tom cruise in burj khalifa

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

*Availability in US

Not available

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.

Did Tom Cruise Sit Atop the Burj Khalifa Without a Harness?

The skyscraper is more than a half-mile tall., published june 10, 2021.

About this rating

This is a genuine photograph of Tom Cruise sitting on top of the Burj Khalifa, but he is almost certainly wearing a harness.

A practically unbelievable photograph of actor Tom Cruise sitting on top of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building at a height of more than a half mile, is frequently shared online along with the claim that the actor wasn't wearing a harness during the stunt:

This photograph was taken in 2011, during the filming of the fourth installment in the "Mission Impossible" series. Cruise did a number of stunts in that movie that took place inside (and outside) the building. Here's a behind-the-scenes clip showing some of these stunts:

At one point during filming, Cruise and the stunt team decided to take a helicopter to the top of the building to get a few photographs. Cruise talked about this experience during an appearance on "The Graham Norton Show."

While the picture is real, there's plenty of reasons to doubt the claim that Cruise was without a harness during this stunt. For one, when Cruise filmed these stunts (as seen in the behind-the-scenes clip above) he is wearing a harness. In fact, Tom Peitzman, the visual effects producer for the movie, said in 2011 that everyone involved in filming these stunts (even those who were inside while Cruise was hanging on the outside of the building) were also wearing a harnesses.

"Special mounts had to be made for the 65-millmeter Imax cameras, special safety had to be put in place, because in a building that's 800 meteres tall [it's 2,723 feet] you couldn't run the risk of anything falling. Even all of us who are working inside the building, we all had to harness ourselves because the window was open."

With all of the safety precautions that went into filming these stunts, it seems highly improbable that Cruise would be allowed to sit on the top of this building without a harness.

It should also be noted that while there are pictures of Cruise sitting on the Burj Khalifa and of the helicopter near the Burj Khalifa, there are no photographs of Cruise getting in or out of the helicopter. While it seems likely Cruise simply hopped out of the helicopter for a quick pic, there was likely a little more involved (such as hooking up some sort of security cable.)

It's also worth noting that helicopter is not the only way to access the top of this spire. This column is actually hollow and can be accessed via an internal ladder. This is how maintenance crews would access this area. In 2013, photographer Joe McNally was allowed to access this area to take some images.

It seems likely that someone was waiting for Cruise as he transitioned from the helicopter to the spire, and then helped him attach a safety harness.

Correction [June 14, 2021]: A previous version of this article incorrectly referred to photographer Joe McNally as John McNally.

By Dan Evon

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.

Entertainment

How to Watch
My watchlist
Stock market
Biden economy
Personal finance
Stocks: most active
Stocks: gainers
Stocks: losers
Trending tickers
World indices
US Treasury bonds
Top mutual funds
Highest open interest
Highest implied volatility
Currency converter
Basic materials
Communication services
Consumer cyclical
Consumer defensive
Financial services
Industrials
Real estate
Mutual funds
Credit cards
Balance transfer cards
Cash back cards
Rewards cards
Travel cards
Online checking
High-yield savings
Money market
Home equity loan
Personal loans
Student loans
Options pit
Fantasy football
Pro Pick 'Em
College Pick 'Em
Fantasy baseball
Fantasy hockey
Fantasy basketball
Download the app
Daily fantasy
Scores and schedules
GameChannel
World Baseball Classic
Premier League
CONCACAF League
Champions League
Motorsports
Horse racing
Newsletters

New on Yahoo

Privacy Dashboard

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

Oops! Something went wrong. Please try again later. More content below

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+.

NFL Draft fashion: Caleb Williams, Malik Nabers dressed to impress, but Marvin Harrison Jr.'s medallion stole the show

Every player was dressed to impress at the 2024 NFL Draft.

Jamie Dimon is worried the US economy is headed back to the 1970s

JPMorgan's CEO is concerned the US economy could be in for a repeat of the stagflation that hampered the country during the 1970s.

Broncos, Jets, Lions and Texans have new uniforms. Let's rank them

Which new uniforms are winners this season?

Based on the odds, here's what the top 10 picks of the NFL Draft will be

What would a mock draft look like using just betting odds?

Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire: Widely available players ready to help your squad

Andy Behrens has a fresh batch of priority pickups for fantasy managers looking to close out the week in strong fashion.

Luka makes Clippers look old, Suns are in big trouble & a funeral for Lakers | Good Word with Goodwill

Vincent Goodwill and Tom Haberstroh break down last night’s NBA Playoffs action and preview several games for tonight and tomorrow.

Dave McCarty, player on 2004 Red Sox championship team, dies 1 week after team's reunion

The Red Sox were already mourning the loss of Tim Wakefield from that 2004 team.

These are the fastest-selling new cars of 2024

iSeeCars found that a handful of brands sell new cars much faster than others and noted that EVs are taking longer to sell than hybrids.

Everyone's still talking about the 'SNL' Beavis and Butt-Head sketch. Cast members and experts explain why it's an instant classic.

Ryan Gosling, who starred in the skit, couldn't keep a straight face — and neither could some of the "Saturday Night Live" cast.

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.

Type your email…

LATEST POSTS

The True Story Behind The Blind Side: Success and Controversy
Behind the Scenes of Stranger Things: Hawkins Hidden Gems!
A How-To Guide: Syncing The Wizard of Oz with Pink Floyd
Let em’ Dance!: The True Story that Inspired the Movie ‘Footloose’
The Mystical Ending of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ Explained

Discover more from The Film Bandit

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

'Mission: Impossible 8': Release Date, Cast, Filming, and Everything We Know So Far

Ethan Hunt's next mission is currently on hold.

Quick Links

Does 'mission: impossible 8' have a release date, will 'mission: impossible 8' be in theaters, who is returning for 'mission: impossible 8', who are the new cast members in 'mission: impossible 8', what will 'mission: impossible 8' be about, who is making 'mission: impossible 8', when and where did 'mission: impossible 8' film.

Editor's Note: The following contains full spoilers for 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning' Fans of the Mission: Impossible franchise have been eagerly awaiting the next chapter in Ethan Hunt's story in Mission: Impossible 8 .

It's honestly amazing that the Mission: Impossible series has been able to up the ante with every installment since the original 1996 film. Each installment somehow ends up being more exciting than the last and adds its own flavor of action spectacle to keep the franchise fresh and exciting. With a solid foundation formed by Mission: Impossible 1996, we got high-speed motorcycle chases in Mission: Impossible II , a terrifying villain in Mission: Impossible III , a Burj Khalifa-scaling triumph in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol , a stealthy espionage treat in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation , and a gripping nuclear prevention tale in Mission: Impossible - Fallout .

Ethan Hunt's latest mission, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning , might be the best installment in the long-running series yet. In a surprisingly topical tale about the dangers of Artificial Intelligence, Ethan and his team are tasked with finding and destroying a rogue AI known only as The Entity. The resulting globe-trotting journey leads to some incredible action setpieces and more than a few shocking twists and turns.

While the second half of the epic search for The Entity undoubtedly makes Mission: Impossible 8 one of the most anticipated projects of 2025, although moviegoers will have to wait a bit longer than expected for Ethan Hunt's next mission. To learn more about the second part's cast, release date, production status, and more, here is everything we know so far about Mission: Impossible 8 (queue fuse-lighting sequence).

Editor's Note: This piece was updated on April 24, 2024.

Mission: Impossible 8

Mission: Impossible 8 is set to release on Friday, May 25, 2025 . The film has gone through numerous delays, having previously been scheduled for release on August 5, 2022, November 4, 2022, July 7, 2023, and June 28, 2024.

While the initial two delays were because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused both Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning to constantly be delayed as well, the latest setback was because filming had been halted by the SAG-AFTRA strike .

There's a reason why Tom Cruise's catchphrase of "See you at the movies" has become so prevalent. With Top Gun: Maverick and the Mission: Impossible franchise being such massive box office hits, you better believe that Mission: Impossible 8 will be premiering exclusively in a movie theater near you. After the previous movie lost its IMAX screens after one week due to Oppenheimer , Mission: Impossible 8 will be receiving a three-week IMAX exclusive releas e.

After the film's theatrical run concludes, Mission: Impossible 8 will more than likely be joining the rest of the franchise entries on Paramount+ for a streaming release.

If, by chance, you still haven't seen Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning , you can stream the movie on Paramount+.

