Mission Impossible 7: BTS video shows how Tom Cruise and gang filmed that 'impossible' train scene

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is just one week away from release and the anticipation is at an all time high. To get fans and viewers more excited, the team at Paramount Pictures released a thrilling new BTS footage of how that 'impossible' train scene was pulled off.

Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie on sets of Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One.

The film is the seventh instalment of the blockbuster $3.5 billion grossing franchise famed for jam-packed action and ever-daring stunts performed by the 60-year-old Tom Cruise himself. One of these stunts showed him in a knife fight with a villain, played by Esai Morales, on top of a train storming through a valley in Norway at 60 mph. The video shows fresh-minted locomotives, strapped with cameras, plunging off cliffs and Hollywood heartthrobs dangling from them.

The dangerous stunts

Director Christopher McQuarrie said that they had to build the train shown in the movie, just so they could destroy it. "No one else in the world is doing this level of practical filmmaking and it may never be done again," he said. Tom's co-star Hayley Atwell also called him fearless for pulling off daring stunts on top of a train.

After the roof-top stunts were done, the team faced the challenge of perfectly executing a massive cliff-drop for the engine. Dozens of cameras were strapped to the locomotive as it went crashing into the valley at high speed. Watch the full video here:

Fans are excited

Fans of the movie series were amazed at the attention to detail. "This looks so good, can't wait to watch on the big screen," wrote a fan. "Tom Cruise is the textbook definition of a summer blockbuster. Now that he's 60 years old I hope he'll be with us for a long, long time," commented another. "If you want something done right, do it yourself" Tom Cruise: Builds a train," commented another.

The Mission: Impossible series follows the globe-trotting adventures of Ethan Hunt, a secret agent of the Impossible Missions Force, or IMF, as he undertakes high-risk covert operations. Picture heart-racing action, sophisticated gadgets, and Tom Cruise's Hunt executing death-defying stunts at every turn.

Matching the topic of the moment, Hunt and his IMF team are tasked with tracking down a potent new artificial intelligence weapon in Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One. Scenes also include base-jumping off a cliff on a motorcycle and drifting a yellow Fiat 500 through Rome's winding streets. It releases on 12 July.