New 'Mission: Impossible 7' Photos: Tom Cruise Has A Train To Catch (And A Dirt Bike To Ride)

Last month, we learned that we'll be waiting a lot longer to see Mission: Impossible 7 in theaters. The sequel starring Tom Cruise was pushed back from the previously set November 2021 release to a summer date in May 2022. Thankfully, we've got a little bit of a tease to hold us over with a few new photos from the set, including Tom Cruise on a big steaming locomotive and speeding around on a dirt bike. Get a look at the new Mission: Impossible 7 photos below.

When Mission: Impossible 7 was shooting last fall, some footage of Tom Cruise shooting a sequence on top of a moving train made its way online. Fans on a train passing by the production caught the actor just hanging out on the train in between shots, and now we have an official shot of Cruise with the train in question, but it's far more casual.

Empire Magazine debuted the new photo in a cover story that was likely meant to have more hype for the sequel. But now that the movie has been pushed back six months, the story is pretty much just about the difficult of getting production back on track during the coronavirus pandemic. Tom Cruise talked about how much work went into make the production as safe as possible, and it didn't involve any terrifying robots patrolling the set. The magazine explained:

"There was social distancing, there were masks, there were bubbles of crew members – one make-up artist for every two actors, plus heads of departments staying in hotel rooms on their own, driving to set, shooting the scene and then returning to the hotel until needed – and pods of five people, ready to quarantine if anyone within one contracted the virus."

Cruise was determined to pull off this production in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. The actor said, "We had to create protocols with studios and insurance companies, and work on laws in each country, assuring them how we were going to film in the country. There were times when people said, 'It's not going to happen.' And I just kept saying, 'It's happening.'" Yeah, that sounds like the Tom Cruise we know and love.

What makes Mission: Impossible 7 even more challenging is figuring out how to pull of all the insane stunts that are staples of the franchise now. It makes planning much more intense, especially when one of the stunts involves driving a motorbike off a cliffside, jumping off of it and releasing a parachute. Footage of that stunt made its way online not too long ago, but Empire's new covers show Tom Cruise on the bike leading up to that moment:

Whenever Tom Cruise hops on a bike like this, you know you're in for something thrilling. We can't wait to see what director Christopher McQuarrie has in store for us when Mission: Impossible 7 arrives in theaters on May 27, 2022.