Watch on Paramount+

Unsurprisingly, global action superstar Tom Cruise will once again be reprising his role as IMF Agent Ethan Hunt. The actor's world-famous tenacity for doing his own stunts has made him one of modern cinema's most famous figures. Also set to return to assist Ethan in his quest for The Entity are Captain America: The First Avenger standout Hayley Atwell as Grace, Hot Fuzz star Simon Pegg as Benji, and Pulp Fiction icon Ving Rhames as Luther. Also on the cast list is Doctor Sleep star Rebecca Ferguson as the fan favorite Ilsa Faust, but given how her character's story goes in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning , that may not be the case (unless there is a flashback sequence or Ilsa's death was a fakeout).

Other characters expected to return are the antagonists of the film, such as Essai Morales ( La Bamba ) as Gabriel, Vanessa Kirby ( Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw ) as The White Queen, and Pom Klementieff ( Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ) as Paris , the latter of whom may return as a redeemed ally after barely surviving her wounds in Part 1 . Also likely returning are Part 1 's deuteragonists, including Shea Whigham 's ( Kong: Skull Island ) CIA agent Jasper Briggs, Greg Tarzan Davis ( Top Gun: Maverick ) as CIA agent Degas, Charles Parnell ( Top Gun: Maverick ) as NRO, and Henry Czerny ( Clear and Present Danger ), reprising the character of Kittridge, who debuted all the way back in the first Mission: Impossible . Kittridge isn't the only familiar face from a past film returning this time either, as Rolf Saxon ( Tomorrow Never Dies ) is reprising his role as William Donloe - another character who hasn't been seen since the first film. Also likely returning in flashbacks is Mariela Garriga ( NCIS ) as Marie - the mysterious woman from Ethan's past who Gabriel killed.

The returning cast is already massive, but even more new faces are joining the second chapter. This includes Emmy Award-Winner Nick Offerman ( The Last of Us ) as Sydney, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Holt McCallany (Mindhunter) as Bernstein, the Secretary of Defense. Also joining the cast in undisclosed roles are Emmy-Award Winner Hannah Waddingham ( Ted Lasso ), Academy Award nominee Janet McTeer ( The Menu ), Lucy Tulugarjuk , Katy O'Brian ( Love Lies Bleeding ), and Tramell Tillman ( Severance ).

While an official plot synopsis has not yet been released, Mission: Impossible 8 will almost certainly be continuing Ethan Hunt's search for The Entity, even though the world's governments and other third parties are trying to stop him. Ethan is also likely seeking retribution against Gabriel, who has now murdered two people very close to him. It's an epic conclusion that will likely see Ethan bring along old friends and potentially meet new enemies.

The film was initially set to be titled Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part Two , but this is now subject to change. Only time will tell if Paramount decides to remove the "Part One" from the seventh installment.

Much of the behind-the-camera crew from Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning will be returning for Mission: Impossible 8 . This includes writer/director Christopher McQuarrie , who has become a franchise veteran after directing Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and Mission: Impossible - Fallout prior to the Dead Reckoning films. McQuarrie also shares screenwriting credit with Band of Brothers scribe Erik Jendresen .

Also attached to return are composer Lorne Balfe ( Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves ), cinematographer Fraser Taggart ( Robot Overlords ), editor Eddie Hamilton ( Top Gun: Maverick ), and production designer Gary Freeman ( The Witches ).

In an interview with Collider, McQuarrie revealed that most of Part 2 has already been completed , but there are still some major set pieces that have not been filmed yet. However, production was not able to be completed before the initiation of the SAG-AFTRA strike. Filming has since picked back up, and photos from the set made their way online in late March 2024 .

Latest News
Emergencies
Ask the Law
GN Fun Drive
Visa+Immigration
Phone+Internet
Reader Queries
Safety+Security
Banking & Insurance
Dubai Airshow
Corporate Tax
Top Destinations
Corporate News
Electronics
Home and Kitchen
Consumables
Saving and Investment
Budget Living
Expert Columns
Community Tips
Cryptocurrency
Cooking and Cuisines
Guide to Cooking
Art & People
Friday Partner
Daily Crossword
Word Search
Philippines
Australia-New Zealand
Corrections
From the Editors
Special Reports
Pregnancy & Baby
Learning & Play
Child Health
For Mums & Dads
UAE Success Stories
Live the Luxury
Culture and History
Staying Connected

Entertainment

Live Scores
Point Table
Top Scorers
Photos & Videos
Course Reviews
Learn to Play
South Indian
Arab Celebs
Health+Fitness
Gitex Global 2023
Best Of Bollywood
Special Features
Investing in the Future
Know Plan Go
Gratuity Calculator
Notifications
Prayer Times

Behind the scenes of Tom Cruise's Burj Khalifa stunt

Incredible footage of Cruise jumping out of windows of the 828 metre Burj Khalifa

Dubai: Take a look at this incredible behind-the-scenes video showing just how Tom Cruise did his stunts on the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, for his upcoming film Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol . Cruise shocked the world last October when he performed stunt after crazy stunt on the outside of the building, and here the film's director Brad Bird takes viewers inside the shooting with some incredible footage of Cruise jumping out of windows of the 828 metre skyscraper, swinging around the side of the building -- and even running down it. You won't believe your eyes.

The film releases in the UAE at Imax and standard cinemas on December 17.

More From Entertainment

Cinema ticket prices set to drop in Saudi Arabia

South Korean singer Park Bo-ram dies at 30

One more Malayalam radio station shuts down

First Saudi official classics radio hits airwaves

Drake offers to pay for fan’s divorce proceedings

Harvey Weinstein's conviction on misconduct overturned

Dev Patel turns director with action film 'Monkey Man'

Megan Thee Stallion accused of harassment at workplace

Navya Naveli Nanda talks women empowerment, privilege

Eid Al Fitr 2024: A round-up of concerts in the UAE

'Climate change will affect Muslim world'

Alphabet joins $2t club as results show ai strength, israeli minister ben-gvir hurt in car accident, guardiola hints haaland could return for sunday clash, mlg, ehang and adio to drive evtol development in uae, bayanat, autocrypt sign mou to advance ai driving.

Get Breaking News Alerts From Gulf News

We’ll send you latest news updates through the day. You can manage them any time by clicking on the notification icon.

The Hilarious Story Behind Tom Cruise’s Iconic ‘Mission Impossible’ Stunt

"Only Tom!"

Image Credit: Paramount Pictures

Apparently, Tom Cruise was not pleased when told a Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol stunt was going to be created digitally and he had an unintentionally funny response…

Tom Cruise is one of Hollywood’s most successful actors. The 59-year-old is renowned for his many acting accolades, starring in the iconic film Top Gun , and for performing all of his own stunts .

And the stunt that Cruise is most famous for has a rather funny story behind it. We’re, of course, talking about the Burj Khalifa stunt Cruise pulled off for the film Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol , which was released in 2011.

If you’re unfamiliar, the Burj Khalifa is the tallest tower in the world and in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol , Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt must scale the outside of the building to the 130th floor, retrieve nuclear codes and then repel down it. And Cruise insisted on performing the dangerous stunt himself.

But according to Joseph Kahn, the filmmaker best known for directing numerous Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, and Eminem music videos, the original plan for the Burj Khalifa stunt was to CGI Cruise in. Taking to Twitter , Kahn wrote:

“Heard a great Tom Cruise story. On Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol they did an animatic of the Burj Khalifa sequence, explaining how there was going to be a digital Tom to do the stunts. Tom then angrily said “THERE IS NO DIGITAL TOM! JUST TOM!” So they shot it for real.” Joseph Kahn

Kahn went on to say that Robert Elswit, who was the director of photography for Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol , told him this hilarious story about Cruise.

This alleged (and funny) response from Cruise does seem legitimate; especially when you consider that Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol ’s insurance company refused to insure the film if Cruise performed the Burj Khalifa stunt, so Cruise fired them and went and found an insurance company that would let him do the stunt.

In any case, whether Cruise actually said it or not, the line “There is no digital Tom! Only Tom!” is iconic.

The Best Tom Cruise Movies
Most Iconic Top Gun Scene Almost Got Director Fired
Entertainment
About DMARGE
Editorial Policy
Privacy Policy
Affiliate Policy
Terms & Conditions
In The Media
Corrections Policy
Fact-Checking

Get the latest breaking news and original content across sport, entertainment, luxury and travel.

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.

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, ethan hunt’s second act and tom cruise’s third: the unending impossible mission.

