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Tom Cruise hangs on for dear life to his 'Mission' to save the movies

Justin Chang

Tom Cruise is back, and doing his own stunts, in Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One. Paramount Pictures and Skydance hide caption

Tom Cruise is back, and doing his own stunts, in Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One.

For some time now, Tom Cruise has been on what feels like a one-man mission to save the movies. Back in 2020, when Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One was shooting in the U.K., Cruise was recorded screaming at crew members who'd violated COVID-19 lockdown protocols, all but claiming that the industry's future rested on their shoulders. Earlier this year, Steven Spielberg publicly praised Cruise for saving Hollywood with the smash success of Top Gun: Maverick .

Now, with the box office still struggling to return to pre-pandemic levels, Cruise has become a kind of evangelist for the theatergoing experience, urging audiences to buy tickets not just to his movie, but also to other big summer titles like Barbie and Oppenheimer .

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'mission: impossible' is back, but will you accept it, or will it self-destruct.

Cruise's save-the-movies spirit goes hand-in-hand with his self-styled reputation as the last of the great Hollywood stars. In this seventh Mission: Impossible movie, the now 61-year-old actor and producer still insists on risking life and limb for our viewing pleasure, doing his own outrageous stunts in action scenes that make only minimal use of CGI. And so we see Cruise's Ethan Hunt, an agent with the Impossible Missions Force, or IMF, tearing up the streets of Rome in a tiny yellow Fiat, riding a motorcycle off a cliff and — in the most astonishing sequence — hanging on for dear life after a deadly train derailment.

The plot that connects these sequences is preposterous, of course, but reasonably easy to follow. In an especially timely twist, the big villain this time around is AI — a self-aware techno-being referred to as the Entity. It's an invisible menace, everywhere and nowhere; it can wipe out data systems, control the flow of information and bring nations to their knees.

'Top Gun: Maverick' is ridiculous. It's also ridiculously entertaining

Hunt and his IMF team are determined to destroy the Entity before it becomes too powerful or falls into the wrong hands. But his old boss, Eugene Kittridge, played by the sinister Henry Czerny, warns Hunt to fall in line with the U.S. government, which wants to control the Entity and the new world order to come.

This is notably the first time we've seen Kittridge since Brian De Palma 's 1996 Mission: Impossible — the first and still, to my mind, the best movie in the series. That said, the director and co-writer Christopher McQuarrie has done a snazzy job with the most recent ones: Rogue Nation , Fallout and now Dead Reckoning Part One .

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Sorry, tom cruise fans — new 'top gun' and 'mission impossible' movies delayed again.

Here, he seems to be paying sly tribute to that 1996 original, even evoking its horrific early setpiece in which Hunt watched helplessly as his IMF teammates were murdered, one by one. That trauma was formative; it explains why, in movie after movie, Hunt has repeatedly put his life on the line for his friends.

If you're kept up with the series, you'll recognize those friends here, including Hunt's fellow operatives played by Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg and Rebecca Ferguson. You may also remember Vanessa Kirby , reprising her Fallout role as a ruthless arms broker and giving, in a single sequence, perhaps the movie's best performance. There are some intriguing new characters, too, including a wily thief, well played by Hayley Atwell, who draws Hunt into an extended game of cat-and-mouse. Pom Klementieff steals a few scenes as a mysterious assassin, as does Esai Morales as a glowering enemy from Hunt's past.

That's a lot of characters, double-crosses, chases, fights, escapes and explosions to keep track of. But even with a running time that pushes north of two-and-a-half hours — and this is just Part One — the movie never loses its grip. McQuarrie, a screenwriter first and foremost, paces the narrative beautifully, building and releasing tension at regular intervals.

Compared with the visual effects-heavy bombast of most Hollywood blockbusters, Dead Reckoning Part One feels like a marvel of old-school craftsmanship, just with niftier gadgets. Even Hunt wears his devil-may-care recklessness with surprising lightness and grace, spending much of the movie's third act on the sidelines and even playing some of his most daring escapades for laughs. Not that the actor doesn't take his mission seriously. I don't know if Tom Cruise can save the movies, but somehow, I never get tired of watching him try.

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.

Watch ‘Mission: Impossible — Fallout’ director Christopher McQuarrie on Ultimate Summer Movie Showdown

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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.

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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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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 on performing his own stunts and dead reckoning details, the mission: impossible star breaks down the risky stunts he's performed for the blockbuster action franchise and the evolution of super-spy ethan hunt..

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Tom Cruise sat down with RT correspondent Nikki Novak and spilled new details about his upcoming movie Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part One . He dives deep into performing his own stunts and the challenges that come with it, Ethan Hunt’s character development, and more.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) is in theaters on July 12, 2023.

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‘He is taking it to the next level’: the expert verdict on Tom Cruise’s epic Mission: Impossible stunts

Amy Johnston, a stunt veteran of Suicide Squad, Deadpool and more, analyses the new blockbuster’s hair-raising action sequences – and praises the star’s commitment to realism

T om Cruise’s new film Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is stuffed with spectacular stunts, but one in particular has grabbed the world’s attention: riding a motorbike off the top of a 1,240 metre-high crag, plummeting down its vertical, semi-cylindrical face, and opening his parachute, base-jump style, just before he hits the ground.

Cruise says its “far and away the most dangerous thing [he’d] ever attempted”, and in a video released by the film-makers , revealed he had trained for the stunt by making more than 500 skydives and 13,000 motocross jumps over an 80ft mound, as well as training for a year in base jumping (a specialist skill involving parachuting from fixed objects including radio masts and skyscrapers). A practice ramp was constructed in a quarry in Wallingford, Oxfordshire , stuffed with fall-breaking plastic bags, before taking on the actual leap off the Helsetkopen in Norway. Cruise performed the stunt six times for the cameras.

Amy Johnston, a stunt performer on films such as Suicide Squad, Deadpool and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, as well as the TV series Westworld, said: “In the movie theatre where I watched the film, as soon as he dropped, the audience was just dead silent. Everybody was trying to hold their breath, kind of they all felt like they were just having a heart attack.

“What he is able to do is create spectacle, and he knows how to entertain people. He did some of his biggest stunts to date in this film, and I was absolutely very impressed.”

Cruise has been making Mission: Impossible films for nearly 30 years, and will be for another 20 if he has his way . Since the premiere of the first Mission: Impossible in 1996, the role has been particularly testing, with the series renowned for its elaborate and physically challenging stunts, for which Cruise, 61, prides himself on his personal involvement. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, the seventh entry in the series, carries on the tradition, with other set pieces including a somersaulting Fiat 500, and train carriages hanging over a steep drop.

Johnston points out that while Cruise will have stunt doubles to assist him, as well as elements of CGI to heighten impact, the fact that he gets involved so heavily himself has an influence on the way scenes are filmed and their impact. “He knows how to bring the realism – you can see that it’s happening to him in closeup, like the effect of freefall on his face - and then you can also keep the frame very wide and see the action play out. It adds to the experience, and audiences definitely feel that.”

For all that, Johnston says one of the hardest stunts in the film is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment at the very start, when Cruise’s character, hiding in the desert, has to mount a horse as it gets up from a prone position. “This is very specialty-trained movement; it really needs timing, and it’s dangerous as well, because the horse could lay down on his leg if the timing is off.

“That is what Cruise always brings to his films, the extra details, because he didn’t need to do that. But he wants to do those things, and it adds a lot.”

