tom cruise mi4 stunts

Screen Rant

Mission impossible 4: how tom cruise did the burj khalifa stunt.

The Burj Khalifa sequence in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is Tom Cruise's craziest and most famous stunt. This is how he achieved it.

• Cruise's Burj Khalifa stunt in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is a defining, heart-stopping moment for the franchise.
• With dangerous stunts like the HALO jump in Fallout, the Burj Khalifa climb remains Cruise's most famous feat.
• From carefully fixing harnesses to rigorous training, the Burj Khalifa stunt was a logistical nightmare that paid off well.

The Burj Khalifa stunt in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is a defining moment for the franchise, but audiences wonder if Tom Cruise climbs the Burj Khalifa in real life. With a growing list of extremely dangerous stunts on his resume, scaling Burj Khalifa's exterior in the fourth installment of the Mission Impossible franchise is one of Cruise's most famous feats of courage. Since then, Cruise has continued to defy death in multiple movies with stunts like Mission Impossible: Fallout 's HALO jump. Still, the Tom Cruise Burj Khalifa stunt has become a cinema landmark.

Ghost Protocol takes Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt to Dubai in search of nuclear launch codes after Kurt Hendricks, a.k.a. Cobalt (Michael Nyquist), steals a devastating weapon. It's obvious by now that Hunt never takes the easy route. Ethan must reach the 130th floor of the 2,722 ft skyscraper and ditch the elevator in favor of a pair of questionable suction gloves. Starting the climb 123 floors up is the easy part as he then rappels down the building and makes a jump of faith. The Tom Cruise Burj Khalifa stunt is one of the most intense and thrilling scenes ever.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video and Paramount+

Tom Cruise's 14 Mission: Impossible Stunts Ranked By Most Dangerous

Tom cruise's burj khalifa stunt explained, the actor was equipped with a harness that was fixed to strategic points on the building.

For the Tom Cruise Burj Khalifa stunt, the actor had to be equipped with a harness that was carefully fixed to strategic points in the building , which required that the studio get special permits to drill on the floors and walls, and the Mission: Impossible 4 crew broke 35 windows . Director Brad Bird ( The Incredible s) consulted with multiple professionals from different areas like engineers, pro climbers, and stuntmen to ensure the safety of the shoot. He even considered using a dedicated stuntman, but, as he's done for the majority of his career, Cruise did his own Mission: Impossible 4 stunts.

Tom Cruise didn't know that the tight harness would cut off his circulation, so the shoot had to be completed as efficiently and quickly as possible. Otherwise, his lower body would start feeling numb. The helicopters that were shooting had a flight limit of 30 minutes at a time too, so the crew had to make every take count. The sequence was also shot in IMAX, which meant that the cameras would run out of film fast. The footage had to be flown back to Los Angeles, and Bird couldn't check if everything was perfect until the film was developed.

The training for the Tom Cruise Burj Khalifa stunt was also extremely thorough and calculated. The crew built a wall of glass to simulate the exterior of the real building and had Tom Cruise climb up and down several times to get him familiarized with the discomfort of the harness and the physical toll of the climb. They went so far as to heat up the wall with artificial lights to simulate the temperature of the windows of the Burj Khalifa. The stunt was a logistical nightmare, but the planning all paid off.

Mission Impossible Movies Ranked - From The 1996 Original to Dead Reckoning Part 1

Why tom cruise on burj khalifa is the best mission impossible stunt, the stunt is like a live-action incredibles scene.

Tom Cruise always does his own Mission: Impossible stunts , including hanging off a plane, holding his breath for six minutes to perform an underwater heist, and conducting 109 HALO jumps to get the perfect shot. But of all these movie stunts, the iconic Burj Khalifa sequence is the best proof of the actor's dedication to his craft. The Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol scene is the most nail-biting sequence for audiences, and it was extremely dangerous, exhausting, and probably terrifying for Cruise himself.

Nevertheless, the results are impressive, to say the least; Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol has one of the best stunt scenes caught on camera. Having scaled the side of the world's tallest building – for real – grants eternal franchise bragging rights for any self-respecting action series. The stunt plays out like a live-action Incredibles scene too, as the sequence is layered with clever action comedy, such as the suction gloves having a mind of their own. The Tom Cruise Burj Khalifa stunt has an equal balance of edge-of-your-seat thrills and laugh-out-loud comedy, which few other Mission: Impossible stunts have.

Mission: Impossible 8 - Release Date, Story & Everything We Know About Dead Reckoning Part 2

Was the tom cruise burj khalifa stunt his most dangerous, the motorcycle jump in mission: impossible - dead reckoning as arguably more dangerous.

Following the Tom Cruise Burj Khalifa stunt, the actor performed more stunts that were just as dangerous. In Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation , Cruise hung onto the side of a plane as it took off. The actor also held his breath underwater for a record-breaking 6 minutes (that's until the record was broken by Kate Winslet in Avatar: The Way of Water ). Following that, Cruise committed to a HALO jump for Mission: Impossible - Fallout . The HALO jump was so dangerous that Henry Cavill wasn't allowed to take part because it would have put Cruise's life at risk (via AutoEvolution ).

However, the motorcycle jump in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 was the actor's most dangerous stunt yet . It would have been impossible to foresee where the bike would land when Cruise let go, and so many other things that the production couldn't properly plan for. Accurately conducting a risk assessment of the scene must have been the most frustrating part of the movie's development. The impossible-to-determine physics, along with controlling a vehicle in mid-air and being dangerously close to rocks on a cliff edge, makes Cruise's motorcycle jump the most dangerous stunt in the Mission: Impossible franchise.

Tom Cruise has injured himself a number of times due to his commitment to performing his own stunts (via MovieWeb ).

However, it's comical to compare the Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol stunt and the motorcycle-parachute stunt, as neither are things that anybody should ever attempt. Nevertheless, Cruise competes with himself, and Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 2 could feature his two most dangerous stunts yet. Mission: Impossible 8 features a water stunt in which Cruise could claim back his breath-holding record from Winslet. The upcoming movie also features another airplane stunt, only this time it isn't taking off but is sky-high. Either way, Mission: Impossible's stunts are almost equally dangerous, and Cruise is happily risking his life for the audience's entertainment.

Sources: AutoEvolution , MovieWeb

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

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The fourth film in the franchise, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, is an action-thriller film set years after the events of Mission: Impossible 3. It sees Ethan Hunt and the Impossible Missions Force (IMF) see themselves falsely accused of a crime. Following a terrorist attack on the Kremlin, the IMF is implicated in the attack, forcing the government to disavow knowledge of them. To clear their names and find the true culprit, the United States initiates the "Ghost Protocol," forcing them all to go off the grid with no support to solve the case.

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How Tom Cruise pulled off that 'Mission: Impossible 4' skyscraper climb and canceled his retirement from the blockbuster franchise

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As the star of the Mission: Impossible movie series, Tom Cruise has been pulling off impossible missions — and improbable stunts — for a quarter century and counting. From the 1996 franchise-starter to the currently filming seventh and eight installments, the first of which will hit theaters in 2022 , the actor's alter ego, super-agent Ethan Hunt, has traveled the globe and saved the world many times over.

But Cruise's license to thrill almost got revoked a decade ago in the fourth installment, Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol . Directed by Brad Bird and released in theaters on Dec. 15, 2011, the movie was widely assumed at the time to be the star's final outing. In a new interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Ghost Protocol stunt coordinator Gregg Smrz confirms that's how things went down in the original script, which features an extended climax where Ethan chases rogue nuclear strategist Kurt Hendricks (played by Michael Nyqvist) around a towering carpark.

"There was a point in the script when he's fighting Michael Nyqvist where he was supposed to get his leg broken," Smrz remembers now. "They wanted it hyper-extended at the knee, just shredded — end of career, you know? The studio was going to write him out, and Tom did not want it. He was strapping in his harness, looked at me and said, 'I ain't going nowhere.' Then he walked out on set and did his thing. We had [the leg break] all set and ready to go, and it disappeared."

Turns out that Cruise called his shot correctly. Far from becoming his last Mission: Impossible movie, Ghost Protocol relit the franchise's fuse with a mighty $210 million domestic box-office gross and a wave of ecstatic reviews. The movie also boasts a sequence that consistently ranks on or near the top of any list of the very best Mission: Impossible stunts : Ethan's nail-biting climb up the side of Dubai's world-famous Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.

As stunt coordinator, Smrz — who first collaborated with Cruise on Mission: Impossible 2 — oversaw that scene and agrees that it's one for the record books. "I said to Brad, 'Do you have any idea what we're doing?'" he recalls. "'We're climbing 1,700 feet in the air, 200 feet up a building. This has never been done before, and it'll never be done again, because they're never going to allow it.' It's a work of art, and I don't think it can ever be beat as far as a climbing sequence on a building."

And as Smrz reveals, it's a stunt that very nearly didn't happen. Early on in pre-production, Paramount seemed poised to cancel Ghost Protocol outright before shooting started. "We had started prepping the building climb immediately on a studio lot, and were on the payroll for about before weeks when we heard that they were going to pull the plug. Tom went to have a meeting with [the studio] and we would know the outcome at the end of it."

