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The Aussie drone technology helping make some of Hollywood's biggest blockbusters

Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here Watching Tom Cruise drive off a cliff is a stunt etched in Hollywood history. It was real, it took months of training, and it was filmed by Melbourne's XM2. "We make the impossible possible," quipped chief executive Stephen Oh from the company's headquarters, hidden in Melbourne's eastern suburbs. XM2 co-founders Stephen Oh, Aidan Kelly and Luke Annells met flying hobby helicopters. (Nine) He was controlling the camera that tracked Cruise off the cliff. "The environment was very difficult - the pressure was immense," Oh said. "It was millions and millions of dollars for a 20-something-second clip and there was a chance that we could only do that once." They ended up filming it six times. XM2 o-founder Aidan Kelly was piloting the drone itself. "We took quite a while to build up to that shot," admits Kelly, who trained with Cruise at a quarry in the UK before attempting the stunt in Norway. "As Tom got more comfortable with the drone and as I got more comfortable with what Tom was doing, there was this iteration as we rehearsed and figured out the exact angels and speed we wanted to do it at. "It just came together slowly into this one shot which is one of the biggest stunts in film history. "It was awesome to be a part of it." When visited XM2, Kelly was gearing up to film the next Spider-Man film. It adds to the company's growing resume of blockbusters, including Jurassic World , John Wick and The Fall Guys , which shut down Sydney Harbour Bridge for a full day. "I was in the back of a ute controlling the drone, flying at 60-70km/h, weaving through traffic," Kelly said. "We were weaving through traffic, weaving left and right … we flew up inside the bridge and then back down the other side. It was super intense." "It's one of the highlights of my career." Oh and Kelly and their co-founder Luke Annells met flying hobby helicopters. They started XM2 in 2011 to build a drone that could carry a 25 kilogram camera. They quickly found work with David Attenborough and on Kate Winslet's The Dress Maker , but it wasn't enough when the director of Pirates of the Caribbean 5 came knocking. "He said we want something bigger and better and I said that's not possible," Oh said. "[For the camera he wanted], that drone will need to carry about 40 kilos and he said, well, if you can't fly it, don't worry about it. "We put our heads together and developed exactly what he wanted very quickly, the world's first 40-kilo drone. "It was supposed to be for three weeks, but they loved it so much that we ended up staying for six months." XM2 quickly found work with David Attenborough and on Kate Winslet's The Dress Maker, but it wasn't enough when the director of Pirates of the Caribbean 5 came knocking. (Nine) Since then, the company has expanded to Los Angeles and London, and designed stability rigs for everything from cars to motorbikes and even horses for the Michelle Payne movie, Ride Like a Girl . That technology caught the eye of Ridley Scott and drew support from the Victorian government's creative industries minister, Colin Brooks. "Full credit to this company, they are so innovative and so agile," Brooks said. "It doesn't seem like there's a challenge that they won't take on." Soon that challenge will extend well beyond Hollywood. The company is developing tethered drones that can fly for weeks to restore network signals in areas devastated by natural disasters. XM2 is also working on a prototype that can feed native animals, stranded without food, for Parks Victoria. Oh believes "this is Melbourne technology, that's going to save lives around the world". Melbourne Australia national Victoria Hollywood Movies drones CONTACT US Auto news: Why Australians are still driving around without insurance.