did tom cruise hang on to a plane

Simple Flying

How tom cruise held onto the side of a flying airbus a400m.

The actor is known for his love of high-octane stunts.

US actor Tom Cruise is known for starring in the action-packed Mission: Impossible film series. These movies often feature a range of daring stunts, with Cruise well known for performing these thrilling sequences himself rather than relying on the use of a body double. One of these saw him hang onto the side of an Airbus A400M in flight, but how was this done? Let's take a look and find out.

What is the Airbus A400M?

It is a scene in the fifth Mission: Impossible film, known as Rogue Nation , that involves an Airbus A400M 'Atlas.' This four-engine military transporter first flew in December 2009, before entering service with the French Armée de l'Air et de l'Espace (Air and Space Force) in 2013. According to its website, Airbus has produced 116 A400Ms from 178 orders (including prototypes).

The A400M is a versatile transport aircraft capable of landing on runways comprising all different kinds of surfaces, including gravel and sand. The German Luftwaffe is the largest operator of the A400M, which ranks between two of its fellow transporters, the Lockheed C-130 'Hercules' and the Boeing C-17 Globemaster in terms of size. For more on the aircraft, see our guide to the A400M .

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The Mission Impossible movie scene

In order to get an idea of the task at hand, let's start by taking a look at the finished version of the scene in question. The incredible sight of Cruise hanging off the aircraft surely had many viewers questioning just how such a shot could be filmed without a green screen.

Keeping Cruise safe

Film and aviation are two very similar industries when it comes to their focus on safety. As such, when the two worlds collided to film this scene, there were plenty of procedures in place to keep safety levels high. The film's Director of Photography, Robert Elswit, explained to The Hollywood Reporter that Cruise was securely fastened to the plane while filing the daring stunt. Specifically, he states:

" Tom was in a full-body harness, and he’s cabled and wired to the plane through [its] door. Inside the aircraft was an aluminum truss that was carefully bolted to the plane, which held the wires that went through the door, which held Tom ."

Get all the latest aviation news right here on Simple Flying!

You can also see at the end of the clip below that Cruise removes special contact lenses from his eyes after shooting the scene. Additionally, Elswit also noted that " if anything hit him at those speeds it could be really bad. They were very careful about cleaning the runway so there were no rocks ."

A limited window

What made the scene even more impressive was the limited amount of time that the team involved had in which to pull it off. Overall, there were just 48 hours at their disposal to perfect the shot using F-WWMZ, one of five A400M testbeds. According to ATDB.aero, it later bore registration EC-406. Today, ch-aviation.com shows that it remains in the hands of Airbus under the registration A4M006.

During this period, the aircraft took off with Cruise attached eight times before the team got the sequence that they wanted. The filming took place at RAF Wittering, where, at times, the plane was 5,000 feet above the ground. Elswit adds:

" They go up, get altitude, make a complete circuit, and land. I think it’s up in the air for about 6-8 minutes before it lands again. It had to be at least 1,000 ft. up ."

The final task was to digitally remove the harnesses from the shot. This gave the impression that Cruise was holding on to the plane with nothing more than his bare hands. Even with the harness, the daring stunt was one that no doubt even got experienced stuntman Cruise's blood pumping even more than those watching!

Carrying on with Top Gun

Of course, this was not Cruise's first or last move with aircraft feats and stunts. He is perhaps even better known for Top Gun in 1986. This went further with the sequel Top Gun: Maverick in 2022, which really demonstrates his love of aircraft. This sees Cruise fly in several different aircraft, including his own P-51 Mustang aircraft.

This saw Cruise, and other actors, flying in the F-18. For this, they undertook an intensive training program , with flying moving from Cessna 172 aircraft right up to fast jets. This was undoubtedly a success and makes the movie extremely realistic. Speaking to Simple Flying about the program, Kevin LaRosa Jr , he film’s aerial coordinator , explained:

“When I would watch the footage it would literally look like they were flying… In a way they were seasoned pilots from going through this training program. They knew where to look, how to talk. Without that training, I don’t think the footage in the movie would look like it looks today... I think that training was the right thing to do, and we all see it when we watch the movie.”

