Married couple Jason and Sarah Haygarth had no idea they were in for the encounter of a lifetime when they set off on a hike at a “very remote” and “quite hilly” national park in the U.K.
While exploring Lake District National Park with their dog, the couple noticed helicopters circling overhead. As it turns out, Tom Cruise was on the scene — shooting a stunt sequence for the upcoming Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning.
“Toward the end of the walk, last peak, we start seeing helicopters coming up a ravine and dropping people off the top…We were like, this didn’t seem right,” Jason told Extra. “We found out the people, they were the cameramen. When we came to the peak, we got stopped by what must have been a production team member, saying, ‘You can’t go. We’re going to land the helicopter off the top…’ So we took a selfie.”
Once production gave Sarah and Jason the go-ahead to continue with their hike, they came face-to-face with Cruise, 60, “strapping himself into a paraglider.”
“I could tell it was him straight away,” Sarah told Extra. “By the time we got there, people were talking about Mission: Impossible being filmed … but I was expecting a stunt double.”
“[Cruise] apologized first for the noise. ‘Sorry, guys, I know we spoiled your walk with the noise,'” Jason recalled.
“And then he said, ‘I like your dog,’” Sarah added.
“We asked, ‘What are you doing?’ Then he said, ‘I’m going to jump off,’” Jason continued. “I was like, ‘You’re going to do what?’ He said, ‘I’m going to jump off!’ … Just before he jumped, he said, ‘See ya! Hopefully this goes well,’ and we said, ‘Good luck, Tom.’”
Talk about a day on the trails that’s impossible to forget!
