HUNT HIM DOWN Tom Cruise sprints through the streets covered in blood as Mission Impossible 8 filming shuts down central London

Watch our exclusive video as Ethan Hunt’s latest mission turns deadly – is this the ultimate impossible mission?

TOM Cruise is back in business as Ethan Hunt – but judging by his bloodsoaked clothes things aren’t quite going his way.

Mission Impossible 8 is currently filming in the city, and the team brought a large part of Central London to a standstill to shoot the latest scenes.

11 Tom Cruise was seen rushing over Westminster Bridge to film the intense scenes

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11 The stunt-loving actor was seen with his shirt covered in blood

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11 The star was later seen laughing with a crew member as they reset the shot

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In exclusive photos from the set, Cruise was seen running over Westminster Bridge with his shirt covered in blood.

With army and police officers on his tail, his character Ethan looked to be straight out of luck as he made his way through barricades and to safety.

Looking panicked and in a hurry, Cruise was seen bolting over the bridge to try and get away from those chasing him.

The shoot also saw Whitehall and Parliament Square being shut down.

The Mission Impossible team have been filming at Surrey’s Longcross Studios as well as on location since the beginning of March.

Determined to stick to schedule by any means necessary, at one point Cruise forked out for the entire cast and crew to be flown to set by helicopters after the M25 shut down.

Little is known about what will happen in the eighth instalment of the series – only that it will follow on from Dead Reckoning, which was released last year.

Originally titled Dead Reckoning: Part Two, the new film has since dropped being considered a second part and will instead go by its own name.

Reasons for this are unknown but rumours have varied from the film going in a completely different direction to what was initially planned, to the name being scrapped due to Part One’s lacklustre success at the box office.

Starring alongside Hayley Atwell, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby and Simon Pegg among others, Dead Reckoning went on to get two Oscar nominations for sound and visual effects.

However, despite raking in $565.8million worldwide at the box office, Dead Reckoning failed to meet the necessary returns to break even from its $291million budget.

On average, taking into account promotional costs etc, a film needs to make 2.5x its budget in order to be considered a financial success.

This was hindered slightly by the global phenomenon of Barbenheimer (the release date of Barbie and Oppenheimer) which came just two weeks after Dead Reckoning’s, causing a drop off in potential sales.

Currently, the as-yet-untitled Mission Impossible 8 is scheduled to be released on May 23, 2025 after a string of pushbacks due to the pandemic and last year’s SAG-AFTRA strikes.

It was initially meant to be ready for release in August 2022, before being delayed to November 2022, July 2023 and June 2024.

11 Shooting the scenes multiple times, notorious perfectionist Cruise wanted to ensure the right shot

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11 Police and army are after the special agent in the new scenes

Credit: Click News and Media11 Westminster Bridge and Parliament Square were both shut down