What do you make of Tom Cruise's A400M antics, or his flying in Top Gun? Do you know of any other similarly thrilling plane-related movie stunts? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Sources: Airbus , ATDB.aero , ch-aviation.com , The Hollywood Reporter

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Yes, That Really Was Tom Cruise Hanging From an Airplane

Paramount UK tweeted this is indeed one of the biggest movies stars in the world hanging off a plane

We weren’t positive yesterday, but Paramount UK has confirmed that the crazy guy hanging off an airplane was indeed Tom Cruise. Performing one of his signature stunts for the fifth Mission: Impossible film, Cruise was suspended 5,000 feet in the air from an Airbus A400M — while wearing a tailored suit and wingtips, naturally. Newly released photos from September show the actor hanging from a dual safety harness on the door of the military plane, which was flown over the British countryside with the movie star attached.

Cruise’s Ethan Hunt dangles from the tallest building in the world for Ghost Protocol

This was a risky stunt even for Cruise, who free-climbed the cliffs of Dead Horse Point, Utah for Mission: Impossible 2 and dangled from the world’s tallest building , the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, while shooting Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol. Basically, Cruise has used his role as super-spy Ethan Hunt as an excuse to indulge his inner daredevil. “I’m always thinking of different stunts,” Cruise said in 2010 . “I look at buildings and think, how could I climb it? How could I jump out?… When I was a little kid, I used to go up on a roof and jump off the roof into the snow and do flips and stuff, and now I get to do it in movies.” Jumping into the snow, hanging from an airborne plane — it’s all the same when you’re Tom Cruise. We’ll get to see his outdoor airplane ride next December when Mission: Impossible 5 hits theaters.

Photo credit: @FAMEFLYNET PICTURES, Paramount Pictures

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AIR & SPACE MAGAZINE

Tom cruise hangs on to a flying airbus (really) in the next mission impossible.

He wore a safety harness, but that’s really him on a real aircraft, 5,000 feet off the real ground.

This is not what we usually mean by “flying standby.”

The recently-unveiled trailer for the summertime action extravaganza Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation builds to a shot of what is presumably the movie’s blue-chip stunt: Star (and producer) Tom Cruise hot-foots his way across the wing of a taxiing Airbus A400M, then grabs hold of the military airlifter and holds on for dear life as it takes off and climbs, the ground beneath him falling away like taillights in a rearview mirror.

As with the prior instances of gravity-defiance in the five-film-deep, 19-year-old franchise—most notably, a stroll up the side of the world’s tallest building in 2011’s Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol —the aircraft-hang is no greenscreen-enabled illusion. It’s a genuine feat of (meticulously planned and rehearsed) derring-do by Cruise, now 52 years old but determined to maintain his much-publicized habit of keeping stunt doubles in the unemployment line. 

In an interview with Yahoo! Movies last week, Cruise and Rogue Nation director Christopher McQuarrie discussed the genesis and execution of the set piece, which was shot at RAF Wittering in Cambridgeshire, England, last November. Preparation involved the creation of a special frame to mount a camera under the wing of the airlifter and withstand wind resistance, as well as a pair of full-eyeball contact lenses for Cruise so that he could open his eyes while the aircraft was in flight. As the actor told Yahoo! Movies :

The things we were all very concerned about were particles on the runway and bird strikes. We spent days clearing out the nearby grass of any birds, and they brushed the runway as best they could. My stunt coordinator would poke me if he got reports of bird strikes. The pilot had to be on the lookout for anything in the air that could impact me in any way. I also was testing how to keep my eyes open so you have a shot—I can’t have my eyes closed the entire time. The thing that no one else was thinking about, but I was, was the fuel. You have jet fuel coming right out of the back at me because I’m on the wing above the engine. Even when we were taxiing, I was also inhaling the fumes and they were going in my eyes.

Because the script called for Cruise’s character to wear a tailored gray suit, there was no protection from the cold at 5,000 feet. He performed the stunt eight times before he and McQuarrie were satisfied they had enough footage to create a thrilling action sequence.

The movie’s first poster features an image of the airplane-hang in progress. When it was unveiled, I wondered why a military cargo airplane would have a suspiciously-handhold-sized lattice on its side. The piece of equipment Cruise is holding onto, prominently visible in this Daily Mail photo gallery , is a “deployable baffle,” intended to give paratroops an instant to get clear of the massive aircraft when jumping before they’re caught in the Jetstream.  Airbus’ website notes the A400M—a four-engine turboprop design that had its first flight in 2009—can be configured to carry up to 116 paratroops. Dispersing that many soldiers quickly would likely necessitate the use of the cargo ramp as well as the spoiler-protected paratroop doors on either side of the fuselage.