Fortunately, Cruise emerged from that meeting with a greenlight, and Smrz and his team restarted preparations for pulling off the Burj Khalifa climb — a sequence that was always designed to serve as the movie's spectacular centerpiece. Initially skeptical that the building's owner would let them turn the 2,722-foot skyscraper into a movie set, the crew recreated three floors of the Burj on a soundstage in Prague. "We built an adjustable wall, slowly raised it until it was vertical and practiced for 200 hours on it with a crew of seven or eight guys. But Tom kept saying, 'I really want to climb that building.'"

Eventually, a compromise was reached: the production could shoot for one day on the exterior of the building, and the rest of the sequence would be shot on another 60-foot adjustable wall that has been constructed in the desert outside of Dubai. Once again, though, Cruise changed the course of production with a single sentence. "The first day [on the Burj] went so well that Tom said, 'We're filming the whole thing here on the real building.' We ended up doing one day of shooting over on the set, and the rest of it was on the real building."

With Cruise leading the charge, the Ghost Protocol crew worked out a deal with the building's owners that gave them full access to several floors that weren't yet in use. Smrz and his team then knocked out roughly 17 glass panels to make room for the stunt and camera cables and other rigging.

"I told them, 'We won't scratch your building; we're not going to damage anything.' As they saw that we were not destructive and really cared about their building, they started to work with us. There was this one guy I called Dr. No, because every time I'd ask if we could do something, he'd go, 'No!' at first. But towards the end, if I said, 'Hey, we need to drill another hole,' he'd say, 'Just tell me where.'"

As designed by Cruise, Bird and Smrz, the eight-minute Burj sequence has two distinct movements: Ethan's slow, deliberate climb up the side of the Burj in order to recover all-important nuclear launch codes and then his rapid descent. The upwards journey includes a gasp-inducing plunge where Hunt falls from an unsteady perch outside his target floor. Cruise performed the fall himself, dropping roughly forty feet from a height of 1,700 feet off the ground.

"That was probably the most nail-biting day of the show," Smrz says, adding that they only did a single take of Cruise's fall. "Somebody said, 'What if the cable breaks?' And I said, 'That's not an option.' We actually did the math, and there was enough time of free fall for him to text me on the way down, and for me to receive it!"

But Smrz also makes it clear that he would have overruled Cruise if he truly felt the star would be in danger. "If he wasn't an actor, Tom could have been a stuntman, and I would put anybody in anything if I didn't think it was safe for a stunt guy. I've got to be 99.9 percent sure it's going to be successful before we do it, whether it's a stunt person or an actor. So putting Tom into the harness was no different than a stunt guy. I expect the stunt to work, because we've already proven it over and over. "

Ethan's journey down the Burj starts with him running down the side of the building until he literally reaches the end of his rope. But he's the opposite of home free: He's still one floor above the rest of his team — William (Jeremy Renner), Benji (Simon Pegg) and Jane (Paula Patton) — and has to make a daring leap into the void to reach them. In order to gain the necessary momentum, Ethan runs in the opposite direction alongside the building and then power jumps into the air, swinging on the cable in a wide arc as he heads for the open window where William and Jane stand.

"When Tom swung on that rope around the building, Brad wanted him to go out farther," Smrz remembers. "I said, 'We'd have a problem: He has to come back, and I can't soften the impact on the glass. So the farther he goes out, the harder he's going to hit the glass, and he's already hitting it really hard.' Brad came from the world of animation where anything he wanted to do was possible, but I have a reputation for trying to keep everything real. I like to see when they hit the ground, that it hurts. But Brad was great to work with, because we'd always just sit down and talk and make sure we both were happy."

Ethan's cable swing also includes some shots that were filmed on the recreation of the Burj, including the moment where he unclips in mid-air and the moment where he flies at the window, hitting his head. But the scene where Renner clutches Cruise's leg high above Dubai was filmed on location. "We had Tom suspended on the real building, and then we dropped him," Smrz explains. "Jeremy and Paula were on cables, and they actually did dive out the window and caught Tom by his ankle. The actors did a fantastic job, especially because it was hot. We were working on glass, and it got up to 125 degrees."

The Burj Khalifa climb wasn't just a franchise-best stunt: It was also a personal best for Cruise, one that the actor has been trying to top ever since. "He wants to beat it," says Smrz, who hasn't worked on a Mission: Impossible movie since 2015's Rogue Nation , where Cruise awarded him the opportunity to choreograph the wild motorcycle chase of his dreams . "We took it to a whole other level, but it wasn't beating the building, you know what I mean? It was just a motorcycle chase. So they came up with that plane stunt . Tom's going to try to step it up to the next level in every movie, but he's also getting older: I used to tell him, 'Tom, you're going to end up walking like I do if you keep this up!'"

In that case, it's just as well that Cruise is better known for his running anyway. Asked about the actor's famously meme-friendly fleet feet , Smrz confirms he's the last person you want to be in a race with. "He can run 17-and-a-half miles an hour," he marvels. "In the scene where he's running away from the Burj, I had my stunt guys chasing him, and he was killing them. I said, 'Can you slow down a little?' And he started laughing and said, 'I'm not slowing down — tell them to speed up!' He's really fast and he has this odd style where he really lifts his legs high, and he's got the arms and legs pumping. Maybe that's his secret."

Reflecting on the Burj Khalifa climb a decade later, Smrz feels that it's increasingly rare for a studio to allow a movie star, and a stunt crew, the time and resources necessary to pull off a major setpiece on that level. "The big thing was that we really could have done that entire sequence on a stage and with visual effects. But Tom refuses to do that, because he wants climbing the Burj to be part of the thing that he does. He likes to do his own stuff, it's great for publicity and he enjoys it. It's always funny when somebody tells me, 'Tom's not going to do that — the studio's not going to allow it.' And I just say, 'He'll be doing it.'"

At the same time, with the tragedy on the set of Rust still fresh in everyone's minds , Smrz acknowledges that the industry is potentially facing widespread change in terms of how major action sequences are handled, especially when guns are involved. For his part, he believes that safety is always paramount even if it comes with a price tag. "I've been told [by studios], 'You and your guys are too expensive,'" Smrz says. "But at the end of every film, I always ask, 'Still think I'm too expensive?' and they go, 'No, we got what we paid for.' It's so busy out there right now ... and it has a lot to do with the experience of the person they hire. And right now, they're kind of hiring anybody, so it's a little scary.

"I don't think squibs and gunfire are going to go away," Smrz continues. "It's part of the job, and you have to be extra safe and unafraid to stand your ground. You have to be willing to get fired if you know that you're right and they want to push on anyway. On five occasions, I've started to walk off the set and never made it off because they realize how serious you are. You're willing to leave the movie, and that's what it takes if they expect us to keep it safe. I don't think it can get any safer: I mean, if they're going to make it so problematic that they'll just stop doing stuff, it'll all be cartoons."

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is currently streaming on Paramount+.

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The Film Bandit

How tom cruise pulled off the burj khalifa stunt in ‘ghost protocol’.

When moviegoers think of the unforgettable action scenes from the Mission Impossible movies, the Burj Khalifa stunt from Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol inevitably comes to mind. The incredible stunt features actor Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt) scaling the world’s tallest building in Dubai. We take a behind-the-scenes look at what went into filming the stunt, one of the craziest scenes in Mission Impossible history.

Setting the Scene: Burj Khalifa in Dubai

Burj Khalifa , the 2,722-foot skyscraper and engineering marvel in Dubai, boasts 163 floors, including the 130th floor where the shoot for this jaw-dropping scene occurred. Not only is the Burj Khalifa an architectural landmark, but it’s also the backdrop for the fourth installment of Mission Impossible .

Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is on the prowl for Kurt Hendricks, played by Michael Nyqvist , in search of some nuclear launch codes. This will prevent a devastating weapon from falling into the wrong hands.

The Planning Phase

Creating the stunt began with an initial concept from director Brad Bird , who directed both Ratatouille and The Incredibles . Ghost Protocol was Bird’s directorial debut in live-action cinema, and his vision for the Burj Khalifa sequence was ambitious: Tom Cruise had to climb the exterior of the skyscraper. As a filmmaker, Bird wanted to film the scene in real time, with IMAX cameras capturing every jolt of every slipped hand for maximum viewer impact.

Cruise insisted on performing his own stunts, a hallmark of his work across the Mission Impossible franchise, so he took on the challenging Burj Khalifa stunt, forgoing the easy route of using a dedicated stuntman or doubles. As one of the biggest movie stars in the world, Cruise has performed a growing list of extremely dangerous stunts for the majority of his career, often pushing the limits of what an actor will do, from free climbing to a high-speed helicopter chase in Fallout .

Given the height and potential safety concerns involved, the safety of the shoot was extremely important. To ensure the scene could be filmed without a hitch, a comprehensive and coordinated effort was needed from the production team. Dubai Studio City , the city’s official film authority, helmed by Jamal Al Sharif , worked closely with the studio to manage a myriad of logistics. This process involved obtaining special permits, coordinating with the architects and full-time engineers of Burj Khalifa, ensuring that all safety codes were met.

The logistics of shooting on the Burj Khalifa’s exterior required innovative expertise. To begin, the production team had to build a glass wall around the area of the building where the shot would be taken. Professional climbers were employed to identify strategic points on the building where the rigging could be attached. To protect the Burj Khalifa’s facade, they had to find a way to break windows for rigging, without causing damage to other parts of the building.

