Impossible Franchise’s Most Death-Defying Stunt Gets Assessed by CIA Expert

Two things Tom Cruise fans can count on when the A-list actor assumes the identity of the IMF’s Ethan Hunt on the big screen are that he will run his tail off on-screen and that he is going to perform his own perilous stunts. However, as Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning enters its second weekend of theatrical release, a former Deputy Director with the Central Intelligence Agency is evaluating one of Cruise’s most memorable moments from Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol (2011), which is the fourth film in the spy franchise, specifically the glove gadgets his character wears. So, here is what the once DD of the CIA Directorate of Science and Technology, Dawn Meyerriecks, had to say when it comes to the realism of the Burj Khalifa skyscraper sequence, using Hunt’s technologically enhanced sticky gloves to scale the building à la Spider-Man (per Insider):

“I have to tell you… I love Mission: Impossible […] This part is amusing because, ‘What if somebody looks out the window?’ If we were gonna have to do something like that, it’d be the window cleaning day, right? Or something, just like, there has to be a reason for him to be outside the window. Doing something like this in broad daylight with very complex tech is like, ‘Okay, so you couldn’t figure out how to like, turn him into the local janitor and get him into this space, right?’ It’s great theater but it doesn’t at all meet kind of how we think about trying to get into a closed facility.”

Ghost Protocol’s famed Burj Khalifa skyscraper sequence is one of the most exhilarating stunts Cruise has ever pulled off in the Mission: Impossible saga. In the film, Hunt, Brandt (Jeremy Renner), and Benji (Simon Pegg) conclude that pulling off the insane assignment requires Cruise’s character to use the “blue is glue, red is dead” glove gadgets to scale the world’s tallest skyscraper and gain access to the server room. Yes, it’s Cruise actually outside the building pulling off the stunt work, but it was something else that really impressed former CIA member, Dawn Meyerriecks.

“Sometimes, Tech Fails” in Real Life & ‘Mission: Impossible’

Mission: Impossible is back and thriving at the box office thanks to several new jaw-dropping stunts, like the underwater and aerial acrobatics Tom Cruise pulls off in The Final Reckoning. However, back in 2011, all the talk centered around Cruise’s character, Ethan Hunt, first climbing the Burj Khalifa skyscraper and then rapidly racing down the side of the building to accomplish his task. For Dawn Meyerriecks, though, it was the fact that Hunt had a backup plan that truly impressed the CIA’s former Deputy Director of Science and Technology. Meyerriecks said in the same video (above):

“Sometimes, tech fails. I love that he’s got a Plan B because that’s exactly why we do mission rehearsal, particularly for things that are stressing like this than having brainstorms through the, ‘If this failed, what would you do?’ So that they’re not trying to solve it in real time. We have a principle called KISS, ‘Keep it simple stupid,’ that you want to keep the tech as simple as possible, not because case officers are stupid, but the more complex you make it, the more likely it is that something will go wrong.”

Ultimately, Meyerriecks couldn’t, in good conscience, give the Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol Burj Khalifa skyscraper sequence that high of a score, despite how impressed the former CIA member was with Hunt’s backup plan. Meyerriecks continued by saying:

“I’m gonna give it a 4/10 because the front end is really good. The back end is just something we wouldn’t contemplate. We would think about a different way to do that than just having him strung up on the side of a building in the middle of the day.”

Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol is currently streaming absolutely free on Pluto TV for those who haven’t and would like to witness Tom Cruise’s must-see stunt 130 floors up and outside the famed Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai. Meanwhile, Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning has its eyes set on a second-place finish at the 2025 box office during its sophomore weekend of release, sandwiched between what will undoubtedly be No. 1 Lilo & Stitch and No. 3 Karate Kid: Legends.

Source: Insider