Tom Cruise pulls off daring aerial stunt for upcoming 'Mission: Impossible 8'

At 62, Tom’s not on cruise control just yet as he continues to defy the odds with jaw-dropping stunts.


Pop Culture & Art July 23, 2024
Courtesy: Paramount Pictures

Daredevil Tom Cruise, renowned for performing his own death-defying stunts, has added another astounding feat to his impressive resume. 

The 62-year-old action star was spotted on Monday filming a scene for “Mission: Impossible 8” in which he perilously dangled midair from a yellow Stearman biplane high above Oxfordshire, England.

The “Top Gun” star has portrayed IMF Agent Ethan Hunt for 28 years, continuously upping the ante with increasingly dangerous stunts. 

Cruise's legacy of daring performances includes holding his breath underwater for six and a half minutes in “Rogue Nation” and scaling the Burj Khalifa in Dubai in “Ghost Protocol.”

One of Cruise's most iconic stunts came in 2015’s “Rogue Nation,” where he trained to hold his breath for an unimaginable six and a half minutes while dodging spinning metal bars underwater.

 “We’re underwater and doing breath holds of six to six and a half minutes,” he told USA Today. “It’s very taxing stuff.”

In 2011’s “Ghost Protocol,” Cruise ascended the 2,722-foot Burj Khalifa, the tallest structure in the world, hanging only from a wire. 

“Somebody said, ‘What if the cable breaks?’” stunt coordinator Gregg Smrz told Yahoo Entertainment. “And I said, ‘That’s not an option.’”

Cruise’s fearless approach continued in 2023’s “Dead Reckoning Part One,” where he drove a motorcycle off a mountainside and parachuted down to Earth. Remarkably, he performed this maneuver on the first day of filming. 

“Well, we know either we will continue with the film or we’re not. Let’s know day one!” Cruise told Entertainment Tonight.

Twenty-three years earlier, in “Mission: Impossible II,” Cruise climbed a rock ledge with his bare hands, supported only by a cable.

“I was really mad that he wanted to do it, but I tried to stop him and I couldn’t,” director John Woo told Entertainment Weekly. 

“I was so scared I was sweating. I couldn’t even watch the monitor when we shot it.”

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