Original subtitles

The suit itself weighed anywhere from 80-85 to 120 pounds...

...depending on the armament that I had .

The first time I put one on , I remember, it was definitely a challenge.

Sold iers wore these exo-su its, these one man tanks.

You're like a human bulldozer with rocket launchers...

...and machine guns and everything .

I'm not a soldier.

Of course you're not. You're a weapon .

This is an alien invasion in a global war.

With the newjacket technology and limited training...

...we've been able to create super-soldiers.

They sounded cool in the script, but how do you actually do this?

We started talking about well , maybe we could actually built these suits for real .

SCHOLL: They are not the shiny, slick, beautiful designs.

Ours is more taking keys from actual developments...

...that the military is doing and going back into more traditional forms and shapes...

...that just convey more mechanics and hydraulics...

...rather than slick engineering .

The first thing I did was to figure out the practical aspect of the suit...

...the engineering of the suit.

We built hinges and pivot points and figured out what the rules of the su it had to be.

LI MAN : He had all these workers right there in England , right at our studio...

...who were molding all these parts.

By the end of August, we actually had a working exo-suit.

Mid-September, we realized we could do every stunt in the suit.

[SPEAKI NG I N DISTI NCTLY]

The first time Tom put it on , it was pretty much what he ended up filming in .

CRU ISE: I showed up a couple of months early to really R and D the suit.

And what we did was I put the suit on and we were working with it...

...and also getting into what the tone is.

Because I know you have to see progression of my character...

...from where he starts in the exo-suit to where he ends.

But you also have to find out what's the composition of the suit, silhouette of the suit.

Come up. There.

- And then come into-- Exactly. - I'm firing , I know this guy's coming up. U nh !

Tom wouldn't take the suit off for, like, six hours a day.

So he's walking arou nd with the suit on his back all day every day.

That's perseverance.

MAN : Action .

CRU ISE: I had to develop with Doug and the stunt team ...

...the progression of the movement and what is physically possible with the su it.

[SPEAKI NG ON-SCREEN TEXT]

WOMAN : Take this off.

I need three more clips of 5.56...

...eight grenades and an extra battery.

CRU ISE: The exo-suit itself is very detailed ...

...the kind of weapons that it carries are just cool .

Essentially the exo-suits are weapon carrying systems...

...so on the grunts you have a machine gun on one arm ...

...and then on the other arm you have three grenade launchers.

Rita has a proper angel wing system . These articulated arms...

...come out from her pack and two rail guns put on the target finding system .

And then Tom eventually has one of those with a different rail gun system ...

...and a large sniper rifle.

I don't think anything quite prepares you for the sheer weight of the suit.

It feels like you're being strapped into a coffin that you're carrying around on your back.

And then you get used to it and then you start to really feel the power of the suit.

This is the metal one. So we call her Barbara.

I don't know why I named her Barbara. It's not an awesome name, maybe that's why.

And then I have a rubber one, which is a bit lighter and she's called Babs.

I just put one on just to try the thing on , I'm thinking , "Oh , my gosh .

I should have been working out for six months before I did this."

S I LVER: It took an enormous amount of training ...

...and dedication on the part of the entire cast.

And they worked with a physical trainer here in the exo-suit costume.

And they had to make the costume look like the costume was powering them ...

...where in fact they were the powering the costume.

Tom and the actors really had to start working out in J uly...

...for a shoot that started in October.

To physically be strong enough to wear one of these suits all day.

S I LVER: Really, Tom Cruise set the bar...

...he had contests between the actors to see who could get dressed fastest in the exo-suit.

I think he got down to 37 seconds.

Literally, I started with stop watches the couple of months beforehand as we're doing it...

...and I just started timing them .

And then all the guys, they worked out a system ...

...how to get us all in and out of these suits quickly.

And I kind of worked with the stunt guys...

...on what the training program would be for the actors.

And kind of how to gradually get them in to the kind of pressure...

...that they were going to be under.

MAN : And action !

- Griff. - Sarge?

- Take care of Private Cage. - What, all day?

Something tells me it won't be nearly that long .

If you're doing something set in the future, it's a whole other level of imagination ...

...and Oliver Scholl came up with this great idea of this drop ship.

This futuristic aircraft where the soldiers in their exo-su its...

...would be locked in like human ordnance. And they just drop you .

And that seemed so terrifying ...

...and it would be a really great thing for Tom Cruise's character to have to experience.

Oh , my God !

Being inside that drop ship, we're like canned tuna basically.

And I have to say those days that we were all in there...

...as the actors you're just hanging in an uncomfortable way for many, many hours.

MAN 1 : Drop! MAN 2: Drop.

MAN : Ready and action .

BOHAN NA: When I had a look at the monitors that first day, it was just a fantastic way to start.

It looked so good .

Simon Crane and his incredible team of riggers...

...figured out how to launch and move these characters in these heavy suits.

The stunt team that we had was really at the top of their field .

You're not gonna get the kind of quality without that group effort.

BLU NT: I loved working with Simon Crane and Wade, you know...

...because they are always trying to stray away from the generic...

...or something that you've seen in another movie.

And I had this fantastic guy called Liang teaching me martial arts with a sword .

Her fight style is very aerial based and very martial-art based .

And so my character fights with an enormous helicopter blade...

...that she salvaged from a crash .

She believes in order to kill them and actually cause some damage you got to get up close.

You can't shoot from a d istance. You got to get inside the tentacles...

...and it's a very brave, courageous way to fight.

MAN : Action !

CRU ISE: The stunt team was able to make it as safe as possible for everyone.

You okay, Cage?

Oh , yeah , yeah ! I'm good !

But also to do the kind of extreme things that we were able to do with that suit.

That was a lot of weight for these guys to move around when I'm in that suit...

...because it's practical in-camera action . That was the demand of it.

It's real , it's not fake, it's not generated in a computer.

With Tom really wearing that suit or Emily Blu nt really wearing the suit.

It was really amazing for me being able to witness that process.

Hands off, they really put in 24/7.

These suits are supposed to make us fight harder and faster...

...and that's the whole illusion .

And so there's something really empowering about it.

- U nh ! - Ha, ha.

CRU ISE: It's not just action when it's done well , it's character, it's story.

We needed this for this movie.