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How Tom Cruise Executed His 'Most Dangerous' Stunt in 'Mission: Impossible –Dead Reckoning Part One'

The death-defying moment in the franchise's seventh installment involves Cruise driving a motorbike off a cliff

Collection Christophel/Alamy

Tom Cruise  turned up the action for Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning   Part One .

While the film marks the seventh installment in the highly successful franchise, Cruise, 61, made the occasion even more special by challenging himself to perform one of his most dangerous stunts yet.

The death-defying moment involved Cruise driving a motorbike off a cliff, fly off the bike, and parachute to the ground. While fans got a glimpse of the stunt through the film's action-packed trailer in May, Cruise, along with writer-director  Christopher McQuarrie , first teased the big moment in 2021 at CinemaCon.

The pair explained in a special behind-the-scenes video at the event that the stunt took 500 hours of skydiving training and 13,000 motorbike jumps to get it just right. The stunt involved Cruise being attached to a set of wires as he rides a speeding motorcycle off of a large ramp before he throws himself from the bike, backed by the safety wires attached to his back.

Speaking about its execution, McQuarrie, 54, explained in the video that it was "by far the most dangerous stunt we've ever done." The clip then ended with Cruise performing the stunt himself, with a crew member saying, " Tom Cruise  rode a motorcycle off a cliff six times today."

McQuarrie "tried to kill me," joked Cruise at the New York City premiere.

Christian Black/Paramount Pictures

The film's long-awaited release comes after multiple delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic . According to an official synopsis, it finds Cruise's Ethan Hunt as he and his team are tasked with tracking down "a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands."

During its world premiere in June , Cruise gave a speech about his passion for the franchise and filmmaking. He said in part, "It’s something that I grew up with, that made me and inspired me to dream and want to travel the world. My goal since I was little was to make movies and travel. And not just be a tourist but work in that world and understand their culture."

"Through my movies, I’ve been able to have that because everyone here has allowed me to entertain them," he continued. "It’s a privilege that I have never taken for granted."

Never miss a story — sign up for  PEOPLE's free daily newsletter  to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.

Mission: Impossible   - Dead Reckoning Part One is out now.

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Tom Cruise performs crazy stunt jump from stadium roof during Olympics closing ceremony

Aug 11, 2024, 5:18 PM | Updated: 7:45 pm

Tom Cruise is lowered on the Stade de France during the 2024 Summer Olympics closing ceremony, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024, in Saint-Denis, France. (Natacha Pisarenko, AP)

(Natacha Pisarenko, AP)

BY KYLE FELDSCHER, CNN

(CNN) — The  Olympic Games  are  about to go Hollywood , and Tom Cruise just gave everyone a taste of what it’s going to be like.

During Sunday’s closing ceremony, the “Mission: Impossible” star performed a daredevil stunt jump from the top of the Stade de France.

As the spotlight found Cruise on the roof, he was lowered down to the arena floor on a cable. He then made his way through the athletes to the stage, shaking hands and taking selfies along the way, including one very enthusiastic embrace from a female athlete.

That wasn’t all.

As part of the Hollywood handoff to Los Angeles, who will host the Games in 2028, Cruise took the Olympic flag, fixed it to a motorcycle and drove out of the stadium through a crowd of athletes. (No one appeared to be harmed.)

In a bit of movie magic, Cruise was next seen in an apparent pre-taped segment riding through Paris until he reached a plane that defied space and time to reach Los Angeles.

As the camera zoomed out, Cruise was seen at the Hollywood sign, where the Olympic rings replaced the double “o”s in the word Hollywood.

Yes, all of that really happened.

Cruise is, of course, known for his love of stunt work.

The actor famously has put his body on the line for many films, especially the multibillion-dollar “Mission” franchise, in which he plays spy Ethan Hunt. An eighth installment is expected in 2025.

“It’s not that I don’t get scared,” the actor  told CNN last year.  “It’s that I don’t mind being scared.”

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Tom Cruise Jumps Off Stadium Roof to Pass Baton to Los Angeles

Cruise, one of Hollywood’s most well-known movie stars, rappelled down into the Stade de France, and the crowd of Olympians went wild as Paris handed over to the next Summer Games, in Los Angeles.

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By Alissa Wilkinson

• Aug. 11, 2024

No, it wasn’t a scene from “Mission: Impossible.” Tom Cruise, one of Hollywood’s most well-known movie stars, rappelled down into the Stade de France as H.E.R. played guitar, and the crowd of Olympians went wild as Paris handed over to the next Summer Games, in Los Angeles. He accepted the Olympic flag, shook a lot of hands, jumped on a motorcycle, and drove right out of the stadium and into prerecorded footage.

