tom cruise big stunts

All of Tom Cruise's big 'Mission: Impossible' stunts ranked from worst to best

• The "Mission: Impossible" franchise is best known for Tom Cruise's exhilarating stunts.
• Cruise has boasted that he's done most of the practical stunt work himself. 
• The star even B.A.S.E. jumped off a mountain for 2023's "Dead Reckoning Part One."

17. Vatican wall-climb and abseil — "Mission: Impossible 3" (2005)

Like the fact that there are no bad "Mission: Impossible" movies , there are no bad "Mission: Impossible" stunts, but something has to go at the bottom – and it's the Vatican wall stunt .

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has to infiltrate Vatican City to attend the same party as arms dealer Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman). So what does he do? He scales the side of the wall, before abseiling down the other side and quickly donning a disguise as a priest.

It's a fun, quick stunt that leans into the silliness of the franchise, while still looking cool. But it's far from the biggest sequence of the franchise.

16. Eye spy — "Mission: Impossible 2" (2000)

"Mission: Impossible 2" sees Hunt try and stop former IMF agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) from releasing a terrifying virus that would decimate the world's population, all so that he could make billions from also manufacturing the cure. 

But when Hunt thwarts his plans, they wind up in a hand-to-hand brawl on a beach, with Ambrose nearly stabbing the hero through the eye with a knife . According to IMDb , Cruise requested that the knife, which was attached to a cable, come down to "one-quarter inch" away from his eyeball. 

It's not worth thinking about what would've happened if the stunt went wrong. But that's child's play compared to all the other stunts Cruise has done over the years .

15. Infiltrating the CIA — "Mission: Impossible" (1996)

1996's "Mission: Impossible" introduced Cruise's hero to the world for the first time, and he definitely made an impression. The film's defining image comes from the scene where Hunt descends into a secure CIA vault to hack a secure computer.

The slightest noise or impact on the floor would trigger an alarm, with Hunt presumably being locked away for life. 

So with help from Franz Krieger (Jean Reno), he gets lowered into the vault and hacks the computer. Although it nearly goes wrong when a rat in the air vent scares Krieger, who drops the cable that's holding Hunt in the air, and the spy has to steady himself an inch or two above the floor.

When looking back on the scene for the film's 25th anniversary, Cruise recalled that they only got the shot done on the last take because he kept hitting his face on the floor.

14. Shanghai leap of faith — "Mission: Impossible 3" (2006)

"Mission: Impossible 3" takes Ethan and the gang to Shanghai as they chase Owen Davian, the arms dealer in the possession of a dangerous object called the "Rabbit's Foot." 

As part of the mission, Ethan has to steal the mysterious object out of a skyscraper — and he gets inside the building by swinging from one building and free-falling onto another . If Spider-Man was a spy for the IMF, this would be the outcome. 

Although the scene is impressive, the frenetic editing style means the weight of what Cruise is putting himself through is lost. It doesn't match up to some of the star's other jumps later on in the series, which proves that Cruise wasn't lying to Insider when he said that he's always "pushing" to do better with each movie .

13. Free climb leap —"Mission Impossible 2" (2000)

"Mission: Impossible 2" gets a lot of criticism for its over-the-top action, cheesy script, and a peak-nineties soundtrack. But the way it reintroduces audiences to Ethan as he's free-climbing Dead Horse Point in Utah is nothing short of awesome.

While the film definitely overuses slow-motion, it works brilliantly when Hunt jumps from one ledge to another , scored to Zap Mama's song "Iko-Iko."

Surprisingly, the actor actually tore his shoulder muscle doing the jump. It wouldn't be the only time he'd get injured on a "Mission: Impossible" movie.

12. London rooftop chase — "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" (2018)

Hunt chasing August Walker (Henry Cavill) across London rooftops in "Fallout" feels too generic to get any higher up the list, since it's the type of thing audiences have seen in other spy thrillers like the James Bond franchise or Matt Damon's "Bourne" movies .

But Cruise deserves a lot of credit for actually breaking his ankle during a moment where he leaps from one building to another.

Cruise admitted during an appearance on "The Graham Norton Show," that the take in which he broke his ankle was the one that actually made it into the final film .

11. Ethan's motorbike escape through Paris — "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" (2018)

While "Fallout" contains some of the wildest moments in the franchise, the Paris motorbike chase feels a little bit average compared to the rest of the film.

It's still an entertaining sequence, as Hunt flees from both the authorities and the Mitsopolis goons, but it doesn't exactly reinvent the (motorbike) wheel. 

The high point is definitely the moment Cruise hurtles his way through oncoming traffic at the Arc de Triomphe. Talk about road rage.

10. Train-top brawl — "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One" (2023)

The "Dead Reckoning Part One" finale is basically an endurance test for Cruise and the cast, as the star gets into a hand-to-hand brawl with villain Gabriel (Esai Morales) on top of the Orient Express as it chugs through an Austrian valley.

Yes, the crew really did shoot this choreographed fight on top of a moving train , and it paid off. The fight looks excellent, especially when Gabriel tries to repeatedly stab Hunt as they go through a tunnel. 

But while the scene is made better because audiences can tell they were actually on top of the train, the actors were obviously restrained by what they could actually do in the fight.

This means it doesn't pack the same punch as other action franchises ( we're looking at you, "John Wick") but it's still a feat of filmmaking nonetheless.

9. Train obstacle course — "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One" (2023)

While Christopher McQuarrie and Cruise shocked everyone with the mountain jump in "Dead Reckoning Part One," there's another surprising stunt in the climax that is equally commendable.

When the train that Hunt and Grace are on is about to plummet from a ruined bridge, they have to climb through each carriage as it dangles above a rocky ravine below, dodging a variety of objects as they go.

There's a "Looney Tunes"-level of ridiculousness that just keeps getting more extreme with each passing carriage. Whether it's falling furniture, a grand piano teetering on the edge, or a boiling hot vat of oil from the kitchen car.

McQuarrie just piles on the stress for the characters (and the audience) in the best way possible.

8. The Casablanca car chase — "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" (2015)

"Rogue Nation" doesn't exactly give Ethan an easy ride. While it introduces audiences to the incomparable Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) for the first time, she betrays the IMF and steals a digital ledger for herself.

This leads to a huge chase through the streets of Casablanca and onto a nearby highway. There's so much carnage on the road, it may as well be a "Mad Max" outtake.

Christopher McQuarrie keeps things fun though, especially when Cruise and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) bounce their way down a set of stairs in a BMW. It's an electrifying sequence, as cinematographer Robert Elswit puts the audience right in the action, making it one of the most visceral car chases in the series.

Cruise oozes movie-star cool at one point in particular when he trades the BMW for a motorbike , and swoops across the road to avoid villains and civilians alike. 

No wonder Paramount got McQuarrie back to direct "Fallout" and "Dead Reckoning" after seeing this.

7. The Fiat 500 Rome pursuit — "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One" (2023)

"Dead Reckoning Part One" aims to shock fans, creating high octane stunts that are as real as possible — including a thrilling pursuit through Rome.

Ethan and Grace (Hayley Atwell) flee from the police, bounty hunters, and a ferocious assassin named Paris (Pom Klementieff) in a BMW which gets absolutely wrecked in hectic traffic. The hair-raising sequence cranks up the tension, with Ethan and Grace crashing off course, and Paris hot on their heels in a hulking S.W.A.T. truck, the feisty killer reveling in the chaos.