Johnston also talks admiringly of the car chase scene in which Cruise and Hayley Atwell are handcuffed together as they manoeuvre a Fiat 500 around the narrow streets of Rome. “It was really fun, and not just because of all the somersaults and car hits, but the fact they were connected by handcuffs was so creative. I would love to break it down frame by frame, but I think that Cruise was definitely driving one-handed while being handcuffed. That whole scene [was a] really great job by the stunt coordinators and the stunt performers.”

Johnston says that a scene in which Cruise fights a selection of bad guys on top of a speeding train employed a mix of stunt trickery and actual exposure to the conditions. She suggests that film-makers may have employed harnesses or wires attached to a crane, which are then erased in post-production, for wide shots, and that greenscreen backdrops, where the background is added digitally, were probably used for tighter shots. “But the part where he had to duck under a bridge is one of those things that you have to really work on and go over and over and over and really get the timing right. It’s very scary to do something like that.”

Johnston is also supportive of the stunt industry’s campaign to gain recognition for its work through inclusion in the Oscars, which is spearheaded by John Wick director Chad Stahelski . “It would make a lot of sense, especially with how hard the stunt teams work to make a great film. These fight scenes, and car scenes, are all designed by the stunt team, who also figure out the best way to film them. The stunt coordinator and the stunt crew are such a huge part of a film.”

Mission: Impossible’s main rival in the blockbuster stunt world remains the Bond franchise , which stages equally elaborate scenes for its star performer – until recently Daniel Craig. But for Johnston, Cruise remains the gold standard: “It’s how he shoots action, doing his own stuff, that adds to the experience. I know in the Bond films, the actors are definitely doing a lot of fight scenes and such, but Cruise is taking it to the next level. It’s not that the action is better, but Cruise’s process does make a difference.”

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Did Tom Cruise Really Do All the Stunts in ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’?

The 56-year-old actor never even uses a body double

At this point in his career, the stories of Tom Cruise doing his own stunts are almost legendary.

The building jump gone wrong for his latest film “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” — the take of which ended up in the final film — has been a favorite on this press tour . But truth be told, that stunt, during which Cruise broke his ankle, isn’t even the most daring in the film. Cruise told Jimmy Fallon during an appearance on “The Tonight Show” that jumping from one building to the next was suppose to be an easy one.

In “Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” which currently has a 98 percent rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Cruise’s IMF agent Ethan Hunt is caught in multiple chases (including one in a helicopter), free-climbs a cliff (again), does a HALO jump (high altitude; low open) out of a plane at 25,000 feet, and he runs. A lot.

And yes, at 56 years old, and after 22 years of “Mission: Impossible” movies, Tom Cruise s till takes danger in his hands . “Tom always does his own stunts and never has a double,” a person close to the film told TheWrap.

Watching Cruise’s Ethan Hunt hanging from and climbing a rope attached to a helicopter thousands of feet in the air, it might be hard to believe that it’s actually the actor pulling himself up of his own accord… but it’s him all right.

During an exhilarating chase in which Hunt rides a motorcycle through the streets of Paris and then against traffic around the Arc de Triomphe, that’s actually Cruise on the bike, and with no helmet mind you.

And, of course, what would a Tom Cruise film be without running (“Tropic Thunder,” maybe?). Cruise, as always, does all of his own running in “Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” and, boy, is there a lot of it.

The amount of running in the film is a stunt unto itself and director Christopher McQuarrie shows off Cruise doing it all himself, with long shots, and in other action sequences, with clever uses of the camera.

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’s Most Dangerous Stunts in ‘Mission: Impossible’

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By Ben Kenigsberg

• July 30, 2018

The older Tom Cruise gets, the more fun it is to watch him risk death in elaborate age- and gravity-defying ways.

One person who has seen him face danger up close is Christopher McQuarrie, who directed the now-56-year-old actor in the two most recent “Mission: Impossible” movies: “ Fallout ,” currently in theaters, and “ Rogue Nation ” from 2015. I asked him to rank the most difficult stunts he and his star, who is known to dislike doubles, have executed.

Mr. McQuarrie ranked them in order of what he called “inherent danger,” basically risk multiplied by the amount of time Mr. Cruise was exposed to that risk. But you could rank these sequences “five different ways in terms of their technical difficulty, their strain on the body, the real-time danger and difficulty,” he added. “If you arranged them alphabetically, they would be correct.”

Here are edited excerpts from our conversation:

5. Underwater Sequence, ‘Rogue Nation’

Without the benefit of oxygen, Mr. Cruise swaps a file in an underwater security system.

Given just 10 days to shoot this sequence, Mr. McQuarrie figured that his best use of the time would be to film it in a series of continuous takes. “It put a huge burden on Tom because Tom had to hold his breath longer,” the director said. “You and I can hold our breath for a minute, maybe two minutes. The minute you start exerting yourself, you consume oxygen at a much higher rate. Which meant that for Tom to be able to hold his breath for anywhere from a minute to two and a half minutes that each take required, he had to learn how to hold his breath for longer,” because he would be swimming.

Mr. Cruise and his co-star Rebecca Ferguson “trained with an extreme diver,” Mr. McQuarrie said. “He learned how to hold his breath for six and a half minutes. By the time that sequence was over, Tom was so physically and mentally exhausted, he had nitrogen in his blood, he was achy all over, he was very punchy, it was hard for him to focus and remember lines. He was exhausted all the time. It took a really severe physical toll on him.”

4. Paris Motorcycle Chase, ‘Fallout’

Having been separated from his co-star Henry Cavill, Mr. Cruise evades capture on two wheels.

“The initial idea was he would do a portion of the sequence free riding and the rest of it on these safety rigs, and when the rigs didn’t work, we just went for it. Everything that you’re seeing Tom doing, he’s doing free riding on cold cobblestones. Sometimes there was rain; sometimes there was morning dew. There was always a danger of skidding and wiping out.

“Sometimes he’s going in excess of 100 miles an hour with cars chasing him and coming at him. They were all stunt drivers, but some of them were local, so there was a language barrier. A couple of times there were miscommunications and drivers were not where they were supposed to be, which was always scary. Tom had to be hypervigilant.”

“And of course, every time he’s doing stunts like this, he’s got to act. You’re designing the camera moves so you can show that it isn’t a stunt man. One of the dangers becomes the camera itself. Tom is driving into close-up in certain shots. He’s inches away from the camera. If the camera vehicle stops short, Tom is going right into the camera headfirst.”

3. Sky-Diving, ‘Fallout’

Anatomy of a scene | ‘mission: impossible — fallout’, the director christopher mcquarrie narrates a scene where tom cruise leaps from an airplane at 25,000 feet..