It’s hard to imagine a more apt melding of the Olympics’ awe-inducing athleticism and Hollywood’s showy sensibility than Cruise, who, at 62, still famously loves to perform as many of his own “Mission: Impossible” stunts as feasible in the film series. At the 2022 Cannes Film Festival , ahead of the release of “Top Gun: Maverick,” he was asked about his penchant for death-defying feats, which he might reasonably be expected to delegate to a stunt person. “No one asked Gene Kelly, ‘Why do you dance?’” he quipped.

Cruise’s carefully choreographed acrobatics (and selfies with athletes) were fit for this closing ceremony’s vibes — especially the showmanship behind them. The details of what exactly was going to happen had been kept quiet, although People reported that back in March he had filmed the segment in which he sky-dives to the iconic Hollywood sign. Nobody quite knew until now what he’d do on live television in Paris. But it’s Tom Cruise: He lives, and occasionally defies death, to give us a good time.

Alissa Wilkinson is a Times movie critic. She’s been writing about movies since 2005. More about Alissa Wilkinson

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Tom Cruise descends from stadium roof in daring Olympic finale

Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise made a dramatic appearance at Sunday night's Paris 2024 closing ceremony, descending on a wire from the Stade de France roof.

Spectators shrieked in delight as the Mission: Impossible star, dressed in leather jacket and gloves, lowered himself into the stadium while his compatriot H.E.R. performed on guitar.

To mark the handover to Los Angeles, which will host the Olympics in 2028, Cruise was seen in a pre-recorded film travelling through Paris and onto the US.

There he journeyed to the legendary Hollywood sign and unfurled the Olympic colours. The ceremony in Paris marked a formal "au revoir" from this year's host city.

Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, said the Paris Games had been "sensational".

In his closing speech, he praised athletes for their "simply amazing" performances, saying they showed "what greatness we humans are capable of".

He continued: "During all this time, you lived peacefully together under one roof in the Olympic Village. You embraced each other. You respected each other, even if your countries are divided by war and conflict. You created a culture of peace.

"This inspired all of us and billions of people around the globe. Thank you for making us dream. Thank you for making us believe in a better world for everyone."

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Cruise's feat during the closing ceremony was performed as musician H.E.R. jammed on an electric guitar - having moments before delivered a rocky rendition of the US national anthem.

He proceeded to take the Olympic flag from one of the stars of Paris - American gymnast Simone Biles - before the thrilled audience watched him zip away on a motorbike.

The pre-recorded clip showing his journey to LA was soundtracked by California natives Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The funk-rock hitmakers then delivered a live performance of their classic track Can't Stop on a palm-fringed beach in Los Angeles. Other acts included Billie Eilish and Snoop Dogg, who performed with Dr Dre.

Snoop - who is from LA himself - was a regular fixture at the Games, which culminated with the US topping the medals table after a dramatic win in Sunday's final event, the women's basketball final.

Paris Olympics: Tears and Triumphs

Cruise, also known for Top Gun, is renowned for performing his own stunts.

Over the last decade or so, these have included scaling Dubai's Burj Khalifa and dangling on the outside of a plane as it took off, both for the Mission: Impossible series.

Artistic director Thomas Jolly complemented Cruise's feat with another cinematic-feeling segment. A hushed, darkened stadium watched as a troupe of dancers rolled five giant rings across a stage, ultimately assembling the Olympic logo.

The gloomy sci-fi aesthetic was finally punctured by an up-tempo performance from French band Phoenix, who tore into two hits. They were surrounded by athletes who climbed up on stage, to the consternation of the stadium announcer.

Cruise's role was perhaps Paris's worst-kept secret. Rumours had been in the press for days - even before he was photographed in the stadium itself on Sunday evening.

The 62-year-old was spotted several times in Paris during the Games fortnight, cheering on the US team in the swimming relay and watching multi-medal-winning American gymnast Simone Biles in action.

"It's awesome," he told Reuters news agency at the time. "Great stories, great athletes. It's incredible what they do."

Artistic director Jolly was also responsible for the Olympics' ambitious curtain-raiser last month. This featured a parade of boats along the River Seine and a comeback performance from singer Céline Dion.

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Watch Tom Cruise complete ‘biggest stunt in cinema history’ with death-defying jump

Tom Cruise is soaring to new heights.

