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Mission: Impossible helping skydiving?

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Has anyone seen any evidence of the movie "Mission: Impossible – Fallout" helping with the marketing of skydiving? Things perhaps like students telling you that is why they decided to skydive, etc?

"Point Break" seemed to help back in the day, but in both cases, it is difficult to analyze the effect, with much of the "evidence" being anecdotal.

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Not an instructor, but I will often chat with students in the loading area. One of my most asked questions is "what made you decide to do this?"

In the past few years, I have yet to hear "I saw it in Mission Impossible" (or a Bond movie or Get Smart, ect)

"It's something I've always wanted to do"
"It was on my bucket list"
"It was my friend's idea and it sounded cool"
"My girlfriend wanted to do it, so I had to or look like a wuss"
"A bunch of us were at the bar and came up with the idea and I couldn't back out"

Given today's tech, and the prevalence of all sorts of 'extreme' crap on YouTube (and elsewhere), everyone has seen it.

I think one of the things about Point Break was that the guys jumping weren't secret agents, or 'special forces' or anything other than a group of guys into surfing and bank robbery. Johnny Utah had never jumped before, but he did ok (yes, I know how realistic that was).
It made it look 'doable', if not somewhat reasonable.

Everything in Mission Impossible looks, well...

Impossible.
All the stunts are pretty clearly stuff that could only be done by highly trained, very experienced operators (that's for the stuff that isn't totally unrealistic).

I know the waiver at my DZ includes a "how did you hear about us?" question, but there's no "what made you decide to do this?"
"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

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Not really. I was overwhelmingly disappointed with jumping scene in that movie. After seeing the behinds the scenes work I was expecting it to be a rather accurate representation of a military HALO jump. However, the movie on the other hand was a completely different story. I dont know what the director did with all those skydiving scenes, but it doesent look like they made it in the movie. The entire skydiving sequence in the movie looked overwhelmingly and painfully fake. Yes, I get that it was actually filmed in the air, but everything else was excruciatingly fake. The entire background was basically green-screened. The landings are clearly fake. They dident even use real parachuting equipment for some of the scenes. They showed Tom strung up in a rig on the ground, but with fake props. Overall it was a disappointment and it was not an accurate representation of much of anything.

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Westerly

Overall it was a disappointment and it was not an accurate representation of much of anything.


Indeed! That is how many of us feel about the unending stream of uninformed posts from certain forum members!
"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

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>The entire skydiving sequence in the movie looked overwhelmingly and painfully fake.

Every skydiving sequence in every popular movie is overwhelmingly fake. It would have been a lot more boring to the audience if it had been realistic.

They did a good job with the cinematography; the skydiving looked like skydiving, even exiting the clouds (which were computer generated.)

I saw this bit of unexpected accuracy in a movie depicting skydiving - check out 2:20 in the following clip. Whoever animated that at least watched some videos of a tailgate exit, because the perspective of them after exit is pretty accurate.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2p2a7AshB8

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wolfriverjoe


I think one of the things about Point Break was that the guys jumping weren't secret agents, or 'special forces' or anything other than a group of guys into surfing and bank robbery. Johnny Utah had never jumped before, but he did ok



Nicely put. There was a fun effortlessness to the PB Jonny U. skydive that made it pretty unique for the time. Like you said, so many other movie jumps are "life or death" struggles. (of course it started to get a little life or death at the end of the jump "You pull!!") PB II somehow missed that, just too serious.

Skydive stunts in action movies are pretty routine, also in action TV shows, and commercials too. Tom C. doing the stuntwork gave it some extra punch, but if you didn't know he was doing it, you may have assumed just good special effects.
It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

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Well the Tom Cruise/James Cordon viral video has helped out Perris with tandems. Perris is having SkyVan Sundays all month for tandems because people were calling in and requesting the plane from the Tom Cruise video.

I haven't seen the movie but there was tons of press on Tom doing 100+ jumps while healing from a broken ankle and how it was filmed. There are also tons of things like the stunts people do in the air like flying into the plane, freeflying, swooping, etc. For the people who have an interest those are probably more of an influence than a movie sequence these days. It's also why we have people who want to strap on a go pro or wingsuit way before they are ready.

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DanG

Go watch the iriginal Point Break if you really want to be disappointed in the accuracy and realism.



That's why I was so surprised at the time at the way it drew in first jump students, but boy it really did.