If there’s a “before” and “after” in the “ Mission: Impossible ” franchise, an obvious dividing point is the Burj Khalifa. This now-iconic sequence in the fourth film, 2011’s “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” revolutionized the series around spectacular set pieces centered on Cruise actually performing jaw-dropping, death-defying practical stunts on location. By contrast, in 2006’s “ Mission: Impossible III ,” when Ethan Hunt needed to access the roof of a heavily guarded Shanghai skyscraper, while Cruise really did the swing and the wirework the stunt called for, he did it on a stage with green screens, not in the steel and glass canyons of Shanghai. What set the bar for the future was going to Dubai and climbing on the face of the world's tallest building; every subsequent big set piece, from clinging for dear life to the fuselage of an ascending turboprop military aircraft to riding a motorcycle over the edge of a cliff, has sought to clear or even raise that bar.

However, there’s an even more crucial before-and-after moment in “Ghost Protocol,” some 20-odd minutes before the Burj Khalifa sequence. It's not as flashy, certainly, but in a way, it's just as momentous. The scene finds Ethan on a fourth-story ledge of a hospital building in Moscow, looking down into a roll-off dumpster. It was here that I first realized that I was seeing something new—something that would ultimately mark the beginning of Ethan Hunt’s second act and of Tom Cruise ’s third.

The first three “Mission: Impossible” movies all have memorable set pieces and images, above all, the iconic CIA vault sequence in the inaugural 1996 Brian De Palma film: a nail-biting tour de force of tonal and literal suspense. They also have significant drawbacks, varying as much as the styles of their very different directors—but one limitation common to them all. In the early films, we see Ethan leap from an exploding helicopter to a bullet train in a tunnel, jump from one face of a red sandstone tower to another while free soloing, and yo-yo over the exterior wall of Vatican City. What we never see before that hospital ledge, though, is Ethan blink in the face of a death-defying challenge.

“Ghost Protocol” actually opens with another Impossible Missions Force agent, Hanaway, leaping off a rooftop and executing a series of midair maneuvers so outrageous, with such all-in-a-day’s-work panache, that, watching for the first time, I resigned myself to two hours of casually weightless cartoon superheroics. When Hanaway is murdered moments later, the sudden reversal feels like rapid-fire moves in a game of speed chess—a feeling that persists as Ethan winds up hospitalized, handcuffed, and guarded by a Russian intelligence agent named Sidorov, only to escape the cuffs using a paper clip and, Batman-like, vanish from the hospital ward within seconds. Until that is, Sidorov leans out the window and incredulously spots Ethan on a ledge, wearing only torn slacks, looking down at a dumpster dozens of feet below.

“How to Jump From a Building Into a Dumpster” is one of the extreme procedures detailed in a small 1999 volume titled The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook , by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht. The contents are based on expert input, though the book is officially classified as “humor.” It is reportedly “entirely possible to survive a high fall (five stories or more) into a Dumpster, provided it is filled with the right type of trash (cardboard boxes are best) and you land correctly.” Ethan is only on the fourth story; if anyone can land correctly, it’s obviously him. Yet who would count on a dumpster outside a hospital to contain the right type of trash? Ethan glances uneasily at Sidorov, who gestures invitingly toward the dumpster: Be my guest. Shirtless, barefoot, breathing raggedly, Ethan looks down ... and, for the first time since we’ve known him, decides that he doesn’t like his chances. Defeated, he begins inching back toward Sidorov and captivity.

Then comes the electric punchline. A passing delivery van; a quick calculation—and Ethan, leaping from the building, finds a way to street level almost as preposterous as Hanaway’s. The differences, though, are crucial: Ethan is anxious and desperate, and he doesn’t quite (as they say in gymnastics) stick the landing. Throwing his belt over a power line, Ethan ziplines down to meet the delivery van—but when he lets go, he topples off the van and tumbles heavily to the cobblestones. Sidorov, fortunately, is almost as stunned as Ethan recovers, enough to scramble to his feet and dash around a corner.

What the “Mission: Impossible” series discovers at this moment is this: Imperfect stunts can be more thrilling than perfect ones. An unflappable Superman who always knows exactly what to do and does it perfectly is less exciting than a fallible, vulnerable action hero—one who can be caught by surprise, who hesitates and has misgivings, who is forced to improvise, sometimes miscalculating and even getting hurt.

Establishing that Ethan is fallible and can get hurt is part of what makes the Burj Khalifa sequence so thrilling. It’s riveting to watch him step out into empty space 123 stories up and laboriously make his way to the 130th floor; it’s even more thrilling to watch Cruise run (any time he runs, he’s just Tom Cruise) back down the side of the Burj Khalifa on a tether. The final payoff, though, comes when the tether proves too short, obliging Ethan to take a running leap, spinning free of the building and releasing the line with split-second timing, freefalling toward safety … but coming in a bit high. Bashing his face against the wall above the opening, he is saved only by the quick action of his teammates, who manage to catch him by the ankle and haul him back into the building. This would never have happened in earlier installments.

To be fair, Ethan wasn’t really an action hero in the beginning, and the CIA break-in certainly makes him sweat. Yet the first film’s climactic helicopter-train-tunnel sequence, while it gets points for audacity and ingenuity, is solidly in cartoon territory. The same is true of the mannered, balletic violence of John Woo ’s stylish, divisive “ Mission: Impossible II ,” in which, no matter how much punishment he takes, Ethan never loses his impassive cool. By the Shanghai skyscraper sequence in “Mission: Impossible III,” there are hints of what’s to come, though we don’t see what circumstances force Ethan to improvise his base jump exit from the building or how he reacts to them.

Ethan’s second act corresponds to the third phase of Cruise’s career, though the transition from the long, successful first phase to the shorter, awkward second one is fuzzier. After two decades of almost charmed superstardom, Cruise infamously suffered a series of mostly self-inflicted PR disasters in the 2000s: Deriding psychiatry, shaming Brooke Shields for taking antidepressants, unnervingly intense proselytizing for Scientology, and of course, “jumping” on Oprah’s couch. Cruise’s public image has always been complicated, but by the mid-2000s, he was widely perceived as off-puttingly nutty. When he went to work on “Ghost Protocol,” there was talk of passing the torch to Jeremy Renner .

Instead, “Ghost Protocol” kicked off Cruise’s mission to claw his way back to the top. Going silent about his controversial opinions and personal life, he put everything he had into making the Tom Cruise narrative about his willingness to push himself to the limit and the limits of what audiences had ever seen anyone do. People thought of him as a crazy zealot; he set out to become the crazy zealot of action spectacle. He had done his own stunts for years; now, he began doing things no stuntman had ever done, things no one would ask or expect of a stuntman.

Cruise’s extreme commitment is mirrored in Ethan’s—a reality highlighted whenever Ethan takes an unexpected hit or Cruise gets really injured. Perhaps the most striking difference between first-act and second-act Ethan is this: Ethan chooses to walk away from the IMF at the end of each of the first three movies. For second-act Ethan, walking away is unthinkable, and normal, private life is a luxury he can’t afford. The De Palma film massacred Ethan’s entire team; not until the end of “Ghost Protocol” is there finally a sense of a real team around him again. “Your missions,” he tells them, adding, “Choose to accept them.” That unorthodox use of the imperative tense tells us that Ethan’s choice is made: a different choice from the one at the end of every prior film. The IMF is now his family, and impossible missions are his life.

Nor is it just Ethan or just “Mission: Impossible.” Quintessential third-act Cruise movies include “ Edge of Tomorrow ,” an alien-invasion movie with a “ Groundhog Day ”–like time-bending premise, and “ Top Gun: Maverick ,” establishing Pete “ Maverick ” Mitchell as Cruise’s other signature role with a second act. His “Edge of Tomorrow” character is a shallow, self-interested glad-hander (not unlike many first-act Cruise roles) who is gradually remade through one temporal iteration after another, progressively becoming the ultimate warrior, preternaturally gifted and willing to do whatever it takes, even dying countless times, to save the world and the one person who understands what he’s going through and what he can do. As for Maverick, while he’s not Ethan (Ethan wouldn’t have pushed the Darkstar to Mach 11 if Mach 10 were enough), he’s come to share Ethan’s driving determination to do whatever is necessary to see the mission through and to bring his team home safely, along with Ethan’s aura of singular ability as the one man who can get it done. Even Cruise’s young co-stars had to commit to boot camp and flight training for “Maverick”’s unprecedented aerial cinematography, acclimating to extreme g-forces in order to perform in rolling, spinning F/A-16s—something no one could ask or expect, except Cruise.

