He might be the star of a franchise named Mission: Impossible, but Tom Cruise makes doing even the most dangerous stunts look like a breeze. And he says: “I love doing them!”
And his daredevil feats as IMF agent Ethan Hunt in the latest flick, Dead Reckoning Part One, top anything 61-year-old has done before.
From jumping out of planes thousands of feet in the year to learning combat to fight his enemies for real, Tom Cruise has never been one to shy away from a challenge.
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Here James Moore looks back at Cruise’s top big-screen escapades…
Ultimate cliff-hanger
In the new movie Cruise pulls off the most death-defying stunt of his career – driving a motorbike off a cliff in Norway, then coming off the machine to base jump hundreds of feet to the ground. He did it all without a helmet – and six times!
He said: “I had about six seconds once I departed the ramp to pull the chute and I don’t want to get tangled in the bike. If I do, that’s not going to end well.”
The star also learnt to “speed-fly” down the sides of mountains at 50mph for another of the movie’s stunts.
Water wonder
Cruise dangled above a vault on a wire for the first Mission: Impossible movie in 1996, perfecting the balance of his body weight by putting coins in his shoes.
But he also endured an exploding aquarium, despite the risk of flying glass and a 16-tonne cascade of water. For another scene, Cruise clung to a train while facing a 200mph wind machine.
Rock hard
The opening scene of Mission: Impossible 2 involved Cruise’s character free-climbing a sheer 2,000-foot cliff in Utah, US.
The star really did scale the rocky face with his bare hands, using a harness and thin wire, but no safety net. He even tore a muscle in his shoulder jumping a 15ft gap.
Blade Runner
During a fight scene in the second MI movie, Cruise ended up with a sharp knife point just a quarter of an inch away from his eye.
While it could have been faked with CGI, the actor insisted a real knife was used on a cable.
Chopper drama
Cruise broke his ankle jumping off a building in 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout. He also trained for 2,000 hours to become a helicopter pilot.
In the movie Cruise takes the control of a chopper in a thrilling sequence that includes steering the machine through mountains and climaxes with a daring downward spiral.
He also had to dangle from the helicopter by a rope.
Wheely him
In a high-octane chase scene for 2010’s Knight And Day, Cruise really is riding the motorbike at high speed with his co-star Cameron Diaz.
He said: “I was just thinking, ‘Do not go down on this motorcycle with Cameron on the back’.” Cruise even leaps from the bike to a car without wirework.
Tower terror
For Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol in 2011, Hunt scales the tallest building in the world, Dubai’s 2,717ft Burj Khalifa, and clings to the outside using suction gloves.
Cruise really did dangle outside the tower, 1,700ft up. He had to practise using a glass wall replica and was held by a cable only the thickness of piano wire.
Plane crazy
In 2015’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Cruise clung to the outside of an Airbus A400M military transport plane in mid-flight, 5,000ft up.
He was strapped on, but had to wear special contact lenses to endure the high winds and was hit by a stone that nearly broke his ribs.
Cruise did it an amazing eight times, admitting: “I was scared s***less!”
Truck heart-stopper
Cruise got slammed into a car while filming a bridge sequence for the third Mission: Impossible flick, but also convinced director JJ Abrams to let him lie in the middle of the road while a jack-knifing lorry raced towards him.
Spaced out
For a scene where he’s inside a plan in free fall for 2017 movie The Mummy, he opted to get the right effect by filming in a zero-gravity aircraft used by astronauts.
The sequence took 64 takes and while most of the crew vomited, Cruise’s stomach stayed firm.
Breath-taking
For the underwater vault scene in Rogue Nation, Cruise trained to hold his breath for an incredible six minutes!
Experts taught him how to slow down his heart rate so he would require less oxygen.
He said: “Normally in underwater sequences, people hold their breath for 10 seconds, 15 seconds max.”
Jump scare
For Fallout, Cruise also became the first actor to perform a military-style HALO jump, involving plunging from 25,000ft at speeds of 220mph while wearing an oxygen mask to stay conscious.
He had to prepare for the free fall from a C-17 plane by inhaling pure oxygen and made more than 100 jumps to get it right.
Top fun
While Cruise wasn’t allowed to fly a 1,000mph F-18 jet for 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, he was on board for some of their action sequences, experiencing the huge G-forces US pilots undergo.
But, as a qualified pilot, he did get to fly a P-51 Mustang.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is in cinemas from today
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