And there was that underlying ancient skydiving joke. If Reeves character had already been jumping for awhile a lot of the movie would have made sense without sacrificing anything, but someone was going for the old California versus Ohio thing.
I got a laugh out of that and thought it was the best part of the movie.

Remember the old cartoon "great 10 way man! Not California, but still good!"

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SethInMI

***
I think one of the things about Point Break was that the guys jumping weren't secret agents, or 'special forces' or anything other than a group of guys into surfing and bank robbery. Johnny Utah had never jumped before, but he did ok



Nicely put. There was a fun effortlessness to the PB Jonny U. skydive that made it pretty unique for the time. Like you said, so many other movie jumps are "life or death" struggles. (of course it started to get a little life or death at the end of the jump "You pull!!") PB II somehow missed that, just too serious.

Skydive stunts in action movies are pretty routine, also in action TV shows, and commercials too. Tom C. doing the stuntwork gave it some extra punch, but if you didn't know he was doing it, you may have assumed just good special effects.

I think some of the most realistic skydiving scenes were in "Fathom", a 1967 movie starring a tiny green bikini and Raquel Welch. There were a few times you could tell they'd pasted her face on a jumper but mostly it was straight footage of PC accuracy jumps.
Another thing I like about it was that even though she's a world champion skydiver she pays her rent working as a dental hygienist. Being a champion level skydiver didn't mean she was rich.
It's really not too bad a movie, check it out if you get a chance. Especially if you have fond memories of Paracommanders.

Bob Church

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billvon

>The entire skydiving sequence in the movie looked overwhelmingly and painfully fake.

Every skydiving sequence in every popular movie is overwhelmingly fake. It would have been a lot more boring to the audience if it had been realistic.

They did a good job with the cinematography; the skydiving looked like skydiving, even exiting the clouds (which were computer generated.)

I saw this bit of unexpected accuracy in a movie depicting skydiving - check out 2:20 in the following clip. Whoever animated that at least watched some videos of a tailgate exit, because the perspective of them after exit is pretty accurate.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2p2a7AshB8



My gold standard? Gypsy Moths.B|
I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

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"My gold standard? Gypsy Moths"

We used to argue over who had to wear the suit before a jump.

And did you notice that after he bounced they just left him laying there with his canopy stretched out. Then it started raining. Then the ambulance ran over his canopy.

He did a Rodney Dangerfield jump....

"No respect, I get no respect at all"

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kat00

Well the Tom Cruise/James Cordon viral video has helped out Perris with tandems. Perris is having SkyVan Sundays all month for tandems because people were calling in and requesting the plane from the Tom Cruise video.



Very interesting, thanks for the info. It will also be interesting to see if this is a local thing to that area. I wonder if people will be as excited, having to jump from a "little" plane like a C182 at a small dropzone.

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Westerly

I was overwhelmingly disappointed with jumping scene in that movie.



I was somewhat disappointed with it too, because of the fake elements in the shots - but the thing is, they had no choice but to add those fake elements because they were central to the plot.

Overall I thought the fact that the actual jumping was done 'in camera' did do a lot to improve the realism of the scene regardless. And I'm glad they did it for real, because I got a kick out of the extensive and fascinating behind-the-scenes footage even if I was a bit underwhelmed by the final result.

DanG

Go watch the iriginal Point Break if you really want to be disappointed in the accuracy and realism.


For me, the thing about the skydiving in Point Break (1991) is that although it's nonsense in technical terms, the direction, the camerawork and the soundtrack really captured the spirit and the sense of being in freefall - the joy and the freedom of it. I think those scenes should still be celebrated for that alone.

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peek

***Well the Tom Cruise/James Cordon viral video has helped out Perris with tandems.



Very interesting, thanks for the info. It will also be interesting to see if this is a local thing to that area. I wonder if people will be as excited, having to jump from a "little" plane like a C182 at a small dropzone.

I wouldn't be surprised if this had a small national bump too, for people who are fans of the show or who saw the youtube video. James was so great at playing the NON-extreme athlete, so it goes to wolfriverjoe's point that it is more beneficial for scenes that give people the idea "hey even I could do that, and it looks like a lot of fun".

We have no national month-by-month year to year tandem jump stats, so no way to quantify.
It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

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MikeJD


For me, the thing about the skydiving in Point Break (1991) is that although it's nonsense in technical terms, the direction, the camerawork and the soundtrack really captured the spirit and the sense of being in freefall - the joy and the freedom of it. I think those scenes should still be celebrated for that alone.



