This high-budget big-screen adaptation of the cult TV series starred Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, member of the elite Impossible Mission Force, who is forced to turn renegade when the rest of his team are killed on a decoy mission. Thrills, spills and noisy special effects are the order of the day.
Not many people realise that the train stunt, near the end of the film, was filmed just outside Dumfries: in the film, the train is supposed to be heading for the Channel Tunnel, and the countryside would be Kent.
The film makers were looking for a section of straight railway with no overhead cables or bridges, and the Dumfries-Annan is one of a handful of places in the UK that was able to offer this.
In May 1995 the second unit (which consisted of about 100 people) came up to film Tom Cruise's famous train stunt. Using a special camera mounted on the front of the train, they worked for three weeks non-stop in order to achieve the right effect. The film was released in 1996.
Sadly, Tom Cruise didn’t come to Dumfries!

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