McQuarrie adds a dash of comedy to the carnage when Hunt finds an IMF car to escape in, and it's a tiny, bright yellow Fiat 500. Yes, Cruise and Atwell are both crammed into the tiny car as they're flung all over the streets of Rome, and they even go hurtling down the Spanish Steps. 

While most of the scene was shot on location, it seems highly likely that they replicated the Spanish Steps elsewhere for the scene, since Paris' truck destroys the tourist spot. Regardless, the riotous sequence is guaranteed to thrill audiences.

6. Flooded computer dive — "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" (2015)

It says a lot about the franchise that Cruise's record-breaking dive isn't at the top of the list. In "Rogue Nation," Hunt has to dive into a flooded computer to add a login profile so Benji can walk into a facility undetected.

For the stunt, Cruise dived from a 120-foot high ledge, before holding his breath for six minutes while acting underwater. Stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood previously told Insider that Cruise actually blacked out several times while training for the dive, which helped him learn his limits. 

While Hunt manages to get the profile into the computer, Ilsa Faust has to save him when he starts to black out. There's no wonder he has so much chemistry with the ferocious MI6 agent.

5. The take-off — "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" (2015)

When Christopher McQuarrie took over the reins as director for the franchise for 2015's "Rogue Nation," he made his debut with style. The film kicks off with Ethan and Benji in the middle of a mission in Belarus, as a huge crate of nerve gas is being flown away by the Syndicate — a rogue group of former-intelligence agents.

In order to stop the Syndicate's plan, Hunt clings onto the side of the plane as it takes off — and eventually manages to get inside when Benji hacks the plane's security system. But it's just another perfect example of Cruise's commitment to these outrageous stunts. 

It may have finally cracked the fearless Cruise though; in 2015 he told CinemaCon attendees that the plane stunt "scared him shitless."

The image of the star holding on for dear life as a plane takes off is one hell of a way to start the movie.

4. Burj Khalifa jump - "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" (2011)

Tom Cruise. Dubai's Burj Khalifa. Need we say more? In Brad Bird's "Ghost Protocol," Cruise's hero has to climb the outside of the tallest building in the world, retrieve a set of nuclear codes, and then rappel back down .

Cruise effectively becomes Spider-Man thanks to a pair of high-tech sticky gloves, which are great, until they stop working.

There's something so visceral about the scene, whether it's the idea of falling from that height, or Cruise's terrified expression when one of the gloves starts to fail. Yikes.

Cruise did the whole thing himself (obviously) and even took a photo on top of the Burj Khalifa... Now that's just showing off.

3. Helicopter chase — "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" (2018)

There's a reason why 2018's "Fallout" raked in $791 million at the box office, and it comes down to the unhinged action sequences that Cruise and the cast throw themselves into — like the helicopter chase through the mountains in the film's climax.

It's simple, August Walker (Henry Cavill) is flying away with a nuclear detonator, and Hunt needs to deactivate said detonator. It starts with Cruise hanging on for dear life to a net of cargo that one helicopter is carrying, before he eventually climbs up and forcibly takes control of the vehicle himself.

What follows is a breathtaking feat of aerial stunt work — with two helicopters swooping through a mountain range at break-neck speeds while the cameras try to keep up. 

It all comes down to a literal cliffhanger before Hunt finally puts Walker down for good and saves the day. The nail biting sequence deserves every cliche movie description possible, as it pushes audiences to the edge of their seats in true "Mission: Impossible" fashion.

2. Paris sky dive — "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" (2018)

"Fallout" sees Hunt skydive into Paris alongside August Walker to sneak into a secret meeting, and it's a visually stunning sequence because the camera dives with Cruise as he's falling through the sky.

Not only does it look gorgeous, but Hunt has to catch Walker in mid-air after a storm knocks him unconscious and his oxygen tank is disconnected . So there's a lot going on in what should be a straight forward skydive. 

Then again, this is "Mission: Impossible," nothing's ever straight forward. The whole thing is only made better when Walker lands in Paris, completely unaware that Hunt actually saved his life and replaced his oxygen tank. Typical!

1. The mountain jump — "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One" (2023)

There's no question about it, "Dead Reckoning Part One" takes the top spot with Cruise's exhilarating Austrian mountain jump.

The scene sees Ethan try and catch the train where a deal for the AI is taking place — but the quickest way to do so is by riding a motorbike off the side of the mountain, and parachuting down to the locomotive… As you do.

Considering the risk involved, it's a miracle that Paramount even signed off on Cruise doing the stunt himself — but it paid off. The scene is nothing short of breathtaking, as the star falls through the valley and sails through the air, seemingly with ease.

It's a common thing for actors to say they do their own stunts, but Cruise really goes the extra mile for the audience . He told Extra that the jump is "something I've wanted to do for a long time. When I was a little kid, I used to build ramps and go off and have some terrible crashes on my bicycles, but it was a lot of fun doing that."

And when speaking to Insider on the "Dead Reckoning" red carpet, Cruise teased that he's trying to go bigger for "Part Two."

"I'm always pushing. I just remember, every time they say, 'Can you top it? Can you not top it?' we're always pushing," the star said. "Every film I do, whatever genre it's in, I want to make it as entertaining as possible for that audience. I know I can do things better." 

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Tom Cruise did that motorcycle stunt in ‘Mission: Impossible’ on Day 1 — here’s why

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More than half a year before the release of the upcoming movie “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One,” Paramount Pictures made sure audiences got to see Tom Cruise once again risking his life.

Cruise’s mind-blowing stunts have become a signature of “ Mission: Impossible ” films, each one seemingly topping the next. The key stunt in the franchise’s seventh installment involves Cruise driving a motorcycle off the edge of a cliff, dismounting and parachuting into a Norwegian valley. With the drop of its behind-the-scenes footage in December , the studio billed it as “the biggest stunt in cinema history.”

Though the moment has already been watched on YouTube more than 13 million times, and 30 million more times in the film’s trailers, it’s among the film’s most anticipated scenes. After all, we still don’t know how the stunt fits within the plot — What could be so dire that agent Ethan Hunt must jump off a cliff?

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While answers won’t come until the movie’s theatrical release July 12, we now know that the risky stunt was the first thing Cruise did on Day 1 of filming, which began in 2020. And it was all about risk assessment.

In a recent interview with “Entertainment Tonight,” Cruise said they started with the scene, in part, to allow the cast and crew to see whether he would be able to star in the $290-million film. After all, he could either get injured or die — or both.

“Well, we know we’re either going to continue with the film or not,” Cruise said, letting out a laugh. “Let’s know Day 1, what is gonna happen: Do we all continue, or is it a major re-run?”

Cruise added that he wanted to make sure his mind was clear enough to focus solely on the stunt.

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“You have to be razor sharp for something like that; I don’t want to drop that and shoot other things and have my mind somewhere else,” Cruise said. “You don’t want to be waking up in the middle of the night, ‘It’s still, I still, I still,’ and it has that effect.”

Cruise is no stranger to aerial stunts with a high probability of death. The “Top Gun” actor said preparing for the recent stunt “was years of planning,” a culmination of all the training he’s done with motorcycles, cars and aerobatics.

In the franchise’s last film, “Mission: Impossible — Fallout” (2018), Cruise jumped into a helicopter in midflight , taking the controls to chase another helicopter. In the same movie, he parachuted from a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III from 25,000 feet, close to five miles up, becoming “the first actor” to do so in a major motion picture, according to Paramount (most skydiving attempts occur at 10,000 feet).