As triumphant as Cruise’s third act has been, there’s no going back to the kind of bankable superstardom he enjoyed for so long. Those days are gone forever, not just for Cruise but for everyone in the intellectual-property entertainment era. The new stars are brands: superheroes, video games, and toys. In Ethan’s second act, and Maverick’s, we see Cruise figuring out how to succeed in the current environment without that advantage. This is no longer just a tactic to offset bad PR. Cruise has become a quixotic standard bearer in an era marked by a lazy overreliance on digitally generated spectacle and synthetic action, as another way of making movies, for creating must-see big-screen spectacles by celebrating human potential and achievement. Ethan regularly saves the world; the box-office success of “Top Gun: Maverick,” in the words of no less than Steven Spielberg , helped to save Hollywood. But even that isn’t all. Cruise made “Ghost Protocol” in his late forties and spent his fifties making the sequels. Now 60, he recently expressed his intention to go on making “Mission: Impossible” movies into his eighties Cruise seems to want to extend his third act until the first two acts are mere prologue, to outrun time itself.

With each passing year, Cruise’s creative resistance looks as much more quixotic as it does more necessary. It’s almost eerie how “Dead Reckoning: Part One” has arrived as anxieties in Hollywood over its own future and the role of encroaching technology in that future have reached a tipping point. Among the stakes in the historic double strike of Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild are the displacement of human creative work by rapidly evolving AI. Subtext is text in “Dead Reckoning Part One,” which grapples explicitly with anxiety over superhuman technology and human obsolescence. There were lowkey concerns in “Maverick” about drones eventually replacing elite fighter pilots, but in “Dead Reckoning Part One,” the enemy has arrived. Computer-generated illusions erode access to truth and reality, and the very notions of right and wrong hang in the balance. Tom Cruise and Ethan Hunt may never give up, but what mission will be worth fighting for if human beings lose the future?

Latest blog posts

The Movies That Underwent Major Changes After Their Festival Premiere

Netflix's Dead Boy Detectives Is A Spinoff Stuck In Limbo

Preview of Tributes at the 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

Pioneering Actor-Producer Terry Carter Dies

Latest reviews.

Challengers

Matt zoller seitz.

Boy Kills World

Simon abrams.

Monica Castillo

The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed

Brian Tallerico

Unsung Hero

Christy lemire.

Environment
Road to Net Zero
Art & Design
Film & TV
Music & On-stage
Pop Culture
Fashion & Beauty
Home & Garden
Things to do
Combat Sports
Horse Racing
Beyond the Headlines
Trending Middle East
Business Extra
Culture Bites
Year of Elections
Pocketful of Dirhams
Books of My Life
Iraq: 20 Years On

Burj Khalifa viral moments, including Tom Cruise stunt, Emirates advert and a giant ring

From blockbuster performances to digital recreations, here are five times the landmark has stood out from the crowd.

Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol. He performed his own stunts while filming one scene on Burj Khalifa. AP

Wednesday marks 13 years since Burj Khalifa was inaugurated, becoming the world’s tallest building and a global landmark.

Standing 828 metres tall, the structure took more than six years to build, at a cost of $1.5 billion.

In the years since, it has become more than just a building. It’s a tourist attraction, a space for art and celebration, a shooting location for countless films and music videos and the subject of several viral social media moments.

Here, The National looks at five times Burj Khalifa has been seen from a different perspective.

When Tom Cruise scaled it in Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol

Merely a year after Burj Khalifa was completed, it featured in one of the most memorable scenes from the 2011 blockbuster Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol .

Tom Cruise ’s character, secret agent Ethan Hunt, uses a pair of special suction gloves to reach the 130th floor. Known for doing his own stunts, Cruise shot scenes in which he walked sideways across the building’s exterior 518m in the air.

When a member of Emirates crew stood on top of it for an advert

New emirates video shows flight attendant on top of burj khalifa.

In 2021, Emirates caused a stir when it posted a video on social media appearing to show a flight attendant standing on top of Burj Khalifa , holding a sign celebrating the UAE being removed from the UK’s red list during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Some questioned whether the video was fake, but the Dubai airline soon revealed it had enlisted the help of skydiver and stuntwoman Nicole Smith-Ludvik, who posed as crew for the ambitious shoot.

Smith-Ludvik did in fact stand on the building’s highest point strapped to a safety harness — a feat only achieved by a small handful of people — as she was filmed by helicopters and drones.

She later returned to the same spot for another video, this time promoting Emirates’ partnership with Expo 2020 Dubai.

When it was given a CGI umbrella to shelter from the rain

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Fazza (@faz3)

In December, Burj Khalifa was at the centre of a fun video to brighten up a grey and rainy day in the city. The viral clip , shared by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed , Crown Prince of Dubai, shows the top of the tower opening to produce an umbrella, sheltering itself from the rain.

The CGI video was produced as part of the city’s Dubai Destinations promotional campaign, which has created several images and clips that have gone viral in recent months. Videos include a summer campaign, which featured Burj Khalifa being used a ring toss for a giant flamingo pool inflatable.

When it lit up for special global events

Burj khalifa lights up in tribute to queen elizabeth ii.

Burj Khalifa is famous for its nightly projector light shows, which transform the outside of the structure into a colourful show that draws tourists from around the world. But it also produces several special lights shows to mark global events, from celebrations to memorials and everything in between.

It held a special memorial show following the death of UAE President, Sheikh Khalifa , who died in May aged 73.

In September, it commemorated the life of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II , following her death aged 96.

In November, it also lit up to celebrate Saudi Arabia’s historic World Cup win over eventual victors Argentina in the group stages, which shocked and delighted fans around the world in equal measure.

When it was surrounded by a futuristic ring design

In August, Burj Khalifa was — quite literally — at the centre of an ambitious architectural project , which would see it encircled by a 550-metre-tall ring structure.

The planned project by architecture firm Znera Space, known as Downtown Circle, would be a floating city concept that would change the emirate’s skyline as we know it.

With a circumference of 3km, the structure would consist of smaller units containing homes as well as public, commercial and cultural spaces, as well as a skypark and a tram that circles the outer perimeter.

However, the design is very much still a concept. “Our roles as architects is to come up with these ideas,” Najmus Chowdry, co-founder of Znera Space, previously told The National . “We want people to comment on it, criticise it, to see how we can think about building topographies.”

The Arts Edit

A guide to arts and culture, from a Middle Eastern perspective

Nostalgic Buzz

Ranking The Top 26 Best Tom Cruise Films Ever Made

Posted: April 24, 2024 | Last updated: April 24, 2024

<em>Far and Away</em> was slammed by critics in 1992 for being a shallow, simplistic American epic. There’s some truth there, as director Ron Howard seems more interested in telling a weepy love story than he is in actually examining this particular period of history. However, that also sells short everything else the film has to offer. It’s beautifully shot, particularly the final land grab sequence. The score is memorable and moving. Cruise and Kidman’s natural chemistry elevates an otherwise very old-fashioned romance story. This isn’t anyone’s <em>best</em> work, but it's still worth revisiting. You just have to look past Cruise’s very, very, very bad Irish accent.

26. Far & Away (1992)

Credit to <em>Oblivion</em> for attempting to do something new -- even if the whole thing feels wholly familiar. It's a kind of pastiche of the genre. The movie is visually stunning and the effects are great. However, as the story begins to lay out its cards, you realize that it's all in service to an unsatisfying narrative. Tom Cruise is fine here playing a familiar version of Tom Cruise, but that’s not enough to elevate this above being a somewhat enjoyable but extremely average science fiction movie.

25. Oblivion (2013)

They weren’t trying to reinvent the wheel with this one. Tony Scott teams back up with Tom Cruise to essentially remake <em>Top Gun,</em> trading out fighter jets for stock cars. It doesn’t quite reach the same heights as their first outing, but there’s still a lot of good here. The supporting cast is fantastic, bringing depth to what were pretty stock characters on the page, and every scene with Cruise behind the wheel is thrilling. It’s arguably one of the best racing films ever made. <br> <br> <em>Days of Thunder</em> is dumb, loud and tons of fun.

24. Days of Thunder (1990)

Tom Cruise earned his first Oscar nomination for his performance in <em>Born on the 4th of July.</em> It totally makes sense -- as this is exactly the kind of role that the Academy notices. It is a BIG swing from Cruise, and he spends the entire 145-minute runtime capital 'A' acting. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie doesn’t live up to his performance. Oliver Stone is completely unsubtle and heavy-handed here (even for him), and leaves us with an experience that is ultimately less than the sum of its parts. This is a good movie that should have been great.