While the stunt represents Cruise’s first flight, or eight flights, on the outside of an aircraft, he’s held a pilot’s license since 1994, according to Forbes contributor Matthew Stibbe. The star’s personal fleet includes a World War II-era P-51 Mustang. No pilot license is required for PC users to download Airbus ’ A400M — The Game .  I’m using a Mac, so I can’t tell you whether or not the game includes a level where you must try to shake off an unusually determined secret agent who’s fixed himself to the side of your airplane.

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Screen Rant

Mission impossible: how tom cruise pulled off rogue nation's plane stunt.

Tom Cruise is as reckless as Ethan Hunt, but it takes more than a strong gut to dangle from a flying plane for Mission Impossible's craziest stunt.

Against all odds, Tom Cruise outdid himself with his dangerous airplane stunt in  Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation , but how did he achieve it? Tom Cruise has a long list of highly successful movies , yet his acting skills aren't his only tool to maintain his Hollywood superstar status. Throughout the years, he has performed plenty of crazy stunts that have repeatedly put his life at risk, but every time the actor seems to have reached his limit, he comes up with an even crazier display of courage and physical prowess. Tom Cruise has now become the face of elaborate action sequences, drawing massive crowds who are always eager to watch him hanging from a cliff or break his ankle while jumping between rooftops.

After climbing the Burj Khalifa in  Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol , both Tom Cruise and his iconic character Ethan Hunt decided they needed to raise the stakes. In typical  Mission Impossible   fashion,  Rogue Nation  opens with  Agent William Brandt (Jeremy Renner)  leading a mission to intercept a cargo plane in Minsk, Belarus. When computer specialist Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and intelligence operative Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) fail to hack into its system, Ethan Hunt comes to the rescue and jumps onto the plane, grasping one of its side doors as it takes off. As one would expect from him, it really was Tom Cruise hanging from the plane, with almost no aid from CGI and minimal safety measures. The stunt was so intense that it was heavily featured in all promotional content for the movie, including the main poster.

Related:  Every Mission: Impossible Movie In Chronological Order

Curiously, the whole sequence had to be incorporated into the script after director Christopher McQuarrie conjured up the mental image of Mission Impossible 's main star dangling from a cargo plane. Tom Cruise, being the athletic daredevil that he's always been, proposed to do the stunt without any green screens or stunt doubles. So, McQuarrie, Cruise, and stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood shot eight different takes, elevating the aircraft to an altitude of around 5,000 feet and slanting it at a more pronounced angle than what a regular cargo aircraft normally would when it takes off. Of course, nobody is strong enough to cling to a plane door at 260 mph. Despite being Tom Cruise's most extreme  Mission Impossible stunt , he was actually strapped to a full-body harness which in turn was wired and bolted to the interior of the aircraft.

Still, a stunt at such a high speed could have gone very wrong. It had to be rehearsed a few times beforehand without the star in order to find the right conditions to shoot. The crew made sure that the plane would take off with the ideal weather and with the clearest environment so that the actor could enjoy the smoothest possible flight. Additionally, he had to wear special contact lenses to protect his eyes from wind and debris. After Tom Cruise landed safe and sound for the eighth time, the only remaining thing director Christopher McQuarrie had to do was to edit out the wires and the additional cameras that were attached to the plane.

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation  kept the franchise's tradition of upping the ante from the get-go. However, few other franchises keep the audience on the edge of their seat with real-life hazards. All of it is thanks to Tom Cruise, who keeps cheating death onscreen and offscreen with a level of audacity that no other major actor has ever matched.

Next:  Top Gun 3 Would Be Better For Tom Cruise Than Mission: Impossible 9

Key Release Dates

Mission: impossible - dead reckoning part one, mission: impossible - dead reckoning - part two.

How Tom Cruise Did That Insane Plane Stunt For Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

The first full trailer for Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation ends with quite a bang, and a stunt that easily rivals the Burj Khalifa sequence in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol . The sight of Ethan Hunt hanging on to the side of taking-off airplane is an unbelievable one to behold - and it's only made more impressive when you remember that Tom Cruise actually performed the real stunt himself. But how did this stunt actually get done? The star and director Christopher McQuarrie have revealed all in a recent interview.

