In a time of maximal CGI and green screen backdrops, Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible films are the gold standard for practical stunts. 

Cruise risks life and limb for breathtaking sequences, like scaling the world’s tallest building. 

Practical stunt work is beginning to receive more appreciation by the wider public as Marvel fatigue sets in 

and cinemas pin more hope on the kind of bruised and battered auctioneers that Tom Cruise specializes in.

Filmmaker and former stuntman Chad Stahelski, with his specialism in martial arts choreography, has been one of the figures at the forefront of that visibility, 

with the hugely popular John Wick series and its bone-crunching practical effects. 

Keanu Reeves’ willingness to put his body on the line resembles Tom Cruise’s, to some extent.

Both Stahelski and Eastwood pay their dues to the older generation of stunt performers, understanding the difficulties of safely achieving the extraordinary. They mentioned the great Buster Keaton as a huge influence on their work.

Of course, for a large chunk of the early history of moving pictures, stunt work was by its nature practical: there was no other choice. The early slapstick comedians had the injuries to prove it, too. 

The death-defying stunts pulled off in the days before ‘health and safety’ was even a phrase were positively toe-curling: stuntmen died or were maimed being attacked by ‘trained’ animals, drowning in river rapids, impaled by their own swords in battle sequences or falling from great heights.

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