Hollywood megastar Tom Cruise is a certified petrolhead and has been known to go to great lengths to get a scene right. His latest escapade from the upcoming Mission Impossible movie saw him drift cars through the streets of Rome.
To make matters worse (or better for the fans) Cruise’s character, Ethan Hunt can be seen drifting these two cars with one hand while handcuffed to Grace, played by British actress Hailey Atwell.
Hunt and Grace are being chased across the streets of Rome by one of the film’s villains, Paris, played by actress Pom Klementieff, who seems to be having quite a lot of fun playing a baddie and smashing everyone with an armoured SUV.
The scene starts with Cruise and Atwell finding themselves handcuffed to each other as they try to escape the Carabinieri, the Italian police and Klementieff’s team of hoods. They first get into a BMW 5 Series, which quickly loses its doors.
Stuck with Grace, Cruise’s Hunt drifts the BMW over the cobbled streets of Rome with just one hand on the wheel, trying to get his character and Grace out of harm’s way.
However, Rome’s cobbled streets prove to be a hindrance rather than help as the cobblestones on the street fling the car in the opposite direction of where they want to go states the film’s director. Which must have been fun to drive and film.
Realizing the futility of driving the doorless Beemer, the two protagonists decide to ditch the 5 Series for one of the IMF’s vehicles. in a rather funny scene, instead of the Ferrari in the foreground, a tiny vintage Fiat 500 reverses out when summoned.
However, this being an IMF car, this is no ordinary Fiat 500. The film team ditches the air-cooled fartcan of an ICE engine for an electric powertrain that is way too powerful for a car the size of the 500.
The results, for a petrolhead, are hilarious as it leads to lots of smoky drifts. What else did you expect when you put a powerful motor in a vehicle with a tiny wheelbase and drive on cobblestones?
The film’s director Peter McQuarrie described the little electric Fiat as possessed while the movie’s stunt coordinator and second unit director Wade Eastwood, described it as treacherous.
If you want to see how the scene actually ended up being, you’ll have to wait for the next Mission Impossible film to hit the screens next month. With a sequel already being filmed, we do wonder what brand of automotive madness Tom Cruise will get into next.
Watching Tom Cruise smash up and have fun with cars and bikes is part of the experience of a Mission Impossible movie. His latest flick sees him jump off a cliff on a bike and as we’ve seen here, drift one-handed across Rome when handcuffed to Hayley Atwell. The man’s living the petrolhead’s dream and we’ll just try to live vicariously through him.