Timed with the release of the new trailer, Yahoo! UK has posted an extended interview they did with both Cruise and McQuarrie, in which the two men discuss the details behind what looks to be Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation 's biggest spectacle sequence. Apparently the idea of riding on the side of a plane is something that the actor has been thinking about doing for a while, and he describes it as "undoubtedly the most dangerous thing [he's] ever done." He and his Mission: Impossible 5 director knew that they needed to top what Ghost Protocol brought to the table, and it was McQuarrie who ultimately brought the idea to the table for the blockbuster. The filmmaker explained,

While searching for different locations, the production designer James Bissell bought me a model of this Airbus airplane and presented it as something we could use in the movie. I suggested to Tom, ‘What if you were on the outside of this thing when it took off?' I meant it as sort of a half joke, but he said back to me, ‘Yeah I could do that!’

From there it was all about figuring out a way to attach a camera to the side of the airplane that would A) get an appropriate angle on the shot, and B) not detach during take-off and smash into Tom Cruise. The actor met with not just a test pilot, but the guys who created the A400m Airbus, and made sure that everything was doable and safe.

You can watch the incredible stunt performed at the end of the trailer embedded below:

So what was the biggest fear in this situation? While many of you might guess that it would be Cruise losing his grip and falling, apparently that wasn't the case. Instead, the larger concern during shooting was bird strikes and random debris flying through the air. As Cruise told the site,

I remember one time we were going down the runway and there was just a little particle that just hit me, it was smaller than a finger nail. I was thankful it didn’t hit my hands or face, if it did I’d have a problem because those parts were exposed, but it still could have broken my ribs!

Perhaps the most impressive part of all this is that the airplane ride won't be Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation 's only breathtaking sequence. In the interview, Christopher McQuarrie teases that this death-defying stunt is actually one of two "incredibly physically punishing things" that he had Tom Cruise do for the movie, and that the other one is merely teased in the above trailer. I'm sure when we see the finished film it will stand out from the pack and we'll recognize exactly which stunt the director is being alluded to (I'm personally hoping it's the dive into the sand vortex).

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation will be in theaters on July 31st.

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How “crazy” was that tom cruise ‘mission: impossible’ plane stunt the movie’s cinematographer tells all.

"They can slow down pretty quickly, but it still does a complete circuit," says Robert Elswit.

By Carolyn Giardina

Carolyn Giardina

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In the run-up to  Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation , Paramount’s marketers and Tom Cruise himself have turned the movie’s opening sequence in one of the film’s main selling points.

The scene features Cruise’s Ethan Hunt hanging onto an Airbus 400 as it taxies down a runway and takes off. And the media has taken the bait, describing it under headlines that have called the stunt “dangerous,” “crazy,” “insane” and even “death-defying.”

In fact, the stunt, which was filmed at RAF  Wittering  air base in the U.K., did actually take place — the sequence wasn’t created digitally. Testifies  Robert Elswit , the film’s director of photography, “There’s no digital Tom, and there’s no fake plane. He’s really strapped to an Airbus.”

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'severance' actor tramell tillman joins next 'mission: impossible' (exclusive), dakota fanning says tom cruise has given her a birthday gift every year since 'war of the worlds'.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter , Elswit said, “It’s pretty damn crazy; it’s over a hundred knots when it takes off. They can slow down pretty quickly, but it still does on a complete circuit. They go up, get altitude, make a complete circuit and land. I think it’s up in the air for about 6-8 minutes before it lands again. It had to be at least 1,000 ft. up. And he’s attached to the thing the whole time. The visual effects that were involved were erasing the wires (which held Cruise to the plane).”

But, at the same time, there was plenty of planning and practice involved in order to minimize the risks.

“Tom was in a full body harness and he’s cabled and wired to the plane through [its] door. Inside the aircraft was an aluminum truss that was carefully bolted to the plane, which held the wires that went through the door, which held Tom,” the cinematographer said of safety measures. “He was also wearing special contact lenses to protect his eyes. If anything hit him at those speeds it could be really bad. They were very careful about cleaning the runway so there were no rocks. And we took off in certain weather conditions; there were no birds. And he’s sort of protected by the way the air moves over the wing.”

Elswit , an Oscar winner for There Will Be Blood, explained that to get the shot of Cruise, a truss device was built to attach to the plane an ARRI 35mm  film camera with a Panavision anamorphic zoom, housed in an aerodynamic  Nettmann System’s stabilized head.  Elswit  and members of the camera crew were inside the Airbus, watching the [Airbus-mounted] camera on a video tap. “I could remotely pan and tilt the camera, ” he added.