Nicely put.

While the 'talking in freefall' and insanely long time in freefall, and the pull altitudes (and time between 'break' at 2k and the other 2 'pulling'), all of that was totally unrealistic, the 'feel' of it was pretty cool.

The exit shots were breathtaking.

And the 'joy & freedom' of freefall was pretty close.
"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

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billvon


I saw this bit of unexpected accuracy in a movie depicting skydiving - check out 2:20 in the following clip. Whoever animated that at least watched some videos of a tailgate exit, because the perspective of them after exit is pretty accurate.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2p2a7AshB8



Clicky Fixy. C'mon Bill, you are the last person who needs to be told how to make a freaking link.

And I have to say, that after watching it only once, there was someone who knew about jumping (maybe a jumper, maybe a jump pilot, maybe???) involved in that sequence.

- Everyone squishes really tight together on the plane.
- Last jumper runs up to the plane at the last second.
- Pilot gives last minute jump run info (yes, it was about the landing area, but 'jumprun is 265, green light will be 3/10 before' wouldn't have made any sense to the audience)
- Jumpers getting pumped right before exit.
- Red light, green light, out the door.
- Last, but not least, the jumpers knew the correct answer to the question "Why would you jump from a perfectly good airplane?"
"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

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The James Cordon/Tom Cruise jump had the phones ringing at DZs for a few weeks.

Point Break was in an entirely different era. No social media, no youtube, no wingsuits flying through cracks in mountains.

Customers today have all types of media available to them. Back when Patrick was flying over Lake Powell and trying to get Keanu to "Pull Johnnie!"...well, that shit was pretty damn exciting for that time period!

I'm not sure if we will ever have another movie come close to having the affect on the sport like Point Break did. Point Break 2 was a bust. Sadly.

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I think that 2 decades of tandem jumping with heavy advertising and Groupons etc has made the market penetration of jumping as deep as it can go. Everyone who is likely to consider it has heard about it and knows that it is available to them. Just like a ride at a theme park. The business is mostly at a steady level in a mature market. Discounts and specials may increase the level for a short time, but they also cheapen the product.

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I still remember being surprised by the unexpected realism in Netflix Travelers episode "17 minutes". I mean other than the repeated dying, but that was sort of necessitated by the plot. And now I am sad because I don't think they are bringing that show back and I loved it. [:/]

Max Peck
What's the point of having top secret code names, fellas, if we ain't gonna use 'em?

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Quote


Westerly wrote:

I was overwhelmingly disappointed with jumping scene in that movie.

Quote


I was somewhat disappointed with it too, because of the fake elements in the shots - but the thing is, they had no choice but to add those fake elements because they were central to the plot.



Maybe better with a different director?
Shit happens. And it usually happens because of physics.

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flyhi

Quote


Westerly wrote:

I was overwhelmingly disappointed with jumping scene in that movie.

Quote


I was somewhat disappointed with it too, because of the fake elements in the shots - but the thing is, they had no choice but to add those fake elements because they were central to the plot.



Maybe better with a different director?



Kathryn Bigelow is a great director, and of course has gone on to produce some highly praised and very well-known work. I doubt she'd have been interested in revisiting the world of Point Break, and although I'd certainly like to see her take on a Mission: Impossible film I think Christopher McQuarrie has done a fine job with the last two.

In general, I don't think we can complain about fakery in the M:I movies - they surely do a lot more 'in camera' than just about any other action franchise you could mention (with the possible exception of the Bourne movies, and I think that series has probably come to an end).

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For me it was Point Break that got me started :$
Skydiving was on my bucketlist somewhere, among many other cool things I'd like to try 'someday'.
The local skydiving club was handing out flyers at the cinema after the movie, and as they say, the rest is history.

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Cloggy

For me it was Point Break that got me started :$



Me too - or at least, it rebooted my interest after a short-lived false start in the late eighties. I don't think there's anything embarrassing about it, either - we all need to get our initial kick from somewhere, and if you're still in the sport after all these years then you've long since shaken off your 'movie-inspired tourist' status. ;)

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One of the young woman at work had grown up around surfing but had no experience with skydiving. I have none with surfing. She thought Point Break's skydiving scenes were cool but the surfing ones were seriously wrong. I thought the surfing scenes were cool but the skydiving ones were seriously wrong.

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