If you’ve seen the trailers for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, you’re probably aware of the crazy motorcycle stunt that Tom Cruise does for the movie.

Tom, as Ethan Hunt, drives a motorcycle straight off a cliff and then parachutes to the ground while the motorcycle free falls and crashes below.

The stunt was filmed on day one of production and Tom explained the crazy, but smart, reason why they chose to start with this scene.

Keep reading to find out more…

Tom and the producers were scared that if he got injured while filming the stunt, production would shut down for a while. So instead, they started with the stunt so that it wouldn’t put the movie in limbo after already filming a large chunk.

“Well we know either we will continue with the film or we’re not. Let’s know day one!” Tom told Entertainment Tonight. “Let us know day one what is going to happen: Do we all continue or is it a major rewrite?”

“I was training and I was ready,” Tom added. “You have to be razor sharp when you’re doing something like that. It was very important as we were prepping the film that it was actually the first thing. I don’t want to drop that and go shoot other things and have my mind somewhere else. Everyone was prepped. Let’s just get it done.”

Director Christopher McQuarrie told Empire Magazine, “Doing that on day one gave us all the time in the world to understand why he [Ethan] was doing what he was doing. If we sat around and tried to figure out these movies the old-fashioned way, you’d never find it, simply because it’s such a living, breathing thing.”

Watch the action-packed trailer for the upcoming movie, which hits theaters on July 12.