Once the areas of the building were identified and the glass wall was erected, the team faced the next obstacle: rigging up the harnesses and cables that would keep Cruise safe. The actor was attached to a safety harness, which was then fastened to the side of the building itself. A variety of tools were used in the process, including a thin wire, a piece of cable, and a pair of suction gloves. Every component of the setup was meticulously brake-tested and inspected for any potential faults before Cruise was attached.

Beyond the physical setup, the shot required careful planning and coordination. This required a multitude of repetitions to make the stunt appear as smooth and natural as possible on the big screen. It required substantial training and preparation, even for a Hollywood star like Tom Cruise.

Training and Preparation

Before the shot was taken, Cruise underwent extensive training with stuntman, Gregg Smrz . This training involved Cruise learning how to perform an Australian rappel , a descent technique used by climbers, and learning how to maintain his grip on the glass finger holds.

In terms of mental preparation, Cruise employed a sort of Zen mindset, focusing on the task at hand, making sure his mind remained clear during the stunt. The ultimate goal was to allow Cruise to remain calm under pressure. Given the stakes, any minor mistake could have resulted in a grim call, so the stunt required his unwavering focus.

Shooting the Scene

The day of shooting brought with it the tension relief that the scene was finally underway. All the careful planning and rigorous training was about to be put to the test. Director Brad Bird and his crew were faced with numerous challenges during the shoot. One was to ensure that the live-action scene felt authentic. To do this, they employed real-time filming, using IMAX cameras to capture the action as it unfolded.

The scene, captured by the legendary cinematographer Robert Elswit , shows Cruise using a pair of special suction gloves to climb the building, holding on for dear life as he fights crosswinds and the relentless sun. Every frame of the sequence, from the wide shots showing the real dimensions of Burj Khalifa, to the close-ups that reveal the strain on Cruise’s face, adds to the impact of the scene.

One of the difficulties that arose during the shoot was the potential threat of a sandstorm. Given Dubai’s desert climate, a sandstorm could have disrupted the shooting schedule. Worse, it could pose a risk to Cruise and the rest of the crew working on the 130th floor of the skyscraper. However, with careful monitoring of weather conditions, they managed to work around this challenge and shoot the scene successfully.

Incorporating humor into this intense scene provided a touch of tension relief. Simon Pegg , who plays Benji Dunn in the movie, delivers a really funny line just before Cruise takes his jump of faith. This juxtaposition of humor and high-stakes action is a signature part of the Mission Impossible franchise.

Post-Production

After the scene was shot, the production team had to replace the windows that were broken during the shoot, making sure the Burj Khalifa returned to its original state. In the end, the sequence required the breaking and subsequent replacement of several windows. This was carefully managed to prevent any lasting damage to the architectural landmark.

Once the film was in post-production, the beauty of Dubai as a shooting location was enhanced through the use of high-quality sound and editing. The inclusion of the Burj Khalifa sequence in Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol not only boosted the film’s advertisement but also highlighted the city of Dubai and the skyscraper itself.

The Impact and Legacy of the Tom Cruise Burj Khalifa Stunt

In the end, the shoot was beneficial for Dubai, putting the city and the Burj Khalifa on the map for many international viewers. With its pivotal role in Ghost Protocol , the skyscraper has become an iconic part of cinematic history.

Lastly, Tom Cruise’s commitment to performing his own stunts, combined with the willingness of the Mission Impossible team to push boundaries, resulted in an action sequence that is unforgettable, even now. The Burj Khalifa stunt is definitely one of Cruise’s most famous feats.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like Behind Tom Cruise’s Insane Rogue Nation Airplane Stunt.

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Tom Cruise's Most Daring 'Mission: Impossible' Stunts

Tom Cruise famously does nearly all of his own stunts throughout the "Mission: Impossible" series and is constantly finding ways to elevate them to new levels.

In "Mission: Impossible 2" (2000), he free-solo climbed on camera, a stunt which was originally supposed to be done by a professional climber. In "Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol" (2011), Cruise climbed on the side of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which is the world's tallest building. For the action scenes in "Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation" (2015), he clung to the side of an airplane flying 1,000 feet in the air and then trained alongside costar Rebecca Ferguson to hold his breath underwater for an extended period of time.

In "Mission: Impossible — Fallout" (2018), he performed a HALO jump on camera from 25,000 feet in the air, trained 16 hours a day to fly a helicopter, and then rode a motorcycle at up to 100 mph in Paris.

In the latest installment, "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One" (2023), Cruise's stunts involve a motorbike jump off a mountain, a one-handed car chase while handcuffed to actor Hayley Atwell, intense fight choreography in Venice's narrow alleyways, and a fight scene on top of a moving train.

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Watch Tom Cruise Rehearse and Perform the 'Biggest Stunt in Cinema History'

Here's how the movie star prepared for his most ambitious action sequence yet in 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning.'

A mini-documentary released on YouTube by Paramount Pictures follows the months of preparation that went into planning and executing a heart-stopping chase scene in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One , in which Cruise's character, secret agent Ethan Hunt, rides a motorcycle off the edge of a cliff and goes into a base jump, free-falling towards the earth before pulling his parachute cord.

"There's a lot going into this stunt," says director Christopher McQuarrie. "So Tom put together this master plan to coordinate all of these experts in each of the particular disciplines involved, to make this whole thing happen.

Prior to the shoot in Hellesylt, Norway in 2020, Cruise undertook a year of training to master motocross, base jumping and advanced skydiving, including working on his strength and stability to ensure he can control his own position mid-air, and manoeuver the parachute canopy in the right way.

"You train and drill every little aspect over and over and over and over again," says Cruise.

When the prep for the shoot was at its most intense, Cruise was doing 30 jumps per day, and he racked up more than 500 skydives and 13,000 motocross jumps over the course of rehearsal. Throughout this entire process, Cruise also wore a GPS chip so that they were able to track his speed and location in three-dimensional space at every stage of the stunt, which then enabled them to plan exactly where the drone cameras needed to be for the shoot.

"The key is me hitting certain speeds and being consistent with that," says Cruise. "There's no speedometer, so I do it by sound and feel of the bike. And then as I depart the bike, I'm using the wind that's hitting me, I'm pumping my chest, that will give me lift."

On the day of the shoot, all conditions have to be perfect for Cruise to pull off the staggering feat, and things are tense behind the camera as the actor shoots off the edge of the precipice and plummets into the valley below... a total of six times.

"We've been working on this for years," says Cruise. "I've wanted to do it since I was a little kid."

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How the 'Mission: Impossible' franchise pulled off its wildest stunts

The road to the 'biggest stunt in cinema history'

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For nearly 30 years, Tom Cruise has chosen to accept his mission of risking his life to entertain us. The "Mission: Impossible" franchise is famous for its increasingly jaw-dropping stunts that Cruise personally performs, and he may have outdone himself for the newest installment, "Dead Reckoning Part One." One of the sequel's stunts has been described as the biggest in cinema history.

In honor of his latest mission, here's a peek behind the curtain at how Cruise pulled off the wildest stunts in the series, including a few from "Dead Reckoning," which hits theaters on July 12:

"Mission: Impossible" - The Langley vault

For the famous scene in the original film where Ethan Hunt infiltrates CIA headquarters, Cruise really hung upside down from the ceiling and was quickly dropped to the floor like seen in the movie.

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"It was all done by hand and weights" with "two guys feeding him up and feeding him down," stunt coordinator Greg Powell explained in a behind-the-scenes featurette. Cruise also recalled that initially, he kept hitting his face when falling to the floor, but he finally got the shot to work by putting coins in his shoes.

"Mission: Impossible 2" - Rock climbing

The opening of "Mission: Impossible 2," which finds Ethan Hunt dangling off rocks and nearly falling to his death, was shot in Utah with Cruise doing the entire sequence himself.

"The scary thing was, the cliff was 2,000 feet high, and there were no protections on the ground," director John Woo explained in a behind-the-scenes featurette. "I was sweating and in a panic."

According to Entertainment Weekly , Cruise only wore a thin safety cable, and getting the scene took seven takes. "We had five cameras on the cliff, including a helicopter camera, a camera on a crane, and cameramen hanging from safety cables, but we had focus problems, so we had to do it again and again," Woo told EW.

"Ghost Protocol" - The Burj Khalifa

The Burj Khalifa sequence was shot by having Cruise — you guessed it — legitimately hang off the side of the tallest building in the world, 2,000 feet in the air, while attached to harnesses. "We thought we'd have to recreate the building and do it in a more traditional way, and it was Tom who said, 'No, I'm going to go out there,'" producer Bryan Burk said in a behind-the-scenes featurette.

The crew set up on an empty floor of the building and had to get permission to drill holes into the ground and ceiling for their equipment, as well as take out more than 26 windows to film. To prepare, Cruise repeatedly climbed up and down a glass wall that was built for rehearsal purposes. But the actor noted in the featurette that he couldn't stay out for long because with the gear he was wearing, he was "being cut off in two main arteries" across the harness, and his legs became numb. Jeremy Renner also really had to partially hang out of the side of the building for the shot where his character grabs Ethan.

