According to three visual effects artists, a 32-year-old Keanu Reeves movie is a better example of skydiving on screen than Mission: Impossible. Since the series began in 1996, the Mission: Impossible movies have been praised for their grandiose stunts. In each iteration of Mission: Impossible, Tom Cruise and the rest of the team seem to top themselves, having Cruise scale buildings, hanging out of commercial jet planes, and more, in service to impressive action sequences.
Despite its highly-praised action sequences, the Corridor Crew claims Mission: Impossible does not feature the best skydiving on screen. Rather, that honor goes to Point Break, starring Reeves and Patrick Swayze. Dissecting the clip, the VFX artists break down what parts of the Point Break skydiving sequence near the movie’s end are real and which, like the close-ups, are fake. Ultimately, they ask whether this scene or Mission: Impossible feels more “thrill.” The Corridor Crew concluded that Point Break executed the skydiving better since it “feels real.” Check out the full quote below:
“It makes you wonder like, no giant airplane, no crazy costumes, there’s no storm, there’s no city underneath, does this make you feel the same thrill as Mission: Impossible, or does Mission: Impossible make you feel more thrill?
Almost significantly this is more thrill. Like these of course, these one-lens close-ups, yeah you know what they’re doing, but it never feels cartoony at all. And that’s what pulls me out as a viewer is, again, any time you’re tackling real danger. We saw it in The Flash, the baby shower scene. The minute that you are no longer connected to the characters because they’re not real or what’s happening around them isn’t real, you don’t care anymore, and it’s just, you know, that’s the reality of it. This still feels real, and therefore I’m still invested.”
This VFX Analysis Is Surprising (But Teaches An Important Lesson About CGI and Stunts)
Point Break was released in 1991, making the crime-action movie over 30 years old. Thus, it is somewhat surprising that the Corridor Crew ranks it over Mission: Impossible, whose skydiving stunts came later and included some elevated elements, such as a “giant airplane.” Mission: Impossible – Fallout sees Cruise HALO jumping through the night, and the most recent Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One sees him completing a motorcycle skydiving stunt against a CGI backdrop.
In the popular eye, these Cruise stunts are brought up far more than that of Point Break. Their lavishness likely distinguishes them, even if that sweeping cinematography is digitally rendered. As the Corridor Crew points out, Point Break is comparatively sparse, with no added danger surrounding cities below or stormy skies, yet the movie comes on top in terms of skydiving sequences.
Point Break’s effectiveness teaches a valuable lesson about CGI, in that computer-generated effects alone do not make a stunt shine. While, as in the case of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, some scenes necessitate CGI, the effects could pull audiences out as they do the Corridor Crew. The stripped-down shots that blend the practical and digital, even with some strategic “one-lens close-ups,” can better keep viewers in a viscerally real-seeming moment.
Key Release Date
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two
Release Date:2024-06-28