In 2011 for “ Ghost Protocol ,” the “Jerry McGuire” actor climbed along the exposed walls of the world’s largest building, the Burj Khalifa of Dubai. And in 2015 for “Rogue Nation,” Cruise hung off the side of an Airbus A400M Atlas as it was taking off, a stunt that veteran stunt coordinator and frequent Cruise collaborator Wade Eastwood called “a stressful experience.”

The recent motorcycle stunt, which Cruise had apparently repeated six times, was no exception. Though the film’s computer-generated images make Cruise appear to be jumping off the rocky surface of the cliff, the scene required a large ramp to be built.

While Cruise is seen atop the motorcycle in the behind-the-scenes video, accelerating off the ramp, a helicopter and drone fly overhead to gather footage. The film’s crew, including director Christopher McQuarrie, are huddled in a nearby tent, faces glued to a set of monitors. After he abandons the bike and hangs in the open air, Cruise releases his parachute and the crew erupts in cheers.

“The only thing you have to avoid when doing a stunt like this are serious injury or death,” Eastwood, who has managed stunts for the last three “Mission Impossible” films, said in the BTS video. “You’re falling. If you don’t get a clean exit from the bike and you get tangled up with it, if you don’t open your parachute, you’re not gonna make it.”

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The scene wasn’t the only stressful one to shoot: Cruise said he also worried about a car chase that involved him handcuffed to a small car, steering with one hand while drifting along the cobblestone streets of Rome, with his co-star Hayley Atwell in the passenger seat.

“It’s plenty of challenges,” Cruise said with a wide grin, laughing once again.

“Dead Reckoning” had its world premiere Sunday at the Auditorium Conciliazione in Rome with Cruise and other cast members, including Atwell and Vanessa Kirby , in attendance. “Part Two” is expected to be released in June 2024. Filming wrapped in September for what has been rumored to be Cruise’s final appearance in the “Mission: Impossible” franchise.

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12 of tom cruise’s most jaw-dropping stunts.

From scaling a skyscraper to hanging on to the outside of an airplane as it takes off, here are some of the actor's most death-defying stunts.

By Carly Thomas

Carly Thomas

Associate Editor

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Tom Cruise has never steered away from challenging himself in his roles for projects. Especially since 1986’s  Top Gun , he has continued to push the limits of his body and acting, taking on his own stunts in most of his top films, including Mission: Impossible ,  The Last Samurai  and  Jack Reacher .

Most recently, Cruise took on several death-defying stunts in  Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One , including speed-flying down a mountainside as well as driving a motorcycle off a cliff and parachuting to safety.

The actor has previously said during an appearance on  The Graham Norton Show  that he has been “doing different stunts” since he was a child and that once he got into acting, he wanted to keep doing it to help with the “storytelling.”

“I feel that [when] acting you’re bringing everything, you know, physically and emotionally, to a character in a story,” he explained at the time. “And I’m able to do it [stunts], and I’ve trained for 30 years doing things like this that it allows us to put cameras in places where you normally are not able to.”

More recently, during a  conversation at Cannes  in 2022, Cruise reiterated that he enjoys performing his own stunts despite the danger, only this time he referenced one of the best athletes of Hollywood’s golden era.

“No one asked Gene Kelly, ‘Why do you dance?’” the actor said. “Why do you do your own dancing?’”

Below, The Hollywood Reporter has compiled a list of some of Cruise’s wildest stunts, some downright death-defying, throughout his decades-long career.

'Mission: Impossible' (Aquarium Scene)

In the first installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise in 1996, Cruise reportedly never swapped out for a stuntman in one particular scene involving an aquarium. In the sequence, Ethan Hunt, who would become one of Cruise’s most well-known characters, intentionally blows up a giant aquarium that stretches the length from the floor to the ceiling to help get away quickly. The explosive was so powerful that another person was sent flying through a glass panel, while Cruise went running with 16 gallons of water following right behind him.

'Mission: Impossible II' (Rock Climbing Scene)

In 2000’s Mission: Impossible II , Cruise showed no signs of plans to stop testing his limits. In the opening scene of the John Woo-directed film, the actor can be seen climbing and hanging off giant rocks on the side of a cliff. During filming, Cruise reportedly had only a safety cable to help soften any impact, which led to Woo actively sweating throughout the entire sequence because of how dangerous it was.

'Top Gun' (Parachute Scene)

In 1986’s  Top Gun , Cruise began seeking the thrill of doing his own stunts. But the scene when Maverick (Cruise) and Goose (Anthony Edwards) are ejected from the jet and parachute into the water (leading to his co-pilot’s death) nearly didn’t go as planned. Top Gun ‘s Barry Tubb told the  New York Post  on the film’s 25th anniversary that “Cruise came as close to dying as anybody on a set I’ve ever seen.” During filming, when Cruise was lifting up Goose’s body from the ocean, Cruise actually began to sink due to water building up in his parachute. According to Tubb, Cruise would have drowned if it was not caught early enough to get him out.

At the time of filming Top Gun , it was also reported that a veteran fighter pilot  died while shooting aerial footage for the movie.

'The Last Samurai' (Samurai Sword Scene)

In 2003’s  The Last Samurai , Cruise once again nearly avoided a tragic accident while doing his own stunts. While filming a fight sequence between Nathan Algren (Cruise) and Ujio (Hiroyuki Sanada), the two were riding on what were actually mechanical horses, in which one was supposed to stop moving before Sanada takes a swing at Cruise with a real samurai sword. But the horse didn’t stop, and Cruise reportedly came within an inch of the sword before Sanada was able to pull back, avoiding contact with Cruise.

“Tom’s neck was right in front of me, and I tried to stop swinging my sword, but it was hard to control with one hand,” Sanada previously told the  Daily Mail .  “The film crew watching from the side all screamed because they thought Tom’s head would fly off.”

'Collateral' (Car Crash Scene)

At this point, on-set accidents are nothing new to Cruise, and the same goes for an incident while filming an action scene with Jamie Foxx for 2004’s  Collateral . During an interview at the time , Foxx thought he nearly killed his co-star when he smashed into Cruise’s Mercedes-Benz during a chase sequence. “I hit the gas, the cab goes straight head on into [Cruise’s] Mercedes, and the Mercedes lifts off the ground and goes off the set,” he explained. Cruise added that although he was OK, he was tossed around the car. “I was hitting the roof,” he said. “I was down on the ground.”

'Edge of Tomorrow' (Another Car Crash Scene)

While filming 2014’s Edge of Tomorrow , Emily Blunt confirmed to Conan O’Brien on  Conan at the time that Cruise “really does everything and wants to do everything” when it comes to doing stunts. But she revealed that during one scene, his luck was tested once again. The actress said in one action sequence when she was driving and Cruise was in the passenger seat, the stunt coordinator tasked her with driving really fast down a road and then taking a sharp turn. She noted that the first take went well, but during the second, she took a turn too late and “drove us into a tree and I almost killed Tom Cruise.” Thankfully, Cruise was OK, and Blunt added that he was actually laughing afterward.

'Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol' (Scaling a Skyscraper Scene)

Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol director Brad Bird said watching Cruise take on death-defying stunts is “just another day at work” for the film’s crewmembers. Specifically for the 2011 movie, the actor scaled Dubai’s 163-floor Burj Khalifa. In behind-the-scenes footage, Cruise can be seen climbing, swinging and running up and down the building, with only a wire keeping him from falling.

'Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation' (Plane Scene)

In 2015’s Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation , Cruise decided to take his intense stunts to the sky. In the film, the actor can be seen dangling on the outside of an Airbus 400 as it takes off. Robert Elswit, director of photography, told The Hollywood Reporter  at the time what went into making the stunt a reality while keeping Cruise safe.