“My name is Christopher McQuarrie. I am the writer, director, and co-producer of ‘Mission: Impossible - Fallout.’ The biggest challenge of this sequence is constantly maintaining a connection with Tom Cruise, knowing that Tom Cruise is going to jump out of a plane at 25,000 feet, and that the camera is going to stay with him. When Tom and I discussed this idea, right away the challenge became making it the most subjective sequence we possibly could, putting the audience with the character of Ethan Hunt. And that means that everything that Tom does, as he’s jumping out of his plane, the camera operator has to do with him in reverse. So of course, this shot right here, once this starts, we were determined to have no cuts from this moment until Tom reaches the ground. Just prior to this clip starting, he’d had a conflict with Henry Cavill, and Henry Cavill has disconnected his air hose as a way of getting Ethan Hunt out of his way, so he can jump out of the plane. So Craig O’Brien, our camera operator, is jumping backwards out of the plane, and Tom has to come towards him and come within three feet of the camera to remain in focus. Which means Tom has to stop himself, and he has a three inch margin of error because of the light at that time of day. It’s very difficult to maintain focus, and we had exactly three minutes of light everyday to gather these shots, and if you didn’t get the shot, it meant you came back the next day.” “What’s the matter, Hunt, afraid of a little lightning?” “The decision here to have all of the sound drop out was a practical decision to maintain that subjective reality, put you in Tom’s experience, and Tom is now coordinating all of his movements with Craig O’Brien. They’re actually doing a dance, so that we can maintain all of the storytelling without ever cutting, and so you’ll notice that the other actor is falling in the background there. His movements had to be coordinated with Tom, and then of course, the real danger in the sequence was a mid-air impact in which everyone could have collided — Tom, the camera operator, and the actor.” “Walker!”

Mr. Cruise, Mr. Cavill’s stunt double and a sky-diving videographer jump out a plane over the United Arab Emirates, standing in for Paris. The sequence stitched together three shots, combining jumps from 18,000 to 25,000 feet, for the appearance of a continuous take.

“Probably the most technically difficult one we’ve ever done. The costume that he’s wearing — all of that stuff is designed so that you can see that Tom is doing all of the stunt work. That helmet didn’t exist, the air tanks didn’t exist. It all has to be certified as a lifesaving device. It’s not just a prop. Layer No. 2, we need to find a country that would let us do it. And then of course, Tom has to get certified to be able to jump at that altitude.

“The jump is divided into three pieces. The first piece is when he jumps out of the plane and goes past the camera. The second piece is when he’s looking for Henry” — actually his stunt double — “in the air and grabs onto him. And the third piece is as he’s falling with Henry where he disconnects his oxygen bottle and connects it to Henry. And that’s the most time-consuming piece, which of course means that he’s got to be able to complete all of that action before he reaches his minimum safe altitude by which he has to deploy his chute.

“Because the sequence is at dusk, we have three minutes of available light every day to shoot. They would just rehearse until the light was right, and they’d go up and they’d get one take every day, to get one of these three pieces. It took several tries to get the first piece, several tries to get the second piece, several tries to get the third piece. And so that took 106 jumps of us rehearsing and shooting to get that two-and-a-half, three-minute sequence.”

(Why couldn’t they just land and take a cab? “Landing on the Grand Palais looks a lot more spectacular than landing in a parking lot on the outskirts of Paris,” Mr. McQuarrie said.)

2. Hanging Off a Plane, ‘Rogue Nation’

Mr. Cruise dangles from an Airbus A400M as it takes off.

“When we proposed it to Airbus, they said it was impossible. And our approach was to say, well, if we were going to do it, how would it be done? And once people start to consider the possibilities, it’s a slippery slope to the place where they find themselves doing what they deemed impossible.

“Tom’s wearing a harness under the suit. But of course the harness doesn’t protect him from the real dangers of the sequence. One, if the pilot overaccelerates the plane, there’s no harness in the world that’s going to keep Tom on the plane. The other danger is any debris on the runway. Tom was struck by a pebble. He said it was like being shot. And the real danger is bird strikes. If a bird flew past and struck Tom, it would be like a cannonball. The exhaust from the engines is extremely punishing and very toxic.

“And finally, Tom is wearing earplugs and contact lenses. They cover half of his eye — they’re not like the little lenses that just cover your iris. So he couldn’t really see. He couldn’t really hear. I would have to direct him with very large gestures and communicate in the simplest possible way. And Tom said to me, ‘If I look like I’m panicking, I’m acting. Don’t cut. Only if I tap my head’ — he put his palm on top of his head — ‘it means something’s wrong.’ There was one point at which Tom brushed his hair out of his face, and we were wondering, is he just fixing his hair, or is something wrong?”

1. Helicopter Chase, ‘Fallout’

Mr. Cruise pilots a chopper through mountainous terrain to retrieve and disable the remote detonator of two nuclear bombs.

“The hairiest one I can think of is the helicopter chase in the third act of ‘Fallout.’ Tom qualified” — for pilot certification — “on this helicopter in six weeks. Normally it takes three months; he trained with two crews working 16 hours a day so he could cut his training time in half. And we’re in New Zealand in low winter light, which means visibility is always a little tricky. You have two helicopters. The way you measure distance in a helicopter is a rotor width. And Tom was at times inside one rotor width from the other helicopter. He was less than a rotor width away. In some parts of the sequence, Tom’s doing the chasing, and in other parts he’s being chased — and we were always pushing for proximity, because that of course sold more danger. Tom is weaving in and out of canyons and gullies. There was one where his rotor blades were just a few feet away from the rock walls on either side. It was like flying through a broom closet.”

The director recalled that he and a producer “said while we were making it, if we knew what it took to shoot this sequence, we never would have started. Tom was having the time of his life.”

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All of Tom Cruise's big 'Mission: Impossible' stunts ranked from worst to best

• The "Mission: Impossible" franchise is best known for Tom Cruise's exhilarating stunts.
• Cruise has boasted that he's done most of the practical stunt work himself. 
• The star even B.A.S.E. jumped off a mountain for 2023's "Dead Reckoning Part One."

17. Vatican wall-climb and abseil — "Mission: Impossible 3" (2005)

Like the fact that there are no bad "Mission: Impossible" movies , there are no bad "Mission: Impossible" stunts, but something has to go at the bottom – and it's the Vatican wall stunt .

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has to infiltrate Vatican City to attend the same party as arms dealer Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman). So what does he do? He scales the side of the wall, before abseiling down the other side and quickly donning a disguise as a priest.

It's a fun, quick stunt that leans into the silliness of the franchise, while still looking cool. But it's far from the biggest sequence of the franchise.

16. Eye spy — "Mission: Impossible 2" (2000)

"Mission: Impossible 2" sees Hunt try and stop former IMF agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) from releasing a terrifying virus that would decimate the world's population, all so that he could make billions from also manufacturing the cure. 

But when Hunt thwarts his plans, they wind up in a hand-to-hand brawl on a beach, with Ambrose nearly stabbing the hero through the eye with a knife . According to IMDb , Cruise requested that the knife, which was attached to a cable, come down to "one-quarter inch" away from his eyeball. 

It's not worth thinking about what would've happened if the stunt went wrong. But that's child's play compared to all the other stunts Cruise has done over the years .

15. Infiltrating the CIA — "Mission: Impossible" (1996)

1996's "Mission: Impossible" introduced Cruise's hero to the world for the first time, and he definitely made an impression. The film's defining image comes from the scene where Hunt descends into a secure CIA vault to hack a secure computer.

The slightest noise or impact on the floor would trigger an alarm, with Hunt presumably being locked away for life. 

So with help from Franz Krieger (Jean Reno), he gets lowered into the vault and hacks the computer. Although it nearly goes wrong when a rat in the air vent scares Krieger, who drops the cable that's holding Hunt in the air, and the spy has to steady himself an inch or two above the floor.

When looking back on the scene for the film's 25th anniversary, Cruise recalled that they only got the shot done on the last take because he kept hitting his face on the floor.

