Best Tom Cruise Stunts
Actors often will try and branch out, be creative, and win the Oscar for Best Actor or Best Actress. However, every once in a while there is an actor that finds exactly where they belong. Tom Cruise is the perfect example of this. Yes, he has been in some dramas and comedies, but he truly shines in action blockbusters. Cruise is infamous for doing his own stunts, and even breaking bones while doing them, so today, I will rank the top 10 stunts that Tom Cruise has done himself.
8. Knife to the Eye from Mission: Impossible 2
While Mission: Impossible 2 is easily a low point in the Mission: Impossible franchise, it gives the audience a slightly frightening stunt. Cruise being who he his, suggested that they not use CGI for the scene, instead they used a steel cable to catch and hold the knife. As you can see in the picture, the knife is mere centimeters from Cruises face. So many things could go wrong, the cable come loose, or even a sneeze, we may know a very different Tom Cruise than he is today.
7. Helicopter chase for Mission: Impossible - Fallout
On top of being the best from the Mission: Impossible franchise, Mission: Impossible - Fallout gives us some of the best stunts out there. For this movie, Cruise grabbed onto a helicopter, held on, and piloted it for an entire chase sequence. This stunt was so crazy that at one point there was a radio transmission that said, “We lost Tom.” When Cruise fell from the helicopter during the beginning of the scene, the stunt directors really believed that Cruise had died during the fall. Even after the fall, Cruise continued to deliver as he navigated dangerous clouds and mountains. Ultimately this came out to add so much more to an already phenomenal movie.
6. Halo jump for Mission: Impossible - Fallout
As you can see, Mission: Impossible - Fallout has no shortage of jaw dropping stunts. Cruise performed something called a HALO jump, which stands for high-altitude military parachuting. Originally the jump was only supposed to be from 12,000 feet, but Cruise isn’t one to short an audience. Cruise insisted on doing this from a whopping 25,000 feet. It wasn’t just Cruise that was dedicated to this stunt. To film everything correctly a brave camera man joined him.
5. Motorbike jump for Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1
Not only did this stunt make for an awesome poster, but it’s often described as one of the most dangerous stunts in Cruise’s career. Cruise not only had to jump off of a ramp built onto a cliff, but he has to then safely open his parachute while gliding through narrow mountains. There were a multitude of reasons the director, Christopher McQuarie decided to shoot this on day one of filming the movie. The top two reasons were for this were a good way to market the movie, and just in case something went wrong, they could figure out a way to redo the entire movie. Cruise did this stunt 6 times just to get it right, and it absolutely delivered. Throughout the entire movie you’re waiting and waiting, and when it comes, there’s nothing more satisfying.
4. Everything from Top Gun: Maverick
There is almost nothing cooler than fighter jets going extremely fast, and no actor brings it to the big screen better than Tom Cruise. If you’ve watched Top Gun: Maverick, you know that some absolutely insane stunts are being done. Cruise and his entire ensemble, including Glen Powell and Miles Teller, learned and executed to perfection everything that was done in this movie. Jets got as close as mere feet away and it made the US Navy a pretty penny as well. Production fro this movie rented very real planes and it only costs $11,000 per plane, per hour.
3. Scaling the Burj Khalifa for Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
Being able to say you climbed the Burj Khalifa is no common thing. While obviously still strapped in, Cruise did climb the tallest building in the world, because the mission required it. Cruise was 1,700 feet up in the air when the scene started and it also required him falling four stories in the end. Not only was this an incredibly dangerous stunt, it helped define what the Mission: Impossible franchise would be for the next few installments. This was just the beginning for what Cruise was willing to do to make some of the best actions blockbusters of all time.
2. Holding his breath for 6 minutes for Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
Another high tension scene has Ethan Hunt rushing to get everything done just in the nick of time. While the movie only says he has to hold his breath for 3 minutes, Cruise was able to hold his breath for 6 minutes. Just like so much of this list, it was Cruise’s idea idea for this wild stunt, and nothing ever seems to hold him back. He always wants to go above and beyond, and Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation just another example of how Cruise wants to give the best for the people who pay to go see his movies.
1. Hanging from the side of a plane for Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
The only part of the picture above that’s CGI is the harnesses holding Cruise to the side of the plane. This actually happens at the very beginning of the fifth installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise and I’m blown away by it every time I see it. It’s a long take so it shows Cruise get to the plane, hold on, and the plane ascend to the point where the runway becomes a blur. Like many other stunts, Cruise and his stunt team had to convince someone to lend them the plane to do this. At first the Airbus team was skeptical, worried that something would go wrong and they’d receive bad publicity, but here we are, as its at the top of my list.
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