“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 the 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.”

'Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation' (Underwater Breathing Scene)

In the Christopher McQuarrie-directed film, Cruise went from doing stunts in the sky to doing them underwater. For the said sequence in Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation , the actor actually had to undergo training to be able to hold his breath underwater for six minutes. For comparison, professional divers hold their breath for anywhere between four and seven minutes,  according to the American Physiological Society , but even that can be very dangerous and could cause brain damage. Although Cruise scared crewmembers a few times by testing his limits underwater, in the end, he successfully completed the mission.

“It’s something I have always wanted to do,” Cruise said during an interview with USA Today at the time. “We’re underwater and we’re doing breath-holds of 6 to 6-1/2 minutes. So I was doing all my training with the other stuff (on-set). It was very taxing stuff.”

'Mission: Impossible – Fallout' (Building Jump Scene)

While filming a building jump scene in 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout , Cruise actually got hurt, which shut down production for six weeks while he recovered. During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show , the actor not only detailed exactly what went wrong but shared a video of the moment he broke his ankle during the stunt.

In the scene, while attached to two safety wires, Cruise’s character is meant to jump from one high-rise to another when chasing Henry Cavill’s character. Although he was meant to miss the landing and hit the side of the wall, his foot actually slipped and bent upwards on impact. The actor noted that he “knew instantly it was broken.” Cruise also revealed that his ankle was still healing while he was on the press tour for the film.

‘Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One’ (Speed-Flying Scene)

In the seventh film in the Mission: Impossible franchise, Tom Cruise shows that he has no plans to stop doing death-defying stunts anytime soon. For Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One , the actor learned how to do what director Christopher McQuarrie called “one of the most dangerous sports in the world.” Speed-flying, which is similar to paragliding, combines elements of parachute swooping to allow people to fly at high speeds down mountainsides while maintaining close to the slope. And Cruise did just that for one of the scenes in the latest installment of the action franchise. McQuarrie even noted that when Cruise was “flying very close to rocks,” the filming crew was in “absolute terror” behind the cameras. 

‘Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One’ (Motorbiking Off a Cliff Scene)

For Mission: Impossible 7 , Tom Cruise said he got to do a stunt that he had wanted to do “since I was a little kid.” And that stunt was riding a motorbike off a cliff and parachuting down to safety. Director Christopher McQuarrie explained that there were many elements needed to actually make it happen, as well as years of different types of training. Once Cruise felt like he was comfortable with each aspect of the stunt, that’s when the crew built the film’s final ramp on a cliff in Norway. A crewmember added that Cruise did a total of six takes of one of the “biggest stunts in cinema history.” 

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Watch Tom Cruise Rehearse and Perform the 'Biggest Stunt in Cinema History'

Here's how the movie star prepared for his most ambitious action sequence yet in 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning.'

A mini-documentary released on YouTube by Paramount Pictures follows the months of preparation that went into planning and executing a heart-stopping chase scene in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One , in which Cruise's character, secret agent Ethan Hunt, rides a motorcycle off the edge of a cliff and goes into a base jump, free-falling towards the earth before pulling his parachute cord.

"There's a lot going into this stunt," says director Christopher McQuarrie. "So Tom put together this master plan to coordinate all of these experts in each of the particular disciplines involved, to make this whole thing happen.

Prior to the shoot in Hellesylt, Norway in 2020, Cruise undertook a year of training to master motocross, base jumping and advanced skydiving, including working on his strength and stability to ensure he can control his own position mid-air, and manoeuver the parachute canopy in the right way.

"You train and drill every little aspect over and over and over and over again," says Cruise.

When the prep for the shoot was at its most intense, Cruise was doing 30 jumps per day, and he racked up more than 500 skydives and 13,000 motocross jumps over the course of rehearsal. Throughout this entire process, Cruise also wore a GPS chip so that they were able to track his speed and location in three-dimensional space at every stage of the stunt, which then enabled them to plan exactly where the drone cameras needed to be for the shoot.

"The key is me hitting certain speeds and being consistent with that," says Cruise. "There's no speedometer, so I do it by sound and feel of the bike. And then as I depart the bike, I'm using the wind that's hitting me, I'm pumping my chest, that will give me lift."

On the day of the shoot, all conditions have to be perfect for Cruise to pull off the staggering feat, and things are tense behind the camera as the actor shoots off the edge of the precipice and plummets into the valley below... a total of six times.

"We've been working on this for years," says Cruise. "I've wanted to do it since I was a little kid."

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The Nine Wildest Mission: Impossible Stunts, Ranked By the Danger They Posed to Tom Cruise

By William Goodman

Over the last 27 years, the Mission: Impossible franchise has continued to establish itself from other movies in the spy genre by being synonymous with two things: Tom Cruise and insane stunts. With the subsequent release of each Ethan Hunt adventure comes another behind-the-scenes featurette about how far out there—read: how close to actual death—Cruise went to entertain and enthrall the audience, whether it’s learning how to hold his breath underwater for six minutes, or scaling the exterior of the world’s largest building.

With the release of the seventh installment in the series, Dead Reckoning Part One , Hunt states to a character that their life “will always be more important to me than my own,” which feels like a declaration of Cruise’s guiding philosophy for stunt work. To wit: Matt Damon recently recalled a conversation he had with Cruise about a stunt in Ghost Protocol —which started with Cruise deadpanning that he fired the film's first safety coordinator who deemed the stunt too dangerous.

Cruise fulfills his mission statement in the latest film by driving a motorcycle off a cliff and then parachuting down a ravine—establishing a new landmark in Hollywood stunt work. As the franchise reaches this new height, we’re looking at some of the most dangerous stunts from the Mission series and ranking by degree of danger, from least to most.

Danger Level: Mild

An exploding fish tank feels like small potatoes in the larger scope of the Mission series, but Cruise has said the stunt was indeed “very crazy.” Talking to Graham Norton in 2018, Cruise recalled that he and the stunt coordinator couldn’t get on the same page about the timing of the explosion, resulting in a Who’s On First -like back and forth about whether the go was on the count of three or the count of one. Considering the sequence involved a detonation, glass, and plenty of water, the potential for danger was high, but hardly life-threatening. miscommunication is enough for someone to get seriously injured if it wasn’t timed correctly.

Danger Level: Unnecessarily High

Cruise’s wholehearted approach to dangerous stunt work began in earnest with John Woo’s Mission: Impossible 2 . The actor put Alex Honnold to shame with an extensive free solo climbing stunt in the film’s opening . "I was really mad that he wanted to do it, but I tried to stop him and I couldn't," Woo told Entertainment Weekly back in 2000 . "I was so scared I was sweating. I couldn't even watch the monitor when we shot it." Woo’s nervousness stemmed from the fact Cruise was insistent on not only doing the climb himself but only wearing a thin safety wire through the staggering seven different takes it took to get the shot as he climbed over the constructed cliff face. His dedication comes through in the final product and is easily the highlight of an otherwise lackluster installment in the franchise ( despite my editor’s attempts to convince me otherwise ).

Danger Level: Probable Death

By Daniel Riley

By Abe Beame

By Mitch Moxley

After Ghost Protocol —more on that later—the Mission franchise shifted into featuring a signature, outrageous stunt for each of its installments. For his first Mission , Christopher McQuarrie conjured up the idea of Cruise strapped to an A400 cargo plane—an image so memorable it became the central focus of the movie’s marketing. McQuarrie recently stated the fear around A400 stunt wasn’t so much about Cruise falling off (he was strapped into the door through a rigged vest) but external factors beyond their control, like a rock on the runway or a bird strike while the plane was taking off. With so little protection, the timing had to be perfect.