14. Shanghai leap of faith — "Mission: Impossible 3" (2006)

"Mission: Impossible 3" takes Ethan and the gang to Shanghai as they chase Owen Davian, the arms dealer in the possession of a dangerous object called the "Rabbit's Foot." 

As part of the mission, Ethan has to steal the mysterious object out of a skyscraper — and he gets inside the building by swinging from one building and free-falling onto another . If Spider-Man was a spy for the IMF, this would be the outcome. 

Although the scene is impressive, the frenetic editing style means the weight of what Cruise is putting himself through is lost. It doesn't match up to some of the star's other jumps later on in the series, which proves that Cruise wasn't lying to Insider when he said that he's always "pushing" to do better with each movie .

13. Free climb leap —"Mission Impossible 2" (2000)

"Mission: Impossible 2" gets a lot of criticism for its over-the-top action, cheesy script, and a peak-nineties soundtrack. But the way it reintroduces audiences to Ethan as he's free-climbing Dead Horse Point in Utah is nothing short of awesome.

While the film definitely overuses slow-motion, it works brilliantly when Hunt jumps from one ledge to another , scored to Zap Mama's song "Iko-Iko."

Surprisingly, the actor actually tore his shoulder muscle doing the jump. It wouldn't be the only time he'd get injured on a "Mission: Impossible" movie.

12. London rooftop chase — "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" (2018)

Hunt chasing August Walker (Henry Cavill) across London rooftops in "Fallout" feels too generic to get any higher up the list, since it's the type of thing audiences have seen in other spy thrillers like the James Bond franchise or Matt Damon's "Bourne" movies .

But Cruise deserves a lot of credit for actually breaking his ankle during a moment where he leaps from one building to another.

Cruise admitted during an appearance on "The Graham Norton Show," that the take in which he broke his ankle was the one that actually made it into the final film .

11. Ethan's motorbike escape through Paris — "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" (2018)

While "Fallout" contains some of the wildest moments in the franchise, the Paris motorbike chase feels a little bit average compared to the rest of the film.

It's still an entertaining sequence, as Hunt flees from both the authorities and the Mitsopolis goons, but it doesn't exactly reinvent the (motorbike) wheel. 

The high point is definitely the moment Cruise hurtles his way through oncoming traffic at the Arc de Triomphe. Talk about road rage.

10. Train-top brawl — "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One" (2023)

The "Dead Reckoning Part One" finale is basically an endurance test for Cruise and the cast, as the star gets into a hand-to-hand brawl with villain Gabriel (Esai Morales) on top of the Orient Express as it chugs through an Austrian valley.

Yes, the crew really did shoot this choreographed fight on top of a moving train , and it paid off. The fight looks excellent, especially when Gabriel tries to repeatedly stab Hunt as they go through a tunnel. 

But while the scene is made better because audiences can tell they were actually on top of the train, the actors were obviously restrained by what they could actually do in the fight.

This means it doesn't pack the same punch as other action franchises ( we're looking at you, "John Wick") but it's still a feat of filmmaking nonetheless.

9. Train obstacle course — "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One" (2023)

While Christopher McQuarrie and Cruise shocked everyone with the mountain jump in "Dead Reckoning Part One," there's another surprising stunt in the climax that is equally commendable.

When the train that Hunt and Grace are on is about to plummet from a ruined bridge, they have to climb through each carriage as it dangles above a rocky ravine below, dodging a variety of objects as they go.

There's a "Looney Tunes"-level of ridiculousness that just keeps getting more extreme with each passing carriage. Whether it's falling furniture, a grand piano teetering on the edge, or a boiling hot vat of oil from the kitchen car.

McQuarrie just piles on the stress for the characters (and the audience) in the best way possible.

8. The Casablanca car chase — "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" (2015)

"Rogue Nation" doesn't exactly give Ethan an easy ride. While it introduces audiences to the incomparable Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) for the first time, she betrays the IMF and steals a digital ledger for herself.

This leads to a huge chase through the streets of Casablanca and onto a nearby highway. There's so much carnage on the road, it may as well be a "Mad Max" outtake.

Christopher McQuarrie keeps things fun though, especially when Cruise and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) bounce their way down a set of stairs in a BMW. It's an electrifying sequence, as cinematographer Robert Elswit puts the audience right in the action, making it one of the most visceral car chases in the series.

Cruise oozes movie-star cool at one point in particular when he trades the BMW for a motorbike , and swoops across the road to avoid villains and civilians alike. 

No wonder Paramount got McQuarrie back to direct "Fallout" and "Dead Reckoning" after seeing this.

7. The Fiat 500 Rome pursuit — "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One" (2023)

"Dead Reckoning Part One" aims to shock fans, creating high octane stunts that are as real as possible — including a thrilling pursuit through Rome.

Ethan and Grace (Hayley Atwell) flee from the police, bounty hunters, and a ferocious assassin named Paris (Pom Klementieff) in a BMW which gets absolutely wrecked in hectic traffic. The hair-raising sequence cranks up the tension, with Ethan and Grace crashing off course, and Paris hot on their heels in a hulking S.W.A.T. truck, the feisty killer reveling in the chaos.

McQuarrie adds a dash of comedy to the carnage when Hunt finds an IMF car to escape in, and it's a tiny, bright yellow Fiat 500. Yes, Cruise and Atwell are both crammed into the tiny car as they're flung all over the streets of Rome, and they even go hurtling down the Spanish Steps. 

While most of the scene was shot on location, it seems highly likely that they replicated the Spanish Steps elsewhere for the scene, since Paris' truck destroys the tourist spot. Regardless, the riotous sequence is guaranteed to thrill audiences.

6. Flooded computer dive — "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" (2015)

It says a lot about the franchise that Cruise's record-breaking dive isn't at the top of the list. In "Rogue Nation," Hunt has to dive into a flooded computer to add a login profile so Benji can walk into a facility undetected.

For the stunt, Cruise dived from a 120-foot high ledge, before holding his breath for six minutes while acting underwater. Stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood previously told Insider that Cruise actually blacked out several times while training for the dive, which helped him learn his limits. 

While Hunt manages to get the profile into the computer, Ilsa Faust has to save him when he starts to black out. There's no wonder he has so much chemistry with the ferocious MI6 agent.

5. The take-off — "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" (2015)

When Christopher McQuarrie took over the reins as director for the franchise for 2015's "Rogue Nation," he made his debut with style. The film kicks off with Ethan and Benji in the middle of a mission in Belarus, as a huge crate of nerve gas is being flown away by the Syndicate — a rogue group of former-intelligence agents.

In order to stop the Syndicate's plan, Hunt clings onto the side of the plane as it takes off — and eventually manages to get inside when Benji hacks the plane's security system. But it's just another perfect example of Cruise's commitment to these outrageous stunts. 

It may have finally cracked the fearless Cruise though; in 2015 he told CinemaCon attendees that the plane stunt "scared him shitless."

The image of the star holding on for dear life as a plane takes off is one hell of a way to start the movie.

4. Burj Khalifa jump - "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" (2011)

Tom Cruise. Dubai's Burj Khalifa. Need we say more? In Brad Bird's "Ghost Protocol," Cruise's hero has to climb the outside of the tallest building in the world, retrieve a set of nuclear codes, and then rappel back down .

Cruise effectively becomes Spider-Man thanks to a pair of high-tech sticky gloves, which are great, until they stop working.

There's something so visceral about the scene, whether it's the idea of falling from that height, or Cruise's terrified expression when one of the gloves starts to fail. Yikes.