"Rogue Nation" - The plane

Yes, that was really Cruise dangling on the outside of an airplane, 5,000 feet in the air, at the start of "Rogue Nation." He "was in a full body harness" and "cabled and wired to the plane through [its] door," cinematographer Robert Elswit explained to The Hollywood Reporter , adding that "inside the aircraft was an aluminum truss that was carefully bolted to the plane, which held the wires that went through the door, which held Tom." Cruise also wore special contact lenses protecting his eyes, though director Christopher McQuarrie noted in a behind-the-scenes featurette that "there was nothing to protect his face." So McQuarrie feared debris could be sucked into the propeller and hit Cruise "traveling at the speed of a bullet," and "if a bird hit Tom at that speed, on any part of his body, that would have been the end." Despite the risks, Cruise performed the stunt eight times.

"Rogue Nation" - Diving underwater

The sequence in "Rogue Nation" where Ethan dives underwater and holds his breath for an extended period of time was filmed in a water tank, and at one point, Cruise held his breath for six full minutes. While filming the sequence, he had to "hold his breath, wait for everyone to get into position, wait for all the bubbles to clear, wait for the cameras to roll, then he does a long take, and then he has to wait for the divers to come back and give him air," visual effects supervisor David Vickery explained in a behind-the-scenes featurette.

"You have these free divers that came in and trained me how to do it," Cruise said on the Graham Norton Show . "It's not pleasant." In fact, he noted that after filming the stunt, "There'd be times I'd be sitting there talking in meetings, and I wouldn't breathe. I realize I am not breathing, and I had to turn my autonomic system back on to breathe again." Though the scene was shot underwater, Cruise was surrounded by green screens so much of the environment around him could be added in post-production.

"Fallout" - The HALO jump

For the HALO (high altitude low opening) jump sequence in "Fallout," not only did Cruise really fall out of a plane traveling 165 miles per hour at a height of 25,000 feet, but he did it over 100 times. The film crew also built a large wind machine that was used to rehearse, and a special helmet had to be developed that would both provide oxygen and ensure Cruise's face could be seen in the shot, according to a behind-the-scenes featurette.

"It'll look like one continuous take, but they're really three long takes," Cruise explained, and he had to fall to exactly three feet in front of the camera. The sequence also had to be filmed during a tight window to get the lighting right. The lightning storm, though, naturally had to be added in post-production.

"Fallout" - The rooftop chase

Though the rooftop chase in "Fallout" isn't as dangerous of a stunt as some of the others, it stands out because Cruise was injured making it. He jumped across a rooftop for the sequence but broke his ankle by accidentally landing in a way that his leg smashed into the side of a building. The injury forced the film to shut down production, but footage of Cruise breaking his ankle and running past the camera while limping was used in the movie.

"I knew instantly it was broken," Cruise recalled on The Graham Norton Show . On the blu-ray commentary, director Christopher McQuarrie remembered Cruise "laying on a couch with [his] foot up and a bag of ice on it" and asking, "Did we get the shot? Good, because we're not coming back."

"Fallout" - The helicopter fall and chase

For the finale of "Fallout," Cruise actually dangled from a helicopter before dropping 40 feet. Director Christopher McQuarrie told the Los Angeles Times a pulley system and safety line were used, but he added, "The only thing the safety line was ensuring was that if Tom was killed during the stunt, we wouldn't be looking for his body in the bushes. Because if he made the fall at the wrong angle, it's picture wrap on Mr. Cruise. If he hits the payload headfirst as opposed to back first or legs first, he'll break his neck and just be a rag doll."

In fact, Cruise's co-star Rebecca Ferguson revealed in a behind-the-scenes featurette that as the stunt was being shot, "I heard myself scream" because "I actually thought he fell," while McQuarrie recalled, "We heard on the radio, 'I think we just lost Tom.'" Cruise also flew the helicopter through the mountains for the chase sequence, and he was trained in flying specifically for the film. Cameras were attached to the helicopter, meaning Cruise "was performing three jobs: he's the pilot, he's the camera operator, and he's acting," McQuarrie noted.

"Dead Reckoning Part One" - The train fight

For an action sequence on a train in "Dead Reckoning Part One," an entire functioning train was built, and a fight was shot on top of it while the vehicle was moving at 60 miles per hour, according to a behind-the-scenes featurette . The train was then filmed being destroyed by falling and crashing into a quarry.

"Dead Reckoning Part One" - The motorcycle cliff jump

The marquee stunt of "Dead Reckoning Part One" involves Cruise riding a motorcycle off a cliff into a base jump, which director Christopher McQuarrie described as "far and away the most dangerous thing we've ever attempted." Cruise's training involved more than 13,000 practice motocross jumps and over 500 skydives. A ramp was constructed in Norway for Cruise to ride off and deploy a parachute in the air — and he then did it five more times.

Cruise told Entertainment Tonight the stunt was shot on the first day of filming so the crew would know whether he would be alive for the rest of the movie. "We know either we're gonna continue with the film or we're not," he said. "Let's know day one … Do we all continue, or is it a major rewrite?" But to quote Anthony Hopkins in "Mission: Impossible 2," this is not mission: difficult. It's mission: impossible.

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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.

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Photos Of Tom Cruise's Spectacular Skyscraper Stunt From 'Mission: Impossible 4 - Ghost Protocol'

At a Dubai press conference not too long ago for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol , Tom Cruise mentioned that some filming would take place at Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. "I'll be spending many days, many hours on the side of this building, I can't give you details, but I will be up there," Cruise said. Now, photos have surfaced online that show exactly what he was referring to. Hit the jump to check them out.

The below photos come from the Daily Mail , who report that the shooting the scene was incredibly tense, both for film crew and for onlookers watching below. This was understandable, as Burj Khalifa took over 5 years to construct and is over 2,700 feet tall. Cruise hung from the building's observation deck, 124 floors above the ground. Apparently, the stunt involved running across the building and jumping over another actor, also dangling precariously high up. A helicopter was just 10 feet away to capture the scene from the outside.

Cruise has often expressed a preference for doing his own stunts. He told the Daily Record this past summer:

I want to entertain the audience and part of making these movies is doing my own stunts. I love having the camera right there in front of me, where you can see me holding a shot all the way through. I think it adds to the excitement for an audience. It's something that is challenging to do and fun for me.

It might sound a bit narcissistic to some but I actually appreciate Cruise's work ethic. As jaded moviegoers, we've been trained to look for the cut where the stunt double replaces the actor. It's nice to know there are still some actors out there willing to put their asses on the line for the sake of entertainment.

'Mission: Impossible 4's Tom Cruise in world's tallest building stunt

Tom Cruise has performed a stunt at the world's tallest building in a new video from the set of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol .

The 49-year-old actor is seen jumping and climbing the Burj Khalifa in Dubai via a suspension cord in the video, introduced by director Brad Bird.

Bird joked: "This is just another day at work on Mission: Impossible ."

Cruise is filmed doing a number of takes on the side of the 2,723-foot tower complex, including running up and down the skyscraper and jumping from a window.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol will debut in US cinemas on December 16 and opens in the UK on December 26.

> Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol poster reveals stars

Watch footage of the stunt in the Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol trailer below:

.css-15yqwdi:before{top:0;width:100%;height:0.25rem;content:'';position:absolute;background-image:linear-gradient(to right,#51B3E0,#51B3E0 2.5rem,#E5ADAE 2.5rem,#E5ADAE 5rem,#E5E54F 5rem,#E5E54F 7.5rem,black 7.5rem,black);} Movies

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Tom Cruise did that motorcycle stunt in ‘Mission: Impossible’ on Day 1 — here’s why

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More than half a year before the release of the upcoming movie “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One,” Paramount Pictures made sure audiences got to see Tom Cruise once again risking his life.

Cruise’s mind-blowing stunts have become a signature of “ Mission: Impossible ” films, each one seemingly topping the next. The key stunt in the franchise’s seventh installment involves Cruise driving a motorcycle off the edge of a cliff, dismounting and parachuting into a Norwegian valley. With the drop of its behind-the-scenes footage in December , the studio billed it as “the biggest stunt in cinema history.”

Though the moment has already been watched on YouTube more than 13 million times, and 30 million more times in the film’s trailers, it’s among the film’s most anticipated scenes. After all, we still don’t know how the stunt fits within the plot — What could be so dire that agent Ethan Hunt must jump off a cliff?

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While answers won’t come until the movie’s theatrical release July 12, we now know that the risky stunt was the first thing Cruise did on Day 1 of filming, which began in 2020. And it was all about risk assessment.

In a recent interview with “Entertainment Tonight,” Cruise said they started with the scene, in part, to allow the cast and crew to see whether he would be able to star in the $290-million film. After all, he could either get injured or die — or both.

“Well, we know we’re either going to continue with the film or not,” Cruise said, letting out a laugh. “Let’s know Day 1, what is gonna happen: Do we all continue, or is it a major re-run?”

Cruise added that he wanted to make sure his mind was clear enough to focus solely on the stunt.

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“You have to be razor sharp for something like that; I don’t want to drop that and shoot other things and have my mind somewhere else,” Cruise said. “You don’t want to be waking up in the middle of the night, ‘It’s still, I still, I still,’ and it has that effect.”

Cruise is no stranger to aerial stunts with a high probability of death. The “Top Gun” actor said preparing for the recent stunt “was years of planning,” a culmination of all the training he’s done with motorcycles, cars and aerobatics.

In the franchise’s last film, “Mission: Impossible — Fallout” (2018), Cruise jumped into a helicopter in midflight , taking the controls to chase another helicopter. In the same movie, he parachuted from a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III from 25,000 feet, close to five miles up, becoming “the first actor” to do so in a major motion picture, according to Paramount (most skydiving attempts occur at 10,000 feet).