23. Born on the 4th of July (1989)

<em>Interview With a Vampire</em> is more of a vibe than a movie. Credit not only to Director Neil Jordan but also to the cinematographer, production designer and costume designers for creating a gothic feast for the eyes. The strong tone and sense of place is probably why this is one of the few performances where Tom Cruise is actually able to (at times) disappear into his role. There are moments where we are not watching Tom Cruise the movie star -- but rather the seductive vampire Lestat. <br> <br> Good thing, too, since there isn’t much of an actual plot.

22. Interview With a Vampire (1994)

If you made a “best of” list for the <em>Mission: Impossible</em> franchise, <em>Mission: Impossible 3</em> would chart near the bottom. It’s still an above-average action thriller, but the latter entries in the series have topped it in nearly every way. <br> <br> I say <em>nearly</em> because <em>Mission: Impossible 3</em> happens to have the most compelling villain that has ever crossed Ethan Hunt and the IMF. We see the villain in the form of a ruthless arms dealer portrayed by the inimitable Philip Seymour Hoffman. He brings such an intensity to the performance that even scenes where he’s monologuing are as tense and thrilling as any sequence where Cruise jumps out of a plane. That’s reason enough to seek out this movie.

21. Mission: Impossible III (2006)

Tom Cruise’s second collaboration with writer-director Cameron Crowe, <em>Vanilla Sky,</em> is a tough movie to pin down. I’ve seen it called an “erotic science fiction thriller"...only it's not very erotic -- and the science fiction is introduced very late in the game. There are some nice performances here, and Crowe knows how to write deeply human characters. However, the movie seems less interested in them than it is in teasing the audience with its mind-bending twist. For some, <em>Vanilla Sky</em> is an instant favorite. For others, it's a forgettable snooze.

20. Vanilla Sky (2001)

There aren’t many new ideas in <em>The Last Samurai,</em> but it is still a solid period epic that explores the tension between tradition and modernity. The film seems to take great care in trying to portray late 1800s Japanese culture as accurately as it can, and it manages to mostly avoid falling into that western romanticized trap. The cast is solid. Credit to Ken Watanabe who not only turns in a stellar performance but also comes off as an equal to Cruise. None of this works if Watanabe gets overshadowed by the sheer star power of his co-star.

19. The Last Samurai (2003)

Let’s set aside to what extent Dustin Hoffman’s performance is or isn’t problematic. Simply taken as a piece of acting, it hasn’t aged particularly well. Perhaps it's because “Raymond” has been parodied to death, but the whole thing comes off as very one-note and unobserved. Thankfully (despite all of the accolades going to Hoffman) <em>Rain Man</em> is Tom Cruise’s movie, and he is fantastic in it. Cruise weaponizes both his inherent smarminess and infinite charisma to get us to hate -- and then slowly understand the deep flaws in this human being. <em>Rain Man</em> is a flawed but mostly enjoyable road movie.

18. Rain Man (1988)

This is the fifth entry in the franchise, and the first directed by longtime Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie. It’s the one with the Vienna Opera House sequence. It has the moment where Ethan Hunt hangs off of an airplane as it takes off. How about that motorcycle chase on the Marrakesh Highway? I’ll never forget the underwater stunt where Ethan retrieves a computer chip. It's insane that Cruise performs most of these stunts himself.

17. Mission: Impossible -- Rogue Nation (2015)

There are moments in Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of <em>War of the Worlds</em> that stay with you long after the movie ends. The panic on the Hudson River ferry, the sea of humanity that swarms our lead family’s van, Tom Cruise covered in ash evoking memories of 9/11. It is at times as much a horror film as it is action sci-fi. It’s nearly the perfect alien invasion movie until it enters the 3rd act and limps to the finish (the source material has a clever but cinematically disappointing conclusion). It’s also a nice change of pace for Cruise, who typically plays someone who is the best at their chosen field. Here, he’s not the best at anything, just a regular guy trying his best to be a decent father.

16. War of the Worlds (2005)

This is the fourth entry in the franchise and is adroitly directed by Brad Bird. It’s the one where they infiltrate the Kremlin and then later it explodes. It has the scene where Ethan Hunt has to free-climb the Burj Khalifa. How about that chase through the middle of a sandstorm? I’ll never forget when Hunt runs down the Burj Khalifa and ends up hanging out of a window. It's insane that Cruise performs most of these stunts himself.

15. Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol (2011)

There is a moment during<em> Risky Business</em> when you can actually see Tom Cruise transform from a promising 20-year-old actor to a bonafide movie star. No, it isn’t the scene you're thinking of. The most iconic scene from the film is of course Cruise sliding into the frame and dancing to Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock & Roll”. This is a moment that immediately entered pop culture and was parodied to death for decades. But the moment when Cruise truly becomes a star comes near the end of the film. Finishing a failed interview with a Princeton recruiter, he slaps on a pair of iconic Ray-Ban Wayfarers and, with a toothy grin, declares “Looks like it's the University of Illinois!” I think actual dollar signs appear on the screen. <br> <br> <em>Risky Business</em> is a solid teen comedy. Very much of it’s time. I’m not sure if it entirely holds up for modern audiences, but it's an important movie in charting Tom Cruise’s rise to fame.

14. Risky Business (1983)

Remember legal thrillers? There was a time when Hollywood would produce something like a dozen of these a year. They were typically solid, enjoyable movies made for adults. Some were better than others, a few were occasionally great. <em>The Firm</em> is an above-average entry in the genre, buoyed by one of the best casts ever assembled. There’s not a poor performance to be found in this film, and Tom Cruise anchors the proceedings as an upwardly mobile but morally conflicted young lawyer caught up in something much larger than himself. <em>The Firm</em> is also notable as having some of the finest examples of the “Tom Cruise run.”

13. The Firm (1993)

Anyone who tells you that <em>The Color of Money</em> is “mid-level Scorcese” doesn’t know what they’re talking about. I dare you to watch the opening scene of the film and not find yourself on the hook to finish. Cruise is perfectly cast as Vincent, a ball of chaotic energy/pool savant. Paul Newman is doing some of the best work of his long and esteemed career playing Fast Eddie for a second time. <br> <br> Martin Scorcese and cinematographer Michael Ballhaus are masterful, drawing us into every game and making nine-ball pool feel as exciting as a boxing match. <em>The Color of Money</em> is as good as any of Scorcese’s best films.

12. The Color of Money (1986)

<span>This is the sixth entry in the franchise, and the second directed by longtime Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie. </span><span>It’s the one with the Halo jump (that they did for real). It has the moment where Ethan Hunt hangs off of a long line attached to a helicopter. How about that motorcycle chase through Paris? I’ll never forget the wild helicopter spiral in the final act. It's insane that Cruise performs most of these stunts himself. Does anyone else get the feeling that Cruise wants to die on camera?</span>

11. Mission: Impossible -- Fallout

If you stop at any time during <em>Collateral</em> to think about the story, you will realize that it is quite ridiculous. Taking place over one night, a cab driver is forced to ferry around an assassin on a killing spree -- the motivation of which connects directly to a fare the driver had picked up earlier that night. In a city as big as Los Angeles, what are the odds? What makes it all work, though, are the two central performances. Both men are playing against type, Cruise as a nihilistic hired gun and Fox as the meager everyman. They have great chemistry together, and their conversations as they move from hit to hit are engrossing. This is a slick, effective thriller with a great script (if you can get past some of the contrivances).

10. Collateral (2004)

You might also know this movie as Live. Die. Repeat. <br> <br> Whatever you want to call it, this is an incredible science-fiction action film. The movie brilliantly combines the Groundhog Day gimmick with a big-budget war film, where half the fun becomes watching all of the different ways it can manage to kill its protagonist. There’s enough humor here to keep things from getting too grim, especially as we see Tom Cruise’s incredulous public affairs officer adjust to his new reality of living like he’s playing an arcade shooter with an infinite supply of quarters. Exciting, inventive and fun. What more can you ask for?

9. Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

<em>A Few Good Men</em> is one of the great afternoon cable movies, able to grab you no matter if you’re watching from the beginning -- or you find it halfway over while flipping through channels on a lazy Sunday. The story is uncomplicated but elevated by its cracking script from Aaron Sorkin. It also has some peak performances by a murderer's row of actors. Cruise holds his own, even opposite titans like Jack Nicholson. It's a shame Tom didn’t play more military officers in his career, the man looks damn good in a uniform.