The legendary actor appears in a new video from the making of the upcoming “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One” that gives fans an “extended behind the scenes look at the biggest stunt in cinema history ,” according to Paramount Pictures’ description of the clip on YouTube.

The video, which runs more than nine minutes long, opens with a breathtaking overhead view of a mountain in Hellesylt, Norway, with Cruise explaining that he will ride a motorcycle off of a cliff that turns into a base jump.

“I’ve wanted to do it since I was a little kid,” he says.

Director Christopher McQuarrie says Cruise helped facilitate the stunt by getting together a team of experts in various fields to make sure it goes off without a hitch.

There are clips of Cruise skydiving and riding a motorcycle on a motorcross track built specifically for the stunt, while viewers learn how different models were constructed to properly gauge the angle Cruise would be diving off the bike. There was even a GPS chip to keep track of all of his jumps and gather a wide range of data, including how the wind would affect each jump.

“I have to get so good at this that there’s just no way that I miss my marks,” he says.

“You train and drill every little aspect over and over and over and over again,” he adds while we see clips of him diving and riding his motorcycle.

And Cruise apparently did just that, performing more than 500 dives and 13,000 jumps on the motorcycle.

Around the 7-minute mark, Cruise takes off on the motorcycle, driving off a ramp and then pulling a parachute to the ground below in a mind-blowing effort.

“This is far and away the most dangerous thing we’ve ever attempted,” McQuarrie says.

You can see for yourself how the stunt looks on the big screen when “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One” opens in theaters July 2023.

Drew Weisholtz is a reporter for TODAY Digital, focusing on pop culture, nostalgia and trending stories. He has seen every episode of “Saved by the Bell” at least 50 times, longs to perfect the crane kick from “The Karate Kid” and performs stand-up comedy, while also cheering on the New York Yankees and New York Giants. A graduate of Rutgers University, he is the married father of two kids who believe he is ridiculous.

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Tom Cruise, Billie Eilish lead star-studded handoff at Closing Ceremonies

Cruise dropped into the Stade de France, before Billie Eilish and Snoop Dogg performed in L.A.

Star power took over the 2024 Olympic Closing Ceremonies on Sunday evening, which featured Billie Eilish and Snoop Dogg performing from Los Angeles, the band Phoenix rocking the Stade de France, and Tom Cruise rappelling down from the top of the 80,000-seat stadium and riding a motorcycle through Paris to close out the Games.

The celebration set the stage for what’s to come for the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

Cruise embodied the action heroes he plays on screen with the eye-catching stunt. After he landed on the stadium floor, he was swarmed by athletes. He was then handed the Olympic flag by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who was joined by Simone Biles. Cruise then hopped on a motorcycle and appeared to zoom out of the arena.

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The television broadcast then cut to a previously recorded video of Cruise heading through the streets of Paris to an airplane, where he brought the flag from France to the United States. Then, Cruise sky-dived to the Hollywood sign which had a new look — the Olympic rings were overlaid. Once he landed, Cruise handed the flag to other Olympians as they ran through the city to Venice Beach. America, everybody!

Once at the beach, the prerecorded concert started off with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, with Anthony Kiedis in a mesh shirt which he lifted over his head as the band performed their 2002 hit, “Can’t Stop.” Eilish performed a more recent hit, “Birds of a Feather,” from a nearby lifeguard stand, before Snoop Dogg, who dominated this Olympics, was joined by Dr. Dre.

The closing ceremonies kicked off on Sunday afternoon from the Stade de France. French singer Zaho de Sagazan opened the closing ceremonies with a rendition of Édith Piaf’s “Sous le ciel de Paris.”

The ceremony — which took place on an abstract stage shaped like the world map, but was reminiscent of the Aggro Crag from the ’90s Nickelodeon show “Guts” — featured plenty of electronic music, including songs by the French house band Justice and “Midnight City” by M83. Athletes and attendees sang along as Queen’s “We are the Champions” played in the booming stadium.

The bulk of the presentation displayed French artistry, music and choreography, including a segment where acrobatic gray figures helped raise the five Olympic rings to the stadium ceiling. French President Emmanuel Macron watched on as commentators marveled at the “unreal” spectacle. “God, the French are cool,” said one NBC commentator.