Danger Level: Technically Low, made higher by insane repetitions

While still extremely dangerous, the challenges around the HALO (high altitude, low opening) jump in Fallout were mostly logistical. McQuarrie and crew had to create a new style helmet for the sequence that not only provided oxygen for Cruise (who is the first ever actor to perform the jump typically reserved for military operations) but also had lighting in the interior so audiences could see his face. The timing of the natural lighting made it so the jump could only occur in a three-minute window, so the jump required over 100 attempts to get it right. The real risk came from ensuring Henry Cavill, Cruise, and the cameraman all hit their marks so they wouldn’t collide in midair while falling at 200 miles per hour. In any other movie, this would be the showstopper. And yet, in Fallout , it’s just the aperitif.

Danger Level: Navy Seal levels of difficulty

Much of the pre-release marketing of Mission films in the last decade typically includes Cruise discussing his training to execute on a stunt accordingly. Rogue Nation leaned into the fact he learned how to hold his breath underwater for a staggering six minutes to shoot the underwater vault heist sequence as practically as possible—and all in one long take despite the fact the finished sequence is intertwined with multiple cuts. Legend has it that safety and compliance teams on set were extraordinarily nervous about the whole thing, and it wasn’t until Cruise convinced them otherwise that it was safe and that he could handle it accordingly.

Danger Level: Low, but it’s always the one you least expect

For all the dangerous stunts in Mission movies, it’s odd that something as simple as a broken ankle is the only major injury to befall Cruise. While jumping from one building to another, Cruise sustained that injury and knew immediately he’d messed something up, as the take in which he broke it is the one McQuarrie used in the final cut. Filming on Fallout was subsequently delayed while he recovered, but Cruise seemed to take it in stride; a behind-the-scenes clip shows him shrugging it off like he forgot to grab something at the grocery store.

Danger Level: Extremely High

There are approximately three different “holy shit” moments throughout Fallout ’s third-act helicopter setpiece: Cruise jumping onto the rope as the helicopter takes off, free-falling off the helicopter, and then piloting the chopper himself while performing a 365-degree corkscrew dive. The scariest bit of all included the drop—Rebecca Ferguson declared that she thought Cruise actually fell from the helicopter. If you remember, Cruise falls and hits the accompanying load dangling at the bottom so hard that it knocks the wind out of him each of the several times he performed it. Not to mention, the corkscrew dive was so dangerous that “most pilots wouldn’t attempt it,” per stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood .

Danger Level: Technically Very High…(but less blatantly flirtatious with death than the movies that followed?)

In other movies, a stunt involving scaling the side of the Burj Khalifa would have taken place on a set with a replica or with CGI. Not in the world of Mission . For Ghost Protocol , Cruise climbed the world’s tallest building with only a single safety rope. A single misstep and everything could go south very quickly. The stunt set the tone for everything else that’s followed, as dedicating himself to the reality of it all makes it one of the defining stunts of the Mission franchise.

Danger Level: Trolling death at this point

In comedy, there’s the concept of putting “a hat on a hat,” which means that layering one joke on top of another different joke leads to the whole thing falling flat. In less-skilled hands, the now legendary cliff bike jump in Dead Reckoning could feel like a hat on a hat. It combines elements of previous Mission stunts, notably the HALO jump and the Paris bike chase from Fallout , but it’s accomplished and shot in such a way that it feels breathtaking at every single stage. The fact that Cruise performed the stunt several different times, despite its high risk, is stunt work at its very best.

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Tom cruise hangs on for dear life to his 'mission' to save the movies.

Justin Chang

Tom Cruise is back, and doing his own stunts, in Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One. Paramount Pictures and Skydance hide caption

Tom Cruise is back, and doing his own stunts, in Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One.

For some time now, Tom Cruise has been on what feels like a one-man mission to save the movies. Back in 2020, when Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One was shooting in the U.K., Cruise was recorded screaming at crew members who'd violated COVID-19 lockdown protocols, all but claiming that the industry's future rested on their shoulders. Earlier this year, Steven Spielberg publicly praised Cruise for saving Hollywood with the smash success of Top Gun: Maverick .

Now, with the box office still struggling to return to pre-pandemic levels, Cruise has become a kind of evangelist for the theatergoing experience, urging audiences to buy tickets not just to his movie, but also to other big summer titles like Barbie and Oppenheimer .

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'mission: impossible' is back, but will you accept it, or will it self-destruct.

Cruise's save-the-movies spirit goes hand-in-hand with his self-styled reputation as the last of the great Hollywood stars. In this seventh Mission: Impossible movie, the now 61-year-old actor and producer still insists on risking life and limb for our viewing pleasure, doing his own outrageous stunts in action scenes that make only minimal use of CGI. And so we see Cruise's Ethan Hunt, an agent with the Impossible Missions Force, or IMF, tearing up the streets of Rome in a tiny yellow Fiat, riding a motorcycle off a cliff and — in the most astonishing sequence — hanging on for dear life after a deadly train derailment.

The plot that connects these sequences is preposterous, of course, but reasonably easy to follow. In an especially timely twist, the big villain this time around is AI — a self-aware techno-being referred to as the Entity. It's an invisible menace, everywhere and nowhere; it can wipe out data systems, control the flow of information and bring nations to their knees.

'Top Gun: Maverick' is ridiculous. It's also ridiculously entertaining

Hunt and his IMF team are determined to destroy the Entity before it becomes too powerful or falls into the wrong hands. But his old boss, Eugene Kittridge, played by the sinister Henry Czerny, warns Hunt to fall in line with the U.S. government, which wants to control the Entity and the new world order to come.

This is notably the first time we've seen Kittridge since Brian De Palma 's 1996 Mission: Impossible — the first and still, to my mind, the best movie in the series. That said, the director and co-writer Christopher McQuarrie has done a snazzy job with the most recent ones: Rogue Nation , Fallout and now Dead Reckoning Part One .

Coronavirus Updates

Sorry, tom cruise fans — new 'top gun' and 'mission impossible' movies delayed again.

Here, he seems to be paying sly tribute to that 1996 original, even evoking its horrific early setpiece in which Hunt watched helplessly as his IMF teammates were murdered, one by one. That trauma was formative; it explains why, in movie after movie, Hunt has repeatedly put his life on the line for his friends.

If you're kept up with the series, you'll recognize those friends here, including Hunt's fellow operatives played by Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg and Rebecca Ferguson. You may also remember Vanessa Kirby , reprising her Fallout role as a ruthless arms broker and giving, in a single sequence, perhaps the movie's best performance. There are some intriguing new characters, too, including a wily thief, well played by Hayley Atwell, who draws Hunt into an extended game of cat-and-mouse. Pom Klementieff steals a few scenes as a mysterious assassin, as does Esai Morales as a glowering enemy from Hunt's past.

That's a lot of characters, double-crosses, chases, fights, escapes and explosions to keep track of. But even with a running time that pushes north of two-and-a-half hours — and this is just Part One — the movie never loses its grip. McQuarrie, a screenwriter first and foremost, paces the narrative beautifully, building and releasing tension at regular intervals.

Compared with the visual effects-heavy bombast of most Hollywood blockbusters, Dead Reckoning Part One feels like a marvel of old-school craftsmanship, just with niftier gadgets. Even Hunt wears his devil-may-care recklessness with surprising lightness and grace, spending much of the movie's third act on the sidelines and even playing some of his most daring escapades for laughs. Not that the actor doesn't take his mission seriously. I don't know if Tom Cruise can save the movies, but somehow, I never get tired of watching him try.