In 2011 for “ Ghost Protocol ,” the “Jerry McGuire” actor climbed along the exposed walls of the world’s largest building, the Burj Khalifa of Dubai. And in 2015 for “Rogue Nation,” Cruise hung off the side of an Airbus A400M Atlas as it was taking off, a stunt that veteran stunt coordinator and frequent Cruise collaborator Wade Eastwood called “a stressful experience.”

The recent motorcycle stunt, which Cruise had apparently repeated six times, was no exception. Though the film’s computer-generated images make Cruise appear to be jumping off the rocky surface of the cliff, the scene required a large ramp to be built.

While Cruise is seen atop the motorcycle in the behind-the-scenes video, accelerating off the ramp, a helicopter and drone fly overhead to gather footage. The film’s crew, including director Christopher McQuarrie, are huddled in a nearby tent, faces glued to a set of monitors. After he abandons the bike and hangs in the open air, Cruise releases his parachute and the crew erupts in cheers.

“The only thing you have to avoid when doing a stunt like this are serious injury or death,” Eastwood, who has managed stunts for the last three “Mission Impossible” films, said in the BTS video. “You’re falling. If you don’t get a clean exit from the bike and you get tangled up with it, if you don’t open your parachute, you’re not gonna make it.”

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The scene wasn’t the only stressful one to shoot: Cruise said he also worried about a car chase that involved him handcuffed to a small car, steering with one hand while drifting along the cobblestone streets of Rome, with his co-star Hayley Atwell in the passenger seat.

“It’s plenty of challenges,” Cruise said with a wide grin, laughing once again.

“Dead Reckoning” had its world premiere Sunday at the Auditorium Conciliazione in Rome with Cruise and other cast members, including Atwell and Vanessa Kirby , in attendance. “Part Two” is expected to be released in June 2024. Filming wrapped in September for what has been rumored to be Cruise’s final appearance in the “Mission: Impossible” franchise.

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Tom Cruise’s Most Dangerous Stunts in ‘Mission: Impossible’

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By Ben Kenigsberg

• July 30, 2018

The older Tom Cruise gets, the more fun it is to watch him risk death in elaborate age- and gravity-defying ways.

One person who has seen him face danger up close is Christopher McQuarrie, who directed the now-56-year-old actor in the two most recent “Mission: Impossible” movies: “ Fallout ,” currently in theaters, and “ Rogue Nation ” from 2015. I asked him to rank the most difficult stunts he and his star, who is known to dislike doubles, have executed.

Mr. McQuarrie ranked them in order of what he called “inherent danger,” basically risk multiplied by the amount of time Mr. Cruise was exposed to that risk. But you could rank these sequences “five different ways in terms of their technical difficulty, their strain on the body, the real-time danger and difficulty,” he added. “If you arranged them alphabetically, they would be correct.”

Here are edited excerpts from our conversation:

5. Underwater Sequence, ‘Rogue Nation’

Without the benefit of oxygen, Mr. Cruise swaps a file in an underwater security system.

Given just 10 days to shoot this sequence, Mr. McQuarrie figured that his best use of the time would be to film it in a series of continuous takes. “It put a huge burden on Tom because Tom had to hold his breath longer,” the director said. “You and I can hold our breath for a minute, maybe two minutes. The minute you start exerting yourself, you consume oxygen at a much higher rate. Which meant that for Tom to be able to hold his breath for anywhere from a minute to two and a half minutes that each take required, he had to learn how to hold his breath for longer,” because he would be swimming.

Mr. Cruise and his co-star Rebecca Ferguson “trained with an extreme diver,” Mr. McQuarrie said. “He learned how to hold his breath for six and a half minutes. By the time that sequence was over, Tom was so physically and mentally exhausted, he had nitrogen in his blood, he was achy all over, he was very punchy, it was hard for him to focus and remember lines. He was exhausted all the time. It took a really severe physical toll on him.”

4. Paris Motorcycle Chase, ‘Fallout’

Having been separated from his co-star Henry Cavill, Mr. Cruise evades capture on two wheels.

“The initial idea was he would do a portion of the sequence free riding and the rest of it on these safety rigs, and when the rigs didn’t work, we just went for it. Everything that you’re seeing Tom doing, he’s doing free riding on cold cobblestones. Sometimes there was rain; sometimes there was morning dew. There was always a danger of skidding and wiping out.

“Sometimes he’s going in excess of 100 miles an hour with cars chasing him and coming at him. They were all stunt drivers, but some of them were local, so there was a language barrier. A couple of times there were miscommunications and drivers were not where they were supposed to be, which was always scary. Tom had to be hypervigilant.”

“And of course, every time he’s doing stunts like this, he’s got to act. You’re designing the camera moves so you can show that it isn’t a stunt man. One of the dangers becomes the camera itself. Tom is driving into close-up in certain shots. He’s inches away from the camera. If the camera vehicle stops short, Tom is going right into the camera headfirst.”

3. Sky-Diving, ‘Fallout’

Anatomy of a scene | ‘mission: impossible — fallout’, the director christopher mcquarrie narrates a scene where tom cruise leaps from an airplane at 25,000 feet..

“My name is Christopher McQuarrie. I am the writer, director, and co-producer of ‘Mission: Impossible - Fallout.’ The biggest challenge of this sequence is constantly maintaining a connection with Tom Cruise, knowing that Tom Cruise is going to jump out of a plane at 25,000 feet, and that the camera is going to stay with him. When Tom and I discussed this idea, right away the challenge became making it the most subjective sequence we possibly could, putting the audience with the character of Ethan Hunt. And that means that everything that Tom does, as he’s jumping out of his plane, the camera operator has to do with him in reverse. So of course, this shot right here, once this starts, we were determined to have no cuts from this moment until Tom reaches the ground. Just prior to this clip starting, he’d had a conflict with Henry Cavill, and Henry Cavill has disconnected his air hose as a way of getting Ethan Hunt out of his way, so he can jump out of the plane. So Craig O’Brien, our camera operator, is jumping backwards out of the plane, and Tom has to come towards him and come within three feet of the camera to remain in focus. Which means Tom has to stop himself, and he has a three inch margin of error because of the light at that time of day. It’s very difficult to maintain focus, and we had exactly three minutes of light everyday to gather these shots, and if you didn’t get the shot, it meant you came back the next day.” “What’s the matter, Hunt, afraid of a little lightning?” “The decision here to have all of the sound drop out was a practical decision to maintain that subjective reality, put you in Tom’s experience, and Tom is now coordinating all of his movements with Craig O’Brien. They’re actually doing a dance, so that we can maintain all of the storytelling without ever cutting, and so you’ll notice that the other actor is falling in the background there. His movements had to be coordinated with Tom, and then of course, the real danger in the sequence was a mid-air impact in which everyone could have collided — Tom, the camera operator, and the actor.” “Walker!”

Mr. Cruise, Mr. Cavill’s stunt double and a sky-diving videographer jump out a plane over the United Arab Emirates, standing in for Paris. The sequence stitched together three shots, combining jumps from 18,000 to 25,000 feet, for the appearance of a continuous take.

“Probably the most technically difficult one we’ve ever done. The costume that he’s wearing — all of that stuff is designed so that you can see that Tom is doing all of the stunt work. That helmet didn’t exist, the air tanks didn’t exist. It all has to be certified as a lifesaving device. It’s not just a prop. Layer No. 2, we need to find a country that would let us do it. And then of course, Tom has to get certified to be able to jump at that altitude.

“The jump is divided into three pieces. The first piece is when he jumps out of the plane and goes past the camera. The second piece is when he’s looking for Henry” — actually his stunt double — “in the air and grabs onto him. And the third piece is as he’s falling with Henry where he disconnects his oxygen bottle and connects it to Henry. And that’s the most time-consuming piece, which of course means that he’s got to be able to complete all of that action before he reaches his minimum safe altitude by which he has to deploy his chute.

“Because the sequence is at dusk, we have three minutes of available light every day to shoot. They would just rehearse until the light was right, and they’d go up and they’d get one take every day, to get one of these three pieces. It took several tries to get the first piece, several tries to get the second piece, several tries to get the third piece. And so that took 106 jumps of us rehearsing and shooting to get that two-and-a-half, three-minute sequence.”

(Why couldn’t they just land and take a cab? “Landing on the Grand Palais looks a lot more spectacular than landing in a parking lot on the outskirts of Paris,” Mr. McQuarrie said.)

2. Hanging Off a Plane, ‘Rogue Nation’

Mr. Cruise dangles from an Airbus A400M as it takes off.

“When we proposed it to Airbus, they said it was impossible. And our approach was to say, well, if we were going to do it, how would it be done? And once people start to consider the possibilities, it’s a slippery slope to the place where they find themselves doing what they deemed impossible.

“Tom’s wearing a harness under the suit. But of course the harness doesn’t protect him from the real dangers of the sequence. One, if the pilot overaccelerates the plane, there’s no harness in the world that’s going to keep Tom on the plane. The other danger is any debris on the runway. Tom was struck by a pebble. He said it was like being shot. And the real danger is bird strikes. If a bird flew past and struck Tom, it would be like a cannonball. The exhaust from the engines is extremely punishing and very toxic.