Phoenix kicked off their set from France with “Lisztomania” surrounded by hundreds of athletes who had rushed the stage. Announcers in the stadium kindly asked the athletes to leave the stage — repeatedly. The band was later joined at by Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend. The early aughts nostalgia continued throughout the program, as Kavinsky, who performed the song “Nightcall” (the track was featured prominently in “Drive,” starring Ryan Gosling).

Though many, presumably exhausted, Olympic athletes sat as the Closing Ceremonies wore on throughout the three-hour-program, they appeared to go off without much of a hitch. Wrapping up the ceremonies was the president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, who put it plainly: “And that’s it!”

Watch Tom Cruise Rehearse and Perform the 'Biggest Stunt in Cinema History'

Here's how the movie star prepared for his most ambitious action sequence yet in 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning.'

A mini-documentary released on YouTube by Paramount Pictures follows the months of preparation that went into planning and executing a heart-stopping chase scene in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One , in which Cruise's character, secret agent Ethan Hunt, rides a motorcycle off the edge of a cliff and goes into a base jump, free-falling towards the earth before pulling his parachute cord.

"There's a lot going into this stunt," says director Christopher McQuarrie. "So Tom put together this master plan to coordinate all of these experts in each of the particular disciplines involved, to make this whole thing happen.

Prior to the shoot in Hellesylt, Norway in 2020, Cruise undertook a year of training to master motocross, base jumping and advanced skydiving, including working on his strength and stability to ensure he can control his own position mid-air, and manoeuver the parachute canopy in the right way.

"You train and drill every little aspect over and over and over and over again," says Cruise.

When the prep for the shoot was at its most intense, Cruise was doing 30 jumps per day, and he racked up more than 500 skydives and 13,000 motocross jumps over the course of rehearsal. Throughout this entire process, Cruise also wore a GPS chip so that they were able to track his speed and location in three-dimensional space at every stage of the stunt, which then enabled them to plan exactly where the drone cameras needed to be for the shoot.

"The key is me hitting certain speeds and being consistent with that," says Cruise. "There's no speedometer, so I do it by sound and feel of the bike. And then as I depart the bike, I'm using the wind that's hitting me, I'm pumping my chest, that will give me lift."

On the day of the shoot, all conditions have to be perfect for Cruise to pull off the staggering feat, and things are tense behind the camera as the actor shoots off the edge of the precipice and plummets into the valley below... a total of six times.

"We've been working on this for years," says Cruise. "I've wanted to do it since I was a little kid."

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Tom Cruise did that motorcycle stunt in ‘Mission: Impossible’ on Day 1 — here’s why

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More than half a year before the release of the upcoming movie “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One,” Paramount Pictures made sure audiences got to see Tom Cruise once again risking his life.

Cruise’s mind-blowing stunts have become a signature of “ Mission: Impossible ” films, each one seemingly topping the next. The key stunt in the franchise’s seventh installment involves Cruise driving a motorcycle off the edge of a cliff, dismounting and parachuting into a Norwegian valley. With the drop of its behind-the-scenes footage in December , the studio billed it as “the biggest stunt in cinema history.”

Though the moment has already been watched on YouTube more than 13 million times, and 30 million more times in the film’s trailers, it’s among the film’s most anticipated scenes. After all, we still don’t know how the stunt fits within the plot — What could be so dire that agent Ethan Hunt must jump off a cliff?

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While answers won’t come until the movie’s theatrical release July 12, we now know that the risky stunt was the first thing Cruise did on Day 1 of filming, which began in 2020. And it was all about risk assessment.

In a recent interview with “Entertainment Tonight,” Cruise said they started with the scene, in part, to allow the cast and crew to see whether he would be able to star in the $290-million film. After all, he could either get injured or die — or both.

“Well, we know we’re either going to continue with the film or not,” Cruise said, letting out a laugh. “Let’s know Day 1, what is gonna happen: Do we all continue, or is it a major re-run?”

Cruise added that he wanted to make sure his mind was clear enough to focus solely on the stunt.

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“You have to be razor sharp for something like that; I don’t want to drop that and shoot other things and have my mind somewhere else,” Cruise said. “You don’t want to be waking up in the middle of the night, ‘It’s still, I still, I still,’ and it has that effect.”

Cruise is no stranger to aerial stunts with a high probability of death. The “Top Gun” actor said preparing for the recent stunt “was years of planning,” a culmination of all the training he’s done with motorcycles, cars and aerobatics.

In the franchise’s last film, “Mission: Impossible — Fallout” (2018), Cruise jumped into a helicopter in midflight , taking the controls to chase another helicopter. In the same movie, he parachuted from a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III from 25,000 feet, close to five miles up, becoming “the first actor” to do so in a major motion picture, according to Paramount (most skydiving attempts occur at 10,000 feet).

