Question

In the movie Mission Impossible 3, is the physics in the scene with the skyscraper swing accurate? Please explain in detail and list as much things right or wrong with the scene as possible. Give equations and explanations. His running speed was 7.6 m/s, the height of building 1 was 226m and the height of the second was 162m. Here is the link to the video:

https://youtu.be/FCRdTWGdngU

Answer 1

In the movie Mission Impossible 3, is the physics in the scene with the skyscraper swing accurate?

$\Rightarrow$ Yes

Explanation : Cruise took his wire work from Minority Report to the next level by performing some intense base-jumping stunts that looked visually incredible and terrifying. Director JJ Abrams wouldn’t let Cruise jump off an actual skyscraper in Shanghai, so they recreated it in a studio to minimize as much of the potential splatter in case anything went wrong. Cruise ended up throwing himself recklessly off big drops on the set and risked his well-being while just wearing a safety harness.

We know that, the height of first building was 226 m, the height of second building was 162 m and the distance between them to be 47.5 m. His record breaking speed can reach up to about 7.6 m/s, he swings for almost 12.5 sec and his initial angle before the jump was 0 degree.

Please explain in detail and list as much things right or wrong with the scene as possible.

The length of his rope was 60.8 m, assuming a drop above the target building is about 12 m. The difference in height between the buildings is [(226 m) - (162 m)] = 64 m. Using this fact and the distance between the buildings is 47.5, the angle of pendulum from the vertical is 36.6 degree.

Double checking with the period of pendulum which is the entire arc, then we get 15.7 sec of actual arc time.

In the movie, he free falls for a bit but the clock doesn't start until he reaches the end of a rope. The time in this movie is about 12.5 sec, but these calculations are close.

The equations were used in this scene which given below as :

$\Delta$H = H₁ - H₂

t = 2 v₀ sin $\theta$ / g