You probably haven’t seen the Top Gun-star wear a lid in his motorcycle action sequences, and you won’t like the real reason why.
In the off-chance you haven’t heard or read this already: don’t attempt the stunts you see in Hollywood movies. Just don’t. It’s never a good idea. Mainly because the stuff you see on the screen in most cases is actually filmed against a green screen. Or if it is filmed in real life, with real cars, motorcycles and real traffic, those cool car or motorcycle chases are being performed by trained stunt doubles who stunt and crash for a living. Except for maybe one big Hollywood star — Tom Cruise.
Yup, the 60-year old star of movies like Top Gun: Maverick, and the Mission Impossible series to name a few, does most of his own stunts. You also might have noticed that Tom Cruise never wears a helmet in any of the motorcycle action sequences he stars in.
Whether he’s racing fighter jets on a supercharged Kawasaki that’s been called the fastest motorcycle in the world, or gunning it to escape bad guys with guns, Tom Cruise seems to pay little regard for his own safety. But it’s actually the general movie-going audience that’s a major part of the reason why Tom Cruise never wears a helmet on a motorcycle…
Did Tom Cruise Really Ride The Motorcycle In Top Gun?
Since Tom Cruise is an actual petrolhead in real life, and a good motorcyclist at that, he does all the motorcycle sequences in his movies himself. So when you see Tom Cruise on screen, riding at breakneck speeds, pulling wheelies and what not, it’s actually the actor on the bike. So in Top Gun 2, for example, it’s Cruise racing down the runway, as well as riding around on the streets. Without a helmet, of course.
It stands to reason that the action star and movie studios want audiences to know this. Instead of swapping out the actor with a stunt double and slapping on a helmet so no one knows the difference. That would be counterproductive in this case. Because obviously audiences seem to love Tom Cruise’s wind-in-hair look in all his motorcycle sequences. Despite the obvious danger of glamorizing reckless behavior in the eyes of millions of children and adults alike, it seems not enough people have a problem with it.
And that’s our own fault, really. If more people said something about the Hollywood star riding without safety gear in his movies, like a helmet, gloves or a jacket, there’s a better chance Tom Cruise and the studios would take steps to rectify it. Or maybe, the trust put in the audience to be smart enough to distinguish real life from the movies is actually paying off. And maybe people aren’t as stupid as we all think they are. Maybe.
All The Movies Tom Cruise Rides A Motorcycle In
Maybe it would be easier to list out all the movies that Tom Cruise isn’t riding a motorcycle in? The action star’s been riding motorcycles (always helmet-less, of course) since the first Top Gun movie. The bike of choice for the movie was a Kawasaki GPz900R. But if folklore is to be believed, it nearly was a Honda. The Japanese manufacturer actually backed out when they realized Cruise would be shooting all the riding sequences without a helmet. That’s the first casualty of the Tom Cruise helmet mystery we can think of.
After Top Gun, Tom Cruise has piloted bikes in movies like Mission Impossible II, Mission Impossible III, Days of Thunder, Knight and Day, Mission Impossible: Fallout, Edge of Tomorrow, Oblivion, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, and most recently, in Top Gun: Maverick. He’s been on everything from the Top Gun Kawasaki Ninja, to a string of Triumphs and BMWs for the Mission Impossible movies, and back to the Kawasaki H2R in Top Gun 2.
This aside, Tom Cruise has quite the car and motorcycle collection himself. Some of the motorcycles in his collection include those he rode in the movies. But he rides them on the street differently. Because Tom Cruise actually does wear safety gear on the motorcycles he owns. Just not when he’s filming, apparently.
What Are The Reasons For Not Wearing A Helmet?
Strictly speaking, there’s no reason for anyone to not wear a helmet when they’re riding a motorcycle. The only possible situation that gives rise to some leeway is if the motorcycle is being ridden on private property at a very low speed, say to move it from one place to another. In Hollywood’s case, it’s obviously to give actors more “face time”. While that’s understandable, it’s not a good precedent to set.
All we can hope for is that Hollywood gets the point. Or at least, makes the advisory against riding without a helmet more obvious. We wouldn’t want Tom Cruise-wannabees all over the streets, now would we?
Soucre: www.hotcars.com