“And finally, Tom is wearing earplugs and contact lenses. They cover half of his eye — they’re not like the little lenses that just cover your iris. So he couldn’t really see. He couldn’t really hear. I would have to direct him with very large gestures and communicate in the simplest possible way. And Tom said to me, ‘If I look like I’m panicking, I’m acting. Don’t cut. Only if I tap my head’ — he put his palm on top of his head — ‘it means something’s wrong.’ There was one point at which Tom brushed his hair out of his face, and we were wondering, is he just fixing his hair, or is something wrong?”

1. Helicopter Chase, ‘Fallout’

Mr. Cruise pilots a chopper through mountainous terrain to retrieve and disable the remote detonator of two nuclear bombs.

“The hairiest one I can think of is the helicopter chase in the third act of ‘Fallout.’ Tom qualified” — for pilot certification — “on this helicopter in six weeks. Normally it takes three months; he trained with two crews working 16 hours a day so he could cut his training time in half. And we’re in New Zealand in low winter light, which means visibility is always a little tricky. You have two helicopters. The way you measure distance in a helicopter is a rotor width. And Tom was at times inside one rotor width from the other helicopter. He was less than a rotor width away. In some parts of the sequence, Tom’s doing the chasing, and in other parts he’s being chased — and we were always pushing for proximity, because that of course sold more danger. Tom is weaving in and out of canyons and gullies. There was one where his rotor blades were just a few feet away from the rock walls on either side. It was like flying through a broom closet.”

The director recalled that he and a producer “said while we were making it, if we knew what it took to shoot this sequence, we never would have started. Tom was having the time of his life.”

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Tom Cruise performs the 'most dangerous stunt' he's ever attempted in behind-the-scenes clip from 'M:I 7'

In the scene, the 60-year-old actor rides a motorcycle off a cliff and base jumps into a ravine.

'Top Gun: Maverick' star shares lesson he learned from Tom Cruise

‘Top Gun: Maverick’ star Jay Ellis tells Fox New Digital if a sequel is coming, and reveals that Tom Cruise reminded the cast ‘daily’ that they were ‘making something special.’

Tom Cruise gave fans an inside look at how and he and his team pulled off the "greatest stunt in cinema history" for "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One."

On Wednesday, the 60-year-old actor shared a 9½-minute featurette from the upcoming movie detailing the making of the stunt, in which Cruise rides a motorcycle off a cliff and then base jumps into a ravine.

"This is far and away the most dangerous thing we've ever attempted," Cruise said at the beginning of the clip.

Tom Cruise gave fans an inside look at how and he and his team pulled off the "greatest stunt in cinema history" for "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One." (James Devaney/Getty Images)

The "Top Gun: Maverick" star continued, "We're going to shoot it in Norway, and it will be a motorcycle jump off a cliff into a base jump."

TOM CRUISE PARACHUTES OFF A MOUNTAIN WHILE FILMING 'MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 8'

The camera panned a massive ramp that ended on the edge of a huge cliff as Cruise said, "I've wanted to do it since I was a little kid."

"And it all comes down to one thing — the audience."

Writer-director Christopher McQuarrie explained that Cruise put together a master plan and assembled a team of experts from all the disciplines involved to accomplish the feat. 

Second unit director and stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood detailed the extensive preparation that Cruise and the team undertook, which included "a year of base training, advanced sky-dive training, a lot of canopy skills, a lot of tracking."

Base jumping coach Miles Daisher marveled over Cruise, whom he described as an "amazing individual."

"You tell him something, and he just locks it in," Daisher added. "His sense of spatial awareness, he's the most aware person I've ever met."

"Tracking with [base jumping coach] John [DeVore] and Miles in the air," Eastwood continued. "Doing lots of different positioning. Like they were a two-man team in the air. Coming on top of each other, below each, back tracking, front tracking. You know we’ve drilled, and drilled and drilled." 

In the clip, Cruise explained that the motocross was the next part of the training. 

Eastwood recalled how the team built a motocross track in order for the actor to "get comfortable jumping 70- to 80-foot table tops." 

"I have to get so good at this that there's just no way that I miss my marks," Cruise added.

Cruise went on to say that he trained and drilled, performing more than 30 jumps a day, to perfect every aspect of the stunt. The video stated that he performed over 13,000 jumps in all, with Eastwood noting that he performed over 500 skydives during his training. 

McQuarrie explained that another challenge involved was positioning the cameras so all the stunts were captured on film. 

"Coming up with the stunt is only one of the technical challenges," he explained. "The other is putting a camera in place that you can see where Tom is doing it."

He added, "Finding the right lens, the right platform, the right medium. Even two years ago, the cameras didn’t exist that would allow us to do what we are trying to do today."

Cruise revealed that he trained and drilled, performing more than 30 jumps a day, to perfect every aspect of the stunt. (Murray Close/Getty Images)

"How do we involve the audience?" Cruise asked. "I just want to give them that thrill."

McQuarrie noted that the camera has to be in front of the actor and as close to him as possible.

The production team built a ramp over a quarry in England to replicate the jump in Norway and filled the landing area with cardboard boxes to catch the motorcycle after Cruise jumped off it.

"How fast should I go off? What distance do I travel?" Cruise said.

In order to accomplish the camera work, the team built models of different ramps at different angles to calculate Cruise's trajectory. 

The actor had a GPS attached to him to track his movements, and he was surrounded by drone cameras to capture the close-ups. 

"Because if we do it all, but we don't capture it, what is the point?" Cruise posited.

"I always wear my earplugs, so I don't have to hear myself scream," he said as he flashed a smile.

Cruise explained that the key was hitting certain speeds and being consistent. The motorcycle didn't have a speedometer, so the actor said he knew when to jump by the "sound and feel of the bike."

"We have to be able to consistently predict where Tom will be in three-dimensional space," McQuarrie noted.

The clip cut to Hellesylt, Norway, on the day of the shoot in 2020. McQuarrie said that the "Mission: Impossible" team always begins filming with the biggest stunt in the movie.

Cruise performed the death-defying stunt six times. (Ken Ishii)

In addition to the stunt work, the filmmaker noted that the weather had to be perfect.

Cruise explained that he began warming up with base jumps to get a feel for the weather. 

"Of course, when something is being done for the first time, you can't help but worry about how it's really going to turn out," Daisher said. "The only things that you really have to avoid while doing a stunt like this is serious injury or death ."

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The tension built as Cruise made his first attempt at riding the motorcycle off the ramp and base jumping into the rock bowl. The team clapped and cheered as he pulled it off successfully.

The video revealed that Cruise performed the stunt six times that day. 

"This is far and away the most dangerous stunt we have ever attempted," McQuarrie said. "The only thing that scares me more is what we have planned for 'Mission 8.'"

"Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One" is set to be released in theaters July 13, 2023.

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Ashley Hume is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @ashleyhume

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12 of tom cruise’s most jaw-dropping stunts.

From scaling a skyscraper to hanging on to the outside of an airplane as it takes off, here are some of the actor's most death-defying stunts.

By Carly Thomas

Carly Thomas

Associate Editor

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Tom Cruise has never steered away from challenging himself in his roles for projects. Especially since 1986’s  Top Gun , he has continued to push the limits of his body and acting, taking on his own stunts in most of his top films, including Mission: Impossible ,  The Last Samurai  and  Jack Reacher .

Most recently, Cruise took on several death-defying stunts in  Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One , including speed-flying down a mountainside as well as driving a motorcycle off a cliff and parachuting to safety.

The actor has previously said during an appearance on  The Graham Norton Show  that he has been “doing different stunts” since he was a child and that once he got into acting, he wanted to keep doing it to help with the “storytelling.”

“I feel that [when] acting you’re bringing everything, you know, physically and emotionally, to a character in a story,” he explained at the time. “And I’m able to do it [stunts], and I’ve trained for 30 years doing things like this that it allows us to put cameras in places where you normally are not able to.”

More recently, during a  conversation at Cannes  in 2022, Cruise reiterated that he enjoys performing his own stunts despite the danger, only this time he referenced one of the best athletes of Hollywood’s golden era.

“No one asked Gene Kelly, ‘Why do you dance?’” the actor said. “Why do you do your own dancing?’”

Below, The Hollywood Reporter has compiled a list of some of Cruise’s wildest stunts, some downright death-defying, throughout his decades-long career.

'Mission: Impossible' (Aquarium Scene)

In the first installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise in 1996, Cruise reportedly never swapped out for a stuntman in one particular scene involving an aquarium. In the sequence, Ethan Hunt, who would become one of Cruise’s most well-known characters, intentionally blows up a giant aquarium that stretches the length from the floor to the ceiling to help get away quickly. The explosive was so powerful that another person was sent flying through a glass panel, while Cruise went running with 16 gallons of water following right behind him.

'Mission: Impossible II' (Rock Climbing Scene)

In 2000’s Mission: Impossible II , Cruise showed no signs of plans to stop testing his limits. In the opening scene of the John Woo-directed film, the actor can be seen climbing and hanging off giant rocks on the side of a cliff. During filming, Cruise reportedly had only a safety cable to help soften any impact, which led to Woo actively sweating throughout the entire sequence because of how dangerous it was.

