Mission: Impossible 7 Suffers Another Setback After Expensive Motorcycle Stunt Goes Wrong

Rebecca Ferguson in Mission: Impossible Fallout
(Image credit: (Paramount))

Mission: Impossible 7 has reportedly stalled production in England after a motorbike exploded during a stunt off a high ramp was being performed. The accident followed six weeks of planning and was said to be highly expensive and complicated to put together. As the production investigates what went wrong on the set, the Tom Cruise film faces yet another setback.

The stuntman on the motorbike safely landed on the bed of cardboard-padded pillows as planned for the high-flying stunt on the Oxfordshire set. However, his motorbike burst into flames a feet away due to the cardboard padding sparked with the heat and friction of the tires. This ignited a fire that created so much smoke that a neighboring airfield had to close down. Five fire service engines were dispatched during the Tuesday incident. The unnamed source who spoke with The Sun added the following:

Fortunately, nobody was hurt but it’s a total catastrophe, not to mention extremely expensive for all concerned. Tom is very frustrated. Nobody wants more delays.

Tom Cruise, who had been spotted last month at a rented piece of land Oxfordshire preparing for Mission: Impossible 7 with a motorbike, is apparently “furious” about the miscalculation. The 58-year-old actor was filming with a parachute nearby when the motorbike exploded. The action film has already been through four months of delay due to the current health crisis and is hoping to wrap up production this September in Venice, Italy.

Mission: Impossible 7 has been struck with a bit of bad luck. The production was stationed in Venice when the COVID-19 pandemic badly hit the city back in March before spreading more broadly across the globe. Its theatrical date was delayed from its initial June 2021 release to November 2021. Last month, the film was given special permission by the U.K. government to resume shooting without 14-day quarantine rules.

The movie is reportedly implementing a “bubble” of trailers on set for its cast and crew in order to maintain safety during the pandemic. At this point in time, every day has to count for Mission: Impossible 7, and the incident is an understandably frustrating extra delay for the film. There are also plans to move the production to pack up to Poland in the near future and potentially blow up an actual bridge as part of one of the film’s huge set pieces.

Along with the return of Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, Mission: Impossible 7 will also star Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Vanessa Kirby, Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny and Shea Whigham. M:I7 is currently expected to come out on November 19, 2021, and the eighth film is scheduled for November 4, 2022. Stay here on CinemaBlend for more Mission: Impossible updates.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.