Cruise did the whole thing himself (obviously) and even took a photo on top of the Burj Khalifa... Now that's just showing off.

3. Helicopter chase — "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" (2018)

There's a reason why 2018's "Fallout" raked in $791 million at the box office, and it comes down to the unhinged action sequences that Cruise and the cast throw themselves into — like the helicopter chase through the mountains in the film's climax.

It's simple, August Walker (Henry Cavill) is flying away with a nuclear detonator, and Hunt needs to deactivate said detonator. It starts with Cruise hanging on for dear life to a net of cargo that one helicopter is carrying, before he eventually climbs up and forcibly takes control of the vehicle himself.

What follows is a breathtaking feat of aerial stunt work — with two helicopters swooping through a mountain range at break-neck speeds while the cameras try to keep up. 

It all comes down to a literal cliffhanger before Hunt finally puts Walker down for good and saves the day. The nail biting sequence deserves every cliche movie description possible, as it pushes audiences to the edge of their seats in true "Mission: Impossible" fashion.

2. Paris sky dive — "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" (2018)

"Fallout" sees Hunt skydive into Paris alongside August Walker to sneak into a secret meeting, and it's a visually stunning sequence because the camera dives with Cruise as he's falling through the sky.

Not only does it look gorgeous, but Hunt has to catch Walker in mid-air after a storm knocks him unconscious and his oxygen tank is disconnected . So there's a lot going on in what should be a straight forward skydive. 

Then again, this is "Mission: Impossible," nothing's ever straight forward. The whole thing is only made better when Walker lands in Paris, completely unaware that Hunt actually saved his life and replaced his oxygen tank. Typical!

1. The mountain jump — "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One" (2023)

There's no question about it, "Dead Reckoning Part One" takes the top spot with Cruise's exhilarating Austrian mountain jump.

The scene sees Ethan try and catch the train where a deal for the AI is taking place — but the quickest way to do so is by riding a motorbike off the side of the mountain, and parachuting down to the locomotive… As you do.

Considering the risk involved, it's a miracle that Paramount even signed off on Cruise doing the stunt himself — but it paid off. The scene is nothing short of breathtaking, as the star falls through the valley and sails through the air, seemingly with ease.

It's a common thing for actors to say they do their own stunts, but Cruise really goes the extra mile for the audience . He told Extra that the jump is "something I've wanted to do for a long time. When I was a little kid, I used to build ramps and go off and have some terrible crashes on my bicycles, but it was a lot of fun doing that."

And when speaking to Insider on the "Dead Reckoning" red carpet, Cruise teased that he's trying to go bigger for "Part Two."

"I'm always pushing. I just remember, every time they say, 'Can you top it? Can you not top it?' we're always pushing," the star said. "Every film I do, whatever genre it's in, I want to make it as entertaining as possible for that audience. I know I can do things better." 

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Watch CBS News

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

By Caitlin O'Kane

December 21, 2022 / 10:00 AM EST / CBS News

Tom Cruise has performed another daring stunt for the "Mission: Impossible" film series. 

He called this one the most dangerous thing he's ever attempted. Shot in Norway, the stunt required Cruise to ride a motorcycle off a cliff and BASE jump — something he said he's wanted to do since he was a kid. 

Cruise, 60, is currently working on the two-part "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning" film. He's known for performing his own stunts, but this one took years to plan, he said in a video shared on Twitter. 

So excited to share what we’ve been working on. #MissionImpossible pic.twitter.com/rIyiLzQdMG — Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) December 19, 2022

In the video, writer and director Christopher McQuarrie said Cruise put together a "master plan" using experts to help execute the stunt.

He had a year of sky diving training, during which he was doing 30 jumps a day – more than 500 skydives, said Wade Eastwood, the film's stunt coordinator. He also had motocross training, doing over 13,000 motocross jumps. Once he got those skills down, the production team created 3D models to try and predict how Cruise would fly through the air during the stunt so they could film it.

Then, it came time for Cruise to execute the stunt — driving a motorcycle up a long ramp, which lead to a cliff, launching off of it and BASE jumping to the bottom. Cruise first jumped out of a helicopter over the cliff to practice, before attempting the full stunt for the cameras.

"The only things you have to avoid while doing a stunt like this are serious injury or death," BASE jumping coach Miles Daisher said. "You're riding a motorcycle, which is pretty dangerous, on top of a ramp that's elevated off the ground, so if you fall off the ramp, that's pretty bad. You're falling, so if you don't get a clean exit from the bike and you get tangled up with it, or if you don't open your parachute, you're not going to make it."

The behind-the-scenes video show Cruise not only execute the stunt once, but six times in one day. 

"Pretty much the biggest stunt in cinematic history," said BASE jumping coach John DeVore. Viewers can see the final product when part one of the film premieres July 2023. The "Mission: Impossible" series is from Paramount Pictures. (Paramount is also the parent company of CBS.)

Cruise has performed countless hair-raising stunts, including jumping off of scaffolding while filming "Mission: Impossible 6" in —  a stunt that left him injured and limping. 

Cruise has been in Europe filming the seventh and eight "Mission: Impossible" films for several years. The seventh movie was scheduled to premiere in November 2021, but the COVD-19 pandemic shut down production and was pushed to May 27, 2022,  according to Variety . The date was pushed several time after that, and the film will now premier next year. 

While shooting in the U.K. last year, Cruise, who was traveling by helicopter, needed a place to land,  BBC News reports.  He ended up landing in a family's backyard, and then let their kids go for a ride in the helicopter, making headlines.

Caitlin O'Kane is a New York City journalist who works on the CBS News social media team as a senior manager of content and production. She writes about a variety of topics and produces "The Uplift," CBS News' streaming show that focuses on good news.

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Tom Cruise Embarks on an Exciting Parisian Night Shoot for ‘Mission: Impossible’

T he streets of Paris were alive with action as Tom Cruise took to a motorcycle while filming a scene for the upcoming installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise.

On the evening of April 25, the 61-year-old Hollywood icon was seen on the Bir Hakeim Bridge in Paris, France, clad in a brown leather jacket and tan pants. His enthusiasm was evident as he prepared for the motorcycle sequence in the eagerly anticipated film.

Continue reading for more details…

In this latest outing, Cruise reprises his role as Ethan Hunt for the eighth time. The title of this movie, previously referred to as Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two , has undergone a change that was announced earlier this year alongside a change in the title of Part One.

Aside from his relentless pursuit of challenging action roles, earlier this year it was also announced that Tom Cruise had secured the lead in a new project with Warner Bros., marking the beginning of a new collaboration with the studio. Reports also hint at the kind of projects the accomplished actor is now seeking to add to his repertoire.

Browse the latest photos of Tom Cruise in action on the Paris set of the new Mission: Impossible film in the gallery…

What movie was Tom Cruise filming on a motorcycle in Paris?

Tom Cruise was filming a scene for the upcoming Mission: Impossible movie.

What will this Mission: Impossible movie be titled?

The title of the eighth Mission: Impossible movie was changed from its provisional title, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two , to a new title that was announced earlier this year.

How many Mission: Impossible movies has Tom Cruise been in?

This will be Tom Cruise’s eighth film in the Mission: Impossible series.

Is Tom Cruise collaborating with Warner Bros. on a new project?

Yes, earlier this year it was confirmed that Tom Cruise will star in a new movie which is the first involved in a deal with Warner Bros.