In 2011 for “ Ghost Protocol ,” the “Jerry McGuire” actor climbed along the exposed walls of the world’s largest building, the Burj Khalifa of Dubai. And in 2015 for “Rogue Nation,” Cruise hung off the side of an Airbus A400M Atlas as it was taking off, a stunt that veteran stunt coordinator and frequent Cruise collaborator Wade Eastwood called “a stressful experience.”

The recent motorcycle stunt, which Cruise had apparently repeated six times, was no exception. Though the film’s computer-generated images make Cruise appear to be jumping off the rocky surface of the cliff, the scene required a large ramp to be built.

While Cruise is seen atop the motorcycle in the behind-the-scenes video, accelerating off the ramp, a helicopter and drone fly overhead to gather footage. The film’s crew, including director Christopher McQuarrie, are huddled in a nearby tent, faces glued to a set of monitors. After he abandons the bike and hangs in the open air, Cruise releases his parachute and the crew erupts in cheers.

“The only thing you have to avoid when doing a stunt like this are serious injury or death,” Eastwood, who has managed stunts for the last three “Mission Impossible” films, said in the BTS video. “You’re falling. If you don’t get a clean exit from the bike and you get tangled up with it, if you don’t open your parachute, you’re not gonna make it.”

Review: Tom Cruise returns, crazy stunts and all, in ‘Mission: Impossible — Fallout’

See Tom run. See Tom jump.

July 13, 2018

The scene wasn’t the only stressful one to shoot: Cruise said he also worried about a car chase that involved him handcuffed to a small car, steering with one hand while drifting along the cobblestone streets of Rome, with his co-star Hayley Atwell in the passenger seat.

“It’s plenty of challenges,” Cruise said with a wide grin, laughing once again.

“Dead Reckoning” had its world premiere Sunday at the Auditorium Conciliazione in Rome with Cruise and other cast members, including Atwell and Vanessa Kirby , in attendance. “Part Two” is expected to be released in June 2024. Filming wrapped in September for what has been rumored to be Cruise’s final appearance in the “Mission: Impossible” franchise.

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Tom Cruise stunt at Paris 2024 closing ceremony shines

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Hollywood actor Tom Cruise made an appearance Sunday at the closing ceremony of the Olympic games in Paris.

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Tom Cruise gave fans an inside look at how and he and his team pulled off the "greatest stunt in cinema history" for "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One."

On Wednesday, the 60-year-old actor shared a 9½-minute featurette from the upcoming movie detailing the making of the stunt, in which Cruise rides a motorcycle off a cliff and then base jumps into a ravine.

"This is far and away the most dangerous thing we've ever attempted," Cruise said at the beginning of the clip.

Tom Cruise gave fans an inside look at how and he and his team pulled off the "greatest stunt in cinema history" for "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One." (James Devaney/Getty Images)

The "Top Gun: Maverick" star continued, "We're going to shoot it in Norway, and it will be a motorcycle jump off a cliff into a base jump."

TOM CRUISE PARACHUTES OFF A MOUNTAIN WHILE FILMING 'MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 8'

The camera panned a massive ramp that ended on the edge of a huge cliff as Cruise said, "I've wanted to do it since I was a little kid."

"And it all comes down to one thing — the audience."

Writer-director Christopher McQuarrie explained that Cruise put together a master plan and assembled a team of experts from all the disciplines involved to accomplish the feat. 

Second unit director and stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood detailed the extensive preparation that Cruise and the team undertook, which included "a year of base training, advanced sky-dive training, a lot of canopy skills, a lot of tracking."

Base jumping coach Miles Daisher marveled over Cruise, whom he described as an "amazing individual."

"You tell him something, and he just locks it in," Daisher added. "His sense of spatial awareness, he's the most aware person I've ever met."

"Tracking with [base jumping coach] John [DeVore] and Miles in the air," Eastwood continued. "Doing lots of different positioning. Like they were a two-man team in the air. Coming on top of each other, below each, back tracking, front tracking. You know we’ve drilled, and drilled and drilled." 

In the clip, Cruise explained that the motocross was the next part of the training. 

Eastwood recalled how the team built a motocross track in order for the actor to "get comfortable jumping 70- to 80-foot table tops." 

"I have to get so good at this that there's just no way that I miss my marks," Cruise added.