'Top Gun' (Parachute Scene)

In 1986’s  Top Gun , Cruise began seeking the thrill of doing his own stunts. But the scene when Maverick (Cruise) and Goose (Anthony Edwards) are ejected from the jet and parachute into the water (leading to his co-pilot’s death) nearly didn’t go as planned. Top Gun ‘s Barry Tubb told the  New York Post  on the film’s 25th anniversary that “Cruise came as close to dying as anybody on a set I’ve ever seen.” During filming, when Cruise was lifting up Goose’s body from the ocean, Cruise actually began to sink due to water building up in his parachute. According to Tubb, Cruise would have drowned if it was not caught early enough to get him out.

At the time of filming Top Gun , it was also reported that a veteran fighter pilot  died while shooting aerial footage for the movie.

'The Last Samurai' (Samurai Sword Scene)

In 2003’s  The Last Samurai , Cruise once again nearly avoided a tragic accident while doing his own stunts. While filming a fight sequence between Nathan Algren (Cruise) and Ujio (Hiroyuki Sanada), the two were riding on what were actually mechanical horses, in which one was supposed to stop moving before Sanada takes a swing at Cruise with a real samurai sword. But the horse didn’t stop, and Cruise reportedly came within an inch of the sword before Sanada was able to pull back, avoiding contact with Cruise.

“Tom’s neck was right in front of me, and I tried to stop swinging my sword, but it was hard to control with one hand,” Sanada previously told the  Daily Mail .  “The film crew watching from the side all screamed because they thought Tom’s head would fly off.”

'Collateral' (Car Crash Scene)

At this point, on-set accidents are nothing new to Cruise, and the same goes for an incident while filming an action scene with Jamie Foxx for 2004’s  Collateral . During an interview at the time , Foxx thought he nearly killed his co-star when he smashed into Cruise’s Mercedes-Benz during a chase sequence. “I hit the gas, the cab goes straight head on into [Cruise’s] Mercedes, and the Mercedes lifts off the ground and goes off the set,” he explained. Cruise added that although he was OK, he was tossed around the car. “I was hitting the roof,” he said. “I was down on the ground.”

'Edge of Tomorrow' (Another Car Crash Scene)

While filming 2014’s Edge of Tomorrow , Emily Blunt confirmed to Conan O’Brien on  Conan at the time that Cruise “really does everything and wants to do everything” when it comes to doing stunts. But she revealed that during one scene, his luck was tested once again. The actress said in one action sequence when she was driving and Cruise was in the passenger seat, the stunt coordinator tasked her with driving really fast down a road and then taking a sharp turn. She noted that the first take went well, but during the second, she took a turn too late and “drove us into a tree and I almost killed Tom Cruise.” Thankfully, Cruise was OK, and Blunt added that he was actually laughing afterward.

'Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol' (Scaling a Skyscraper Scene)

Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol director Brad Bird said watching Cruise take on death-defying stunts is “just another day at work” for the film’s crewmembers. Specifically for the 2011 movie, the actor scaled Dubai’s 163-floor Burj Khalifa. In behind-the-scenes footage, Cruise can be seen climbing, swinging and running up and down the building, with only a wire keeping him from falling.

'Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation' (Plane Scene)

In 2015’s Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation , Cruise decided to take his intense stunts to the sky. In the film, the actor can be seen dangling on the outside of an Airbus 400 as it takes off. Robert Elswit, director of photography, told The Hollywood Reporter  at the time what went into making the stunt a reality while keeping Cruise safe.

“Tom was in a full body harness and he’s cabled and wired to the plane through [its] door. Inside the aircraft was an aluminum truss that was carefully bolted to the plane, which held the wires that went through the door, which held Tom,” the cinematographer said of the safety measures. “He was also wearing special contact lenses to protect his eyes. If anything hit him at those speeds, it could be really bad. They were very careful about cleaning the runway so there were no rocks. And we took off in certain weather conditions; there were no birds. And he’s sort of protected by the way the air moves over the wing.”

'Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation' (Underwater Breathing Scene)

In the Christopher McQuarrie-directed film, Cruise went from doing stunts in the sky to doing them underwater. For the said sequence in Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation , the actor actually had to undergo training to be able to hold his breath underwater for six minutes. For comparison, professional divers hold their breath for anywhere between four and seven minutes,  according to the American Physiological Society , but even that can be very dangerous and could cause brain damage. Although Cruise scared crewmembers a few times by testing his limits underwater, in the end, he successfully completed the mission.

“It’s something I have always wanted to do,” Cruise said during an interview with USA Today at the time. “We’re underwater and we’re doing breath-holds of 6 to 6-1/2 minutes. So I was doing all my training with the other stuff (on-set). It was very taxing stuff.”

'Mission: Impossible – Fallout' (Building Jump Scene)

While filming a building jump scene in 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout , Cruise actually got hurt, which shut down production for six weeks while he recovered. During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show , the actor not only detailed exactly what went wrong but shared a video of the moment he broke his ankle during the stunt.

In the scene, while attached to two safety wires, Cruise’s character is meant to jump from one high-rise to another when chasing Henry Cavill’s character. Although he was meant to miss the landing and hit the side of the wall, his foot actually slipped and bent upwards on impact. The actor noted that he “knew instantly it was broken.” Cruise also revealed that his ankle was still healing while he was on the press tour for the film.

‘Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One’ (Speed-Flying Scene)

In the seventh film in the Mission: Impossible franchise, Tom Cruise shows that he has no plans to stop doing death-defying stunts anytime soon. For Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One , the actor learned how to do what director Christopher McQuarrie called “one of the most dangerous sports in the world.” Speed-flying, which is similar to paragliding, combines elements of parachute swooping to allow people to fly at high speeds down mountainsides while maintaining close to the slope. And Cruise did just that for one of the scenes in the latest installment of the action franchise. McQuarrie even noted that when Cruise was “flying very close to rocks,” the filming crew was in “absolute terror” behind the cameras. 

‘Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One’ (Motorbiking Off a Cliff Scene)

For Mission: Impossible 7 , Tom Cruise said he got to do a stunt that he had wanted to do “since I was a little kid.” And that stunt was riding a motorbike off a cliff and parachuting down to safety. Director Christopher McQuarrie explained that there were many elements needed to actually make it happen, as well as years of different types of training. Once Cruise felt like he was comfortable with each aspect of the stunt, that’s when the crew built the film’s final ramp on a cliff in Norway. A crewmember added that Cruise did a total of six takes of one of the “biggest stunts in cinema history.” 

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Watch Tom Cruise Break Down His ‘Most Dangerous’ Stunt Ever for New ‘Mission: Impossible’

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Tom Cruise is proving that no mission is too impossible.

The “Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part I” star shared a behind-the-scenes video of his stuntwork on the first installment of his farewell to character Ethan Hunt.

“So excited to share what we’ve been working on,” Cruise tweeted.

“Dead Reckoning” is the first half of the conclusion to the 1996 film franchise. Cruise has played undercover CIA agent Ethan Hunt for close to 30 years, with “Mission: Impossible 7” arriving in theaters July 14, 2023, soon followed by “Mission: Impossible 8” out June 28, 2024.

The stunt video shows Cruise training to achieve the  most dangerous stunt of his career, with him riding a motorcycle off a cliff. “This is far and away the most dangerous thing we’ve ever attempted,” Cruise says in the video filmed while in Norway for production in 2020.

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“It all comes down to one thing: the audience,” Cruise adds.

The “Eyes Wide Shut” alum trained in motocross and base jumping for months leading up to the filmed stunt.

“I had about six seconds once I departed the ramp to pull the chute and I don’t want to get tangled in the bike,” Cruise previously told Empire magazine about the jaw-dropping feat. “If I do, that’s not going to end well.”

Of course, that’s not the only cutting-edge stunt Cruise masters for “Mission: Impossible.” A first look at the film during Paramount Pictures’ showcase at CinemaCon earlier this year captured Cruise holding onto a plane while flying over South Africa. Cruise also recently thanked fans for their support in a video of himself jumping out of a plane .

“The ‘MI’ series really does represent the pinnacle of filmmaking excellence,” Paramount president Brian Robbins said earlier this year at CinemaCon. “And we have no doubt that this new picture will set the bar even higher.”

Robbins continued, “After five release dates and a whole bunch of rumors where this movie would end up, we are finally ready to bring this phenomenal movie to where it always belonged, and that is your theaters.”

Director Christopher McQuarrie helms the upcoming film, which will exclusively have a theatrical release due in part to Cruise’s urging. Production for “Dead Reckoning Part I” was repeatedly halted by the COVID-19 pandemic but eventually wrapped in September 2021. The budget reportedly ballooned upwards of $290 million during production, with additional funds allocated to finish post-production on the action epic.

So excited to share what we’ve been working on. #MissionImpossible pic.twitter.com/rIyiLzQdMG — Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) December 19, 2022

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Tom Cruise's Wildest Stunts in His Movies, from 'Top Gun: Maverick' to 'Mission: Impossible'

Stunt double, who? Tom Cruise has become synonymous with the dangerous stunts seen in his action-packed movies because he performs all of them himself. Between running down the world's tallest building in Mission: Impossible  to flying a jet in Top Gun: Maverick , here's a roundup of the adrenaline junky's most intense scenes

Tom Cruise's Cliff Jump in Mission: Impossible II

There's nothing that amps Tom Cruise up more than doing his own dangerous stunts , which he has done numerous times throughout the Mission: Impossible franchise.

