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.

Related Posts

𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐖𝐚𝐫 | 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐫 |𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐚 𝐁𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐭 | 𝐑𝐚𝐧𝐛𝐢𝐫 𝐊𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐨𝐫 | 𝐕𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐲 𝐊𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐥

𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐼𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑝𝑖𝑒𝑐𝑒 “𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑊𝑎𝑟” 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑟𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑠𝑡, 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑒𝑒𝑝𝑙𝑦 𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠. 𝐶𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑤𝑜 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑝𝑎𝑙 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠—𝑎 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑡…

DNA – Official Trailer | TS Suresh Babu | Ashkar Saudan | Rai Lakshmi

A prolific murderer begins taking lives. To discover out, a female investigator and her crew start an inquiry. At last, the murderer-who nobody was suspecting-is apprehended. His…

On The Job Official Trailer | The most underrated Filipino Movie of all time!

The series centers around crime syndicates that temporarily release contracted prison inmates to carry out political assassinations for those in power, except that the crime syndicates are…

28 Years Later – Teaser Trailer | Cillian Murphy

𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑥𝑡 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑓𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑧𝑜𝑚𝑏𝑖𝑒 𝑎𝑝𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑦𝑝𝑠𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑔𝑎 𝑎𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑜𝑟 28 𝑌𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠 𝐿𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑑! 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔-𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑙 𝑡𝑜…

The Purge: Anarchy – Theatrical Trailer (Official – HD)

The Purge is an American anthology media franchise centered on a series of dystopian action horror films distributed by Universal Pictures and produced by Blumhouse Productions and Platinum Dunes, which are written and in some cases also directed by James DeMonaco,…

𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝟕 (𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓) – 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐫

𝐼𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚 7 (2025) 𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑟, 𝐽𝑒𝑛𝑛𝑎 𝑂𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑔𝑎 𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑠 𝑎𝑠 𝑇𝑎𝑟𝑎 𝐶𝑎𝑟𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑡𝑛𝑒𝑦 𝐶𝑜𝑥 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑠 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑐 𝑟𝑜𝑙𝑒 𝑎𝑠 𝐺𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝑊𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠, 𝑖𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝑜…