tom cruise mi plane stunt

How Tom Cruise Did That Insane Plane Stunt For Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

The first full trailer for Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation ends with quite a bang, and a stunt that easily rivals the Burj Khalifa sequence in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol . The sight of Ethan Hunt hanging on to the side of taking-off airplane is an unbelievable one to behold - and it's only made more impressive when you remember that Tom Cruise actually performed the real stunt himself. But how did this stunt actually get done? The star and director Christopher McQuarrie have revealed all in a recent interview.

Timed with the release of the new trailer, Yahoo! UK has posted an extended interview they did with both Cruise and McQuarrie, in which the two men discuss the details behind what looks to be Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation 's biggest spectacle sequence. Apparently the idea of riding on the side of a plane is something that the actor has been thinking about doing for a while, and he describes it as "undoubtedly the most dangerous thing [he's] ever done." He and his Mission: Impossible 5 director knew that they needed to top what Ghost Protocol brought to the table, and it was McQuarrie who ultimately brought the idea to the table for the blockbuster. The filmmaker explained,

While searching for different locations, the production designer James Bissell bought me a model of this Airbus airplane and presented it as something we could use in the movie. I suggested to Tom, ‘What if you were on the outside of this thing when it took off?' I meant it as sort of a half joke, but he said back to me, ‘Yeah I could do that!’

From there it was all about figuring out a way to attach a camera to the side of the airplane that would A) get an appropriate angle on the shot, and B) not detach during take-off and smash into Tom Cruise. The actor met with not just a test pilot, but the guys who created the A400m Airbus, and made sure that everything was doable and safe.

You can watch the incredible stunt performed at the end of the trailer embedded below:

So what was the biggest fear in this situation? While many of you might guess that it would be Cruise losing his grip and falling, apparently that wasn't the case. Instead, the larger concern during shooting was bird strikes and random debris flying through the air. As Cruise told the site,

I remember one time we were going down the runway and there was just a little particle that just hit me, it was smaller than a finger nail. I was thankful it didn’t hit my hands or face, if it did I’d have a problem because those parts were exposed, but it still could have broken my ribs!

Perhaps the most impressive part of all this is that the airplane ride won't be Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation 's only breathtaking sequence. In the interview, Christopher McQuarrie teases that this death-defying stunt is actually one of two "incredibly physically punishing things" that he had Tom Cruise do for the movie, and that the other one is merely teased in the above trailer. I'm sure when we see the finished film it will stand out from the pack and we'll recognize exactly which stunt the director is being alluded to (I'm personally hoping it's the dive into the sand vortex).

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation will be in theaters on July 31st.

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US actor Tom Cruise is known for starring in the action-packed Mission: Impossible film series. These movies often feature a range of daring stunts, with Cruise well known for performing these thrilling sequences himself rather than relying on the use of a body double. One of these saw him hang onto the side of an Airbus A400M in flight, but how was this done? Let's take a look and find out.

What is the Airbus A400M?

It is a scene in the fifth Mission: Impossible film, known as Rogue Nation , that involves an Airbus A400M 'Atlas.' This four-engine military transporter first flew in December 2009, before entering service with the French Armée de l'Air et de l'Espace (Air and Space Force) in 2013. According to its website, Airbus has produced 116 A400Ms from 178 orders (including prototypes).

The A400M is a versatile transport aircraft capable of landing on runways comprising all different kinds of surfaces, including gravel and sand. The German Luftwaffe is the largest operator of the A400M, which ranks between two of its fellow transporters, the Lockheed C-130 'Hercules' and the Boeing C-17 Globemaster in terms of size. For more on the aircraft, see our guide to the A400M .

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The Mission Impossible movie scene

In order to get an idea of the task at hand, let's start by taking a look at the finished version of the scene in question. The incredible sight of Cruise hanging off the aircraft surely had many viewers questioning just how such a shot could be filmed without a green screen.

Keeping Cruise safe

Film and aviation are two very similar industries when it comes to their focus on safety. As such, when the two worlds collided to film this scene, there were plenty of procedures in place to keep safety levels high. The film's Director of Photography, Robert Elswit, explained to The Hollywood Reporter that Cruise was securely fastened to the plane while filing the daring stunt. Specifically, he states:

" Tom was in a full-body harness, and he’s cabled and wired to the plane through [its] door. Inside the aircraft was an aluminum truss that was carefully bolted to the plane, which held the wires that went through the door, which held Tom ."

Get all the latest aviation news right here on Simple Flying!

You can also see at the end of the clip below that Cruise removes special contact lenses from his eyes after shooting the scene. Additionally, Elswit also noted that " if anything hit him at those speeds it could be really bad. They were very careful about cleaning the runway so there were no rocks ."

A limited window

What made the scene even more impressive was the limited amount of time that the team involved had in which to pull it off. Overall, there were just 48 hours at their disposal to perfect the shot using F-WWMZ, one of five A400M testbeds. According to ATDB.aero, it later bore registration EC-406. Today, ch-aviation.com shows that it remains in the hands of Airbus under the registration A4M006.

During this period, the aircraft took off with Cruise attached eight times before the team got the sequence that they wanted. The filming took place at RAF Wittering, where, at times, the plane was 5,000 feet above the ground. Elswit adds:

" They go up, get altitude, make a complete circuit, and land. I think it’s up in the air for about 6-8 minutes before it lands again. It had to be at least 1,000 ft. up ."