The anticipation for the eighth film in the Mission: Impossible series grows as fans witness Tom Cruise’s dedication to performing exhilarating stunts. His Parisian escapade on a motorcycle is just a glimpse into what is sure to be another thrilling adventure in his portrayal of Ethan Hunt. With a newly titled film and a fresh project with Warner Bros. on the horizon, Cruise’s career continues to ascend as he takes on roles that reaffirm his status as one of Hollywood’s most daring and captivating leading men.

'Mission: Impossible 8': Release Date, Cast, Filming, and Everything We Know So Far

Ethan Hunt's next mission is currently on hold.

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Does 'mission: impossible 8' have a release date, will 'mission: impossible 8' be in theaters, who is returning for 'mission: impossible 8', who are the new cast members in 'mission: impossible 8', what will 'mission: impossible 8' be about, who is making 'mission: impossible 8', when and where did 'mission: impossible 8' film.

Editor's Note: The following contains full spoilers for 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning' Fans of the Mission: Impossible franchise have been eagerly awaiting the next chapter in Ethan Hunt's story in Mission: Impossible 8 .

It's honestly amazing that the Mission: Impossible series has been able to up the ante with every installment since the original 1996 film. Each installment somehow ends up being more exciting than the last and adds its own flavor of action spectacle to keep the franchise fresh and exciting. With a solid foundation formed by Mission: Impossible 1996, we got high-speed motorcycle chases in Mission: Impossible II , a terrifying villain in Mission: Impossible III , a Burj Khalifa-scaling triumph in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol , a stealthy espionage treat in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation , and a gripping nuclear prevention tale in Mission: Impossible - Fallout .

Ethan Hunt's latest mission, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning , might be the best installment in the long-running series yet. In a surprisingly topical tale about the dangers of Artificial Intelligence, Ethan and his team are tasked with finding and destroying a rogue AI known only as The Entity. The resulting globe-trotting journey leads to some incredible action setpieces and more than a few shocking twists and turns.

While the second half of the epic search for The Entity undoubtedly makes Mission: Impossible 8 one of the most anticipated projects of 2025, although moviegoers will have to wait a bit longer than expected for Ethan Hunt's next mission. To learn more about the second part's cast, release date, production status, and more, here is everything we know so far about Mission: Impossible 8 (queue fuse-lighting sequence).

Editor's Note: This piece was updated on April 24, 2024.

Mission: Impossible 8

Mission: Impossible 8 is set to release on Friday, May 25, 2025 . The film has gone through numerous delays, having previously been scheduled for release on August 5, 2022, November 4, 2022, July 7, 2023, and June 28, 2024.

While the initial two delays were because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused both Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning to constantly be delayed as well, the latest setback was because filming had been halted by the SAG-AFTRA strike .

There's a reason why Tom Cruise's catchphrase of "See you at the movies" has become so prevalent. With Top Gun: Maverick and the Mission: Impossible franchise being such massive box office hits, you better believe that Mission: Impossible 8 will be premiering exclusively in a movie theater near you. After the previous movie lost its IMAX screens after one week due to Oppenheimer , Mission: Impossible 8 will be receiving a three-week IMAX exclusive releas e.

After the film's theatrical run concludes, Mission: Impossible 8 will more than likely be joining the rest of the franchise entries on Paramount+ for a streaming release.

If, by chance, you still haven't seen Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning , you can stream the movie on Paramount+.

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Unsurprisingly, global action superstar Tom Cruise will once again be reprising his role as IMF Agent Ethan Hunt. The actor's world-famous tenacity for doing his own stunts has made him one of modern cinema's most famous figures. Also set to return to assist Ethan in his quest for The Entity are Captain America: The First Avenger standout Hayley Atwell as Grace, Hot Fuzz star Simon Pegg as Benji, and Pulp Fiction icon Ving Rhames as Luther. Also on the cast list is Doctor Sleep star Rebecca Ferguson as the fan favorite Ilsa Faust, but given how her character's story goes in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning , that may not be the case (unless there is a flashback sequence or Ilsa's death was a fakeout).

Other characters expected to return are the antagonists of the film, such as Essai Morales ( La Bamba ) as Gabriel, Vanessa Kirby ( Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw ) as The White Queen, and Pom Klementieff ( Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ) as Paris , the latter of whom may return as a redeemed ally after barely surviving her wounds in Part 1 . Also likely returning are Part 1 's deuteragonists, including Shea Whigham 's ( Kong: Skull Island ) CIA agent Jasper Briggs, Greg Tarzan Davis ( Top Gun: Maverick ) as CIA agent Degas, Charles Parnell ( Top Gun: Maverick ) as NRO, and Henry Czerny ( Clear and Present Danger ), reprising the character of Kittridge, who debuted all the way back in the first Mission: Impossible . Kittridge isn't the only familiar face from a past film returning this time either, as Rolf Saxon ( Tomorrow Never Dies ) is reprising his role as William Donloe - another character who hasn't been seen since the first film. Also likely returning in flashbacks is Mariela Garriga ( NCIS ) as Marie - the mysterious woman from Ethan's past who Gabriel killed.

The returning cast is already massive, but even more new faces are joining the second chapter. This includes Emmy Award-Winner Nick Offerman ( The Last of Us ) as Sydney, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Holt McCallany (Mindhunter) as Bernstein, the Secretary of Defense. Also joining the cast in undisclosed roles are Emmy-Award Winner Hannah Waddingham ( Ted Lasso ), Academy Award nominee Janet McTeer ( The Menu ), Lucy Tulugarjuk , Katy O'Brian ( Love Lies Bleeding ), and Tramell Tillman ( Severance ).

While an official plot synopsis has not yet been released, Mission: Impossible 8 will almost certainly be continuing Ethan Hunt's search for The Entity, even though the world's governments and other third parties are trying to stop him. Ethan is also likely seeking retribution against Gabriel, who has now murdered two people very close to him. It's an epic conclusion that will likely see Ethan bring along old friends and potentially meet new enemies.

The film was initially set to be titled Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part Two , but this is now subject to change. Only time will tell if Paramount decides to remove the "Part One" from the seventh installment.

Much of the behind-the-camera crew from Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning will be returning for Mission: Impossible 8 . This includes writer/director Christopher McQuarrie , who has become a franchise veteran after directing Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and Mission: Impossible - Fallout prior to the Dead Reckoning films. McQuarrie also shares screenwriting credit with Band of Brothers scribe Erik Jendresen .

Also attached to return are composer Lorne Balfe ( Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves ), cinematographer Fraser Taggart ( Robot Overlords ), editor Eddie Hamilton ( Top Gun: Maverick ), and production designer Gary Freeman ( The Witches ).

In an interview with Collider, McQuarrie revealed that most of Part 2 has already been completed , but there are still some major set pieces that have not been filmed yet. However, production was not able to be completed before the initiation of the SAG-AFTRA strike. Filming has since picked back up, and photos from the set made their way online in late March 2024 .

Screen Rant

Tom cruise explains why he still does his own stunts.

Tom Cruise explains why he still does his own stunts in movies, comparing his stunt work to the dancing talent of iconic Hollywood actor Gene Kelly.