A helicopter flying alongside the plane, was also used. According to  Elswit , “There was a helicopter flying next to us. From the helicopter, we were shooting [the additional aerial perspective] of Tom attached to the door. In the VFX , they erased the [Airbus-mounted] camera that we were shooting with [as it was in the helicopter shot].”

The cinematographer added that the sequence came together with careful planning by the camera and effects teams, working with the Airbus Defense and Space flight test team (Airbus announced its involvement here ). “The first time they did a test with a dummy,” he said. “They then flew with the camera rig, and the day before we went up with a stunt double just to make sure everything was okay.

“When he wants to do something, he’ll figure out a way to do it,” Elswit said of working with Cruise. “He’s the most obsessive artist. … If it couldn’t actually be Tom on the plane, I think he wouldn’t want the sequence in the movie. That’s what happened on the Burj  [ Khalifa skyscrapter in Dubai, for an action sequence in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol] . I’m always stunned. What inside of him makes it possible for anybody to do that kind of shit — and not be scared shitless ? He loves it.”

Rogue Nation hits theaters on Friday. 

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Here's how Tom Cruise filmed the crazy plane-hanging stunt in the new 'Mission: Impossible'

Tom Cruise has always boasted that he does his own stunts.

Whether it's driving a race car in " Days of Thunder ," battling enemies with a samurai sword in "The Last Samurai"...

"The Last Samurai"

YouTube/Paramount Pictures

In the much-hyped trailer, Cruise, reprising his role as IMF agent Ethan Hunt, ends up on a giant Airbus A400M plane and is hanging from the door as it takes off.

Paramount Pictures

But that's not Tom Cruise's style.

"I knew I wanted to have an airplane sequence. I've been thinking about it for a long time," Cruise told Yahoo Movies UK during an interview with director Christopher McQuarrie. "As a kid I remember flying on an airplane and thinking: 'what would it be like out on the wing or on the side of the airplane?!'"

So after eight takes on a runway in England, Cruise's childhood dream finally came true.

When the production designer brought McQuarrie a model of an Airbus plane, the director joked to Cruise, "What if you were on the outside of this thing when it took off?' Cruise replied, "Yeah, I could do that."

"You have jet fuel coming right out of the back at me because I'm on the wing of the engine," he said. "Even when we were taxying I was also inhaling the fumes and [it] was going in my eyes."

"I remember one time we were going down the runway and there was just a little particle that just hit me, it was smaller than a finger nail," Cruise recalls. "I was thankful it didn't hit my hands or face, if it did I'd have a problem because those parts were exposed, but it still could have broken my ribs!"

Cruise notes that he was strapped to the side of the plane from the moment the engine started to the moment it landed and the engine shut down - " The climb, the taxi, down the runway, getting the shot, leveling off, turning around and landing. And I did it EIGHT TIMES to get the shot."

YouTube screencap

"Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol."

NOW WATCH: Watch 52-year-old Tom Cruise beat up bad guys in the new 'Mission: Impossible' trailer

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Of course this is Tom Cruise, aged 60, hanging off a plane to film Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning

By Olivia Ovenden

One of the very first things that people will tell you when Tom Cruise comes up in conversation is that he does his own stunts. The cargo plane crash in The Mummy ? Cruise. The 360-degree corkscrew helicopter dive in Mission: Impossible – Fallout? Tom Cruise! The G-force battling dives in a twin-engine jet in Top Gun: Maverick ? Tom. Cruise. People love to tell you this about Tom Cruise, even though it's something that the man has made such a calling card of his career that he went so far as to fire the company insuring Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol when he was told he couldn't perform a stunt in which he jumped from the side of the tallest building on earth.

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In fact so known is the actor for his daredevil streak and death drive, that the image of a man dangling precariously from a red plane many thousands of feet above the ground could only be Tom Cruise. The *squints* “Yeah, that's Tom Cruise” image was shared by the director the seventh Mission: Impossible movie, Dead Reckoning Part One, which is set to be released next year and will be the penultimate in the franchise. Christopher McQuarrie wished Cruise a happy 60th birthday, a caption that can only be read as a reminder to all of us that you're truly only as old as you feel, especially if you reach 60 years old and still feel this chill about hanging out of a plane. 