The final task was to digitally remove the harnesses from the shot. This gave the impression that Cruise was holding on to the plane with nothing more than his bare hands. Even with the harness, the daring stunt was one that no doubt even got experienced stuntman Cruise's blood pumping even more than those watching!

Carrying on with Top Gun

Of course, this was not Cruise's first or last move with aircraft feats and stunts. He is perhaps even better known for Top Gun in 1986. This went further with the sequel Top Gun: Maverick in 2022, which really demonstrates his love of aircraft. This sees Cruise fly in several different aircraft, including his own P-51 Mustang aircraft.

This saw Cruise, and other actors, flying in the F-18. For this, they undertook an intensive training program , with flying moving from Cessna 172 aircraft right up to fast jets. This was undoubtedly a success and makes the movie extremely realistic. Speaking to Simple Flying about the program, Kevin LaRosa Jr , he film’s aerial coordinator , explained:

“When I would watch the footage it would literally look like they were flying… In a way they were seasoned pilots from going through this training program. They knew where to look, how to talk. Without that training, I don’t think the footage in the movie would look like it looks today... I think that training was the right thing to do, and we all see it when we watch the movie.”

What do you make of Tom Cruise's A400M antics, or his flying in Top Gun? Do you know of any other similarly thrilling plane-related movie stunts? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Sources: Airbus , ATDB.aero , ch-aviation.com , The Hollywood Reporter

Watch Tom Cruise Hang Outside a Plane in Insane MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 5 Video

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By now we’re all familiar with the fact that, whenever possible, Tom Cruise does his own stunts. Your script calls for the character to run around outside the tallest building in the world? Tom Cruise will do it (though that one  almost didn’t happen ). For Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation , Cruise takes on one of his biggest stunt challenges yet: standing out on the outside of a plane while it takes off. The plane doesn’t just go fast down the runway and then stop—it literally takes off into the air, with Tom Cruise, Hollywood actor Tom Cruise , hanging outside on the wing.

We’ve been inundated with so many CG-enhanced stunt and set pieces recently that it’s become hard to be really “wowed” by something, but with Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation , Paramount Pictures wants everyone to know that this is the real deal. As such, they’ve released a brief featurette that includes raw video of Cruise performing the stunt, and it’s insane. When someone like Tom Cruise admits that this stunt had him “scared shitless,” you know it’s a little intense.

And this is only one piece of the film! For another stunt, Cruise learned how to hold his breath for six minutes so director Christopher McQuarrie could shoot an underwater sequence in one take. I can’t wait to see this movie.

Watch the stunt video below. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation opens in theaters on July 31st and also stars Rebecca Ferguson , Simon Pegg , Ving Rhames , Jeremy Renner , Alec Baldwin , and Sean Harris .

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Terrifying moment Tom Cruise, 62, hangs off plane in death-defying stunt for new Mission Impossible movie

• Mary Gallagher , Senior Digital Showbiz Reporter
• Published : 12:32, 16 Jul 2024
• Updated : 16:47, 16 Jul 2024
• Published : Invalid Date,

THIS is the terrifying moment superstar Tom Cruise hangs off a plane in a death-defying stunt for the new Mission Impossible movie.

Hollywood daredevil Tom , 62, was totally fearless during scenes playing field agent Ethan Hunt  in Oxfordshire today.

He took to the skies with fellow actor Esai Morales who resumes his rolse as baddie Gabriel in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part Two.

And new photos from set show fans of the action-packed franchise won't be disappointed.

The pair enaged in a fight scene as Tom proved he's still got it, clinging onto a plane in a breath-taking move.

The star looked fitter than ever as he dangled from the wing of an American yellow Stearman biplane.

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The aircrafts were formerly used during WWII .

Cruise, who loves to do his own stunts, also appeared to be without a parachute as as filming resumed on the eighth MI movie.

Story details for the new movie have been kept under wraps but Ethan's mission in part one was a battle with artificial intelligence.

The Hollywood megastar famously broke an ankle while filming a scene for the sixth film Mission: Impossible - Fallout.

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Tom was left in agony after his foot hit the wall leaving him with a mangled ankle during a stunt that saw him leaping from one building to another.

He told Graham Norton: “Obviously it was very, very painful and the doctors were concerned that I wasn't going to be able to run again.

"It was a serious injury but I was like, ‘Look, I've got a movie, I've got a release date and my crew. I don't want to lose my crew’.

"So I figured out how I would really rehab and train ten to 12 hours a day and I was back shooting in six weeks and I actually started running again in ten weeks and then sprinting in 12.

“All the sprints that the audience sees in the movie are actually on my broken foot.

“I still had the broken foot and I wasn't able to do as many takes, but we figured out where I could do a limited amount. After I did it the first time, I couldn't walk for three days.”

• Planes flights and airlines

Tom Cruise's Plane Stunt In Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation Took Some Convincing

Tom Cruise is one of the last true movie stars. His commitment to authenticity through death-defying stunts is crazy but also refreshing in a CGI-heavy cinematic landscape where individual actors don't shine quite as brightly. Cruise continues to top himself with each jaw-dropping stunt in the "Mission Impossible" series. Frequently without the use of a stunt double, he has done everything from scaling the Burj Khalifa, climbing on rocks one-handed, and holding his breath underwater for six minutes. One of the most spectacular action sequences is from " Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation " where Cruise actually hangs onto the side of an ascending airplane. 

