Tom Cruise is said to have helicopters on standby to fly in the cast and crew for his latest action blockbuster as a closure to the M25 caused chaos.

A five-mile stretch of the motorway has been shut in both directions in a planned closure near Surrey, while a bridge is demolished and a new gantry is installed in a £317million upgrade project.

Motorists have been warned not to travel at all over fears of severe weekend chaos for the surrounding areas, amid forecasts of five-hour queues.

Hollywood A-lister Cruise, 61, is filming his eighth Mission Impossible movie near the stretch of road between junctions 10 and 11 that shut at 9pm on Friday night and  will remain closed until Monday.

He is reportedly using a helipad in Battersea, southwest London, to fly the cast and crew of Mission: Impossible 8 to Surrey’s Longcross Studios.

‘The M25 closure is a headache for most people but not for Tom,’ a source told The Sun.

‘Staff on the movie or stars who are needed for filming have been told if they can’t get to Longcross because of the M25 closures they’ll be flown in by chopper.

‘It’s a feat that is just like a scene out of one of Tom’s films.’

It is the first planned daytime closure of the motorway – which encircles London – since it opened in 1986.

An 11.5-mile diversion route has been created to direct motorway traffic along A roads.

The M25 looked eerily quiet last night as it was deserted but remained lit up by the amber overhead lights.

With cars set to be redirected through small villages, residents who live in the likes of Byfleet, Ottershaw and Woodham are concerned about the impact on local life.

One councillor in Byfleet, which is set to be gridlocked during the closure, said life for locals living on the diversion routes will be a misery.

Cllr Daryl Jordan said: ‘Basically they’ve slaughtered us in the area, they’ve dumped it on us and we’re suffering.

‘I’m expecting to see absolute gridlock this weekend – everybody I know, and I’ve been in this area for years, has said they’ve been shopping already, they haven’t made any plans and if anything it will be like Covid lockdown and people will be walking the canals and what’s left of our greenbelt.

‘It’s wrong, they’ve taken two days of our lives away – two days when we’re off work.’

He added that the Byfleet Road, which is close to junction 10, had been ‘chock-a-block’ on Friday afternoon.

Cllr Jordan said residents will be ‘affected massively’.

He added: ‘It is pulling people apart.

‘I mean, you know, when you work full-time and then you’re going to get home tonight from work thinking ‘I must fill the fridge up’ and you can’t even get into your own village.

‘It’s going to be a nightmare.

‘Just going down the road to get milk is going to be a problem tomorrow or picking up your dry cleaning.’

National Highways expect motorists will face five-hour delays along the diversion route – although it is feared that this is overly optimistic.

People going to Heathrow and Gatwick Airport have been advised to use rail services – but a stolen car hitting a railway bridge in south London has stopped Gatwick Express trains this afternoon.

A massage and beauty therapist said the M25 closure will have a ‘massive impact’ on her weekend plans both with her business and family.

Elizabeth Lanceman runs Nice To Be Kneaded , a mobile and home-based business in the village of Woodham which is on the diversion route.

But she will not be able to visit any clients over the next few days due to the disruption – and can also not take her son to his football club.

Ms Lanceman told MailOnline: ‘For my business I either work from home or mobile. Obviously I can’t be mobile this weekend. Only local clients can come to me. It’s not like I can put a massage kit on the basket in my bike.

‘Also family wise, the kids have all got clubs, football clubs – we can’t walk there, we can’t get there.’

Her parents are due to fly into Heathrow Airport on Sunday, so she was also concerned at how long her journey will be to pick them up.

And she has had to cancel dinner five miles away in Shepperton because she would have to leave after an hour just to get home before the closure.

While Ms Lanceman accepted that she ‘understands what needs to be done’ on the M25, she added: ‘We’re at the time when everyone’s struggling financially and it’s going to hit local businesses.

‘The roads around here are already a nightmare. I don’t think our roads are built for thousands of cars an hour.’

Amanda Boote, councillor in Byfleet on Woking Borough Council, told Sky News: ‘It’s going to literally be gridlock, nose to tail.’

Taking a reporter through the local area yesterday, she said: ‘Looking at now, this isn’t even rush hour, this is just a regular journey.

‘All of those cars are going to be coming up and down this road on both sides, because when they come off at Junction 11 they’re going to be coming the way we are going now, and when they come off at 10 they’re going to be going the other way – and it’s just a single carriageway.’

Sophie Trippit, a cafe worker who has lived in Byfleet for 20 years, told Yahoo News: ‘It’ll be carnage. Where the cafe is situated, everyone can cut through the village.

The unprecedented M25 closure will bring ‘carnage’ to villages on the diversion route with ‘traffic everywhere’ and weekend plans cancelled, locals have warned.

Business owners in the areas along the diversion route have told of cuts they have made to their services in anticipation of traffic.

Mark Pollak, owner of Billy Tong, which caters for events and sells biltong at markets, said he expects to see 50 per cent of the firm’s turnover for the weekend go ‘down the drain’.