Tom Cruise shows no sign of slowing despite entering his sixth decade on the planet. If anything he's speeding into his best era yet given the lap of honour he's been on following his box office destroying turn in Top Gun: Maverick. The double bill finale of Dead Reckoning means that Cruise's swan song as Ethan Hunt will dive into cinemas in the summer of 2024, when the actor himself is just shy of 62. For some of us, gravity is theoretical and age is just a number.

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It took Tom Cruise 8 takes to pull off this insane 'Mission Impossible' airplane stunt

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Ever since the first trailer for "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" premiered, the one thing people can't stop talking about is that insane airplane stunt that Tom Cruise pulls off . 

That stunt was not aided with CGI; Cruise was really hanging off the side of a plane. 

A new behind-the-scenes video gives a closer look at how exactly they pulled this wild stunt off. He even had to pull the stunt off eight times in order to get it just right.

It took a lot of preparation, including putting something in Cruise's eyes. A Paramount spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider Cruise had to wear special contact lenses so he could keep his eyes open despite the wind pressure.

Here's Cruise getting strapped in and closed off:

Cruise said he "couldn't sleep the night before," but he doesn't look too scared.

The only thing keeping him attached to the plane was a rope and harness.

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The stakes were high.

"If something went wrong, I can't get into the airplane until we land." Cruise said.

Here he is just as the plane is about to take off:

And here he is, dangling in the air with very little support:

"I'm feeling the force of the wind hit me and I'm actually scared s***less." Cruise said.

"Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" opens in theaters on July 31.

You can watch the full behind-the-scenes video below:

Watch: Watch 52-year-old Tom Cruise beat up bad guys in the new 'Mission: Impossible' trailer

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Tom Cruise says he was terrified hanging off a plane for new 'Mission Impossible'

February 8, 2015. Tom Cruise poses at the British Academy of Film and Arts (BAFTA) awards ceremony at the Royal Opera House in London. (Reuters)

Tom Cruise really did hang off a plane for a scene in the upcoming “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” movie, and he admits to being “scared sh--less” by the stunt. The 52-year-old actor had to hang off the plane eight times, he revealed at CinemaCon on Tuesday. Two clips of the action movie were shown at CinemaCon, and Cruise delighted the crowd with a surprise visit, reports E! News . At the appearance, Cruise shared behind-the-scenes details about how the plane stunt was pulled off. “I was in a harness, on my side, that was kind of loose so you can see the vibration of my body against the plane,” he explained. The “Top Gun” actor also revealed that he did get hit by a small piece of debris despite efforts to clear the runway. "I got hit by just a little particle," he said. "I literally thought it broke my ribs."

Also joining Cruise on stage were costars Rebecca Ferguson and Simon Pegg. Pegg told the crowd that he “didn’t have to act” to look scared during an action sequence when he and Cruise are driving dangerously through Morocco.

In “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” Cruise reprises his role as super spy Ethan Hunt. The film also features Jeremy Renner and Alec Baldwin. It's set to hit theaters in July.

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Yes, Tom Cruise Really Dangled From That Plane—and He Did It Eight Times

When the trailer for Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation debuted in March, the standout scene was undoubtedly the one in which Tom Cruise, reprising his role as IMF agent Ethan Hunt for the fifth time, clings to the outside of a plane as it takes off. In a new behind-the-scenes video, stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood reveals the secret behind achieving the shot: They strapped Tom Cruise to the side of a plane. Eight times.

Cruise is no stranger to doing his own stunts —he famously scaled the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, for the last Mission: Impossible —but the breathtaking wind speeds and dizzying heights involved in this one are extreme, even for him. The result, however, is impressive, even before the harness keeping him from flying away has been digitally removed in post-production.

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Tom Cruise practices insane stunt on the wing of an airplane

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It’s risky business being one of Hollywood’s biggest action stars.

Just ask Tom Cruise, who was spotted climbing onto the wing of a tiny airplane on Saturday while practicing a stunt for a film in these photos obtained by Page Six.

In the pics you can see Cruise, 59, hanging upside down as the plane itself flips over to perform a “loop-the-loop” mid-air so that it appears the actor is actually sitting upright. It’s easy to spot Cruise in the pics due to the plane being yellow and his protective bodysuit and headgear being brown.

A safety harness was worn by the the Scientologist to keep him from falling off of the plane as it whirled around the open skies with him moving along the wing.

