing sequences in MI2 were filmed
at Dead Horse Point, Moab in Utah and Cruise is, apparently a climber
himself, though not a massively experienced one. He is rumoured to
have done a lot of practice before filming began, but then he's
allegedly expecting to make a cool 70 million dollars from the film,
so he won't be too worried by the risk of a little tendonitis.
Stop Press For the full behind the scenes story of how the
climbing in MI2 was filmed, check out this excellent story
at UKClimbing.
Interesting point: Cruise's production company owns the
rights to Joe Simpson's book Touching The Void, though there seems
little immediate prospect of a film being made. An early screenplay
had Simpson and Yates using walkie talkies to create opportunities
for gripping dialogue... Shame about the dramatic tension though;
Yates is talking to Simpson while still believing him to be dead?
Dohhhh...