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How Tom Cruise Executed His 'Most Dangerous' Stunt in 'Mission: Impossible –Dead Reckoning Part One'

The death-defying moment in the franchise's seventh installment involves Cruise driving a motorbike off a cliff

Collection Christophel/Alamy

Tom Cruise  turned up the action for Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning   Part One .

While the film marks the seventh installment in the highly successful franchise, Cruise, 61, made the occasion even more special by challenging himself to perform one of his most dangerous stunts yet.

The death-defying moment involved Cruise driving a motorbike off a cliff, fly off the bike, and parachute to the ground. While fans got a glimpse of the stunt through the film's action-packed trailer in May, Cruise, along with writer-director  Christopher McQuarrie , first teased the big moment in 2021 at CinemaCon.

The pair explained in a special behind-the-scenes video at the event that the stunt took 500 hours of skydiving training and 13,000 motorbike jumps to get it just right. The stunt involved Cruise being attached to a set of wires as he rides a speeding motorcycle off of a large ramp before he throws himself from the bike, backed by the safety wires attached to his back.

Speaking about its execution, McQuarrie, 54, explained in the video that it was "by far the most dangerous stunt we've ever done." The clip then ended with Cruise performing the stunt himself, with a crew member saying, " Tom Cruise  rode a motorcycle off a cliff six times today."

McQuarrie "tried to kill me," joked Cruise at the New York City premiere.

Christian Black/Paramount Pictures

The film's long-awaited release comes after multiple delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic . According to an official synopsis, it finds Cruise's Ethan Hunt as he and his team are tasked with tracking down "a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands."

During its world premiere in June , Cruise gave a speech about his passion for the franchise and filmmaking. He said in part, "It’s something that I grew up with, that made me and inspired me to dream and want to travel the world. My goal since I was little was to make movies and travel. And not just be a tourist but work in that world and understand their culture."

"Through my movies, I’ve been able to have that because everyone here has allowed me to entertain them," he continued. "It’s a privilege that I have never taken for granted."

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Mission: Impossible   - Dead Reckoning Part One is out now.

Related Articles

Tom Cruise reveals secrets of the 'biggest stunt' in movie history

Tom Cruise and company reveal a behind-the-scenes look at Mission: Impossible 7 stunt.

Think it's worth starting this article off with a friendly reminder that Tom Cruise is 60 years old. An age where most people are considering retirement, Cruise continues to go further and further with hair-raising stunts, including one for the 2023 new movie Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One that is being described as the "biggest stunt in cinema history" and the most dangerous stunt of his career.

A new behind-the-scenes video offers a lot of fascinating (and insane) details about the stunt, which sees Cruise ride a motorcycle off of a cliff in Norway and then perform a base jump. We don't know the context of it in the movie, but it certainly looks to be on par with previous Tom Cruise stunts from the Mission: Impossible franchise, including the famous wire-hanging scene, him climbing the Burj Khalifa, holding on to the side of plane and performing a HALO jump.

There's a lot of incredible footage and soundbites in the video. We've got a quick rundown of some of the ones that made our jaws drop.

• Tom Cruise wanted to drive a motorcycle off a cliff since he was a little kid apparently; this man is just wired differently.
• The stunt team's mantra is "don't be careful, be confident."
• Cruise did a year of base training, advanced skydive training and canopy skills (over 500 skydives).
• Someone describes Tom Cruise as "the most aware person I've ever met."
• They built a motocross track for Cruise to train on and he practiced more than 13,000 jumps.
• Director Christpher McQuarrie said even two years ago the cameras didn't exist to capture the stunt like they did.
• Tom Cruise: "Always wear my earplugs, so I don't hear myself scream."
• There was no speedometer on the bike, so Cruise said he judged the speed by the sound and feel of the bike.
• Miles Dashier, base jumping coach: "The only things you have to avoid while doing a stunt like this are serious injury or death." You don't say!
• After the first take, Cruise was eager to do another one. He did the stunt six times in total.

The video was shown in front of Avatar: The Way of Water on IMAX screens, but now it is available to watch on YouTube or directly below. 

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One is set to release exclusively in movie theaters on July 14, 2023. In addition to Cruise, Mission: Impossible regulars Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg and Rebecca Ferguson are all back, as are Vanessa Kirby and Angela Bassett from Fallout, and Henry Czerny from the original Mission: Impossible . New additions to the franchise include Haley Atwell, Cary Elwes, Pom Klementiff, Rob Delany, Indira Varma, Charles Parnell, Shea Whigham and Mark Gatiss.

If you want to get your Cruise fill in before the new Mission: Impossible movie, Top Gun: Maverick arrives on Paramount Plus on December 22 (he even wished everyone a thank you for supporting Top Gun: Maverick while jumping out of a plane ), while the other Mission: Impossible movies are also all streaming on Paramount Plus .

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Michael Balderston is a DC-based entertainment and assistant managing editor for What to Watch, who has previously written about the TV and movies with TV Technology, Awards Circuit and regional publications. Spending most of his time watching new movies at the theater or classics on TCM, some of Michael's favorite movies include Casablanca , Moulin Rouge! , Silence of the Lambs , Children of Men , One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Star Wars . On the TV side he enjoys Only Murders in the Building, Yellowstone, The Boys, Game of Thrones and is always up for a Seinfeld rerun. Follow on Letterboxd .

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‘Mission: Impossible 7’ Footage Description Reveals Tom Cruise’s Latest Big Stunt

Tom Cruise isn't showing any signs of slowing down in the seventh 'Mission: Impossible.'

Tom Cruise is certainly no stranger to performing risky stunts and has seemingly vowed to never cheat the audience by allowing a double to do a stunt in his stead. On the set of previous Mission: Impossible movies, Cruise has put his life on the line as he scaled the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, clung to the side of an Airbus A400M Atlas, and free-climbed cliffs in Utah. According to Paramount's presentation at CinemaCon, Cruise isn't showing any signs of slowing down in Mission: Impossible 7 .

At CinemaCon, Paramount showed a clip of Cruise on a ramp riding a motorcycle as it races down the side of a cliff and barrels off the edge. Cruise then releases the bike mid-air before his parachute opens. The shot allegedly took at least six different takes, as a crew member reported that, “Tom Cruise just rode a bike off a cliff six times today.”

RELATED: 'Top Gun: Maverick's First 13 Minutes Show Tom Cruise Pushing His Limits for "One Last Ride"

However, there is never a true need to fear for the actor’s well-being. Cruise and the Mission: Impossible team always assure that countless hours of training and preparation are put into each stunt, as well as additional safety measures should something go wrong. For instance, Christopher McQuarrie director of Mission: Impossible - Fallout and the upcoming seventh installment, stated that Cruise was “in training or physio for every waking moment of the production when he was not in front of the camera.” For his newest adrenaline-pumping motorcycle stunt, Cruise trained by skydiving and riding a practice bike over a cycle jumping course.

When asked about the stunt, McQuarrie stated, “The only thing that scares me more is what we’ve got planned for Mission : Impossible 8 .”

Cruise and his daring new stunt can be seen in Mission: Impossible 7 on May 27, 2022.