As Ethan Hunt, Tom Cruise grips a giant cargo plane while zooming down the runway. The camera never wavers from the airplane's edge as it gets higher and higher until the ground below resembles tiny puzzle pieces. None of the shots are digital, except for the removal of wires that held Cruise onto the plane. These images of an actor genuinely risking his life for the sake of entertainment are both terrifying and thrilling. This entire opening scene is an ambitious piece of filmmaking that immediately surges the audience's adrenaline. 

But it wasn't easy for Tom Cruise to perform such an intense practical effect. Since there were a lot of risks involved, the French aeronautics company in charge of the Airbus 400 had to be convinced. It was not exactly an easy decision to allow one of the biggest action heroes in the world to dangle from their massive machine thousands of feet in the air.

Flying high

According to the New York Post , Wade Eastwood, the stunt coordinator for "Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation," met with Airbus to persuade them to let Tom Cruise use one of their planes. However, the company was hesitant to allow the filmmakers to use their aircraft in such a dangerous stunt. "If one of their planes has a little hard landing, that's bad publicity for them. If they hurt Tom Cruise, it would just be bad publicity forever," Eastwood explains. 

There were a lot of potential hazards with this kind of elaborate action set piece. Since the plane would rise to 5,000 feet at 184 mph, there were fears that something — "a pebble, a piece of the camera rig or, worst of all, a bird" could hit Cruise. Even while flying in ideal weather, Cruise would get extremely cold. He also had to wear special contact lenses to protect his eyes and keep them open while going at such a fast speed. 

The New York Post reports that Cruise, a pilot himself, was able to win over Airbus because he just wouldn't take no for an answer. After all, the "Mission Impossible" team would take the necessary precautions to ensure that Cruise was safe the entire time: "Tom was in a full body harness and he's cabled and wired to the plane through [its] door. Inside the aircraft was an aluminum truss that was carefully bolted to the plane, which held the wires that went through the door, which held Tom." 

The result is a simple yet high-octane stunt that leaves viewers stunned. It's one of the most unforgettable moments in "Mission Impossible" history. Can it be topped in the upcoming " Mission Impossible  – Dead Reckoning "? We'll see.   

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How “crazy” was that tom cruise ‘mission: impossible’ plane stunt the movie’s cinematographer tells all.

"They can slow down pretty quickly, but it still does a complete circuit," says Robert Elswit.

By Carolyn Giardina

Carolyn Giardina

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In the run-up to  Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation , Paramount’s marketers and Tom Cruise himself have turned the movie’s opening sequence in one of the film’s main selling points.

The scene features Cruise’s Ethan Hunt hanging onto an Airbus 400 as it taxies down a runway and takes off. And the media has taken the bait, describing it under headlines that have called the stunt “dangerous,” “crazy,” “insane” and even “death-defying.”

In fact, the stunt, which was filmed at RAF  Wittering  air base in the U.K., did actually take place — the sequence wasn’t created digitally. Testifies  Robert Elswit , the film’s director of photography, “There’s no digital Tom, and there’s no fake plane. He’s really strapped to an Airbus.”

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In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter , Elswit said, “It’s pretty damn crazy; it’s over a hundred knots when it takes off. They can slow down pretty quickly, but it still does on a complete circuit. They go up, get altitude, make a complete circuit and land. I think it’s up in the air for about 6-8 minutes before it lands again. It had to be at least 1,000 ft. up. And he’s attached to the thing the whole time. The visual effects that were involved were erasing the wires (which held Cruise to the plane).”

But, at the same time, there was plenty of planning and practice involved in order to minimize the risks.

“Tom was in a full body harness and he’s cabled and wired to the plane through [its] door. Inside the aircraft was an aluminum truss that was carefully bolted to the plane, which held the wires that went through the door, which held Tom,” the cinematographer said of safety measures. “He was also wearing special contact lenses to protect his eyes. If anything hit him at those speeds it could be really bad. They were very careful about cleaning the runway so there were no rocks. And we took off in certain weather conditions; there were no birds. And he’s sort of protected by the way the air moves over the wing.”

Elswit , an Oscar winner for There Will Be Blood, explained that to get the shot of Cruise, a truss device was built to attach to the plane an ARRI 35mm  film camera with a Panavision anamorphic zoom, housed in an aerodynamic  Nettmann System’s stabilized head.  Elswit  and members of the camera crew were inside the Airbus, watching the [Airbus-mounted] camera on a video tap. “I could remotely pan and tilt the camera, ” he added.

A helicopter flying alongside the plane, was also used. According to  Elswit , “There was a helicopter flying next to us. From the helicopter, we were shooting [the additional aerial perspective] of Tom attached to the door. In the VFX , they erased the [Airbus-mounted] camera that we were shooting with [as it was in the helicopter shot].”

The cinematographer added that the sequence came together with careful planning by the camera and effects teams, working with the Airbus Defense and Space flight test team (Airbus announced its involvement here ). “The first time they did a test with a dummy,” he said. “They then flew with the camera rig, and the day before we went up with a stunt double just to make sure everything was okay.

