Tom Cruise has been doing insane stunts in Mission: Impossible movies for years but Simon Pegg has no interest in putting his own life on the line to copy what Cruise does.
“Yeah, [the stunts] are cool, but in order to do them you have to risk your life,” Pegg tells 9Honey Celebrity.
“I’m very committed to my job and I love my work and I’ll always give a hundred percent, but Tom risks his life for the audience.”
The English actor isn’t exaggerating.
Cruise rode a motorcycle off a cliff multiple times to capture a death-defying scene for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, the latest instalment in the franchise.
Fortunately, nothing went wrong and Cruise came away from the risky stunt unscathed but that’s not always the case.
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In 2018, he broke his ankle leaping between buildings on the set of Mission: Impossible – Fallout, the worst of several injuries he sustained while filming the franchise.
“It would be weird if Benji did stuff like that,” Pegg adds of his own character, Benji Dunn, who serves as a technician to Cruise’s Ethan Hunt.
“I feel like Benji’s kind of the audience’s way into this world. And if he did stuff like that, I think he’d be less relatable as a character.”
Co-star Pom Klementieff agrees, telling 9Honey Celebrity: “[Pegg’s] character brings so much humanity and so many different emotions that the audience feels as well.
“I think there’s such a strong connection when you watch the movie, you feel for him.”
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In Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One the IMF team have to go up against a terrifying new digital weapon powered by AI.
The weapon threatens everyone in the film and Pegg admits it’s alarming to consider how the fictional AI weapons in the film could one day become a real thing.
WATCH: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One trailer
“It is scary; the notion that it might get to that point, where [AI] has its own sense and makes a decision about our worth as a species,” he says.
“But I think that says a lot about us as a species, in terms of how we judge everything else. It’s a cool idea… I guess this [film] is a bit of a cautionary tale in that regard.”
Though the film tackles a pretty serious modern issue with its AI villain, audiences can also expect plenty of the outrageous moments we’ve come to expect from the franchise.
These movies have always embraced the impossible, from impossible stunts to impossible plots, and the latest instalment doesn’t take itself too seriously in that area.
“We’ve always really lent into the story without being too arch about it,” Pegg says.
“But there is always a little bit of room to reflect on just how impossible things are, and that’s fun. I think the minute you start getting too self-reflexive, that charm will disappear.”
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Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One makes sure to balance its massive stunts and action sequences with plenty of cheeky moments to break the tension.
Yes, it’s first and foremost an action film, but as Pegg reminds 9Honey Celebrity, action and comedy have always been very comfortable bedfellows.
“Often action is absurd and what do you do when things are absurd? You laugh,” he says.
“If it’s not funny, then it’s just po-faced and a bit tense. Who wants that? Not me.”
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is exclusively in Cinemas on July 8.
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