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Tom Cruise details death-defying HALO jump in 'Mission: Impossible'

By Wade Sheridan
Tom Cruise performs a risky skydiving stunt in a new promotional video for "Mission: Impossible - Fallout." File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
1 of 2 | Tom Cruise performs a risky skydiving stunt in a new promotional video for "Mission: Impossible - Fallout." File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

June 4 (UPI) -- Tom Cruise explains how he performed a death-defying HALO jump stunt in a new behind-the-scenes video for Mission: Impossible - Fallout.

The clip, released Sunday, details the extensive planning and training Cruise had to go through in order to perform the skydiving stunt safely for the upcoming spy thriller.

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The stunt involved Cruise and the rest of the Fallout production crew inhaling oxygen for 20 minutes on the ground before jumping out of plane at 25,000 feet. The actor then acts out the scene while falling at 200 mph.

HALO is an abbreviation for the term high-altitude, low opening. The actor was required to wear a special helmet for the task that doubled as a life-saving device and to rehearse the scene beforehand using one of the world's largest wind tunnels.

"The audience can tell when something's being cheated, so it's important to do it all for real," stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood says in the video.

"I can't wait for an audience to see this," Cruise says.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout, from director Christopher McQuarrie, is set to arrive in theaters on July 27. The latest trailer for the film featured co-star Henry Cavill being assigned to follow Cruise's Ethan Hunt with orders to hunt down and kill him should he step out of line following the events of 2015's Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation.

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Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, Alec Baldwin, Angela Bassett and Michelle Monaghan also star.

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