“When he wants to do something, he’ll figure out a way to do it,” Elswit said of working with Cruise. “He’s the most obsessive artist. … If it couldn’t actually be Tom on the plane, I think he wouldn’t want the sequence in the movie. That’s what happened on the Burj  [ Khalifa skyscrapter in Dubai, for an action sequence in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol] . I’m always stunned. What inside of him makes it possible for anybody to do that kind of shit — and not be scared shitless ? He loves it.”

Rogue Nation hits theaters on Friday. 

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Watch Tom Cruise Rehearse and Perform the 'Biggest Stunt in Cinema History'

Here's how the movie star prepared for his most ambitious action sequence yet in 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning.'

A mini-documentary released on YouTube by Paramount Pictures follows the months of preparation that went into planning and executing a heart-stopping chase scene in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One , in which Cruise's character, secret agent Ethan Hunt, rides a motorcycle off the edge of a cliff and goes into a base jump, free-falling towards the earth before pulling his parachute cord.

"There's a lot going into this stunt," says director Christopher McQuarrie. "So Tom put together this master plan to coordinate all of these experts in each of the particular disciplines involved, to make this whole thing happen.

Prior to the shoot in Hellesylt, Norway in 2020, Cruise undertook a year of training to master motocross, base jumping and advanced skydiving, including working on his strength and stability to ensure he can control his own position mid-air, and manoeuver the parachute canopy in the right way.

"You train and drill every little aspect over and over and over and over again," says Cruise.

When the prep for the shoot was at its most intense, Cruise was doing 30 jumps per day, and he racked up more than 500 skydives and 13,000 motocross jumps over the course of rehearsal. Throughout this entire process, Cruise also wore a GPS chip so that they were able to track his speed and location in three-dimensional space at every stage of the stunt, which then enabled them to plan exactly where the drone cameras needed to be for the shoot.

"The key is me hitting certain speeds and being consistent with that," says Cruise. "There's no speedometer, so I do it by sound and feel of the bike. And then as I depart the bike, I'm using the wind that's hitting me, I'm pumping my chest, that will give me lift."

On the day of the shoot, all conditions have to be perfect for Cruise to pull off the staggering feat, and things are tense behind the camera as the actor shoots off the edge of the precipice and plummets into the valley below... a total of six times.

"We've been working on this for years," says Cruise. "I've wanted to do it since I was a little kid."

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The Nine Wildest Mission: Impossible Stunts, Ranked By the Danger They Posed to Tom Cruise

Over the last 27 years, the Mission: Impossible franchise has continued to establish itself from other movies in the spy genre by being synonymous with two things: Tom Cruise and insane stunts. With the subsequent release of each Ethan Hunt adventure comes another behind-the-scenes featurette about how far out there—read: how close to actual death—Cruise went to entertain and enthrall the audience, whether it’s learning how to hold his breath underwater for six minutes, or scaling the exterior of the world’s largest building.

With the release of the seventh installment in the series, Dead Reckoning Part One , Hunt states to a character that their life “will always be more important to me than my own,” which feels like a declaration of Cruise’s guiding philosophy for stunt work. To wit: Matt Damon recently recalled a conversation he had with Cruise about a stunt in Ghost Protocol —which started with Cruise deadpanning that he fired the film's first safety coordinator who deemed the stunt too dangerous.

Cruise fulfills his mission statement in the latest film by driving a motorcycle off a cliff and then parachuting down a ravine—establishing a new landmark in Hollywood stunt work. As the franchise reaches this new height, we’re looking at some of the most dangerous stunts from the Mission series and ranking by degree of danger, from least to most.

Danger Level: Mild

An exploding fish tank feels like small potatoes in the larger scope of the Mission series, but Cruise has said the stunt was indeed “very crazy.” Talking to Graham Norton in 2018, Cruise recalled that he and the stunt coordinator couldn’t get on the same page about the timing of the explosion, resulting in a Who’s On First -like back and forth about whether the go was on the count of three or the count of one. Considering the sequence involved a detonation, glass, and plenty of water, the potential for danger was high, but hardly life-threatening. miscommunication is enough for someone to get seriously injured if it wasn’t timed correctly.

Danger Level: Unnecessarily High

Cruise’s wholehearted approach to dangerous stunt work began in earnest with John Woo’s Mission: Impossible 2 . The actor put Alex Honnold to shame with an extensive free solo climbing stunt in the film’s opening . "I was really mad that he wanted to do it, but I tried to stop him and I couldn't," Woo told Entertainment Weekly back in 2000 . "I was so scared I was sweating. I couldn't even watch the monitor when we shot it." Woo’s nervousness stemmed from the fact Cruise was insistent on not only doing the climb himself but only wearing a thin safety wire through the staggering seven different takes it took to get the shot as he climbed over the constructed cliff face. His dedication comes through in the final product and is easily the highlight of an otherwise lackluster installment in the franchise ( despite my editor’s attempts to convince me otherwise ).

Danger Level: Probable Death

After Ghost Protocol —more on that later—the Mission franchise shifted into featuring a signature, outrageous stunt for each of its installments. For his first Mission , Christopher McQuarrie conjured up the idea of Cruise strapped to an A400 cargo plane—an image so memorable it became the central focus of the movie’s marketing. McQuarrie recently stated the fear around A400 stunt wasn’t so much about Cruise falling off (he was strapped into the door through a rigged vest) but external factors beyond their control, like a rock on the runway or a bird strike while the plane was taking off. With so little protection, the timing had to be perfect.

