Tom Cruise Forces Director Onto Plane Wing to Prove Stunt Feasibility

It's no secret that legendary actor Tom Cruise has continually redefined the meaning of "impossible" with the Mission: Impossible series, but he truly outdid himself with the eighth installment, Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning. Cruise recently shared that director Christopher McQuarrie pushed for some truly unfeasible stunts in the upcoming film. To demonstrate the challenges involved, Cruise decided to let McQuarrie experience the stunt firsthand.

"And then we talked about the story and [McQuarrie] was like, 'Okay, I want you to go from here to here in a couple of seconds,'" Cruise recounted during a press conference in Tokyo. "I was like, 'I can't do that.' He's like, 'Okay, well, I want you to do this and this.' I was like, 'I really can't do that.'"

"It was the simplest thing," McQuarrie added about the stunt that stumped Cruise. "Anything you'd describe, [he'd] say, 'No, you actually can't do that.' And I don't hear 'can't' from him."

For Cruise, who has executed numerous death-defying stunts throughout the M:I series, the challenge was clear. "I said, 'Just in terms of the speed, because the force of the air, for me to move quickly on the wing was… You just can't do it,'" he explained, detailing how a "20-minute tutorial" helped McQuarrie understand the situation. "You're limited by the physics of how fast the aircraft is traveling and the force of the wind, that was utterly brutal. So I just said, 'Listen, I think the best thing is if you just do it. Go out, sit in the airplane, go out on the wing, and feel it. Feel the pressure. So, here I am, training him."

McQuarrie embraced the experience. "It was great, actually," he said. "Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I would definitely do it again." Cruise also noted during the conference that his preparation for this particular stunt spanned years, emphasizing that selecting the right aircraft was crucial to pulling it off.

Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning is set to make its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, running from May 13 to May 24, 2025. Following its debut, the film will hit theaters worldwide on May 23, 2025, ready to thrill audiences with its action-packed sequences.