Tom Cruise explains why he continues to do his own stunts in movies, despite the danger involved. Movies like Risky Business , Top Gun , and Rain Man put Cruise on the map in the 1980s, but the actor has since become synonymous with big blockbuster action filmmaking and stunt work, largely thanks to the Mission: Impossible franchise . Starting from humble beginnings in 1996 with the original Mission: Impossible from director Brian De Palma, the franchise has since transformed into a vehicle for Cruise to carry out increasingly dangerous stunts, often under the direction of Christopher McQuarrie.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout , the most recent entry in the franchise, took Cruise's Ethan Hunt to new heights – literally – and saw Cruise carry out dozens of HALO (high altitude, low opening) jumps from a large transport plane for one of the film's signature set pieces. The sequel to Mission: Impossible – Fallout , now officially titled Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part I , has already been confirmed to feature still more death-defying stunts, including one particularly impressive sequence where Cruise drives a motorcycle off a cliff. For Top Gun: Maverick , the action-packed upcoming sequel to Cruise's 1986 hit, the actor and producer remains similarly committed to real-world stunts, with real fighter jets being used for many of the film's aerial sequences.

Related: Top Gun 2's Huge Early Praise Continues A Tom Cruise Franchise Trend

Ahead of the screening of Top Gun: Maverick at the Cannes Film Festival, Cruise sat down for what was described as a " MasterClass Conversation " and explains why he remains so committed to doing his own stunts. The actor's response, courtesy of THR , is short and sweet (and suitably confident), with Cruise essentially implying that doing his own stunts is simply a part of who he is. Check out Cruise's full comment below:

"No one asked Gene Kelly, 'Why do you dance? Why do you do your own dancing?'"

Kelly, an actor known for his performances in classic hits like Singin' in the Rain and An American in Paris , was renowned for his particularly energetic dancing style, something that Cruise clearly feels a kinship with. Cruise's comment suggests that, just like Kelly was good at dancing and showing off that talent in his movies, the  Mission: Impossible  actor is good at doing his own stunts and making them an integral part of his movies. Cruise, who is currently 59 years old, is in the midst of filming his eighth and perhaps final Mission: Impossible film and his comment at Cannes teases that his stunt work won't be slowing down anytime soon.

While Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part II is sure to feature a number of stunts that are bigger and bolder than anything audiences have seen from Cruise thus far, the actor's untitled SpaceX project, which will supposedly film in outer space, would suggest that he is committed to death-defying stunts even outside of the Mission: Impossible franchise . It remains to be seen what surprises Cruise has in store for fans over the next decade of his career, but his recent comments affirm that stunt work is very much a part of who he is and, instead of asking " Why? " audiences should just go along for the ride.

More: Tom Cruise & Mission: Impossible 8 Both Have The Same Tom Cruise Dilemma

Source: THR

Key Release Dates

Top gun: maverick, mission: impossible - dead reckoning part one, mission: impossible - dead reckoning - part two.

Severance Star Joins Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 8

The cast of Mission: Impossible 8 continues to grow.

Tramell Tillman , known for his breakout role in the popular Apple series Severance , has secured a role in the eighth installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise. The film was previously titled Dead Reckoning Part Two and is no longer using that title.

Per THR , Tillman received SAG and Spirit Award nominations for his performance in Severance , where he starred alongside Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette and John Turturro. Tillman is set to return for the second season of the series. His other screen credits include Dietland , Godfather of Harlem , and Hunters.

Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible 8 Faces a Disruptive On-Set Villain - Sheep

Tillman will be joining a cast of Mission: Impossible franchise newcomers including Katy O’Brian , Nick Offerman, and Hannah Waddingham, as well as returning Mission veterans Henry Czerny, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Pom Klementieff, and Vanessa Kirby. Plot details including Tillman’s character are being kept under wraps . Tom Cruise is producing the film for Paramount and Skydance, with Christopher McQuarrie directing. Executive producers include David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, and Chris Brock.

The Eighth Movie Is in the Works

In January 2019, Cruise announced that the seventh and eighth Mission: Impossible films would be shot back-to-back, with McQuarrie writing and directing both. Plans for the film later changed in February 2021. Filming began in March 2022 in the United Kingdom and included other locations such as Malta, South Africa, and Norway. The release date for the sequel was moved from June 28, 2024, to May 23, 2025. Production faced delays due to Cruise and his team promoting the release of Dead Reckoning Part One during the summer and the SAG-AFTRA strike that started in July 2023, resuming in March 2024.

Mission Impossible 8 Director Shares a Look at a Jaw-Dropping Stunt

The eighth installment of the franchise will have a three-week run in IMAX and will be filmed using IMAX digital cameras for the digital format. In contrast, Dead Reckoning Part One only had a one-week run in IMAX due to Oppenheimer opening the following week with a guaranteed three-week run in the format.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One concluded with a major cliffhanger, suggesting that Ethan Hunt and his team are embarking on one of their most dangerous missions yet in their pursuit to find and destroy The Entity. Behind-the-scenes shots from the set indicate that the upcoming installment will feature high-stakes action scenes, consistent with previous films in the franchise. Mission: Impossible 8 is unlikely to be the final film in the series, as McQuarrie has hinted at a ninth entry in the future.

The untitled eighth Mission: Impossible film is scheduled for release in the United States on May 23, 2025.

Source: THR

Mission: Impossible 8

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Mission Impossible: Why Tom Cruise loves Paris

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Reading time: 0 min Published on 15 March 2024, updated on 26 April 2024

We’ve just seen the latest instalment of the Mission Impossible film series, and as expected, it delivers! At the world premiere of the film, Tom Cruise was full of praise for Paris, chosen as the main location for his impressive stunts. Here are 6 good reasons to go see Tom Cruise in Paris on the big screen…

1. Helicopter flight over the Eiffel Tower

When you’re Tom Cruise and you have just 120 minutes to save the world (the plot is about a race against time to recover a stolen consignment of plutonium) the most practical solution is by helicopter. You’ll get a bird’s eye view of the Seine, the three floors of the iconic Eiffel Tower, and action along the quays of the Seine. Panoramic views are the upshot.

2. Parachute landing on the glass roof of the Grand Palais

Dropped (for real) by a plane over Paris, Tom Cruise and Henry Cavill land on the glass roof of the Grand Palais and pitch into the middle of a huge party. A little stunned by the fall (plunging 10,000m will do that), they cross the dance floor (what a fabulous place for a party) before completely destroying the men’s room during a violent punch-up. A memorable scene.

3. Betrayed at the Trocadero

For secret agents, treachery is as common as drinking a glass of water. But, if you’re going to even think about plotting against Tom Cruise, you’d better do it well - and big time. The action takes place far from indiscreet ears, on the esplanade of Trocadero, facing the Eiffel Tower. Classic.

@tomcruise just posted a new photo from Mission: Impossible- Fallout! #MissionImpossible Une publication partagée par Mission: Impossible (@missionimpossible) le 27 Janv. 2018 à 11 :56 PST

4. Rendezvous in the gardens of the Royal Palace

There’s nothing quite like a secret rendezvous with a former love interest to heat up the action. The perfect place for a meeting? The gardens of the Royal Palace, between the arrow straight paths and iconic columns created by artist Daniel Buren. Save the world, love art and each other, nothing else matters. Sizzling.

5. Wrong way round the Arc de Triomphe

As you can see from the picture, Tom Cruise/Ethan Hunt is about to take enter the vicinity of l'Etoile, a junction of twelve avenues. Going the wrong way around the Arc de Triomphe, the most rock'n'roll traffic intersection in France, our hero realizes the fantasy of every self-respecting Parisian motorist. Insane.

