Does Tom Cruise make his Mission: Impossible crew overwork? (Photo Credit – Facebook)
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Case in point? The HALO jump in Mission: Impossible – Fallout. Most actors would call it a day after one successful freefall from 25,000 feet. Cruise? He demanded 100 takes to get it just right.
The man is allergic to green screens. He won’t fake it when he can throw himself into thin air instead. This time, it was a high-altitude, low-opening jump that required months of prep. Custom helmets. Specialized lighting. A crew that probably wondered if they should’ve taken a Fast & Furious gig instead. Even Henry Cavill—Superman himself—was not allowed to try it. That’s how risky it was.
Director Christopher McQuarrie summed it up best: “This is, far and away, the most dangerous thing we’ve ever attempted.” And still, Tom Cruise kept jumping. If the wind was off? Jump again. Helmet light flickered? Jump again. Didn’t like the way the clouds looked? You get the idea.
And this was just one of Fallout’s stunt-heavy sequences. Cruise also went full-speed on a motorcycle against traffic in Paris, piloted his own helicopter through a chase scene, and sprinted across London rooftops—breaking his ankle mid-jump. Production shut down for weeks, but the footage made it into the movie. Because, of course, it did.
Then came Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning and the motorcycle cliff jump. Cruise spent years preparing for it, clocking 500 skydives and 13,000 motocross jumps before filming even started. The result? A gravity-defying, did-he-just-do-that?! moment that made every past stunt look tame.
McQuarrie teased, “The only thing that scares me more is what we have planned for Mission 8.” Which means one thing: somewhere, right now, Tom Cruise is probably jumping off something very, very high.
