Man behind the madness

When it comes to stunt work in Hollywood, no one quite compares to Tom Cruise. The 62 year-old icon, who's been leaping from buildings and hanging off airplanes as superspy Ethan Hunt since 1996, is once again pushing the limits in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, out May 23. But in a rare and candid interview with PEOPLE, Cruise pulls back the curtain on the sheer intensity behind those jaw-dropping scenes, and how he unwinds when the cameras stop rolling.

"If it was easy, I guess we wouldn't want to do it," Cruise says simply, summing up the daredevil ethos that has fueled the Mission: Impossible franchise for nearly three decades. "We want the audience to feel the stakes. And that means I've got to actually do it."

Cruise's latest feat is climbing along the wings of a 1940s-era biplane soaring over South Africa's Drakensberg mountains, an aerial stunt he's dreamed of since childhood.

"I remember watching those old wing-walking reels from the 1930s," Cruise says. "They were slow, almost theatrical. I thought: What if we did that but at modern speeds, with modern cameras, and no wires?"

Modern speeds, indeed. "Those aircraft were only going 40 or 50 miles an hour. This one was going over 120. Going out there, I was realising, it takes your breath away. Literally."

Director Christopher McQuarrie, Cruise's longtime collaborator, adds: "Tom rehearsed that stunt for months. He practiced on a mock-up wing in wind tunnels, then graduated to actual flights. He's relentless."

Zero green screen

For Cruise, realism is non-negotiable. "We don't cheat the audience," he says. "When you see me on a wing, or hanging off a cliff, or under water; it's all happening. No green screens. No CGI crutches."

Stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood echoes that commitment. "Everyone assumes there's some safety trick. But every single frame was done practically. If Tom's flying a plane, he's the one flying it. If he's underwater, he's holding his breath."

So how does one prepare to dangle from a cliff or walk on a wing in high-speed air?

"I eat a massive breakfast," Cruise reveals with a grin. "We're talking sausage, almost a dozen eggs, bacon, toast, coffee, fluids. When you're flying at high altitude, your body burns through calories like crazy."

He adds that stunt days often start as early as three in the morning "We're losing light, we're chasing wind conditions; it's like a ballet, but with a thousand moving parts and no margin for error."

Underwater mayhem

Not all the danger happens in the air. One of Final Reckoning's most harrowing sequences was filmed in a specially built 40,000-gallon water tank rigged to rotate 360 degrees, mimicking the interior of a capsizing submarine.

"We called it 'the washing machine,'" Cruise says. "Everything in the scene, including me, gets turned upside down, over and over."

To keep his face fully visible on camera, the star opted for a minimalist SCUBA mask and breathed in his own CO?.

"It's about the connection," he explains. "A full-face mask would've created a barrier between Ethan and the audience. I wanted people to see the fear in his eyes."

His training as a jet pilot helped. "When you fly jets, you learn to monitor oxygen levels, deal with hypoxia, and control your breathing. That awareness saved me more than once during the underwater shoots."

Despite his high-octane film life, Cruise finds peace in quiet creative pursuits. He's always learning new skills, whether or not they make it into a movie.

"I will learn a skill, and I know eventually I'm going to use it in a film," he says. "It might not be today or tomorrow, but it becomes part of the toolbox."

He enjoys piano, "I wouldn't say 'play.' I enjoy hitting the keys… I find it relaxing," and is currently studying contemporary dance. "It's an emotional language. Teachers understand how movement creates feeling. That helps me as an actor."

He even practices mime. "There's something about controlling every part of your body; it makes you more precise on camera."

Saying goodbye to Ethan Hunt?

Now in his eighth outing as Ethan Hunt, The Final Reckoning may mark the end of an era. But Cruise doesn't seem nostalgic, just deeply grateful.

"I love making movies. It's not what I do. It's who I am," he says. "And I'm still learning. Still growing."

Asked if he'll miss Ethan Hunt, Cruise smiles. "I'll miss the team. I'll miss the rhythm of it. But we've told the story we wanted to tell."

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning premieres May 23 and will debut at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. The film also stars Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Greg Tarzan Davis, Hannah Waddingham, Nick Offerman, and Angela Bassett.

If this really is Cruise's final mission, he's ending it with a bang and a perfectly executed dive, sprint, or sky-high somersault.