Danger Level: Technically Low, made higher by insane repetitions

While still extremely dangerous, the challenges around the HALO (high altitude, low opening) jump in Fallout were mostly logistical. McQuarrie and crew had to create a new style helmet for the sequence that not only provided oxygen for Cruise (who is the first ever actor to perform the jump typically reserved for military operations) but also had lighting in the interior so audiences could see his face. The timing of the natural lighting made it so the jump could only occur in a three-minute window, so the jump required over 100 attempts to get it right. The real risk came from ensuring Henry Cavill, Cruise, and the cameraman all hit their marks so they wouldn’t collide in midair while falling at 200 miles per hour. In any other movie, this would be the showstopper. And yet, in Fallout , it’s just the aperitif.

Danger Level: Navy Seal levels of difficulty

Much of the pre-release marketing of Mission films in the last decade typically includes Cruise discussing his training to execute on a stunt accordingly. Rogue Nation leaned into the fact he learned how to hold his breath underwater for a staggering six minutes to shoot the underwater vault heist sequence as practically as possible—and all in one long take despite the fact the finished sequence is intertwined with multiple cuts. Legend has it that safety and compliance teams on set were extraordinarily nervous about the whole thing, and it wasn’t until Cruise convinced them otherwise that it was safe and that he could handle it accordingly.

Danger Level: Low, but it’s always the one you least expect

For all the dangerous stunts in Mission movies, it’s odd that something as simple as a broken ankle is the only major injury to befall Cruise. While jumping from one building to another, Cruise sustained that injury and knew immediately he’d messed something up, as the take in which he broke it is the one McQuarrie used in the final cut. Filming on Fallout was subsequently delayed while he recovered, but Cruise seemed to take it in stride; a behind-the-scenes clip shows him shrugging it off like he forgot to grab something at the grocery store.

Danger Level: Extremely High

There are approximately three different “holy shit” moments throughout Fallout ’s third-act helicopter setpiece: Cruise jumping onto the rope as the helicopter takes off, free-falling off the helicopter, and then piloting the chopper himself while performing a 365-degree corkscrew dive. The scariest bit of all included the drop—Rebecca Ferguson declared that she thought Cruise actually fell from the helicopter. If you remember, Cruise falls and hits the accompanying load dangling at the bottom so hard that it knocks the wind out of him each of the several times he performed it. Not to mention, the corkscrew dive was so dangerous that “most pilots wouldn’t attempt it,” per stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood .

Danger Level: Technically Very High…(but less blatantly flirtatious with death than the movies that followed?)

In other movies, a stunt involving scaling the side of the Burj Khalifa would have taken place on a set with a replica or with CGI. Not in the world of Mission . For Ghost Protocol , Cruise climbed the world’s tallest building with only a single safety rope. A single misstep and everything could go south very quickly. The stunt set the tone for everything else that’s followed, as dedicating himself to the reality of it all makes it one of the defining stunts of the Mission franchise.

Danger Level: Trolling death at this point

In comedy, there’s the concept of putting “a hat on a hat,” which means that layering one joke on top of another different joke leads to the whole thing falling flat. In less-skilled hands, the now legendary cliff bike jump in Dead Reckoning could feel like a hat on a hat. It combines elements of previous Mission stunts, notably the HALO jump and the Paris bike chase from Fallout , but it’s accomplished and shot in such a way that it feels breathtaking at every single stage. The fact that Cruise performed the stunt several different times, despite its high risk, is stunt work at its very best.

How the 'Mission: Impossible' franchise pulled off its wildest stunts

The road to the 'biggest stunt in cinema history'

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For nearly 30 years, Tom Cruise has chosen to accept his mission of risking his life to entertain us. The "Mission: Impossible" franchise is famous for its increasingly jaw-dropping stunts that Cruise personally performs, and he may have outdone himself for the newest installment, "Dead Reckoning Part One." One of the sequel's stunts has been described as the biggest in cinema history.

In honor of his latest mission, here's a peek behind the curtain at how Cruise pulled off the wildest stunts in the series, including a few from "Dead Reckoning," which hits theaters on July 12:

"Mission: Impossible" - The Langley vault

For the famous scene in the original film where Ethan Hunt infiltrates CIA headquarters, Cruise really hung upside down from the ceiling and was quickly dropped to the floor like seen in the movie.

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"It was all done by hand and weights" with "two guys feeding him up and feeding him down," stunt coordinator Greg Powell explained in a behind-the-scenes featurette. Cruise also recalled that initially, he kept hitting his face when falling to the floor, but he finally got the shot to work by putting coins in his shoes.

"Mission: Impossible 2" - Rock climbing

The opening of "Mission: Impossible 2," which finds Ethan Hunt dangling off rocks and nearly falling to his death, was shot in Utah with Cruise doing the entire sequence himself.

"The scary thing was, the cliff was 2,000 feet high, and there were no protections on the ground," director John Woo explained in a behind-the-scenes featurette. "I was sweating and in a panic."

According to Entertainment Weekly , Cruise only wore a thin safety cable, and getting the scene took seven takes. "We had five cameras on the cliff, including a helicopter camera, a camera on a crane, and cameramen hanging from safety cables, but we had focus problems, so we had to do it again and again," Woo told EW.

"Ghost Protocol" - The Burj Khalifa

The Burj Khalifa sequence was shot by having Cruise — you guessed it — legitimately hang off the side of the tallest building in the world, 2,000 feet in the air, while attached to harnesses. "We thought we'd have to recreate the building and do it in a more traditional way, and it was Tom who said, 'No, I'm going to go out there,'" producer Bryan Burk said in a behind-the-scenes featurette.

The crew set up on an empty floor of the building and had to get permission to drill holes into the ground and ceiling for their equipment, as well as take out more than 26 windows to film. To prepare, Cruise repeatedly climbed up and down a glass wall that was built for rehearsal purposes. But the actor noted in the featurette that he couldn't stay out for long because with the gear he was wearing, he was "being cut off in two main arteries" across the harness, and his legs became numb. Jeremy Renner also really had to partially hang out of the side of the building for the shot where his character grabs Ethan.

"Rogue Nation" - The plane

Yes, that was really Cruise dangling on the outside of an airplane, 5,000 feet in the air, at the start of "Rogue Nation." He "was in a full body harness" and "cabled and wired to the plane through [its] door," cinematographer Robert Elswit explained to The Hollywood Reporter , adding that "inside the aircraft was an aluminum truss that was carefully bolted to the plane, which held the wires that went through the door, which held Tom." Cruise also wore special contact lenses protecting his eyes, though director Christopher McQuarrie noted in a behind-the-scenes featurette that "there was nothing to protect his face." So McQuarrie feared debris could be sucked into the propeller and hit Cruise "traveling at the speed of a bullet," and "if a bird hit Tom at that speed, on any part of his body, that would have been the end." Despite the risks, Cruise performed the stunt eight times.

"Rogue Nation" - Diving underwater

The sequence in "Rogue Nation" where Ethan dives underwater and holds his breath for an extended period of time was filmed in a water tank, and at one point, Cruise held his breath for six full minutes. While filming the sequence, he had to "hold his breath, wait for everyone to get into position, wait for all the bubbles to clear, wait for the cameras to roll, then he does a long take, and then he has to wait for the divers to come back and give him air," visual effects supervisor David Vickery explained in a behind-the-scenes featurette.

"You have these free divers that came in and trained me how to do it," Cruise said on the Graham Norton Show . "It's not pleasant." In fact, he noted that after filming the stunt, "There'd be times I'd be sitting there talking in meetings, and I wouldn't breathe. I realize I am not breathing, and I had to turn my autonomic system back on to breathe again." Though the scene was shot underwater, Cruise was surrounded by green screens so much of the environment around him could be added in post-production.

"Fallout" - The HALO jump

For the HALO (high altitude low opening) jump sequence in "Fallout," not only did Cruise really fall out of a plane traveling 165 miles per hour at a height of 25,000 feet, but he did it over 100 times. The film crew also built a large wind machine that was used to rehearse, and a special helmet had to be developed that would both provide oxygen and ensure Cruise's face could be seen in the shot, according to a behind-the-scenes featurette.

"It'll look like one continuous take, but they're really three long takes," Cruise explained, and he had to fall to exactly three feet in front of the camera. The sequence also had to be filmed during a tight window to get the lighting right. The lightning storm, though, naturally had to be added in post-production.

"Fallout" - The rooftop chase

Though the rooftop chase in "Fallout" isn't as dangerous of a stunt as some of the others, it stands out because Cruise was injured making it. He jumped across a rooftop for the sequence but broke his ankle by accidentally landing in a way that his leg smashed into the side of a building. The injury forced the film to shut down production, but footage of Cruise breaking his ankle and running past the camera while limping was used in the movie.

"I knew instantly it was broken," Cruise recalled on The Graham Norton Show . On the blu-ray commentary, director Christopher McQuarrie remembered Cruise "laying on a couch with [his] foot up and a bag of ice on it" and asking, "Did we get the shot? Good, because we're not coming back."

"Fallout" - The helicopter fall and chase

For the finale of "Fallout," Cruise actually dangled from a helicopter before dropping 40 feet. Director Christopher McQuarrie told the Los Angeles Times a pulley system and safety line were used, but he added, "The only thing the safety line was ensuring was that if Tom was killed during the stunt, we wouldn't be looking for his body in the bushes. Because if he made the fall at the wrong angle, it's picture wrap on Mr. Cruise. If he hits the payload headfirst as opposed to back first or legs first, he'll break his neck and just be a rag doll."

In fact, Cruise's co-star Rebecca Ferguson revealed in a behind-the-scenes featurette that as the stunt was being shot, "I heard myself scream" because "I actually thought he fell," while McQuarrie recalled, "We heard on the radio, 'I think we just lost Tom.'" Cruise also flew the helicopter through the mountains for the chase sequence, and he was trained in flying specifically for the film. Cameras were attached to the helicopter, meaning Cruise "was performing three jobs: he's the pilot, he's the camera operator, and he's acting," McQuarrie noted.

"Dead Reckoning Part One" - The train fight

For an action sequence on a train in "Dead Reckoning Part One," an entire functioning train was built, and a fight was shot on top of it while the vehicle was moving at 60 miles per hour, according to a behind-the-scenes featurette . The train was then filmed being destroyed by falling and crashing into a quarry.

"Dead Reckoning Part One" - The motorcycle cliff jump

The marquee stunt of "Dead Reckoning Part One" involves Cruise riding a motorcycle off a cliff into a base jump, which director Christopher McQuarrie described as "far and away the most dangerous thing we've ever attempted." Cruise's training involved more than 13,000 practice motocross jumps and over 500 skydives. A ramp was constructed in Norway for Cruise to ride off and deploy a parachute in the air — and he then did it five more times.