8. A Few Good Men (1992)

Who doesn’t like a good old-fashioned high-concept neo-noir action sci-fi whodunit? This is <em>A.I</em>. and <em>Raiders of the Lost Ark</em> smashed together, with a mystery added for flavor. <em>Minority Report</em> ranks among director Steven Spielberg’s best films. That he manages to pack so much into the 145-minute runtime while never feeling like any moment is rushed through or short-changed is an achievement. The movie is creatively unrelenting, just scene after scene of inventive thrills. Even more amazing is that the movie still has a heart and a brain beneath all those set pieces. Tom Cruise’s cop-on-the-run shows great depth as he grapples with the film's central theme of free will versus fate. This is a must-see.

7. Minority Report (2002)

There’s more to<em> Top Gun</em> than just the aerial combat. Maverick’s rivalry with Iceman, a steamy romance between Cruise and Kelly McGillis, beach volleyball...but the dogfighting sequences are so incredible. They're well-crafted and edge-of-your-seat thrilling. You could replace the other stuff with industrial footage and <em>Top Gun</em> would still be one of the best action movies of all time. Director Tony Scott’s kinetic style of “doing the most” is well matched here with this look into the high-velocity world of elite pilots. It is never a bad time to throw this movie on and enter the Danger Zone.

6. Top Gun (1986)

One of the great romantic comedies? Or one of the best sports movies of all-time? Why not both? Tom Cruise is at the peak of his powers here, weaponizing his nuclear-grade charm and charisma. <em>Jerry Maguire</em> is a broken man, furiously trying to keep his head above water and plastering over any cracks in his crumbling façade with a wink and a smile. Cameron Crowe’s script is razor-sharp and immensely quotable, and as a director, he has surrounded Cruise with a stellar cast. Jonathan Lipnicki, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Renee Zellweger all give career performances. <em>Jerry Maguire</em> is the right blend of sappy and cynical. Oh, and the soundtrack is excellent to boot (this is a Cameron Crowe film after all).

5. Jerry Maguire (1996)

This is, without a doubt, the most esoteric film in Tom Cruise’s vast filmography. There are layers of meaning here to unpack and sift through. Tom Cruise gives a fine performance, but one wonders if Stanley Kubrick cast him not because of his acting talents, but because of who he is as a person. One reading of the film is that it is a deconstruction of the type of masculinity that Tom Cruise represents. I’ll leave that up to you. Like most of Kubrick’s films, it rewards re-watching. <br> <br> <em>Eyes Wide Shut</em> wasn’t as well received upon release by audiences or critics, likely because it was advertised as an erotic thriller (and it is only partially playing in that genre). This isn’t an easy movie to watch, but it is absolutely worth watching.

4. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Though <em>Magnolia</em> is a true ensemble film, it ranks high on this list because it features the finest performance of Tom Cruise’s career. Frank Mackey, a distasteful and misogynistic motivational speaker promoting pickup artistry, twists Cruise’s natural charm and shows us a darker side. He presents us with a deeply damaged man, covering old wounds with false confidence. The final scenes with this character, where Mackey confronts the source of his pain, show us some of the finest acting in any Paul Thomas Anderson film.

3. Magnolia (1999)

Thirty-six years later we finally got another installment in the <em>Top Gun</em> franchise. With even more action, fantastic aerial maneuvers, and Danger Zone. While Goose passed in the first installment, we get to see his son, Rooster (Miles Teller) take the reigns and eventually team up with Maverick to kick some ass. While theaters were still struggling to get people out to see movies, <em>Top Gun: Maverick</em> drew people out in droves and raked in nearly $1.5 billion in profits (the highest of Cruise's career). This movie hit all the right notes of nostalgia while still giving us something new to enjoy. Perhaps we are looking at the start of another successful franchise for Tom Cruise to make more sequels.

2. Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

The first <em>Mission: Impossible</em> film isn’t as outrageous as the latter entries. The set pieces are smaller, the stakes are lower, and there’s less tech. What it does have, though, is the bold and stylistic direction of Brian De Palma. This <em>Mission: Impossible</em> is less obsessed with having its protagonist jumping off of increasingly tall buildings, and instead focuses on creating tension and paranoia both in the story and its set pieces. Like Ethan Hunt in the film, the audience never knows who to trust. We’re left constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. The CIA headquarters heist sequence remains the high point of the franchise, even though it's also the series at its quietest and most deliberate. Selfishly, I wish the franchise would return to its slow-burn spycraft roots. The first <em>Mission: Impossible</em> is the best of the franchise and Tom Cruise’s best film.

1. Mission: Impossible (1996)

More for you.

A California woman bought a vacant lot in Hawaii and discovered a $500,000 house was built on it without her permission

Fani Willis Gets a Boost Out of Georgia

29 common human foods you may not realize are poisonous to your dog

A psychology expert shares 5 signs of 'highly selfish and entitled' people—and how to deal with them

A psychology expert shares 5 toxic phrases 'highly selfish, entitled' people always use—and how to deal with them

60-year-old lawyer makes history after winning Miss Universe Buenos Aires

19 Things That Will Happen When You Stop Drinking Alcohol

A woman thought her tattoos were why she was rejected for a job, but experts say personality is far more important

A woman said her tattoos got her rejected for a job, but experts say personality is far more important

One of these pictures of me is real and the other is AI – but which is which?

Average US annual salary by age revealed – see how you compare

Walking faster may help slow down ageing Thumbnail

Scientists have discovered the maximum age a human can live to

We've studied over 30,000 couples—here are 6 phrases you'll hear in the most successful relationships

If you and your partner use any of these 5 phrases regularly, your relationship is stronger than most

The best college on the East Coast is not Harvard, according to data. See the top 50.

11 Facts You Should Know About Hard-Boiled Eggs

Sheryl Sandberg unveils documentary on Hamas' ‘systematic’ sexual violence on Oct. 7

Spacecraft spots "spiders" scattered across surface of Mars

Large amount of Gen Z workers set to be laid off and replaced by AI, study finds

Harvard psychologist shares 6 toxic things 'highly narcissistic' people always do in relationships: 'Don't be fooled'

Harvard psychologist shares 5 toxic things 'highly narcissistic' people always do in relationships

The most dangerous state to drive in in the US, according to data—plus, see where your state ranks

The 43 Best Shows to Stream on Netflix Right Now

How Much Beer You'd Have To Drink To Equal A Single Shot Of Liquor

Tom Cruise Stole The Show At Victoria Beckham’s Birthday Party When He Reportedly Started Breakdancing

Reasons to not invite Tom Cruise to your birthday party:

-All the guests will be too busy asking “wait, is that Tom Cruise? It looks a lot like Tom Cruise. I’m 99 percent sure it’s Tom Cruise. How do they know Tom Cruise?” to focus on you, the birthday boy or girl

Reasons to absolutely invite Tom Cruise to your birthday party:

-He might start breakdancing

The Mission: Impossible star attended former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham ‘s 50th birthday celebration over the weekend in London. Other guests included Gordon Ramsay, Eva Longoria, Salma Hayek, Jason Statham, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Guy Ritchie, and the rest of the Spice Girls, all of whom got to Cruise start breakdancing. According to the Daily Mail , “Cruise stunned many when he demonstrated a series of breakdancing moves.”

After a formal sit-down dinner, the Top Gun: Maverick actor was one of the most enthusiastic dancers in the crowd of 120 at the private members club Oswalds, in Mayfair. One guest said: “People were absolutely dumbfounded.” Sadly, cameras were strictly banned by the Beckhams and its not thought that anyone sneaked a picture.

Between his moves at Posh Spice’s party and Risky Business being added to the Criterion Collection , Tom Cruise dancing is having a moment. Just wait until Mission: Impossible 8 when he dances and runs at the same time. It’s maybe not as impressive as climbing the Burj Khalifa, but I bet you can’t do it.

(Via the Daily Mail )

Microwave Wear Their Influences Proudly On ‘LSD’

International edition
Australia edition
Europe edition

Victoria Beckham standing in front of clothes for her Mango collection leaning on a table looking at sketches of her designs

‘It’s what I always dreamed of’: Mango deal takes Victoria Beckham’s designs to high street

Collections by ex-Spice Girl had been too dear for most but deal with affordable chain forecast to help tip VB business into profit

When Victoria Beckham debuted her first collection of just 10 dresses in a luxury hotel suite at the Waldorf Astoria in New York in 2008, she told the sceptical assembly of the world’s most powerful fashion editors that she had “spent a lifetime wanting to do this”.

“It’s what I always dreamed of since I customised my school uniform when I was 7 years old,” she said. “Then along came the Spice Girls which opened a lot of doors for me. And, let’s be honest, closed a lot. But those days are over. I was never going to be the world’s best singer, but I hope I can be a good designer.”

