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If there’s one thing Tom Cruise is known for beyond being a movie megastar, it’s doing his own stunts. There was a time when the star decided he wanted to be taken very seriously as an actor, and so we entered the age of “Eyes Wide Shut” and “Vanilla Sky” Cruise, during which time he did an admirable job in his more serious roles. But as his career continued, Cruise has leaned more heavily into his standing as one of the industry’s premier action stars, most obviously by churning out a bewildering amount of “Mission: Impossible” movies that all hinge on the idea that the actor himself is performing the outrageous feats featured therein.
I write, of course, about such things as Cruise performing 13,000 motorbike jumps in order to prepare for his big “Mission: Impossible 7” stunt, or his plane stunt in “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation” that saw the actor strapped to the side of a real cargo plane as it took off from a runway. Add to that a bunch of stories in the press about Cruise breaking this or that bone during filming for his long-running action series, and the man has basically become one never-ending human stunt.
It seems his penchant for putting himself in harm’s way extends beyond movies, too, as was the case when he helped close the 2024 Paris Olympics and build hype for the upcoming 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles by jumping from the top of the Stade de France before peeling out of the stadium on a motorbike while holding the Olympic flag. Knowing what we know about the man’s fearlessness, you can probably guess his one condition for being part of this momentous occasion.
Tom Cruise was all-in on his Paris Olympics stunt
Granted, Cruise has taken part in much more dangerous stunts in his “Mission: Impossible” movies than jumping off the top of a stadium and riding a motorbike. But the fact that his Olympics stunt was done when the man was 62 years old, for free, and not for the benefit of flogging yet another “M:I” film is kind of impressive in and of itself — though any such stunt really serves as a promotional tool for the brand that is Tom Cruise. What’s more, when Daniel Craig parachuted into London for the 2012 Olympics, he did in fact use a stunt double. In Cruise’s case, however, he wouldn’t allow such a thing.
In order to perform the impressive feat, Cruise had one demand. As detailed by Entertainment Weekly, the star agreed to the whole thing “almost immediately,” but had one condition for Casey Wasserman, president and chairperson of the LA28 committee. According to Wasserman, the committee pitched the idea to Cruise over Zoom, and had intended to use a stunt double for some of the stunt. “About five minutes into the presentation,” Wasserman said, “[Cruise] goes, ‘I’m in. But I’m only doing it if I get to do everything.'”
Thank you, Paris! Now off to LA. pic.twitter.com/MxlAb0hZbT
— Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) August 11, 2024
Wasserman went on to praise the way Cruise handled the Stade de France stunt, saying, “Every step of the way, he got more involved and more engaged.”
Tom Cruise performed multiple stunts for the 2024 Olympics
Perhaps even more impressive than Cruise’s Stade de France stunt was his commitment to filming a separate segment designed to look as though it came directly after he left the stadium. This pre-filmed segment saw Cruise riding through Paris before boarding a plane and skydiving out over the Hollywood sign, landing and changing the “O” letters in the famous landmark to two Olympic rings.
As Casey Wasserman recalled, Cruise was actually still filming a “Mission: Impossible” movie when he agreed to shoot all this extra footage. The LA28 committee president told EW:
“He finished filming ‘Mission: Impossible’ at 6 p.m in London, got right on a plane. He landed in L.A. at 4 a.m. and filmed the scene where he pulls onto a military plane. In L.A., he does two jumps out of the [plane]. He didn’t like the first one, so he did a second jump. Then he helicoptered from Palmdale to the Hollywood sign, filmed from 1 until 5, helicoptered to Burbank Airport, and flew back to London.”
It’s almost unhinged, really — like the time Cruise did seven takes of his “Mission: Impossible 7” motorbike jump, because of course he did. Still, there’s no denying performing his own stunts adds something to Cruise’s films, especially in an age dominated by CGI.