Cruise told Entertainment Tonight the stunt was shot on the first day of filming so the crew would know whether he would be alive for the rest of the movie. "We know either we're gonna continue with the film or we're not," he said. "Let's know day one … Do we all continue, or is it a major rewrite?" But to quote Anthony Hopkins in "Mission: Impossible 2," this is not mission: difficult. It's mission: impossible.

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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.

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Tom Cruise details insane 'Mission: Impossible' jump stunt at 25,000 feet, done 106 times

LAS VEGAS –  Tom Cruise has put his dangerous falling out into Mission: Impossible — Fallout.

The action star, 55, wowed CinemaCon late Wednesday with stunning footage of his high altitude, low opening (HALO) parachute jump stunts for the action thriller (in theaters July 27). 

The numbers alone for the stunt, which took more than a year to plan and execute, are daunting. Cruise's jump required an extended free fall — used by military special operators — from 25,000 to 30,000 feet, flying through the air at speeds up to 220 miles per hour with the aid of an oxygen mask. 

Between training for the stunt and shooting, Cruise jumped from a C-17 military plane a total of 106 times to get the three takes he and director Christopher McQuarrie wanted.

"For these films, it's about what we can do that's physically possible, but without killing Tom," McQuarrie said.

More: Can Tom Cruise climb again to CinemaCon glory? Plus 5 more burning questions

McQuarrie joked that it didn't make sense "falling out of a perfectly functioning aircraft."

But this is what Cruise does for his  Mission: Impossible franchise, including strapping himself to an  Airbus A400 turboprop plane in-flight for 2015's Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation .

For those who doubt the star is in peril, Cruise broke his ankle while shooting a building jump for Fallout , forcing production to temporarily shut down.

McQuarrie's team developed an oxygen mask that would allow Cruise's face to be lit and not obscured by the protruding hose — so audiences will see for themselves it's actually Cruise jumping.

A camera operator using a helmet camera followed Cruise in the scene and fell backward from the plane just before Cruise, keeping the close-up intact.

After the dramatic footage was shown Wednesday, Mission: Impossible star Simon Pegg put it in perspective for the applauding audience.

"The difference is, you know he lived," said Pegg, insisting he once truly thought Cruise had perished in a stunt. "It’s a daily stress going to work with him. You don’t know if you’ll see him tomorrow."

In other news from Paramount Studios:

First footage of 'Bumblebee' revealed : Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena and director Travis Knight revealed footage from the Transformers spinoff Bumblebee (Dec. 21).

In the first film without Michael Bay, Knight promised he would continue the Transformer  tradition of "spectacle and explosion, lots and lots of explosions." But he also promised an "emotional core."

The first footage did show Steinfeld's teenage Charlie meeting the painfully shy but powerful Autobot and naming it Bumblebee because of the buzzing sound it made. (Bumblebee can't speak.)

"And (the name) matches the outfit," Charlie says of the yellow-and-black creature.

After they meet cute, the sizzle reel of action delivered the promised explosions.

Sequels announced:  Paramount CEO Jim Gianopulos announced that a sequel for director John Krasinski's hit thriller A Quiet Place  ($213 million in worldwide box office and counting) is already underway. 

Two Star Trek movies are also in the works, he said.

More: Melissa McCarthy's 'very graphic' puppet movie 'Happytime Murders' kills at CinemaCon

‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’: How Tom Cruise Pulled Off That Insane Skydive

Cruise had to jump out of a plane over 100 times to get the opening skydive just right

If the “Mission: Impossible” films are really just an excuse for Tom Cruise to thumb his nose at death, we’re certainly for it. But while filming the sixth installment of the series, “Fallout,” the 55-year-old superstar also became the first actor ever to perform a high altitude, low opening jump (known in the military as a HALO jump) for a movie.

In the movie, the harrowing scene takes place in the skies over Paris. In real life, Cruise performed the jump in the United Arab Emirates, the only country that would allow them to film such a dangerous jump. And while the lights of the French capital and the thunderstorm Ethan jumps into were added with CGI, Cruise is actually being filmed by a skydiver with a camera strapped to his helmet.

“We wanted to film the scene at dusk, so there was about a three-minute window to shoot the scene, and if we didn’t get it right we’d be back out there the next day doing it again,” explained director Christopher McQuarrie, who joined Cruise at Paramount’s CinemaCon presentation back in May. “Between the practice jumps and the stuff we did with the cameras, Tom jumped 106 times.”

Before Cruise’s Ethan Hunt jumps, his oxygen tube suddenly pulls out. But that wasn’t a prop. “Tom actually needs that to breathe,” McQuarrie said. “Once he gets that in, he jumps and the cameraman is falling backwards just inches away from his face. If the distance between them isn’t right, then Tom’s face isn’t going to be in focus and the shot won’t work.”

Speaking of Cruise’s face, the equipment used by the military for HALO jumps completely obscures the face with darkened visors. Perfectly fine for a Navy SEAL, but not good for a movie. So the “Mission: Impossible” production designers had to design a suit with special lights that would allow the camera to show Cruise’s face as he jumps out of the plane.

