Why 'Mission: Impossible - Fallout' Used A Classic BMW 5 Series For The Incredible Car Chase

Tom Cruise pushes an E28 BMW 5 Series to its limit in the sixth installment of the action movie franchise.

If you’ve seen Mission Impossible: Fallout, you probably noticed that BMWs feature prominently in the action scenes. The Bavarian automaker has a long-established partnership with the Mission: Impossible franchise and the latest film is no exception. The brand-new BMW M5 makes its cinematic debut in Mission: Impossible Fallout, but it’s sadly limited to a few minutes of screen time being remotely driven by Benji, played by Simon Pegg.

Instead, the film’s star car is a classic 1986 E28 BMW 5 Series, which you can see taking some serious punishment in a new behind the scenes video released by BMW. As usual, Tom Cruise did his own stunt driving and pushed the old BMW to its limit, drifting around the streets of Paris, driving between narrow pillars, and jumping down stairs.

“We’re looking at all sorts of things, “oh, it’d be great to get something classic,” and we’re all talking,” the film’s stunt coordinator, Wade Eastwood, said in a recent interview with Jalopnik when explaining why the team chose the car for the film’s central chase scene in Paris. “It came in this really weird green color, and it came to my workshop first. And they said, “oh yeah we’re probably going to spray it another color,” and I’m like, “don’t touch it.” Christopher McQuarrie, the film’s director, thought the color choice was “risky,” but it perfectly complemented the cobbled streets of Paris and the textures and tones at the time of year.

“Five or six” stunt cars were used for the scene, and the stunt driver even rolled one of them while rehearsing the jump down the stairs, so the suspension was modified for the final stunt to stop it rolling. The other cars were mostly stock apart from modifications to the handbrake so they “didn’t rip the handbrake out.”

The superbly shot car chase is just one part of an elaborate action sequence that starts with Cruise evading Paris police in a box truck before switching to a BMW R nineT motorcycle and finally the E28 BMW 5 Series. The bike sequence is arguably the most nail-biting part, which sees Cruise driving against oncoming traffic around the Arc de Triomphe without wearing a helmet. You have to respect Cruise risking his life at the age of 56 doing all his own stunts for real.

Edgar Wright's Baby Driver had by far the best movie car chase of 2017, and Mission: Impossible might end up being our favorite chase scene of 2018 thanks to Cruise’s impressive stunt driving and Christopher McQuarrie's slick direction devoid of quick cuts and unnecessary shaky cam.

Tom Cruise Will Drive The New BMW M5 In Mission Impossible Fallout

With Tom Cruise doing his own stunt driving, it should get a through workout.

There was a time when BMWs featured prominently in James Bond films during the Pierce Brosnan era. These days, however, the Bavarian automaker supplies cars to another spy action film franchise. We’re talking of course about the Mission Impossible series. BMW has partnered with the film series since 2011’s Ghost Protocol, which previewed the i8 in concept form. Once again, the automaker provided a range of vehicles for the forthcoming Mission Impossible Fallout film releasing in cinemas July 27.

We’ve already seen a classic 5 Series tearing through the streets of Paris in recent trailers, and now BMW has confirmed the brand new M5 will also feature prominently in the film. With Tom Cruise famous for doing his own stunt driving, it should get a thorough workout in numerous action scenes. The car in the film features an assortment of BMW M Performance Parts, including carbon fiber mirror caps and a black kidney grille. Thanks to its M xDrive all-wheel drive system, BMW says the M5 “makes sure that Cruise’s Ethan Hunt always has the best-possible traction and superior driving dynamics to keep him ahead of his enemies.”

A new video released by BMW gives us a glimpse of the M5’s role in the film. Intriguingly, one shot shows the 600-hp super sedan being remotely driven by Simon Pegg’s character Benji using a smartphone or tablet. It looks a lot like the destructive car park chase sequence in the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, where Bond used his phone to remotely drive a E38 BMW 750iL.

It should be fun to see the idea revisited in Mission Impossible Fallout, even if it's not very original. A BMW R nineT Scrambler motorcycle will also feature in key scenes “performing daring maneuvers at rapid speed in a wild chase through Paris”. The BMW we’ve already see being put through its paces in the trailer is a 1986 BMW 5 Series Sedan, which “makes a major appearance in a high-octane scene which sets a new standard for the action-film genre”.

You'll Be Seeing A Lot Of BMW Action In Mission: Impossible Fallout

Massive respect for Tom Cruise who once again did all of his own stunt driving.

Car product placement has become increasingly prevalent and lucrative in Hollywood. This month, you’ll see the new Lexus LC 500 make its cinematic debut in Marvel’s Black Panther. Meanwhile, the Hyundai Veloster will see some action in the upcoming Ant Man sequel—Ant Man and the Wasp. But one of this year’s most anticipated action movies is Mission: Impossible Fallout, the sixth movie in the long-running spy franchise scheduled for release in July, and it will once again showcase Tom Cruise driving Bimmers and Beemers to the absolute limit.

The studio behind the film recently dropped an action-packed trailer featuring Cruise careening through Paris streets during a high-speed car chase in a classic E28 BMW 5 Series. Behind the scenes footage last year showed Cruise doing a reverse 180 down some stairs and dashing between pillars in the 5 Series. These scenes are previewed in the trailer.

It's not just kidney-grilled cars in the flick, either. Cruise rides a BMW R Nine T motorcycle in the trailer in his attempts to evade Paris police. This isn’t the first time BMW has paid for placement in the Mission: Impossible franchise. The German automaker used Ghost Protocol as a platform to promote the i8 hybrid sports car in 2014, while Rogue Nation brought a BMW S 1000 RR to the silver screen in 2011, along with a BMW M3 driven to its ultimate end. Cruise is renowned for doing his own daring stunts; Mission: Impossible Fallout is no exception. You have to respect the 55-year-old actor for putting his life at risk when most actors would simply rely on a dedicated lookalike stuntman.

Cruise reportedly broke his ankle for the newest film during a shot that saw him leap from on building to another. And if you didn’t think he could top the scary stunt in Rogue Nation that saw him clinging onto a plane as it took off, think again. In Fallout, he ups the ante even further by performing a dizzying 360-degree spin in a helicopter while another chases him close behind. This would be a dangerous stunt for experienced pilots, let alone for Cruise who also has to act his role at the same time. Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, Mission: Impossible Fallout opens in theaters July 27.