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The plane being used for the stunt is a 1941 Boeing B75N1 Stearman biplane in which the pilot sits in the back. It took off from Duxford airfield to practice the wild stunt at 2,000 feet over the Cambridgeshire countryside.

The stunt is likely for the eighth installment of Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible” franchise, which has reportedly been filming throughout the United Kingdom for several months, according to the BBC .

Photos show that Cruise was sitting in the plane’s front seats before it took off. Once the plane was in the sky he appeared to crawl out of his seat and onto the wing to practice the terrifying stunt.

A second small plane can be seen following close behind Cruise’s stunt plane, likely to practice filming the stunt itself for the film.

Death defying stunts are nothing new for the actor who was also spotted filming another on a train earlier this year, as Page Six exclusively reported, for another “Mission: Impossible” film.

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Watch Tom Cruise Hang Off Side of a Plane for 'Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation'

"Why do the stunts look real? Because they are real," Cruise said.

— -- So, Tom Cruise did something kind of crazy for "Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation."

The film, due out at the end of the month, released a 1-minute video showing Cruise hanging off the side of a plane as it takes off.

Read: Tom Cruise Films Death-Defying Stunt for 'Mission: Impossible 5'

"I couldn't sleep the night before, then came the day. I thought, 'Oh, this is really going to happen?'" he says in the clip.

Furthermore, Cruise, 53, did the take eight times.

Watch it and try not to feel queasy.

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Watch Tom Cruise Hang From a Plane in ‘Mission: Impossible 5’ Trailer

• By Daniel Kreps

Daniel Kreps

UPDATE: Paramount has now released the full trailer for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation as well. Check it out

For the fifth time in almost 20 years, Tom Cruise will slip into the role of secret agent Ethan Hunt for the latest installment of the Mission: Impossible film franchise, and on Cruise’s Twitter  Sunday, the actor shared the first teaser-trailer for the July 31st blockbuster. Dubbed Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation , the new chapter finds Hunt and his team facing off against a sinister spy collective called the Syndicate bent on eliminating the M:I crew. 

Related: Risky Business: Every Tom Cruise Film, Ranked

While the teaser is loaded with impressive martial arts sequences and explosions, the highlight comes in the final moments when Cruise’s character is seen hanging from a plane that’s mid-takeoff. If the scene looks convincingly real, it’s because Cruise – who has a habit of doing his own stunts instead of just relying on CGI and stuntmen – actually clung to the door of an Airbus A400  to get the shot.

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Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation will see the return of Ghost Protocol  sidekicks Simon Pegg and Jeremy Renner as well as a reunion with Ving Rhames’ Luther Stickell, who played a large part in the first three M:I films but only stopped by for an uncredited cameo in the fourth installment. Joining the cast this time around is Alec Baldwin, who portrays the head of the CIA, as well as Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson and Prometheus actor Sean Harris.

The Usual Suspects screenwriter and Jack Reacher director Christopher McQuarrie helmed the blockbuster, which moved up from its original Christmastime release date  to a summer slot to avoid a box office showdown with another J.J. Abrams production, Star Wars: The Force Awakens .

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Watch Tom Cruise Hang Outside a Plane in Insane MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 5 Video

Raw video proves that this is one of Cruise's craziest stunts ever.

By now we’re all familiar with the fact that, whenever possible, Tom Cruise does his own stunts. Your script calls for the character to run around outside the tallest building in the world? Tom Cruise will do it (though that one  almost didn’t happen ). For Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation , Cruise takes on one of his biggest stunt challenges yet: standing out on the outside of a plane while it takes off. The plane doesn’t just go fast down the runway and then stop—it literally takes off into the air, with Tom Cruise, Hollywood actor Tom Cruise , hanging outside on the wing.

We’ve been inundated with so many CG-enhanced stunt and set pieces recently that it’s become hard to be really “wowed” by something, but with Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation , Paramount Pictures wants everyone to know that this is the real deal. As such, they’ve released a brief featurette that includes raw video of Cruise performing the stunt, and it’s insane. When someone like Tom Cruise admits that this stunt had him “scared shitless,” you know it’s a little intense.

And this is only one piece of the film! For another stunt, Cruise learned how to hold his breath for six minutes so director Christopher McQuarrie could shoot an underwater sequence in one take. I can’t wait to see this movie.