In the second installment, one memorable and nail-biting scene involved a 2,000-foot cliff in Moab, Utah.

Not only did Cruise scale the cliff with his bare hands, but he jumped a 15-foot gap from one side of the cliff to another with nothing but a thin rope holding him for safety. (Oh, he also hung onto the cliff's side by only his fingertips before pulling himself up.)

"I was really mad that he wanted to do [the stunt], but I tried to stop him and I couldn't," director John Woo told Entertainment Weekly . "I was so scared I was sweating. I couldn't even watch the monitor when we shot it."

Tom Cruise's Knife to the Eye in Mission: Impossible II

Cliff climbs and frightening jumps weren't the only hard-to-watch stunts in the second installment of Mission: Impossible . While our eyes were nearly shut watching this next stunt, Cruise insisted his be wide open.

The infamous "knife-to-eye" scene involved a real knife being propelled full force at his eye, stopping precisely one quarter-inch away from his eyeball, as opposed to somewhere vaguely near his eye like director Woo had suggested, per the Mission: Impossible II Blu-Ray behind-the-scenes clip.

Tom Cruise's Skyscraper Run in Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol

One of Cruise's most famous stunts took place in Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol when he scaled down the side of a building. But not just any building! He scaled the world's tallest building, Burj Khalifa, located in Dubai.

To complete this daunting task, Cruise's character Tom Hunt sported special suction gloves in order to reach the 130th floor of the 2,722-foot skyscraper before rappelling down and concluding with a giant leap of faith.

"One night, after one of the earliest shooting days, I bolted up in bed realizing that we had our star dangling about a mile up in the air on a thin wire and my brain was screaming, 'What the hell are we doing?' " director Brad Bird told the New York Daily News .

Tom Cruise's Exoskeleton Armor in Edge of Tomorrow

While the stunts in Edge of Tomorrow were nonetheless next-level, it was the costume that posed even more of a challenge ! Cruise sported metal exoskeleton armor, a detail that's typically added via CGI in post production.

But naturally, the daredevil actor opted to wear the heavy suit — with one version weighing roughly 85 pounds, costume designer Pierre Bohanna told Entertainment Weekly .

"They're brash, quickly-made pieces of equipment. So you've got to see the guys struggling in them," Bohanna said. "But it's a massive worry when you take something like this and put someone like Tom in there. It's a massive ask for anyone to put up with, let alone somebody that important."

Tom Cruise's Plane Hang in Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation

The Top Gun alumnus is no stranger to action-packed air travel, but his stunt in Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation is incomparable to say the least.

While Top Gun had Cruise daringly fly and pilot fighter planes, Rogue Nation saw the actor cling onto one from the outside!

Using only his fingertips, he dangled 1,000 feet in the air from the side of an Airbus A400M at a speed of 100 knots for six to eight minutes, the film's photography director, Robert Elswit, told The Hollywood Reporter .

In order to safely accomplish the stunt, Cruise was attached via a wire that was later erased in post production. He also wore protective contacts to shield his eyes from flying debris and intense gusts of wind, per CNN.

Tom Cruise's Zero-Gravity Stunt in The Mummy

Ever wonder how actors recreate a cargo plane plummeting to the ground? Ask Cruise, who did just that during the infamous plane crash sequence in The Mummy .

In true Cruise fashion, the actor opted for 64 takes in zero gravity, as opposed to the suggested sound stage alternative, per Variety .

Tom Cruise's Helicopter Hang in Mission: Impossible Fall Out

Cruise was offered to shoot this daunting Mission: Impossible Fall Out scene on a backlot with a green screen, but that's just so out of character.

To complete the stunt, the actor endured 16 hours of intensive helicopter training every day for more than a month in order to pull off the scene's difficult maneuvers and climactic downward spiral, per the Los Angeles Times .

"It's all Tom flying, 100 percent of it. There's a lot of jeopardy," the film's stunt coordinator, Wade Eastwood, told the outlet.

As for the crash sequence, "It's kind of like being in a theme park ride but really dangerous because your limbs are flying everywhere and all you need to do is catch your wrist in the wrong place and that's a permanent injury," costar Henry Cavill added.

Tom Cruise's Building Jump in Mission: Impossible Fall Out

Did you really think hanging off the side of a helicopter, plummeting 40 feet to the ground , and doing a downward spiral were the only missions accomplished by Cruise i n Fall Out ? In the film, he also had to leap from one building's rooftop to another.

To film the chase scene, Cruise was attached to two safety harnesses as he sprinted off one building, leaped off, and crashed against the side of the other before hoisting himself up (only to then keep running again).

Unfortunately for Cruise, the "easy" stunt did go wrong, resulting in a broken ankle for the actor, he told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show .

Tom Cruise's Cockpit Scene in Top Gun: Maverick

In the blockbuster sequel to Cruise's 1986 Top Gun , the cockpit scene in Top Gun: Maverick was — you guessed it — extremely dangerous.

All of the actors were professionally trained to pilot their individual fighter planes themselves.

"We worked with the Navy and the Top Gun School to formulate how to shoot it practically because if we're going to do it, we're going to fly in the F-18s," said Cruise in a behind-the-scenes Paramount Pictures video clip.

Tom Cruise's Motorcycle Jump in Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning

The seventh installment of the Mission: Impossibl e franchise, Dead Reckoning Part One , which is set to release in 2023, will see Cruise take on one of his most daring duties to date .

In the film, he rides a motorcycle off a massive ramp, flies into the sky, and parachutes his way down to safety — all while cameras are rolling and helicopters are following him to get the shot, per Today .

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The Most Insane Mission: Impossible Stunts Where Tom Cruise Actually Risked His Life

The guy really earns his paychecks.

Whether you love them or not, you have to admit that Tom Cruise really earns his paycheck for every Mission: Impossible movie. Whenever he's hanging from the tallest building on Earth, drowning himself or doing a wheelie on a motorcycle at top speed—Cruise always insists that it's really him in the scene, and not a stunt man. He's been through hell in these movies—and even broke his leg in the latest film. He's terrified his directors, and impressed the hell out of stunt coordinators making some of the most impressive action films of all time. These are Tom Cruise's greatest stunts from the Mission: Impossible series.

10. Sexy Free Climbing ( Mission: Impossible 2 )

9. underwater vault heist ( mission: impossible — rogue nation ).

In the fifth film, Ethan Hunt is forced to break into a submerged security vault. According to Business Insider , after jumping off a 120-foot ledge, Cruise held his breath underwater for over 6 minutes. "On two or three occasions I brought him up because I felt he was down for too long," said the stunt coordinator on the movie. "He was like, 'What are you doing? I was right in the moment. I'm acting.' And I was like, 'I know, it was just too real for me and I wasn't comfortable.'"

8. Motorcycle / Helicopter Chase ( Mission: Impossible 2 )

The critics might not have liked the movie, but Woo can film a hell of a chase scene. Mission: Impossible II is best known for this explosive bike chase, during which Cruise does the insane wheelie jump fight.

7. Exploding Aquarium Escape in Prague ( Mission: Impossible )

Brian De Palma’s beloved first entry to the franchise is home to several legendary stunts. The exploding restaurant aquarium scene was created almost completely without digital effects. That's actually Tom Cruise running from 16 tons of water. Early in this film, director Brian De Palma established what they were going to do with this series.

6. Biker Chase in Morocco ( Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation )

At this point in the franchise, the stunt crew is more than comfortable putting Cruise in control of the vehicles. After nearly drowning, Hunt chases down a gang of bikers in the streets of Morocco.

5. Missiles on the Bridge ( Mission: Impossible III )

Directed by JJ Abrams, Mission: Impossible III gave the series the modern update it needed. Though the missile was CGI, Cruise actually ran full speed and got slammed into that car. And he did it multiple times to ensure perfection.

4. Hanging from the Ceiling ( Mission: Impossible )

Perhaps the most iconic sequence in the entire series, most of this stunt was actually performed practically. According to a behind-the-scenes featurette , Cruise was really balancing himself above that floor.

3. Halo Jump ( Mission: Impossible — Fallout )

For the sixth film, Cruise became the first actor to ever perform a halo jump, or a high altitude sky dive. What's bonkers is this high risk military maneuver requires an oxygen mask, and since they didn't want to cover up Cruise's face during the stunt, they actually invented a prop that kept him alive and showed his face. Cruise had to keep acting during his fall from 25,000 feet in the air until he opened his parachute only 2,000 feet above the ground.

2. Catching a Real Plane ( Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation )

Rogue Nation ’s biggest stunt features Cruise hanging from a real plane as it takes off. Cruise, always committees to authenticity, is said in a featurette to have done the stunt eight times.

1. Climbing the Tallest Building on Earth ( Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol )

In the fourth film, directed by Brad Bird, Ethan Hunt is forced to climb the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building on Earth. Of course, since this is Mission: Impossible , they actually filmed Cruise hanging 2,722 feet above the ground. As Cruise later recalled : "Some of the crew couldn’t even go on the floor [of a room where the window had been taken out] just because of the height issue, it was too much for them. When I’m swinging from the building, I have crosswinds, and, when you see the shot, you’ll see that I’m actually flying. I had to figure out how to do that, I’m on a single rope at that point and when I leave the building and catch that wind, I am actually flying and trying to figure out how to move my feet like a rudder to move across the whole arc of the building."

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