Cruise went on to say that he trained and drilled, performing more than 30 jumps a day, to perfect every aspect of the stunt. The video stated that he performed over 13,000 jumps in all, with Eastwood noting that he performed over 500 skydives during his training. 

McQuarrie explained that another challenge involved was positioning the cameras so all the stunts were captured on film. 

"Coming up with the stunt is only one of the technical challenges," he explained. "The other is putting a camera in place that you can see where Tom is doing it."

He added, "Finding the right lens, the right platform, the right medium. Even two years ago, the cameras didn’t exist that would allow us to do what we are trying to do today."

Cruise revealed that he trained and drilled, performing more than 30 jumps a day, to perfect every aspect of the stunt. (Murray Close/Getty Images)

"How do we involve the audience?" Cruise asked. "I just want to give them that thrill."

McQuarrie noted that the camera has to be in front of the actor and as close to him as possible.

The production team built a ramp over a quarry in England to replicate the jump in Norway and filled the landing area with cardboard boxes to catch the motorcycle after Cruise jumped off it.

"How fast should I go off? What distance do I travel?" Cruise said.

In order to accomplish the camera work, the team built models of different ramps at different angles to calculate Cruise's trajectory. 

The actor had a GPS attached to him to track his movements, and he was surrounded by drone cameras to capture the close-ups. 

"Because if we do it all, but we don't capture it, what is the point?" Cruise posited.

"I always wear my earplugs, so I don't have to hear myself scream," he said as he flashed a smile.

Cruise explained that the key was hitting certain speeds and being consistent. The motorcycle didn't have a speedometer, so the actor said he knew when to jump by the "sound and feel of the bike."

"We have to be able to consistently predict where Tom will be in three-dimensional space," McQuarrie noted.

The clip cut to Hellesylt, Norway, on the day of the shoot in 2020. McQuarrie said that the "Mission: Impossible" team always begins filming with the biggest stunt in the movie.

Cruise performed the death-defying stunt six times. (Ken Ishii)

In addition to the stunt work, the filmmaker noted that the weather had to be perfect.

Cruise explained that he began warming up with base jumps to get a feel for the weather. 

"Of course, when something is being done for the first time, you can't help but worry about how it's really going to turn out," Daisher said. "The only things that you really have to avoid while doing a stunt like this is serious injury or death ."

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The tension built as Cruise made his first attempt at riding the motorcycle off the ramp and base jumping into the rock bowl. The team clapped and cheered as he pulled it off successfully.

The video revealed that Cruise performed the stunt six times that day. 

"This is far and away the most dangerous stunt we have ever attempted," McQuarrie said. "The only thing that scares me more is what we have planned for 'Mission 8.'"

"Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One" is set to be released in theaters July 13, 2023.

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Ashley Hume is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @ashleyhume

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Watch Tom Cruise Risk Death to Perform ‘Mission: Impossible 7’ Stunt: ‘The Biggest in Cinema History’

By Michaela Zee

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Tom Cruise is choosing to accept a new high-stakes mission in some wild behind-the-scenes footage from “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.” The featurette shows the action star and his team preparing for a stunt years in the making, where he will jump a motorcycle off a cliff and turn it into a BASE jump. Just a normal day at work!

“This is far and away the most dangerous thing we’ve ever attempted,” Cruise says.

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Back in May, a teaser trailer revealed a series of death-defying stunts and action sequences in the film, including a sniper battle during a desert storm, multiple car chases and a tease of this stunt.

“Dead Reckoning Part One” is written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who previously helmed the franchise’s fifth and sixth installments — 2015’s “Rogue Nation” and 2018’s “Fallout.” The film is produced by Cruise, McQuarrie, J.J. Abrams, David Ellison and Jake Meyers, and distributed by Paramount Pictures.

“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” is scheduled to premiere in theaters July 14, 2023. Watch the new stunt footage below.

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Tom Cruise did 13,000 motorbike jumps to train for ‘most dangerous stunt’ of his career in Mission: Impossible 7

Stunt sees actor drive off a cliff in norway, article bookmarked.

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Tom Cruise trained for an entire year to perfect one of the stunts in Mission: Impossible 7 .

A featurette for the film, which debuted at CinemaCon, detailed Cruise’s intense training for a stunt where he performs a motorbike jump off a cliff into a valley in Norway .

In the lead up to the stunt, Cruise had 500 skydiving sessions and did 13,000 motorbike jumps. The shot itself was captured on the first day of filming.

