Mission: Impossible motorbike stunt left cast fearing for Tom Cruise's life

Watch: An exclusive clip from the making of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning part one

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One’s Rome motorbike stunt left the cast fearing for Tom Cruise’s life, a new behind-the-scenes featurette has revealed.

In an exclusive clip from the film’s home entertainment release on Monday 6 November, actor Greg Tarzan Davis – who plays Degas – expressed his concern for Cruise during the process of filming the motorbike chase scenes set in Rome where Cruise’s Ethan Hunt tries to apprehend Grace (Hayley Atwell) after she stole a key from him.

Read more: Tom Cruise's most daring stunts

Davis said: “You hold your breath every time you see Tom about to do a turn.”

The film sees Hunt and his fellow rogue IMF agents try and face their most dangerous enemy yet, an AI being known as The Entity that has become sentient and is now intent on destroying the world. How do they stop it? By getting two halves of a key, one of which Grace pickpockets from Hunt which results in the chase in Rome.

The clip from the set shows how dangerous the chase sequence is for Cruise, who rides through the cobbled streets of Rome at high speed and without a helmet.

Wade Eastwood, the film’s stunt coordinator and second unit director, explains that “one bad shot is going to change your life” when it comes to stunts like this.

Cruise explained that he took time to navigate the route he was taking for the film to ensure that he didn’t injure himself, saying he “walked the whole area knowing every bump, every curve.”

The action star is known for doing his own stunts, some of which seem impossibly dangerous like the moment Cruise rides his motorbike off a cliff.

While others which have resulted in injury – for Mission: Impossible - Fallout the actor broke his ankle while leaping from one building to another in London.

For Cruise's other motorbike stunt in Dead Reckoning Part One the actor performed over 500 skydives to prepare himself for the moment he jumped off a cliff, which has been described as the 'most dangerous' stunt ever attempted for a film.

Read more: Tom Cruise did over 500 skydives for biggest stunt yet

Director Christopher McQuarrie also spoke in the clip about the difficulties of filming the scenes in Rome, saying they decided to use a new system known as a Z Cam in order to pull off the chase sequences without it becoming too dangerous.

McQuarrie said using the Z Cam "allowed us to navigate through very narrow streets and do a lot of high speed and heavy manoeuvring" during the course of the shoot.

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One is available to Download & Keep now and arrives on 4K UH + Blu-ray SteelBooks, 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD on Monday, 6 November.