6. Speed boat chase through underground canals

Our very well-informed hero knows perfectly how to traverse the underground tunnels of the Canal Saint-Martin, which stretches between the Bastille and the basin of Villette. This is one of the trendiest districts of Paris, a place of tranquil daytime delights and lively evening outings. This time, the canal saves his life. Ah that Tom...

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What Would a Best Stunt Oscar Category Look Like?

Chris o'falt, vp, features strategy.

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“We’ve always been in the shadows, [but] that’s not the problem,” Leitch said when he was a guest on an upcoming episode of the Toolkit podcast to discuss “ The Fall Guy .” “That was maybe the misconception for the Academy, ‘Well, these guys want awards because they want recognition for these one-off stunts.’ That’s not it. The recognition that we want is [our] artistic contribution to the movie. So if you look at ‘Ben Hur,’ what is ‘Ben Hur’ without the chariot [races]? It’s not anything.”

Leitch, who started his career as a stunt performer, worked on all types of movies, and with a stunt award, both Leitch and McCormick believe this variety will be reflected in awards campaigns and nominations.

“Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin, cinema’s great first directors all were stunt performers and told stories through action,” said Leitch. “And that’s what the stunt department does on your Adam Sandler comedy, as well as your Paul Thomas Anderson [or] A24 [films]. We amplify drama, comedy, stakes, relationships, and in ‘The Fall Guy,’ we amplify a love story.”

To Leitch’s point, awards season helps frame the conversation about the contribution of different crafts to the artistic process of the best films of the year. His example of “Ben Hur,” which won 11 Oscars in 1960, along with other multi-award-winning dramas that had vital stunt contributions, like “Titanic” and “Saving Private Ryan,” is purposeful.

McCormick sees the Oscars expansion to 10 Best Picture nominations as having already opened the door to the Academy recognizing more genre films, but she also points to how other craft categories often feature match-ups between prestige dramas and genre films. For example, the Best Sound category last year matched “Zone of Interest,” “Oppenheimer,” and “Maestro” against “The Creator” and “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.” This is exactly why “The Fall Guy” producer is looking forward to the potential conversations that a Stunt Award and subsequent race will generate.

“I’m thinking about other departments and what ends up winning versus what doesn’t end up winning, and it’s always questionable, right? It’s always kind of like whatever connects with the voting population,” said McCormick. “I think it’ll be really interesting to watch. Would ‘Everything, Everywhere All at Once’ have won the Stunt Award last year? It won everything else, so probably, right? And was it the biggest action of the year? Not at all, ‘Maverick’ probably was, or even ‘Avatar.’”

“Fall Guy” stunt designer Chris O’Hara sees a potential Stunt Award shining a light on stunt performance, which is already its own specific Emmy category, separate from stunt coordination. This would include, but extend far beyond stars like Cruise, Keanu Reeves, Michelle Yeoh, and Charlize Theron, who put the hard prep work into incorporating stunts into their performances.

“It’s the action actors, like, ‘There’s bad guy number two,’ and you know from being in the stunt business, that’s a stunt guy,” said O’Hara. “It’s time we brought light to it so other people see the same thing we do.”

One potential fun complications for Oscar prognosticators and awards strategists will be how multifaceted the stunt department has become. It oversees fight choreography (with a variety of fight styles), wire work, vehicle and aerial stunts, and all the rigging and safety precautions involved with big falls, fire, jumps, and swings through the air.

“That’s the thing that we’re trying to figure out,” said O’Hara. “There are movies that are very vehicle-based, or there’s movies that are very fight-based, or there’s movies that are very rigging-based. And so all these different nuances to the stunt industry make that a very broad [category].”

“In production design there’s construction, painters, greenery, there’s any number of things,” said McCormick. “If we’re talking about the Academy, I go back to the [stunt] coordinator who’s decided which members of the team to bring together to achieve the things the director wants.”

That sense of a Head of Department, may it be the stunt coordinator, or if stunt designer is adopted as a more widely accepted credit, being the point person who would win the award, or be the name at the top of the list of nominees, will be key to the conversation of uniting the different stunt disciplines.

“It’s not about individual’s work,” said O’Hara. “It’s not the guy who designed that set, it’s about the whole big picture of what the production designer has created in the world of the movie. That’s the idea for the Stunt Design category in the Academy: ‘Did the action fit the story? What’s the whole package of the movie?'”

One of the things top stunt coordinators, like O’Hara, also do is serve as the second unit director. They not only design the action in front of the camera, but they also design how it is shot (working within the overall vision and visual grammar of the director). This is why the future of a potential Best Stunt Award very well might be interpreted through an even broader and all-encompassing lens of best action design.

It’s a term that was used a few different times in these interviews and speaks to the larger, multi-faceted, and more holistic contribution of the Stunt Department that “The Fall Guy” team sees is what will ultimately be what wins the prospective award.

Below are five films “The Fall Guy” team believes could and should have won a Best Stunt Design award. 

‘Titanic’ (1997)

Director: James Cameron Stunt Coordinator: Simon Crane

“Titanic” was nominated for 14 Oscars and won 11, including Best Picture.

Leitch: “‘Titanic’ could have won for best action design. There’s probably like 300 stunt performers credited on that movie. The amount of rigs they’re being thrown from, the water that they had to consume, to make those sequences as dynamic and dramatic as possible.”

‘Saving Private Ryan ‘ (1998)

“Saving Private Ryan” was nominated for 11 Oscars and won five, including Best Director.

Leitch: “The storming the beach in Normandy scene is one of the most dramatic moments in cinema history. It probably involves 200 stunt performers hitting air rams, dodging explosions, and getting hit by squibs and falling — it’s incredible choreography. It’s not one thing. Is it gratuitous action? No, we don’t want that. We like how it blends with the other department.”

O’Hara: “It’s a war movie, but they’re all stunt performers, and the action fits the story. That’s what we’re trying to do with this whole stunt design [award], is really show people as a stunt coordinator, he coordinates the stunts with the story.”

‘Mission Impossible’ Films

Director (last three films): Christopher McQuarrie Stunt Coordinator (last film films): Wade Eastwood

Tom Cruise has starred in and produced seven “Mission Impossible” films; only the most recent, “Dead Reckoning Part I,” has been nominated for an Oscar (Best Sound and Visual Effects).

‘The Matrix’ (1999)

Director: Lana & Lilly Wachowski Stunt Coordinator: Glenn Boswell

The first “Matrix” film was nominated for and won four Oscars: Best Editing, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, and Visual Effects.

O’Hara: “Those movies changed the film industry, especially the first one; I worked on ‘Matrix’ Two and Three. For filmmaking, everybody wanted ‘The Matrix’-type of action, the bullet cam, the visual effects became a really big part of that movie and it transitioned the film business and stunts into something new.”

Leitch [a martial arts stunt performer on the film]: “My generation came in, and ‘The Matrix’ was a big influential time in my career as a stunt performer. I learned and became heavily exposed to wire work, martial arts, and how that all works. And hopefully, we took that to the next level during our 20 years in the stunt world.”

The ‘Bourne’ Films

There have been five films starring Matt Damon at Jason Bourne. The franchise has won three Oscars: Best Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing.

Look out for IndieWire’s “Toolkit” episode with David Leitch on podcast platforms May 2. “The Fall Guy” opens in the theaters May 3.

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