Speaking in the featurette, Cruise said: “This is far and away the most dangerous thing I’ve attempted. We’ve been working on this for years. I wanted to do it since I was a little kid.”

Director Christopher McQuarrie added: “The only thing that scares me more is what we’ve got planned for Mission 8 .”

In the franchise’s previous instalments, Cruise has climbed cliffs in Australia with his bare hands, clung to a moving plane and climbed the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Much of the new film has been shot in England, and Cruise has made headlines in recent days for landing his plane in a Warwickshire family’s garden and for having his luggage stolen in Birmingham.

Alongside Cruise, the movie stars Hayley Atwell, Rebecca Ferguson, Esai Morales, Shea Whigham, Pom Klementieff, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, and Henry Czerny.

Mission: Impossible 7 will be released on 27 May, 2022.

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Tom cruise skydives toward l.a. 2028 in paris olympics handover ceremony.

The movie star left the Paris closing ceremony with the Olympic flag flying on the back of a motorcycle.

By Zoe G. Phillips

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Tom Cruise launched the road to Los Angeles 2028 in epic movie-star style Sunday, jumping from the stage in Paris before the broadcast cut to a prerecorded clip of him skydiving into Hollywood.

In the clip, which aired during the closing ceremony of Paris 2024, Cruise jumped into the French stadium before walking through a crowd of fans and accepting the official Olympic flag from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Simone Biles.

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IT'S A BIRD. IT'S A PLANE. IT'S TOM CRUISE! 🤯 #ParisOlympics | #ClosingCeremony pic.twitter.com/5v4j8pOwBF — NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 11, 2024

Cruise then handed the flag to several Los Angeles-based Olympians, who led a group of fans to the beach celebration where the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Billie Eilish and Snoop Dogg all performed.

Though the skydive was prerecorded, the jump into the stadium and motorcycle away were both performed live. Cruise posted about the stunt on social media, where he shared a selfie of himself from the top of the stadium and wrote, “Thank you, Paris! Now off to L.A.”

Thank you, Paris! Now off to LA. pic.twitter.com/MxlAb0hZbT — Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) August 11, 2024

Cruise is a recognizable face at the Paris Olympics — photographers have spotted him at several competitions throughout the last two weeks, and he was present at the opening ceremony. He is currently filming Mission: Impossible 8 , and was spotted shooting another epic skydiving stunt for the movie several weeks ago.

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“i was very close”: tom cruise’s big mission: impossible 7 stunt almost went terribly wrong.

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Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One star Tom Cruise reveals that his showstopping motorcycle cliff jump stunt very nearly ended in disaster. The seventh film in the long-running Mission: Impossible franchise sees director Christopher McQuarrie once again at the helm with Cruise returning as superspy Ethan Hunt to face off against a new enemy. The movie continues Cruise's penchant for dangerous stunts, with one standout sequence involving the star driving a motorcycle off a cliff before then deploying a parachute and gliding to safety.

Ahead of the Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One release date next month, Cruise tells ET Canada at the film's Rome premiere that prepping for his motorcycle stunt almost went very wrong. During an initial parachute jump in the location to get a feel for the wind, the star describes how a miscalculation almost resulted in parachuting into the cliff face. Check out Cruise's recollection of the stunt below:

“It’s funny that you mentioned engineering, because there’s as you know, there’s a lot of engineering in there to figure out that ramp, where the bowl is, the speed, you know, we’re testing wind conditions early on, I set all that up. That’s how I approach these things. “You know, I’m thinking, first of all, Mc Q [director Christopher McQuarrie] and I, we come up with something and then go, ‘how do we do it?’ and we break it down. And luckily, like I’ve been skydiving for years and [riding] motorcycles and [doing] jumps, but you’ve got to hone it and make it perfect. I’m thinking about performance, I’m thinking about where’s that helicopter going across the stuff to make sure I don’t get blown off of the ramp. “I don’t want to get blown off that ramp. And once I hit it, I don’t want that drone to hit me, you know? And then when my chute opens and you can see it in EPK when I’m in the bowl and I was testing the wind in that bowl and I jumped out of the helicopter… you can see when I opened it, I was in the wrong position and I opened the parachute, and the parachute turned into the side of the mountain. “I could just at the last second, I was very close. My chute was pretty close to the side of the mountain. So you really have to watch every aspect of that to make sure that [nothing goes wrong]. You know, I’ve got a few things on my mind when I’m doing that. Plus I’m producing the movie. And it was day one. So I’m thinking, ‘Let’s get through this, let’s get this done.'”

