Jumping out of airplanes, endless fights, and injuries: Tom Cruise has been doing his own stunts in the Mission: Impossible films for thirty years. The now 62-year-old actor is not thinking about stopping yet, but The Final Reckoning seems to be his last mission as Ethan Hunt.
“I hope I don’t fall,” Cruise jokes in 2011 before starting one of his most dangerous stunts ever. The American actor has to record a scene for the fourth Mission: Impossible while hanging on the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.
Cruise has played the role of secret agent Hunt in the franchise since 1996. The video below shows him jumping a ravine with a motorcycle from a ramp. For another scene, he has to hold his breath underwater for 6.5 minutes. The actor is currently promoting Mission: Impossible –The Final Reckoning, the eighth film in the series.
For Cruise, working with a stunt double feels unnatural because he practiced various stunts in his youth. “I think that as an actor you have to move into your character both emotionally and physically,” he says in The Graham Norton Show. “And I can do it. I have been training for thirty years to do these kinds of things.” In addition, the actor never feels fear. “I don’t suffer from those kinds of feelings,” he says during the premiere of The Final Reckoning in Cannes.
Yet even with Cruise, things sometimes go wrong. He breaks several body parts and bruises even more. During the filming of part six, he breaks his foot in a jump between two buildings. “I knew immediately that it was broken. I really didn’t want to do the scene again, so I got up and continued.” Later he is taken to the hospital, after which he has to rehabilitate for months. Filming for the film is therefore suspended for a long time.
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Cruise Jumps Off Cliff with Motorcycle for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning.
Paramount Appears to Be Cutting Mission: Impossible Franchise
Despite various injuries, Cruise continues to see his stunts as an essential part of his work. “No one asked Gene Kelly why he danced himself in his films?”, he jokes in 2022 at the Cannes Film Festival.
Cruise sees himself continuing to stick plasters and rehabilitate from fractures for a while. “Harrison Ford is a legend and I still have twenty years to catch up with him,” he tells The Sydney Morning Herald. Ford is now 82 and two years ago played the role of Indiana Jones in the film series of the same name.
Yet Paramount seems to have already made a decision about the future of the Mission: Impossible series. “Only a week until Ethan Hunt returns for one last explosive mission,” the film company writes on X.
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Cruise Hangs on Plane During Filming Mission: Impossible – The Reckoning
‘I hope this is a satisfying end’
Director, writer and producer Christopher McQuarrie said in 2023 that Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning does not necessarily mean the end of the series. But in a recent interview with Empire he sounds different. “I hope this is a satisfying conclusion to a storyline that has lasted thirty years,” he says. “I’m pretty sure people will find the title appropriate.”
Cruise himself does not want to give a clear answer to questions about the possible end of the franchise. “You have to see the movie for the answer,” he says. “It’s hard to talk about it now, because it’s really something you have to experience.” Rumors are circulating that the actor has been looking for a younger actor for several years who can take over the lead role from him for sequels or prequels of the series.
It is to be hoped that the 62-year-old actor will be allowed to show his stunt work once again in Mission: Impossible or another action film. From 2026 there will be a new Oscar category, especially for stunts. Cruise has previously been nominated for an Oscar three times, but he never won one.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning will be in cinemas from May 22.
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