Mr Pollak said he had to refuse a request to cater an event in Guildford and had to cancel its stall at Surbiton Farmers’ Market on Saturday with staff not wanting to face expected traffic to get to jobs.

‘It has a massive impact on my business,’ he said.

‘I’ve cancelled events, I can’t get customers to come and collect stuff, I can’t get my staff to go to events.’

Ammara Kanwal, director of Code Kids, cancelled a coding club session due to take place at Cobham Free School on Saturday over fears she would not be able to make it there on time.

‘It was a bit of a disappointment,’ she said.

‘I am the one who cancelled, it was my business, so I am having to issue a refund for tomorrow.

‘I mean, nobody wants to travel somewhere for two hours if it doesn’t take that long, it’s not fair.’

But some businesses are not expecting much impact.

The Black Prince pub in Addlestone does not expect the diversion route to affect its business, with one of its staff members explaining customers are mostly local and in walking distance.

Motoring experts believe official estimates of congestion levels may be ‘optimistic’, while local councillors in areas where traffic will be diverted are anticipating chaos.

With cars set to be redirected through small villages, residents who live in the likes of Byfleet, Ottershaw and Woodham are concerned about the impact on local life.

‘We call it ‘The Byfleet Bubble’. I’m not planning on going anywhere. I’m lucky to be able to walk to work, and that’s what I’ve told my family to do. It’s not going to be fun.’

Elizabeth Lancemen, who runs a massage and beauty therapy business from home in Woodham, added: ‘If you can’t walk somewhere this weekend, don’t go.

‘My son has football at the weekend in Byfleet and we can’t get there and we’ve got a kids club on Sunday, which we can’t get to either.’

And self-employed local resident Carolyn Atkins said: ‘It’s going to be awful. The last time they had a road closure nearby there was traffic everywhere.’

National Highways said modelling carried out while it was developing its plans for this weekend indicated vehicles would face delays of up to five hours without mitigation measures, such as urging drivers to stay away.

The Government-owned company believes its awareness campaign will help reduce traffic levels by approximately 50 per cent, meaning the length of time added to journeys will be limited to around an hour.

An 11.5-mile diversion route has been created to direct motorway traffic along A roads.

Malcolm Cressey, Ottershaw councillor for Runnymede Borough Council, said: ‘I think it’s going to be a difficult period but we have to sort out those bridges.

‘I think it’s going to be very disruptive. I would certainly urge anybody to try and avoid the area. It could end up with all sorts of gridlock in our area.’

And Tahir Aziz, Canalside councillor for Woking Borough Council, said: ‘We’ve never experienced something like this before.

‘It will have a significant impact in this area. It will cause huge disruption and delays, and a lot of traffic jams.’

The M25 normally carries between 4,000 and 6,000 vehicles in each direction every hour from 10am until 9pm at weekends between Junctions 9 and 11.

This includes many airline passengers travelling to, from and between the UK’s two busiest airports, Heathrow and Gatwick.

Amanda Boote, councillor in Byfleet on Woking Borough Council, told Sky News: ‘It’s going to literally be gridlock, nose to tail.’

Taking a reporter through the local area yesterday, she said: ‘Looking at now, this isn’t even rush hour, this is just a regular journey.

‘All of those cars are going to be coming up and down this road on both sides, because when they come off at Junction 11 they’re going to be coming the way we are going now, and when they come off at 10 they’re going to be going the other way – and it’s just a single carriageway.’

National Highways is urging drivers not to use their sat navs to attempt to find quicker alternative routes on minor roads due to fears this could cause major congestion.

Steve Gooding, director of motoring research charity the RAC Foundation, said: ‘We must hope National Highways has overstated its dire predictions of sat navs adding to the traffic chaos by taking drivers off the official diversion route, because the temptation to try to skip the queues will be intense, and the impact on actual journey times uncertain.

‘Whilst the modelling suggests around an hour might be added to people’s travel time, that will feel optimistic to anyone used to the frustrations of driving round the M25 on days even without major construction works under way.’

Four more daytime closures of the M25 will take place up to September.

The project, due to be completed in summer 2025, will increase the number of lanes at Junction 10, which is one of the UK’s busiest and most dangerous motorway junctions.

Mr Gooding said: ‘National Highways needs to learn from this weekend’s experience and work closely with neighbouring road managers to minimise the traffic impacts of the further planned closures.

‘It must give as much certainty and notice as possible – months rather than weeks – to drivers and hauliers, many of whom will be making trips that can’t be put off to another day.’

Earlier this week, National Highways project lead Jonathan Wade said it was tough to forecast the amount of congestion that will be caused by the closure because ‘it’s so unprecedented’.

He added: ‘It’s very difficult to determine right now how effective all our traffic management will be. Please don’t travel if you can avoid it.’

Mr Wade also said: ‘Please, if you can either avoid travelling completely, find something to do at home – decorate the bathroom or something, or play in the garden.’