KEEP READING: Watch 'Mission Impossible 7' Throw a Train Off a Cliff in New Set Video

20 Thrilling Behind-The-Scenes Facts From Tom Cruise's Biggest Films

F or nearly 40 years, Tom Cruise has been one of the biggest movie stars in the world. From his breakout role in Top Gun to the franchise lead in Mission Impossible , few stars boast the resume that Cruise has. He's also worth a cool $500 million. He's kind of a big deal. With four decades of movies under his belt, it's fair to assume a lot of interesting things have happened behind the scenes. Here are the craziest Tom Cruise movie secrets you need to know!

He Won't Sign Onto A Movie Unless He Gets To Do His Own Stunts

Tom Cruise famously performs the most dangerous stunts in all his movies. Watch any Mission Impossible movie, and it's shocking how much danger the action star is willing to put himself in. Cruise reportedly refuses to sign onto movies that won't let him do his stunts.

Say a movie wants to cast Cruise but won't let him jump from high rise to high rise for a critical chase scene. The producers better start looking for a different, more risk-averse actor. Tom Cruise feels the need, the need for speed!

He Took Lead Role In Valkyrie Because He Looked Like The Real Person

The movie Valkyrie is based on the true story of Colonel von Stauffenberg's assassination attempt on Hitler during World War II. When Cruise was offered the role, there was no sales pitch that convinced him to sign on. Instead, he noticed that he bared a striking resemblance to the German soldier.

Cruise was sold, proving sometimes looks are all that matters. The movie was a moderate success, earning $200 million worldwide. Doing his own stunts has its downfalls.

Mission Impossible: Fallout Literally Broke Tom Cruise

Mission Impossible: Fallout came close to missing its summer 2018 release date after Tom Cruise broke his ankle performing a stunt. The film had to take a break from filming in 2017 after Cruise couldn't stick his landing after a scary jump. The hiatus put the movie's release in serious doubt.

Never doubt Tom Cruise, though. After a brutal seven-week recovery, cameras were able to roll again. He also continued punishing his body by doing his stunts. All his hard work paid off. A seventh movie in the profitable franchise is already being planned.

The Last Samurai Almost Killed Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise earned an Academy Award nomination for his role in The Last Samurai . If it wasn't for his co-star saving his life, we'd be writing a very different article right now. Using real samurai swords rigged for safety was a bad idea when one of the rigs broke.

The sword came one inch from Cruise's neck before Hiroyuki Sanada stopped it. That reminds us of the helicopter scene at the end of the first Mission Impossible ! Somehow it always comes back to Ethan Hunt.

Anne Rice Hated His Casting In Interview With A Vampire

Without author Anne Rice, there would be no Interview With The Vampire . Having written the book, she was not happy to see the film cast Tom Cruise in the role of the vampire Lestat. She was so upset with his selection that she publicly criticized Cruise and everyone involved with the film.

After the movie came out, Rice changed her tune. It turns out Tom Cruise was perfect for Lestat, and he proved it with his performance. To apologize, Rice bought a two-page ad in Daily Variety praising Cruise's portrayal of her most famous vampire.

Les Grossman Was Created For Tropic Thunder By Cruise

When Ben Stiller was struggling to write Tropic Thunder he had Tom Cruise read the script. Cruise suggested he include a movie executive in the film as a way to create pressure on the characters. Later, he decided to play the role of Les Grossman himself, under two very odd conditions.

The first condition was the character have fat hands. The second condition was that the bald and overweight studio executive be a dancer. And that is how one of the most memorable characters in movie history was created.

The Iconic Risky Business Dance Was Adlibbed

Even if you've never seen Risky Business , you've probably seen Tom Cruise's infamous underwear dance. According to the actor, he made up the routine himself, on the spot, "I just ad-libbed that," he said during an interview .

But how did he stick the landing on his slide to enter the scene? As he explains, "I dusted the floor and then put stick (tape) on the other side so I would get the center frame on that and wore the socks."

The Mummy Was A Real Monster Behind The Scenes

The Mummy was supposed to start Universal's "Dark Universe." That is until Tom Cruise got his hands on it. According to reports, Cruise took over every aspect of the film, from the story to the direction, and even the editing.

Despite having a team hired by Universal, Cruise brought in his own editor and screenwriter, then wrangled control of the direction away from Alex Kurtzman. For all his meddling, Cruise's version of The Mummy earned terrible reviews and scared audiences away. Made for $190 million, the film only grossed $80 million stateside.

Cruise Destroyed A $100,000 Camera Filming Days Of Thunder

Tom Cruise's "need for speed" is iconic, and it got the better of him while filming Days of Thunder . Playing NASCAR driver Cole Trickle, Cruise drove his stock car during several scenes. I

n one scene he lost control of the car and crashed into a wall, destroying a $100,000 camera in the process.

He Didn't Get Paid For Minority Report

Tom Cruise was so passionate to film the 2002 film Minority Report with Steven Spielberg that he refused to take a paycheck. Spielberg refused money also, something he claimed to have on his last eight films. Instead of getting money upfront, the pair cut a deal to earn 15 percent of the movie's gross.

Minority Report made $358 million worldwide, netting Cruise and Spielberg around $54 million each. That's pretty amazing. They took a chance on a passion project and it paid off big time!

He Was A Passenger In A Car Accident During Filming For Edge Of Tomorrow

For Edge Of Tomorrow , Emily Blunt had to drive a van with Tom Cruise as her passenger. The van needed to be seen shaking for one particular scene, so producers had Blunt make a hard turn at a pretty high speed. But she lost control and the van crashed into a tree.

She was upset that she could have injured (or even killed) Cruise, but fortunately, they both walked away unharmed. And even laughed about the incident later.

One Stunt He Didn't Perform

We know that Tom Cruise prefers to perform even the most dangerous stunts himself. But according to director Martin Scorsese, there was one stunt that he didn't complete when filming the 1986 drama The Color of Money .

His character had to perform a bunch of complicated pool shots, which wasn't a problem for Cruise. Except for one: a shot where his ball had to leap over two others and sink a third. Scorsese said that he thinks Cruise could have made the shot but it would have taken two days. And that's just too long during movie production, so an expert was brought in to do the shot.

He Broke His Thumb Making The Outsiders

The 1983 coming-of-age drama The Outsiders featured a fight between two rival gangs, the Greasers and the Socs. Things got pretty out of control during filming and one of Cruise's thumbs was broken in the scuffle.

He wasn't the only one to get hurt in the fight, either; two of Cruise's fellow actors were also injured. Tom Howell got a black eye and Emilio Estevez's lip was cut. That must have been quite a brawl!

He Lost A Lot Of Weight For Risky Business

The creators of Risky Business really wanted Tom Cruise to be as baby-faced as possible. To prepare for the role, he got serious about dropping weight fast. He told People that he followed a strict eating plan and jogged daily in the brutal Florida sunshine for five weeks. And then when he hit his target weight, he stopped exercising completely "so I could put on a little layer of baby fat."

"[Joel Goodson is] a very vulnerable person,” Tom explained. “I didn't want any physical defenses up for him. No muscle armor at all.”

Tom Cruise Has An Impressive Set Of Lungs

For 2015's Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation , Tom Cruise had to hold his breath for almost six and a half minutes! We knew he did all his own stunts but this might be one of the craziest of them. He called the experience unpleasant but explained his training technique to EW .

"You get rid of the regulator, get rid of the bubbles, get on the side and we wanted to do it one shot, so they were very, very long shots," he said. “I'd have to hold it consistently, you know safely, up to four minutes almost for every take.”

He Really Sang In Rock Of Ages

For the 2012 musical Rock of Ages , Tom Cruise insisted on singing his own parts. Of course, he did, right? He trained for four months, up to five hours each day to perfect his voice.

