Tom Cruise’s Wildest Stunts in His Movies, from ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ to ‘Mission: Impossible’

Stunt double, who? Tom Cruise has become synonymous with the dangerous stunts seen in his action-packed movies because he performs all of them himself. Between running down the world’s tallest building in Mission: Impossible to flying a jet in Top Gun: Maverick, here’s a roundup of the adrenaline junky’s most intense scenes

 

PHOTO: VALENTINE/BRIDGER/DEAN/SPLASHNEWS.COM01of 10Tom Cruise’s Cliff Jump in Mission: Impossible IIMOVIESTORE/SHUTTERSTOCK

There’s nothing that amps Tom Cruise up more than doing his own dangerous stunts, which he has done numerous times throughout the Mission: Impossible franchise.

In the second installment, one memorable and nail-biting scene involved a 2,000-foot cliff in Moab, Utah.

Not only did Cruise scale the cliff with his bare hands, but he jumped a 15-foot gap from one side of the cliff to another with nothing but a thin rope holding him for safety. (Oh, he also hung onto the cliff’s side by only his fingertips before pulling himself up.)

“I was really mad that he wanted to do [the stunt], but I tried to stop him and I couldn’t,” director John Woo told Entertainment Weekly. “I was so scared I was sweating. I couldn’t even watch the monitor when we shot it.”

02of 10Tom Cruise’s Knife to the Eye in Mission: Impossible IIPARAMOUNT

Cliff climbs and frightening jumps weren’t the only hard-to-watch stunts in the second installment of Mission: Impossible. While our eyes were nearly shut watching this next stunt, Cruise insisted his be wide open.

The infamous “knife-to-eye” scene involved a real knife being propelled full force at his eye, stopping precisely one quarter-inch away from his eyeball, as opposed to somewhere vaguely near his eye like director Woo had suggested, per the Mission: Impossible II Blu-Ray behind-the-scenes clip.

03of 10Tom Cruise’s Skyscraper Run in Mission: Impossible Ghost ProtocolDAVID JAMES/PARAMOUNT

One of Cruise’s most famous stunts took place in Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol when he scaled down the side of a building. But not just any building! He scaled the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa, located in Dubai.

To complete this daunting task, Cruise’s character Tom Hunt sported special suction gloves in order to reach the 130th floor of the 2,722-foot skyscraper before rappelling down and concluding with a giant leap of faith.

“One night, after one of the earliest shooting days, I bolted up in bed realizing that we had our star dangling about a mile up in the air on a thin wire and my brain was screaming, ‘What the hell are we doing?’ ” director Brad Bird told the New York Daily News.

04of 10Tom Cruise’s Exoskeleton Armor in Edge of TomorrowDAVID JAMES/WARNER BROS.

While the stunts in Edge of Tomorrow were nonetheless next-level, it was the costume that posed even more of a challenge! Cruise sported metal exoskeleton armor, a detail that’s typically added via CGI in post production.

But naturally, the daredevil actor opted to wear the heavy suit — with one version weighing roughly 85 pounds, costume designer Pierre Bohanna told Entertainment Weekly.

“They’re brash, quickly-made pieces of equipment. So you’ve got to see the guys struggling in them,” Bohanna said. “But it’s a massive worry when you take something like this and put someone like Tom in there. It’s a massive ask for anyone to put up with, let alone somebody that important.”

05of 10Tom Cruise’s Plane Hang in Mission: Impossible Rogue NationPARAMOUNT

The Top Gun alumnus is no stranger to action-packed air travel, but his stunt in Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation is incomparable to say the least.

While Top Gun had Cruise daringly fly and pilot fighter planes, Rogue Nation saw the actor cling onto one from the outside!

Using only his fingertips, he dangled 1,000 feet in the air from the side of an Airbus A400M at a speed of 100 knots for six to eight minutes, the film’s photography director, Robert Elswit, told The Hollywood Reporter.

In order to safely accomplish the stunt, Cruise was attached via a wire that was later erased in post production. He also wore protective contacts to shield his eyes from flying debris and intense gusts of wind, per CNN.

06of 10Tom Cruise’s Zero-Gravity Stunt in The MummyUNIVERSAL

Ever wonder how actors recreate a cargo plane plummeting to the ground? Ask Cruise, who did just that during the infamous plane crash sequence in The Mummy.

In true Cruise fashion, the actor opted for 64 takes in zero gravity, as opposed to the suggested sound stage alternative, per Variety.

07of 10Tom Cruise’s Helicopter Hang in Mission: Impossible Fall OutPARAMOUNT

Cruise was offered to shoot this daunting Mission: Impossible Fall Out scene on a backlot with a green screen, but that’s just so out of character.

To complete the stunt, the actor endured 16 hours of intensive helicopter training every day for more than a month in order to pull off the scene’s difficult maneuvers and climactic downward spiral, per the Los Angeles Times.

“It’s all Tom flying, 100 percent of it. There’s a lot of jeopardy,” the film’s stunt coordinator, Wade Eastwood, told the outlet.

As for the crash sequence, “It’s kind of like being in a theme park ride but really dangerous because your limbs are flying everywhere and all you need to do is catch your wrist in the wrong place and that’s a permanent injury,” costar Henry Cavill added.

08of 10Tom Cruise’s Building Jump in Mission: Impossible Fall OutPARAMOUNT

Did you really think hanging off the side of a helicopter, plummeting 40 feet to the ground, and doing a downward spiral were the only missions accomplished by Cruise in Fall Out? In the film, he also had to leap from one building’s rooftop to another.

To film the chase scene, Cruise was attached to two safety harnesses as he sprinted off one building, leaped off, and crashed against the side of the other before hoisting himself up (only to then keep running again).

Unfortunately for Cruise, the “easy” stunt did go wrong, resulting in a broken ankle for the actor, he told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show.

09of 10Tom Cruise’s Cockpit Scene in Top Gun: MaverickPARAMOUNT

In the blockbuster sequel to Cruise’s 1986 Top Gun, the cockpit scene in Top Gun: Maverick was — you guessed it — extremely dangerous.

All of the actors were professionally trained to pilot their individual fighter planes themselves.

“We worked with the Navy and the Top Gun School to formulate how to shoot it practically because if we’re going to do it, we’re going to fly in the F-18s,” said Cruise in a behind-the-scenes Paramount Pictures video clip.

10of 10Tom Cruise’s Motorcycle Jump in Mission: Impossible Dead ReckoningVALENTINE/BRIDGER/DEAN/SPLASHNEWS.COM

The seventh installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise, Dead Reckoning Part One, which is set to release in 2023, will see Cruise take on one of his most daring duties to date.

In the film, he rides a motorcycle off a massive ramp, flies into the sky, and parachutes his way down to safety — all while cameras are rolling and helicopters are following him to get the shot, per Today.