Tom Cruise's 'Mission: Impossible 7' Derbyshire quarry train crash stuns onlookers

A spectacular Hollywood stunt involving Tom Cruise and a train crashing into a quarry left locals stunned when it was filmed on Friday in Derbyshire.

The big-budget stunt for Mission: Impossible 7 had been months in the planning and was delayed due to COVID, but with the set finally ready for the explosive scene, the cameras rolled at Stoney Middleton on 20 August.

Read more: Tom Cruise reveals how Mission: Impossible vault scene came together

Jaw-dropping sets involved a train track built out over the edge of a sheer drop into the Darlton Quarry, where the black steam train was shipped in to make its dramatic crash.

But the train stunt was not the only thing that left onlookers open mouthed, as Mission: Impossible star Cruise, 58, was also on set to watch.

Locals reported seeing him arrive in a helicopter before the crash took place.

A photographer based nearby posted on social media: "Waited 5 months for this shot... of the train in the new Mission Impossible movie going off the cliff!! Tom was there too, amazing day !!!"

Cruise is known for completing his own film stunts and earlier in the year told Empire magazine how he had managed the most dangerous stunt of his career for Mission: Impossible 7 when he rode a motorbike off a cliff.

He said: “If the wind was too strong, it would blow me off the ramp.

Read more: Tom Cruise hangs off train in new Mission: Impossible photo

“The helicopter [filming the stunt] was a problem, because I didn’t want to be hammering down that ramp at top speed and get hit by a stone. Or if I departed in a weird way, we didn’t know what was going to happen with the bike.

"I had about six seconds once I departed the ramp to pull the chute and I don’t want to get tangled in the bike. If I do, that’s not going to end well."

Derbyshire residents were not the only people to get a surprise sighting of Cruise over the weekend, as he also stopped into Birmingham restaurant Asha's for a curry on Saturday night.

The staff, who have also played host to Ed Sheeran and The Rolling Stones previously, posted a photo of him on Instagram and said he loved their chicken tikka masala so much that he ordered it again straight after finishing his first dish.

Watch: Tom Cruise devours two curries during visit to Birmingham restaurant