“There are just all these things I need to remember,” Cruise recalled. “I have to keep in mind the distance between me and the camera when I jump out. I need to keep in mind where the camera is at all times. I need to remember my lines and how to get the oxygen pipe back on the stuntman playing Henry [Cavill]. And then, oh yeah, I have to think about the altitude so I know when to deploy the parachute.”

After spending countless hours in a huge wind tunnel rehearsing everything to a tee, it was then filmed in the UAE for three nights.

“It was so important for me to get it right,” Cruise said, “because I want to put the audience right there in that moment, feeling this sense of danger as Ethan has to improvise when everything goes wrong.”

Co-star Simon Pegg (Benji Dunn) has now worked with Cruise on four “M:I” films, but he says that even watching Cruise climb up the side of the Burj Khalifa or dangle off the side of a military jet as it takes off doesn’t make watching him do the next crazy stunt any less nerve-wracking.

“The main difference between watching Tom do these stunts on set and watching them in the theater is that in the theater, you know he lives at the end,” he quipped.

Watch a behind-the-scenes clip from Paramount about the skydive in the clip above.

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How Tom Cruise Executed His 'Most Dangerous' Stunt in 'Mission: Impossible –Dead Reckoning Part One'

The death-defying moment in the franchise's seventh installment involves Cruise driving a motorbike off a cliff

Collection Christophel/Alamy

Tom Cruise  turned up the action for Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning   Part One .

While the film marks the seventh installment in the highly successful franchise, Cruise, 61, made the occasion even more special by challenging himself to perform one of his most dangerous stunts yet.

The death-defying moment involved Cruise driving a motorbike off a cliff, fly off the bike, and parachute to the ground. While fans got a glimpse of the stunt through the film's action-packed trailer in May, Cruise, along with writer-director  Christopher McQuarrie , first teased the big moment in 2021 at CinemaCon.

The pair explained in a special behind-the-scenes video at the event that the stunt took 500 hours of skydiving training and 13,000 motorbike jumps to get it just right. The stunt involved Cruise being attached to a set of wires as he rides a speeding motorcycle off of a large ramp before he throws himself from the bike, backed by the safety wires attached to his back.

Speaking about its execution, McQuarrie, 54, explained in the video that it was "by far the most dangerous stunt we've ever done." The clip then ended with Cruise performing the stunt himself, with a crew member saying, " Tom Cruise  rode a motorcycle off a cliff six times today."

McQuarrie "tried to kill me," joked Cruise at the New York City premiere.

Christian Black/Paramount Pictures

The film's long-awaited release comes after multiple delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic . According to an official synopsis, it finds Cruise's Ethan Hunt as he and his team are tasked with tracking down "a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands."

During its world premiere in June , Cruise gave a speech about his passion for the franchise and filmmaking. He said in part, "It’s something that I grew up with, that made me and inspired me to dream and want to travel the world. My goal since I was little was to make movies and travel. And not just be a tourist but work in that world and understand their culture."

"Through my movies, I’ve been able to have that because everyone here has allowed me to entertain them," he continued. "It’s a privilege that I have never taken for granted."

Never miss a story — sign up for  PEOPLE's free daily newsletter  to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.

Mission: Impossible   - Dead Reckoning Part One is out now.

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Tom Cruise Seen Dangling From Biplane Filming New ‘Mission: Impossible'

Noted pilot Tom Cruise was seen dangling from an airborne biplane while filming Mission: Impossible 8 in England, spectacular photos obtained by The Daily Mail show. Cruise was photographed on the Oxfordshire set alongside Ozark actor Esai Morales, who returns as the villainous Gabriel from last summer’s Dead Reckoning .

Though no details were made available about the scene in question, it appears that Hunt is piloting the plane when a fight breaks out between himself and Gabriel, launching the IMF agent from the craft.

Morales, seated in the back of the plane, was seen fighting with Cruise, who was perilously dangling from the open-cockpit plane with little or no apparent safety rigging as it repeatedly flipped upside down. Seated ahead of Morales was a pilot clad in a greenscreen suit, to be removed later and replaced with an empty cockpit.

In other photos, Cruise can be seen standing on the side of the biplane and mounting its wings as it takes off; and Morales is seen conferring with a crew member while wearing what appears to be a parachute. Other shots show a camera helicopter closely shadowing the plane, filming the action.

Cruise, who's held his pilot license since 1994, is known for his death-defying stunts , which he insists on performing himself . In Dead Reckoning , he made a much-publicized cliff jump on a dirt bike; but this isn’t even the first (or second) time Cruise has clung to an airborne vessel in one of the Mission movies.

2015’s Rogue Nation kicked off with Cruise holding on for dear life to the exterior of a military cargo jet as it lifted off, a stunt shot in real-time with Cruise harnessed to the side of the plane; and in 2018’s Fallout , he performed a HALO jump from a similar aircraft.

You can see the final version of Cruise’s spectacular plane stunt when Mission: Impossible 8 hits cinemas on May 23, 2025.

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Mission impossible 4: how tom cruise did the burj khalifa stunt.

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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.

• 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 continues to perform his own dangerous stunts for the Mission: Impossible movies, each death-defying sequence upstaging the last.

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 is one of the most consistent movie franchises out there, but we've accepted the nearly-impossible task of ranking them.

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.

The Mission: Impossible 8 release date is set for 2025, and there's intense speculation on what's next for Ethan Hunt after Dead Reckoning Part One.

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

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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.