Tom Cruise films dramatic train crash stunt in Stoney Middleton

Tom Cruise was in Stoney Middleton to witness the incredible stunt which saw a locomotive career off the edge of a cliff, a scene to be included in his Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1 film.

The dramatic stunt took place on Friday, August 20 and saw the purpose-built train career down specially constructed tracks before plunging to the quarry floor.

The location for the filming was Dalton Quarry in Stoney Middleton. The quarry was formerly used to provide limestone to the construction industry, which included manufacturing blocks and Tarmac production.

The heart-racing stunt includes Tom Cruise standing on top of the train as it heads towards the edge of the cliff, which concludes with a miraculous escape for Etan Hunt, Cruise’s character in the film.

The film set took months of construction, costing millions of pounds. A full-size replica locomotive was built for the stunt, set onto tracks built alongside Middleton Lane. The tracks lead hundreds of meters to the Cliffe edge where a replica bridge was constructed jutting out over the quarry edge. The locomotive was sent at speed down the track propelling it hundreds of meters in the air over the quarry edge. A lake was constructed in the quarry bottom, resembling an alpine woodland setting, this being the landing point for the doomed locomotive.

However, in true Mission Impossible high drama the carriage in which Eton Hunt was travelling miraculously entangled itself on the bridge leaving it perilously hanging over the Presepe’s. A scene also constructed in real life in the quarry. Hunt makes a dramatic escape before the carriage plunges into the alpine woodland below.

Cruise was seen a number of times at the scene of the filming, arriving by helicopter then hovering over the scene in the copter as it was filmed. He is said to have commented very fondly of the village which provided the backdrop for one of his most dramatic and costly stunts.

Richard Bowring, who took the footage included in this post said: “They caught us off guard and sent the train over the edge early. “They cancelled the filming due to the forecast weather and did the filming a day early.

I went up the cliffs opposite just to scout out a viewing point, luckily, I had my camera with me. “I saw Tom in his helicopter. When he arrived, he flew around the quarry for a while to view the set.

Then he landed at the top and went down in a golf cart to view the crash. It was fantastic, It’s the most spectacular thing I have seen in a long while.