The debut dresses immediately impressed the editors, who described the designs as “classy” and “sophisticated”. Vogue’s runway editor said Beckham’s sheath and shift dresses would “sell not on the power of her name but on the sophistication of their cut and fit.”

Since then, Beckham’s designs have been worn by Lady Gaga, Meghan Markle and Kendall Jenner, to name a few of her celebrity fans.

But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for the business, which has lost money every year since its launch in New York 16 years ago. Total losses for Victoria Beckham Ltd amount to more than £65m, and David Beckham’s company has injected millions to keep it afloat.

Victoria Beckham knelt down touching the bottom of a white dress as another woman on the left side of the model looks down at the dress

Now, Victoria Beckham’s designs – previously unaffordable for most people – have hit the high street in a capsule collaboration with Mango .

The deal is expected to help tip her business into profit for the first time and has got some speculating whether Victoria, who is known in the fashion industry simply as VB, may one day eclipse her husband in money-making potential.

It’s impossible to know just how rich the Beckhams are. The couple, who live mostly in a £30m white stucco townhouse in west London but also own an apartment in Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, a villa on the nearby Palm Jumeirah, and a super yacht called Seven, have a combined fortune of £425m. This puts them 325th in the latest comprehensive guesstimate by the Sunday Times rich list .

It ascribes most of the wealth to David, who sold a 55% stake in his brand management firm, DB Ventures, to US firm Authentic Brands for £200m.

David joined star names such as Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe, whose brands are part of the Authentic stable, which also includes Reebok, Juicy Couture and Hunter wellington boots.

The latest accounts for his company DRJB Holdings – which stands for David Robert Joseph Beckham – show revenue in 2022 more than doubled from £34m to £72.6m, although pre-tax profits fell from £23.6m to £10.8m, because of an increase in administrative expenses. The company paid out dividends of £827,500, down from £6.3m a year earlier.

Victoria Beckham at the as Land Rover launch of its Range Rover Evoque special edition in Beijing.

DRJB includes his TV production business, Studio 99, which produced the four-part Beckham documentary on Netflix that took the top spot in 59 countries, and the Ronnie O’Sullivan biopic The Edge of Everything.

Victoria Beckham Ltd, which has expanded into bags, fragrances and beauty products as well as fashion, increased revenue by 44% in 2022 to £58.8m, and narrowed pre-tax losses from £5.9m to £3.1m.

At an operating level, losses fell from £3.9m to £900,000 signalling progress on the path to profitability. The directors declared “2022 marks a turning point where the group became profitable”. However, the couple and minority investor private equity firm NEO Investments Partners injected a further £6.9m since the year end.

David Belhassen, founder and managing partner of NEO, which invested £30m in VBL in 2017 for an undisclosed but significant minority stake, told WWD magazine recently that sales had increased by 50% and earnings before expenses had “significantly multiplied” in 2023.

“The house of VB is now fully live, and a reality. It was a dream for Victoria and I when we partnered, and it is happening. We are now embarking on a new phase with only the sky as the limit,” he said.

Her Victoria Beckham Beauty business reported a tripling of customers in 2022, and won 28 industry awards. The bestseller is her Satin Kajal liner, which is now available in 17 colours.

Jonathan Siboni, chief executive of data intelligence company Luxurynsight, said many people in the fashion industry had been too quick to dismiss Beckham as “just a Spice Girl and not a businessperson”.

“But they couldn’t have been more wrong,” he said. “The brand has succeeded because of her. She has fought back, she has evolved, she has shown huge amounts of resilience.

after newsletter promotion

A Mango store in the SoHo neighborhood of New York, US.

“Yes, there have been times when the brand was tacky, and produced things that didn’t work,” he said. “But just like David Beckham as a footballer, you can’t always be the best. What matters is not one game, or even one season, but the big picture.”

Siboni said Victoria had succeeded in creating a brand that is “her vision, but also more than just her”. “In fashion, some brands can’t survive without the founder, others like Dior and Chanel continue to thrive,” he said.

“She has already taken steps to disconnect the Victoria Beckham brand from the person, and even if she is not on TV or social media for a few months, people will still buy her clothes.”

She is unlikely to disappear from our screens anytime soon. More than 30 years after the Spice Girls were formed after an advert in the Stage newspaper for “streetwise, outgoing, ambitious, and dedicated” 18- to 23-year-olds, Beckham still regularly goes viral on social media.

Most recently last weekend when all five reunited for an impromptu performance at Beckham’s 50th birthday party at Mayfair private members restaurant Oswald’s in front of Tom Cruise, Salma Hayek and Eva Longoria. She has 39.2m followers on Instagram and 2.2m on TikTok.

Andy Milligan, founder of the branding consultancy The Caffeine Partnership and author of Brand It Like Beckham , said he credited a large part of the couple’s success to their seeming authenticity on social media and TV. “They project an image that, despite their exceedingly glamorous lifestyle, makes them feel approachable, they’re very relatable to us,” he said.

“You saw that in the Netflix documentary when David teases her about claiming to be working class despite her dad driving her to school in a Rolls-Royce, and when he queued with the public to pay his respects to the Queen.”

Milligan said he expects the Beckhams’ businesses will continue to grow and “we will look back on them as a great British export”.

“What they have as a couple is extremely rare, because they have sport, fashion and popular culture, so they can dominate both the front and back pages.”

He says partnering with Mango is likely to turbo-boost Victoria’s brand as it “gives her much more reach with products in physical stores in just about every city I can think of”.

Milligan says Victoria has a reputation for picking effective brand and business partners, and Mango works because it is “a desirable brand, and affordable rather than luxury … which will keep her relevant to a younger generation.

“Victoria hasn’t in the past received the credit she deserves as a very smart businessperson. She’s so much more than a Spice Girl, she’s clearly a talented designer and has a brilliant business brain.”

Victoria Beckham
David Beckham

More on this story

David Beckham scores bumper year but Victoria’s label needs cash injections

Victoria Beckham’s collaboration with Mango shows how far designer has come

Belgian fashion designer Dries Van Noten to step down

David Beckham documentary nets him half a million new fans on social media

Mango’s Victoria Beckham collection to launch this month

JW Anderson show highlights designer’s love of craft at London fashion week

Dramatic dresses: the Saltburn effect hits London fashion week

Victoria Beckham’s collection is dance of delight despite Kardashian delay

Beckham review – the candid, riveting truth about the footballer’s life

‘People think everything was handed to him. Not true’: the inside story of David Beckham’s rollercoaster life

IMAGES

Burj Khalifa Mission Impossible: The Hilarious Story Behind Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise does his own stunts and climbs the Burj Khalifa
1600x900px
Tom Cruise Burj Khalifa Top Sitting
Tom Cruise On Top Of Burj Khalifa
Read Mission Impossible 4: How Tom Cruise Did The Burj Khalifa Stunt 💎

VIDEO

Climbed Tallest building Burj Khalifa 😱
At The Top Burj Khalifa, Dubai
Tom Cruise Burj Khalifa Scene #shorts #ytshorts #trending #tomcruise
Tom Cruise 😎
Tom Cruise "I'm Scared" 😱😰 #tomcruise #lifelessons
cruise enjoying in burj khalifa #hollywood #tomcruise #bollywood #brazil #criuce