Watch the stunt video below. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation opens in theaters on July 31st and also stars Rebecca Ferguson , Simon Pegg , Ving Rhames , Jeremy Renner , Alec Baldwin , and Sean Harris .

Tom Cruise Casually Stands On A Flying Plane In Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Stunt Sneak Peek

It is no secret that Tom Cruise is more than just a movie star who regularly delivers very entertaining action movies. The man likes to get his hands dirty and straight-up risk his life for the sake of cinema. The "Mission: Impossible" movies have been the greatest showcase of his talents in this department over the years and the upcoming seventh installment, "Dead Reckoning Part One," is going to be no exception to the rule. To that end, Paramount Pictures has released footage of Cruise casually delivering a speech whilst riding on a plane thousands of feet in the air.

This footage was originally filmed for Cinemacon earlier this year and was presented to those in attendance. It preceded the trailer reveal for the film , which is directed by Christopher McQuarrie. But now, we all get to see it for ourselves, and man, it is something. Let's see what craziness Cruise is getting up to in order to help sell some popcorn, shall we?

Tom Cruise on a plane, ladies and gentlemen

So yeah, a lot to process there. It goes without saying that the stunt in question is absolutely insane. No person in their right mind would do such a thing, but this may not even be the craziest thing that Cruise has ever done for the sake of entertainment. Heck, it's not even the first time that the actor has hung onto a plane (see the opening of "Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation"). But what really stands out here is the casual nature with which Cruise delivers his speech atop that plane, as if this is just a regular day in his life. Remarkable on several levels.

What this assures us is that "MI7" will be just as action-packed as we've come to expect. Now, is that going to be enough to justify the reported $300 million budget ? That's tough to say but these are the types of stunts that put meat in seats and have helped to keep this franchise going for nearly three decades. The knowledge that the crazy stuff in an over-the-top action movie is razor close to being real adds something to the equation — no doubt about it.

Joining Cruise this time around will be familiar faces in the form of Simon Pegg (Benji), Rebecca Ferguson (Ilsa), Ving Rhames (Luther), Vanessa Kirby, and Henry Czerny (Kitridge). Newcomers for this installment include Hayley Atwell ("Captain America: The First Avenger"), Pom Klementieff ("Avengers: Infinity War"), Cary Elwes ("Saw"), Indira Varma ("Obi-Wan Kenobi"), Shea Whigham ("Boardwalk Empire"), Esai Morales ("Arrow"), and Rob Delaney ("Deadpool 2").

"Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One" is set to hit theaters on July 14, 2023.

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Tom Cruise Creates His Own ‘Trafalgar Square’ Tube Station Filming Mission: Impossible in London

The actor was pictured filming scenes for the eighth 'Mission: Impossible' movie in the British capital on April 28

Raw Image / Goff / Splash / SplashNews

Tom Cruise has taken over the streets of London!

On Sunday, April 28, the actor, 61, was photographed filming scenes for the next Mission: Impossible movie in the British capital outside an invented Tube station called 'Trafalgar Square.'

Cruise shut down the real Trafalgar Square for the shoot as he was seen coming in and out of the London Underground station while surrounded by crowds of extras.

Off camera, the action star appeared in happier spirits as he chatted to members of the crew in between takes. 

The eighth installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise is set for a May 23, 2025 release. According to Deadline , the release was delayed by a year due to the SAG-AFTRA strike , which ended in November 2023.

Cruise returns to the franchise as protagonist Ethan Hunt, along with director and longtime collaborative partner Christopher McQuarrie. 

The actor was spotted filming more adrenaline-fueled scenes for the action movie in London last month. 

On March 24, the American Made star was photographed sprinting down a street in the capital wearing a black suit with an unbuttoned white shirt covered in fake blood.

Last summer, Cruise returned to the big screen in the seventh film in the franchise, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning .

The film made $172 million at the domestic box office and earned the franchise its first Oscars nominations for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound at the 96th Academy Awards earlier this year.

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Meanwhile, Cruise is reportedly set to appear in another sequel of his movies for the third Top Gun film , following the huge success of the second installment, Top Gun: Maverick , released in 2022. 

In January, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Paramount is developing the sequel with co-writer Ehren Kruger, with Joe Kosinski set to direct. According to the outlet, the film will see Cruise return in his role as Pete Mitchell, alongside his Maverick costars Glen Powell and Miles Teller .

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