These are the most harrowing stunts Tom Cruise has done so far throughout his career.
Tom Cruise is most well known for his role as Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible franchise. Throughout his lengthy career —he has played over 40 roles — Cruise has made a name for himself as an action star. He is also known for doing many of his own stunts, sometimes at great risk to himself. Indeed, there have been stunts in which the actor has significantly damaged himself and even placed his life in danger. The presence of skilled stunt coordinators does not guarantee that the stunts he is performing are completely safe.
With six Mission: Impossible films to his credit, as well as the Jack Reacher films, Oblivion, Edge of Tomorrow, The Last Samurai, and Top Gun, Cruise doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. He has scaled the outside of the world’s tallest skyscraper, dangled from the side of an aircraft in mid-flight, and fallen multiple feet from a soaring chopper. The actor is well into his 50s, yet the daring thrill-seeker still craves the intensity of being in action. Remarkably, none of Cruise’s injuries were fatal. Below are a few Tom Cruise stunts that could have gone tragically wrong and resulted in disaster.
11 Wind and Skyscraper — Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Paramount Pictures
In the fourth installment, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Cruise’s Ethan Hunt must ascend to the 130th story of a building. Hunt uses a single suction glove to achieve the ascent. Cruise was attached to the structure by a cord the equivalent of a piano wire. The action sequence was staged in Dubai at the world’s highest tower, the Burj Khalifa. In addition, following filming, Cruise had to rappel back down from the structure. Reporters at the Dubai Film Festival questioned Cruise on what went through his head when he initially ventured out of the windows and into the fierce windy conditions that smashed him into the side of the skyscraper on the first day of filming the sequence and, per NY Daily News, he said, “I hope I don’t fall.”
10 Falling From a Helicopter — Mission: Impossible – Fallout
Paramount Pictures
Cruise actually sustained two injuries while filming Mission: Impossible – Fallout. Even stunts that go off without a hitch can be incredibly deadly. He also completed one of the riskiest feats in the whole espionage franchise. At the conclusion of the film, Ethan Hunt hangs from a flying helicopter. HE loses his grasp and falls several feet, but he manages to seize a netting freight load being pulled by the copter. Cruise had to reshoot the scene five times even though each impact knocked the wind out of him. Henry Cavill, who portrayed August Walker, said when they were filming the scene, “There was an audible gasp from the crowd. That’s a huge drop.”
9 Driving Scene — Edge of Tomorrow
Warner Bros. Pictures
Emily Blunt, who co-starred with Cruise in Edge of Tomorrow, based on Japanese author Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s novel All You Need Is Kill, told Conan O’Brien on his talk show that she caused a stunt accident on set. The actress recalled during a driving scene, “I hear him [Cruise] under his breath as I approach the right-hand turn, going ‘Brake, brake, brake. Brake. Brake, brake, brake… Oh, God. Brake, brake, brake. Brake it hard! Brake hard!’ I left it too late, and so drove us into a tree… I almost killed Tom Cruise.” Blunt also admits she was foolish to ignore what she thought was merely unpleasant advice at the time, but she is delighted she and her co-star were able to laugh about it later.
8 Sword Fight — The Last Samurai
Warner Bros. Pictures
Cruise’s eight months of rigorous samurai training proved insufficient to adequately prepare him for a battle sequence that almost resulted in his decapitation when filming his 2003 action historical epic The Last Samurai. Cruise and Japanese martial arts star Hiroyuki Sanada were riding robotic horses gearing up to face off during one of the film’s combat sequences. Sanada’s horse had a mechanical failure and did not halt precisely where it was meant to. “We were filming one day, and I was on a mechanical horse, and Hiro was on one as well,” Cruise recounted. “He was approaching me when his horse suddenly struck me, and his sword was exactly here (points an inch from his neck).”
7 Car Crash — Days of Thunder
Paramount Pictures
In Jerry Bruckheimer’s 1990 action thriller Days of Thunder, Cruise played hotshot racer Cole Trickle. The actor discovered the hard way that stock vehicles are expressly engineered to turn left. Hut Sticklin, a real life NASCAR racer, joined the team as an advisor and cautioned Cruise about the hazards of going right, per USA Today. “He didn’t really know what I was talking about,” Stricklin stated. When Cruise climbed into one of the stock cars and drove out on the track at Volusia County Speedway outside of Daytona Beach, FL, he attempted to emulate what he had seen racers do on television. The journey, on the other hand, may easily have ended in catastrophe. “He turned to the left, the car turned left. But when he goes back to the right…” Stricklin continued. Cruise swerved around and hit the wall. The sole casualty was a $100,000 new camera that did not survive the brief collision.