COMMENTS

Mission Impossible 4: How Tom Cruise Did The Burj Khalifa Stunt
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 Incredibles) consulted with multiple professionals from different areas like engineers ...
Did Tom Cruise Sit Atop the Burj Khalifa Without a Harness?
The skyscraper is more than a half-mile tall. A photograph shows actor Tom Cruise sitting on top of the Burj Khalifa skyscraper without a harness. This is a genuine photograph of Tom Cruise ...
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol BEHIND THE SCENES
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol BEHIND THE SCENES - Burj Khalifa Climb (2011) HDSubscribe to TRAILERS: http://bit.ly/sxaw6hThe IMF is shut down when it's ...
How Tom Cruise pulled off that 'Mission: Impossible 4 ...
Tom Cruise scales the Burj Khalifa in the most memorable action sequence from Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. (Photo: Paramount Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection) (Photo: Paramount ...
How Tom Cruise Pulled Off the Burj Khalifa Stunt in 'Ghost Protocol'
Tom Cruise climbing the Burj Khalifa The Setup. 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 ...
Tom Cruise Dubai Burj Khalifa Building Scene
Tom Cruise runs runs down the tallest building in the world in Mission Impossible 4 - Ghost Protocol (2011). Get the Blu-ray here: https://amzn.to/2yALDwGUAM...
Mission Impossible 4: How Tom Cruise Did The Burj Khalifa Stunt
The image of Tom Cruise on Burj Khalifa in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is a defining moment for the franchise. As an actor with a growing list of extremely dangerous stunts throughout the years, scaling Burj Khalifa's exterior in the fourth installment of Mission Impossible is one of Cruise's most famous feats of courage, as it's the world's tallest building.
How Tom Cruise pulled off that 'Mission: Impossible 4' skyscraper ...
Tom Cruise scales the Burj Khalifa in the most memorable action sequence from Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. (Photo: Paramount Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection) (©Paramount/Courtesy ...
Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol - Climbing the Burj Khalifa: Ethan (Tom Cruise) climbs the Burj Khalifa Tower to break into the server room.BUY THE MOVI...
Dead Reckoning Part 2': Everything We Know So Far
It won't be long until Tom Cruise returns to the screen as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 2. ... a Burj Khalifa-scaling triumph in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, a ...
Behind the scenes of Tom Cruise's Burj Khalifa stunt
Dubai: Take a look at this incredible behind-the-scenes video showing just how Tom Cruise did his stunts on the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, for his upcoming film Mission ...
10 Years Ago, 'Mission: Impossible
Ghost Protocol, above all else, is known for the image of Tom Cruise climbing up the side of the Burj Khalifa, with just his hands and feet holding him up. (Ethan is supposed to be aided by two ...
Tom Cruise's Burj Khalifa stunts revealed in new clips
A new clip of behind-the-scenes footage shows Tom Cruise completing wild Burj Khalifa stunts for 'Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol'. Footage has been released on the internet of Tom Cruise performing his own stunts at Burj Khalifa for the movie, Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol. Carol Huang. Oct 29, 2011. Listen In English.
Burj Khalifa Mission Impossible: The Hilarious Story Behind Tom Cruise
If you're unfamiliar, the Burj Khalifa is the tallest tower in the world and in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Cruise's character Ethan Hunt must scale the outside of the building to the ...
Photos Of Tom Cruise's Spectacular Skyscraper Stunt From ...
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.
Tom Cruise leaps for Mission Impossible 4 from Burj Khalifa, Dubai
Tom Cruise leaps from Burj Khalifa, Dubai, for Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol. The jump is around 22 secs in, from around 128 stories high. The crew have...
That's Not Impossible: The Burj Khalifa in Mission: Impossible
And in his live-action debut, the filmmaker brought a kinetic energy with beautifully choreographed and staged set pieces. The centerpiece of the film is Tom Cruise climbing the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Not only is it the most exciting sequence in the film, it has become a defining moment for the iconic franchise.
Ethan Hunt's Second Act and Tom Cruise's Third: The Unending Impossible
If there's a "before" and "after" in the "Mission: Impossible" franchise, an obvious dividing point is the Burj Khalifa. This now-iconic sequence in the fourth film, 2011's "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol," revolutionized the series around spectacular set pieces centered on Cruise actually performing jaw-dropping, death-defying practical stunts on location.
Why director Scott Mann hired Tom Cruise's Burj Khalifa safety team for
At the heart of this was the expert safety team who helped Tom Cruise climb Burj Khalifa while filming Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol (2011). The story centres on Becky (Grace Caroline Currey, who featured in DC movie Shazam! ), who is grief-stricken after the death of her boyfriend in a mountaineering accident.
Mission: Impossible
In July 2011, a teaser trailer for Ghost Protocol was released illustrating new shots from the film, one of which being Tom Cruise scaling the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Moreover, prior to its release, the studio presented IMAX footage of the film to an invitation-only crowd of opinion makers and journalists at central ...
Burj Khalifa viral moments, including Tom Cruise stunt, Emirates advert
Merely a year after Burj Khalifa was completed, it featured in one of the most memorable scenes from the 2011 blockbuster Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol.. Tom Cruise's character, secret agent Ethan Hunt, uses a pair of special suction gloves to reach the 130th floor.Known for doing his own stunts, Cruise shot scenes in which he walked sideways across the building's exterior 518m in ...
Tom Cruise Burj Khalifa Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol ...
Tom Cruise swinging from the Burj Khalifa, world's tallest building, during movie stunt filming of Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol in Dubai.
Ranking The Top 26 Best Tom Cruise Films Ever Made
26. Far & Away (1992) Far and Away was slammed by critics in 1992 for being a shallow, simplistic American epic. There's some truth there, as director Ron Howard seems more interested in telling ...
Tom Cruise Was Breakdancing At Spice Girls' Birthday Party
Reasons to absolutely invite Tom Cruise to your birthday party: ... It's maybe not as impressive as climbing the Burj Khalifa, but I bet you can't do it. (Via the Daily Mail) Facebook; Twitter;
Tom Cruise climbs the World's TALLEST building
Tom Cruises climbs the tallest building in the world, in one of the craziest action scene ever🔥 Buy or rent the movie NOW https://www.primevideo.com/deta...
'It's what I always dreamed of': Mango deal takes Victoria Beckham's
The couple, who live mostly in a £30m white stucco townhouse in west London but also own an apartment in Dubai's Burj Khalifa, a villa on the nearby Palm Jumeirah, and a super yacht called ...
Tom Cruise shows off daredevil Burj Khalifa stunts in new clips
Hollywood actor shows no fear as he leaps from the world's tallest building in Dubai

Screen Rant

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

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

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

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

Did Tom Cruise Sit Atop the Burj Khalifa Without a Harness?

By Dan Evon

Article Tags

Entertainment

New on Yahoo

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

Recommended Stories

NFL Draft fashion: Caleb Williams, Malik Nabers dressed to impress, but Marvin Harrison Jr.'s medallion stole the show

Jamie Dimon is worried the US economy is headed back to the 1970s

Broncos, Jets, Lions and Texans have new uniforms. Let's rank them

Based on the odds, here's what the top 10 picks of the NFL Draft will be

Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire: Widely available players ready to help your squad

Luka makes Clippers look old, Suns are in big trouble & a funeral for Lakers | Good Word with Goodwill

Dave McCarty, player on 2004 Red Sox championship team, dies 1 week after team's reunion

These are the fastest-selling new cars of 2024

Everyone's still talking about the 'SNL' Beavis and Butt-Head sketch. Cast members and experts explain why it's an instant classic.

The Film Bandit

Setting the Scene: Burj Khalifa in Dubai

The Planning Phase

Training and Preparation

Shooting the Scene

Post-Production

The Impact and Legacy of the Tom Cruise Burj Khalifa Stunt

LATEST POSTS

Discover more from The Film Bandit

'Mission: Impossible 8': Release Date, Cast, Filming, and Everything We Know So Far

Quick Links

Mission: Impossible 8

Entertainment

Behind the scenes of Tom Cruise's Burj Khalifa stunt

More From Entertainment

Cinema ticket prices set to drop in Saudi Arabia

South Korean singer Park Bo-ram dies at 30

First Saudi official classics radio hits airwaves

Drake offers to pay for fan’s divorce proceedings

Harvey Weinstein's conviction on misconduct overturned

Dev Patel turns director with action film 'Monkey Man'

Megan Thee Stallion accused of harassment at workplace

Navya Naveli Nanda talks women empowerment, privilege

Eid Al Fitr 2024: A round-up of concerts in the UAE

'Climate change will affect Muslim world'

The Hilarious Story Behind Tom Cruise’s Iconic ‘Mission Impossible’ Stunt

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

Movie Reviews

Latest blog posts

The Movies That Underwent Major Changes After Their Festival Premiere

Netflix's Dead Boy Detectives Is A Spinoff Stuck In Limbo

Preview of Tributes at the 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

Pioneering Actor-Producer Terry Carter Dies

Challengers

Boy Kills World

Monica Castillo

The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed

Brian Tallerico

Unsung Hero

Burj Khalifa viral moments, including Tom Cruise stunt, Emirates advert and a giant ring

When Tom Cruise scaled it in Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol

When a member of Emirates crew stood on top of it for an advert

When it was given a CGI umbrella to shelter from the rain

When it lit up for special global events

When it was surrounded by a futuristic ring design

Ranking The Top 26 Best Tom Cruise Films Ever Made

26. Far & Away (1992)

25. Oblivion (2013)

24. Days of Thunder (1990)

23. Born on the 4th of July (1989)

22. Interview With a Vampire (1994)

21. Mission: Impossible III (2006)

20. Vanilla Sky (2001)

19. The Last Samurai (2003)

18. Rain Man (1988)

17. Mission: Impossible -- Rogue Nation (2015)

16. War of the Worlds (2005)

15. Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol (2011)

14. Risky Business (1983)