Tom Cruise’s increasingly dangerous stunts in his movies have us concerned about what he’s planning next after Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. Cruise’s increasingly-daring stunts have been a primary reason for Hollywood’s current glimpses of success after the industry has struggled to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. Cruise incorporates a remarkable range of skills and abilities into performing his own stunts in his major movies, such as his recent feat of launching off a cliff from a motorcycle for the sake of getting an authentic shot in Mission: Impossible 7.
While Cruise’s mission to save Hollywood is fully displayed in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, his other achievements as a helicopter and airplane pilot attest to his unyielding albeit extremely risky approach to stunt work and movie-making. At the age of 61, Cruise has shown no signs of slowing down, with his next big stunt in the upcoming Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two featuring him hanging off the side of a WWII-era airplane. With Cruise’s unbelievable commitment to delivering the best possible spectacle to theaters around the world, his continued fearlessness has many worried about what else the iconic actor has in store.
Mission: Impossible 7’s Stunts Are Tom Cruise’s Most Dangerous Yet
Tom Cruise’s stunts in Mission: Impossible 7 are some of the actor’s most dangerous of his entire career. The most dangerous of all was the aforementioned jumping off a cliff while riding a motorcycle, but Cruise and his fellow actors in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One also participated in an extended action sequence while fighting atop an actual moving train. The production expensively built a fully-operational locomotive that could be used on actual railroad tracks, only then to send the custom train off the edge of a cliff at full speed, ensuring that everything from the hand-to-hand combat to the destruction of the train was as authentic as possible.
Cruise also did his stunts for a long car chase scene alongside co-star Hayley Atwell through the streets of Rome. Cruise and Atwell were reportedly actually handcuffed during the scene in order to ensure the authenticity of the on-screen action. With Cruise behind the wheel, the production placed complete confidence in the lead actor to handle the difficult maneuvering of a tiny Fiat 500 while handcuffed, which could have easily been made to look real via CGI but was not. All of these stunts were in addition to his previous on-screen feats in other Mission: Impossible movies, which include hanging onto the side of a military plane during takeoff and holding his breath underwater for six minutes.
Tom Cruise Has Even Bigger Stunt Plans For Mission: Impossible 8
As if Cruise had anything left to prove about his commitment to practical stunts in his movies, Cruise has announced even bigger stunt plans in store for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two. While filming for the eighth installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise began earlier this year, it was recently halted due to the announcement of the Screen Actors Guild strike, indicating that some of Cruise’s stunts likely haven’t even been performed yet. Prior to the strike, director Christopher McQuarrie publicly hinted at the intensity and increased risk of the upcoming stunts, stating that they will be “beyond anything” already seen in previous Cruise movies (via Collider).
McQuarrie also commented that Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two features an “outrageous” stunt sequence that involves multiple moving parts across various characters that have yet to be filmed. There are also expectations that the filmmaking will have to be pushed to new extremes that even McQuarrie appears to be uncertain about, revealing that Cruise’s ambitions for his stunts might have finally reached their limit if the Mission: Impossible 8 production team cannot figure out a way to safely shoot the scenes. Despite having all the world’s confidence and physical health resources he would ever need, Cruise’s greatest opponent is time, as his window to continue these amazing feats will gradually close with age.
Tom Cruise’s Practical Stunts Are His Greatest Strength & A Curse
Cruise’s determination to make the shooting of his movies as authentic as possible also makes them incredibly strenuous and challenging for the filmmakers and the rest of the crew. This reveals that his passion for doing practical stunts is both an amazing gift and an inescapable curse, since the number of extreme risks he continues to take put his life and the comfort level of his Hollywood coworkers in jeopardy. There is certainly something to be said about the merit of accomplishing the stunts with virtually no assistance from CGI or artificial intelligence technology, however, the continuation of the death-defying stunts as Cruise gets into his 60s is something that is equally as impressive as it is concerning.
It’s difficult to say for sure whether Cruise’s amazing stunts actually draw more of an audience to theaters for his movies or if Cruise’s ambition relates more closely to his own expectations in his role as one of Hollywood’s biggest action stars. While the promotional value of Cruise performing incredible stunts seemingly has a significant impact on the marketability of films such as Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible 7, no studio head, producer, or director is asking Cruise to risk his life on the job. Cruise has always been known for his outstanding energy and charisma, but his fearlessness is marvelous to watch as a fan and not so much as a friend.
Even Tom Cruise’s Co-Stars Are Worried About His Safety
Tom Cruise’s co-stars also share in their anxieties and concerns about Cruise’s safety, specifically when they have the rare privilege of witnessing Cruise perform death-defying feats right in front of their eyes. Simon Pegg in particular, who plays Benji in several Mission: Impossible films, has commented that he wasn’t even certain whether Cruise was going to survive the filming process of Dead Reckoning Part One (via Collider). Pegg recalled hearing the deafening silence as the entire production team waited to hear whether Cruise had successfully opened his parachute during the filming of the motorcycle jump scene. Despite this concern, there is seemingly nothing that will stop Tom Cruise from accomplishing his miraculous practical stunts in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One and beyond.