6 Underwater Scene — Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
According to Insider, Cruise underwent intense training for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation to be able to hold his breath underwater for a longer period of time. Ethan Hunt jumps into the sea from a 120-foot cliff in the action-packed underwater sequence. Wade Eastwood, the film’s stunt coordinator, verified that the whole sequence was shot without the use of a stunt double, stating that, “The difference between Tom and a stunt man is he acts the character after hearing ‘action.’ A stunt person just does the stunt to double the character.” Eastwood said that Cruise had multiple blackouts during training, but they finally found that he was able hold his breath for approximately six and a half minutes. Luckily, the stunt crew on the surface kept a close eye on Cruise while he held his breath underwater as the actor may easily have passed out due to a lack of air.
5 Another Driving Scene — Collateral
Cruise went against type as a salt-and-pepper hitman in Michael Mann’s 2004 neo-noir Collateral. In order to fulfill a mission, his contract assassin character Vincent kidnaps a Los Angeles taxi driver (Jamie Foxx). Foxx admitted (via Today) that he feared he murdered Cruise after a car accident. “I hit the gas, the cab goes straight head-on into [Cruise’s] Mercedes, and the Mercedes lifts off the ground and goes off the set,” Foxx said. “I was hitting the roof,” Cruise added. “I was down on the ground.” Fortunately everyone was okay and Tom Cruise went on to continue his crazy stunts.
4 Pulled by Ocean in Top Gun
Cruise portrayed reckless Navy jet pilot Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in Top Gun. Nobody can forget the heartbreaking incident in which Maverick’s co-pilot and best buddy Goose (Anthony Edwards) is killed after being required to parachute from their plane. “Cruise came as close to dying as anybody on a set I’ve ever seen,” actor Barry Tubb, who portrayed “Wolfman” in the film, told the New York Post in 2011. “They were refilling the camera or something, and luckily one of the frogmen in the chopper saw his chute ballooning out. He jumped in and cut Cruise loose right before he sank. They would have never found him. He would have been at the bottom of the ocean.” he went on to say.
3 Flying Stones — Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
Cruise was positioned aboard a jet for its take-off, flight, and landing in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. There is no professional stuntman in the daredevil action sequence, nor is there a single frame of CGI. And he performed eight different takes of the crazy scene. If anything (even the smallest stone) strikes Cruise when he is flying high in the air, it might cause significant harm or perhaps death. One stone was on its way to become a fatal weapon.”I remember I got hit by a stone that was so tiny, you cannot believe,” Cruise told Forbes. “I thought it broke my rib. Lucky it went to my vest and not my hands or my face – it would have penetrated and gone right through.”
2 Jumping Buildings — Mission: Impossible – Fallout
Cruise did not emerge unharmed from the 2018 blockbuster thriller Mission: Impossible – Fallout. According to People, he injured his ankle while jumping from one building to another.“I was chasing Henry [Cavill] and was meant to hit the side of the wall and pull myself over but the mistake was my foot hitting the wall,” he explained. “I knew instantly my ankle was broken and I really didn’t want to do it again so just got up and carried on with the take. I said, ‘It’s broken. That’s a wrap. Take me to hospital’ and then everyone got on the phone and made their vacation arrangements.” Luckily, the injury healed well with intensive rehab, and he was back filming a few months later.
1 Exploding Fish Tank — Mission: Impossible
Paramount Pictures
The Mission: Impossible franchise began with the 1996 movie aptly titled, Mission: Impossible. There is an outstanding action scene in the film that sees Ethan Hunt blowing up a massive aquarium in order to make a hasty getaway. The action takes place at a restaurant with glass walls. Huge amounts of water and pieces of broken glass are discharged as the fish tank bursts. There was absolutely no way the stunt crew could have predicted where each pointy shard of glass might land. Furthermore, with millions of gallons of flowing water, the actor may easily have been carried away and perished. Fortunately enough, Cruise walked away with only a bruised ankle.
Soucre: movieweb.com