Tom Cruise's Approach To Mission: Impossible Stunts Explained

Over the course of the Mission: Impossible franchise, Cruise has undertaken a number of jaw-dropping stunts, including scaling the outside of the Burj Khalifa in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol , doing a protracted breath-hold for an underwater sequence in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation , and doing a HALO jump for Mission: Impossible – Fallout . While many of these stunts are indeed dangerous, it's important to note that Cruise also takes safety very seriously.

As his franchise costars will attest, the big stunts that end up on screen are the result of often months of planning, training, and rehearsing. Cruise's HALO jump in Mission: Impossible – Fallout , for example, required the creation of a new type of skydiving helmet and the actor is said to have done over 100 skydives as part of the planning phase alone. There is certainly danger involved in these stunts, then, but they are meticulously crafted to be as safe as they can possibly be.

Cruise's motorcycle jump in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One , as shown in the video above, involved a similar approach. The actor is said to have trained for about a year in base-jumping, advanced skydiving, and motocross before undertaking the feat. Another way that the production made the stunt safer and more predictable was to have the actor jumping off of a long, man-made ramp instead of off a cliff edge, with the ramp then being erased using CGI. As Cruise's latest story reveals, however, there is always still the possibility for calamity despite the extensive preparation work.

Source: ET Canada

Key Release Dates

Mission: impossible - dead reckoning part one, mission: impossible - dead reckoning part two.

• Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning
• Mission: Impossible

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Tom Cruise performed his most dangerous stunt yet — riding a motorcycle off a cliff and BASE jumping

Tom Cruise details insane 'Mission: Impossible' jump stunt at 25,000 feet, done 106 times

LAS VEGAS –  Tom Cruise has put his dangerous falling out into Mission: Impossible — Fallout.

The action star, 55, wowed CinemaCon late Wednesday with stunning footage of his high altitude, low opening (HALO) parachute jump stunts for the action thriller (in theaters July 27). 

The numbers alone for the stunt, which took more than a year to plan and execute, are daunting. Cruise's jump required an extended free fall — used by military special operators — from 25,000 to 30,000 feet, flying through the air at speeds up to 220 miles per hour with the aid of an oxygen mask. 

Between training for the stunt and shooting, Cruise jumped from a C-17 military plane a total of 106 times to get the three takes he and director Christopher McQuarrie wanted.

"For these films, it's about what we can do that's physically possible, but without killing Tom," McQuarrie said.

More: Can Tom Cruise climb again to CinemaCon glory? Plus 5 more burning questions

McQuarrie joked that it didn't make sense "falling out of a perfectly functioning aircraft."

But this is what Cruise does for his  Mission: Impossible franchise, including strapping himself to an  Airbus A400 turboprop plane in-flight for 2015's Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation .

For those who doubt the star is in peril, Cruise broke his ankle while shooting a building jump for Fallout , forcing production to temporarily shut down.

McQuarrie's team developed an oxygen mask that would allow Cruise's face to be lit and not obscured by the protruding hose — so audiences will see for themselves it's actually Cruise jumping.

A camera operator using a helmet camera followed Cruise in the scene and fell backward from the plane just before Cruise, keeping the close-up intact.

After the dramatic footage was shown Wednesday, Mission: Impossible star Simon Pegg put it in perspective for the applauding audience.

"The difference is, you know he lived," said Pegg, insisting he once truly thought Cruise had perished in a stunt. "It’s a daily stress going to work with him. You don’t know if you’ll see him tomorrow."

In other news from Paramount Studios:

First footage of 'Bumblebee' revealed : Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena and director Travis Knight revealed footage from the Transformers spinoff Bumblebee (Dec. 21).

In the first film without Michael Bay, Knight promised he would continue the Transformer  tradition of "spectacle and explosion, lots and lots of explosions." But he also promised an "emotional core."

The first footage did show Steinfeld's teenage Charlie meeting the painfully shy but powerful Autobot and naming it Bumblebee because of the buzzing sound it made. (Bumblebee can't speak.)

"And (the name) matches the outfit," Charlie says of the yellow-and-black creature.

After they meet cute, the sizzle reel of action delivered the promised explosions.

Sequels announced:  Paramount CEO Jim Gianopulos announced that a sequel for director John Krasinski's hit thriller A Quiet Place  ($213 million in worldwide box office and counting) is already underway. 

Two Star Trek movies are also in the works, he said.

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