Tom Cruise’s long-lasting halo is of course partly due to luck. However, it is also the result of the actor’s tireless efforts throughout his 40-year career. Every time he takes on a new project, Tom Cruise always works with 100% of his strength, passion, and energy every day. The 62-year-old actor always finds ways to raise the bar, breaking the limits of himself or the works he participates in. The spirit of hard work and persistent creativity has created Tom Cruise’s unique class in Hollywood.
Director Steven Spielberg, when interviewed for the biography book Tom Cruise: An Unauthorised Biography by author Andrew Morton, commented that Tom Cruise is “a person who always radiates a source of lasting energy”. Meanwhile, Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kokinski also expressed special respect and admiration when talking about Tom Cruise:
“He approaches every day on set with the same enthusiasm as if it were his first film. But at the same time, he works as if it were his last. That’s an attitude that not every actor has. Never take anything for granted today, give 110 percent every day.
Continuously push the team and yourself to achieve excellence. That’s what Tom Cruise does and thinks. I’m always overwhelmed by this energy, by this fact, that he’s been in this industry for 40 years but never allows himself to slow down. Tom is always accelerating, which is amazing.”
Indeed, Tom Cruise has always been a pioneer in breaking the limits of action movies, bringing unique footage that makes viewers “eyes wide open, mouths wide open”. It is hard to believe that at the age of 61, Tom Cruise still personally performs hand-to-hand combat scenes on the roof of a train, weaves through narrow streets on a large-displacement motorbike, jumps from one roof to another and causes shock when he personally drives his motorbike off a cliff.
Throughout his career as an action star, Tom Cruise has rarely had to use a stunt double. Despite suffering many serious injuries, the actor throws himself into work as soon as he recovers and never gives up in the face of a challenge. “Once Tom Cruise makes up his mind, no one can stop him,” said director Christopher McQuarrie of Mission: Impossible 7.
Tom Cruise said it took him 15 months to come up with the idea and complete the “nail” scene in Mission: Impossible 7, with 536 practice jumps. He participated in a series of jumping and parachute training courses, learning how to deal with dangerous situations in the air. The director built a model of a slope, 135 m long and 10 m high, for Tom Cruise to ride a motorbike to act out the scene of jumping off a cliff. He only had 6 seconds to open his parachute, otherwise he would crash into the cliff. Every action had to be performed with skill and precision down to the last detail.
With Mission: Impossible – Dead reckoning part one, Tom Cruise showed that his class has not diminished over the years. The actor even excitedly told the press that he wanted to continue acting in action movies until he was 80 years old and still had many plans for Mission: Impossible.