Tom Cruise is the closest thing we have to a real-life superhuman. From climbing the Burj Khalifa to launching off a cliff on a motorcycle, no mountain is too high and no stunt too terrifying for him to take on. Whether its gravity, speed, or sheer danger, nothing seems to hold him back. Over the years Tom Cruise has carved out a reputation for being Hollywood’s one-man stunt team, pushing the boundaries of what’s humanly possible with each new film.
Cruise has been performing the majority of his own stunts since the early days of his career, but his reputation as a death-defying superhero truly skyrocketed with the Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning here, it seems only fitting to look back the wildest Tom Cruise stunts in movie history.
Tom Cruise Dangling Upside Down From A Plane
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025)
With every Mission: Impossible movie, Cruise raises the stakes with the risks he takes. So it’s no surprise that for the final film in the franchise, he’d go all out. From flying a plane in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Tom Cruise is no stranger to aerial stunts. In Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, Cruise climbs between the wings of a flying biplane, twisting and wing-walking his way across the aircraft to complete his stunt in the face of extreme weather, punishing wind, and the disorienting pull of zero gravity. The stunt took the Mission: Impossible team over a year and a half to prepare and serves as the culmination of the last 30 years of this franchise.
Tom Cruise Climbs The World’s Tallest Building
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
For a lot of people, the idea of looking down from the observation deck of the world’s tallest building is enough to send a chill down the spine, but the building still welcomes over 5,000 visitors daily at its observation decks. Tom Cruise, however, decided to avoid the rush and take a more unconventional route to the very top of the world’s tallest building, giving fans one of the most memorable moments in the franchise’s history. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol sees Ethan Hunt scale the tallest building in the world to break into a server room using a pair of self-adhesive gloves, one of which malfunctions mid-climb. At one point, you actually see him dangling thousands of feet above the ground with nothing but the Dubai skyline below him.
This scene is a masterclass in tension, and it’s shot using IMAX cameras to emphasise the fear of climbing at this altitude. Tom Cruise, of course, tackles this stunt all on his own, on the actual Burj Khalifa, with only a thin harness and a lot of bravery separating him from a fall. The stunt was so ambitious that his first safety advisor refused to approve it. Cruise had to bring in a second expert who was willing to figure out how to make it possible.
Tom Cruise Goes Rock Climbing
Mission: Impossible II (2000)
Mission: Impossible II features one of the greatest opening scenes in the history of action films. The movie opens with Ethan Hunt free climbing Dead Horse Point in Utah, hundreds of feet above the ground, without any ropes, safety gear, or margin for error. This isn’t even part of some mission, it’s just Ethan enjoying his downtime while on holiday, establishing his love for thrills early on in the franchise. Cruise did have the help of a harness and wire for the actual scene, but no safety net, so if he had fallen, he would have been left dangling and possibly crashing into the surrounding rocks, much to the anxiety of his entire stunt crew. The idea clearly worked, making it one of the most memorable openings in the series.
Tom Cruise Hangs Off The Side Of A Plane
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)
Some scenes look so wild, you’d assume they were CGI, but not with Tom Cruise. Trust him to hang off the side of an Airbus A400, with nothing but a harness, while enduring dust, debris, and 100mph winds blasting straight at him. And trust him to do it not once, but eight times, just to get that perfect shot. This was one of the most physically demanding scenes of his career, and Cruise pulled it off without a mask or eye gear, only a pair of specially designed lenses to shield his eyes from the flying debris. It served as the jaw-dropping opening sequence for Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation setting the tone for what’s to come.
Tom Cruise Jumped Off A Motorcycle Mid-Air
Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
Over 500 skydives and 13,000 motorcycle jumps, that’s what it took for Tom Cruise to prepare for one of the biggest stunts in cinematic history. Director Christopher McQuarrie made headlines when he revealed that the scariest shot of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One was filmed on the very first day of production. The scene in question involves Cruise riding a motorcycle off a ramp, launching off a cliff, and parachuting to safety. The life-threatening stunt is terrifying enough to attempt once, but Cruise pulled it off six times on Day One, proving once again that when it comes to stunts, there’s no such thing as impossible.
Tom Cruise Spent Over 6 Minutes Underwater
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)
The average person can hold their breath underwater for 30 to 90 seconds before needing to come up for air, but Tom Cruise isn’t your average person. In Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt is sent into a submerged data facility to retrieve a sensitive digital file. Because of the presence of metal detectors, he’s unable to use oxygen tanks, forcing him to hold his breath for over six minutes. If you enjoy underwater action sequences, you’ll be thrilled to know that Ethan Hunt takes up another perilous underwater mission in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.
Tom Cruise Completes A Real World HALO Jump
Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)
After completing five Mission: Impossible films, jumping out of a plane probably felt as normal to Tom Cruise as sitting inside one does to most people. So for the sixth film, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, he decided to take things a step further by becoming the first actor to complete a HALO jump. HALO stands for high-altitude, low-opening, meaning Cruise jumped from far higher than most skydivers and delayed deploying his parachute until he was much closer to the ground, dramatically increasing both freefall time and risk. He performed the jump over 100 times to ensure they captured the perfect shot.
Tom Cruise Went Speedflying
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
This stunt doesn’t look nearly as terrifying on screen as it is in real life. Speedflying is essentially a much faster, more dangerous version of parachuting, and in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Tom Cruise took on the challenge with the added pressure of having to carefully control his speed to avoid colliding with the cameras flying closely behind him, all while battling brutal weather conditions. A collision could have resulted in serious injury, but Cruise glided with the precision and grace of an eagle.
Tom Cruise Ran Away From An Exploding Aquarium
Mission: Impossible (1996)
The first Mission: Impossible cemented Tom Cruise’s future as Hollywood’s leading action star. Cruise has been performing most of his own stunts from the very beginning. When director Brian De Palma expressed that the aquarium explosion scene in Prague didn’t feel realistic enough with a stunt double, Cruise volunteered to do it himself. The explosion, however, was very real, with 16 tonnes of water and shattered glass crashing toward him as he narrowly escaped the scene in what would become his signature sprint.
Tom Cruise Races Through Morocco Bareheaded
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)
Riding a motorcycle might not seem as extreme as climbing the world’s tallest building or hanging off the side of a plane, but doing it without a helmet is so dangerous that it’s illegal in most countries, including India. Tom Cruise speeds past that rule in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, tearing through the winding, narrow streets of Morocco in a high-speed chase that’s as reckless as it is riveting.
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