Cruise also filmed the scene where he sang "Pour Some Sugar On Me" while Def Leppard (the band that originally performed the song) watched. The guy just doesn't like to make things easy for himself.

Born On The Third Of July

In the 1989 war drama Born on the Fourth of July , Tom Cruise played a real-life Vietnam War veteran named Ron Kovic. Kovic was actually born on the 4th of July, as the title indicates.

It turns out that Cruise and Kovic almost share the birthday. Cruise was born on July 3, though, just a day early. Audiences didn't mind the discrepancy (as if they were even aware of it), as the film pulled in $161 million worldwide.

He Wasn't Expecting Emily Blunt To Kiss Him In Edge Of Tomorrow

Maybe he hadn't read the script thoroughly, because it sounds like Tom Cruise was surprised when Emily Blunt kissed him during filming for Edge of Tomorrow . She opened up about the moment to BBC Radio . "I mean, [it was] great. I don't think he was expecting it. I just sort of planted one on him," she said.

Blunt continued, "I think he was a bit taken aback. He was like, 'Oh my god! This is what we're doing.' Well, Tom had read the scene but he hadn't really read the stage directions. There were some new pages."

He Holds A Huge Box Office Record

We already know that his movies rake in tons of money at the box office, but Tom Cruise holds another distinction in that area. He became the first actor ever to star in five consecutive movies that each made more than $100 million in the United States.

The films were A Few Good Men (1992), The Firm (1993), Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), and Jerry Maguire in 1996. That's a pretty good run for the money.

Cruise Inspired A Character In A Movie He Wasn't Even In

Although he's been in some live-action Disney movies, Tom Cruise hasn't yet voiced an animated character for the studio. However, he was the inspiration for a very famous Disney prince. Can you guess which one? Turns out that Aladdin was based on the actor!

While providing commentary for the 2004 DVD release of the film, producers revealed that executive Jeffrey Katzenberg decided that the animation should be modeled after Cruise because of his "iconic hero" look.

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What's Going On With Tom Cruise's Space Movie? Here's What Elon Musk Says

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Tom Cruise is a guy who is willing to perform incredible feats for the sake of his movies. He insists on doing his own stunts, which has resulted in Cruise free climbing buildings and jumping off cliffs. At this point, it seems the only thing Cruise hasn’t done is spacewalk, and that's potentially in the cards.There has been talk in the past about Tom Cruise filming a movie in space , but for that to happen, somebody has to be able to get him up there. On that note, Elon Musk has been linked to the production for a while and has now provided an update on its status.

The SpaceX CEO recently caught up with ET at the Breakthrough Prize ceremony and discussed a few topics with the news outlet. Eventually, he provided some thoughts on Tom Cruise's proposed space movie. The tech magnate revealed that he's spoken to the A-lister, but the latter half of his update may disappoint some people:

Tom Cruise has said he wants to do Mission: Impossible in space. We've had some discussions, but I'm not sure where his mind is at.

While Elon Musk calls it “ Mission: Impossible in space,” he’s likely conflating the actor's major franchise with the space movie idea, which as far as we know are separate projects. There have been no indications, at this point, that the Oscar nominee's plans to film a movie in space also involve the M:I franchise. Still, Musk, or somebody like him, is going to be key to a project like this. The most complex part of the whole endeavor would be figuring out how to get the Top Gun icon, any other needed actors, and all the necessary equipment, from Earth into orbit, and that's where Space X would come in.

More on Tom Cruise

Why Tom Cruise Fired Mission: Impossible’s Insurance Company

We don’t know what the upcoming Tom Cruise movie set in space would be about, and it's not even clear just how many people within his inner circle are aware of that info. While the expectation is that only part of the Cruise movie would occur in space , there are a lot of unknowns here.

Per reported details on the space movie , frequent Cruise collaborator Doug Liman is working on a script and plans to direct the project as well. Perhaps, now that Liman’s done with Road House , which he wanted a theatrical release for, he’ll have more time to dedicate to Cruise's cosmic movie.

It’s maybe not surprising that there hasn’t been a lot of movement on the actor's feature. He’s been pretty busy filming two back-to-back Mission: Impossible movies, one of which had to struggle through a global pandemic. He’s had a lot going on and probably hasn’t had the time to focus on his potential movie in outer space. His film aimed to be the first to be shot in outer space. However, a Russian production ended up winning that space race , becoming the first to shoot scenes outside of the Earth’s atmosphere.

Generally speaking, what Tom Cruise wants, Tom Cruise gets, so it seems likely that if the actor wants to shoot a movie in space, it will happen eventually. When any of this could actually happen is still very much an open question. We know that Top Gun 3 is also in development and, if Cruise does go to work on that after finishing the (now-untitled) Mission: Impossible sequel, then his dreams of heading to space (with the help of Elon Musk) will have to wait even longer.

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10 Things We Hope to Learn at CinemaCon 2024

From joker 2 and transformers to star wars and marvel, here's what we're hoping happens at the event..

CinemaCon 2024 is upon us . Another chance for Hollywood to show the most important people in their business, the people who own the movie theaters, what they have in store , and how they’re all going to make a lot of money.

The annual event kicks off in Las Vegas, NV today and as usual, io9 is on the scene to watch all the presentations, trailers, and more. In the past, CinemaCon is where Sony shared the first footage from Spider-Man: No Way Home, James Cameron revealed he was making five Avatar movies , and Warner Bros. announced The Batman Part II . It’s also the first place footage debuted from modern sci-fi gems like Arrival and The Creator . Basically, it’s a must-follow event in the world of movies.

So what does this year have in store? Well, Sony isn’t attending, which is a bummer. No Spider-Man or Madame Web sequel news then. But Universal, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, Disney, and Paramount are all showing up, and though very little has been officially confirmed, here are some things we really, really hope we learn or see at the event. They probably won’t happen, but they could, and we can dream.

The future of the Fast and Furious franchise

There are certain stars who have become mainstays of CinemaCon over the years. Stars who truly feel a connection to the exhibition community and a need to appear there to talk to them. Vin Diesel is one of those stars. And so we’re hoping, especially after some recent teases, that he stops by and explains what exactly is in store for the future of the Fast and Furiou s franchise.

When this could happen: Universal/Focus Presentation, 4-6 p.m. PT, April 10

The next big Mission: Impossible stunt

Another star who loves CinemaCon is Tom Cruise. Cruise regularly films special videos for the convention and shows never-before-seen footage. As he’s still filming Mission: Impossible 8 , we’re hoping we get our first glimpse of what that’ll be.

When this could happen: Paramount Presentation, 10-11:30 a.m. PT, April 11

Virtually anything in regards to Star Wars

Last week, Disney finally made it official that The Mandalorian & Grogu would be the next Star Wars film in Summer 2026...which was news we thought might be saved for CinemaCon. So now that that’s out - and with with Disney hosting its own convention, D23, in August - there probably will be no mention of a galaxy far, far, away. But something, anything, would be cool.

When this could happen: Disney Presentation, 2:30-4:45 p.m. PT, April 11.

Some sort of DC Universe tease

Nothing is actually coming until 2025 but with Warner Bros. now fully invested in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Universe, and with Superman filming, it might be time to give a little tease of what that means for theaters. A few seconds of footage? Some official news of new directors or films? Anything would be great. Even though it could be held for San Diego Comic-Con.

When this could happen: Warner Bros. Presentation, 4-6 p.m. PT, April 9

Jurassic confirmation

We know for sure that Universal is developing a new Jurassic World film. Gareth Edwards is directing. Scarlett Johansson is... probably starring... and it’s coming next year. But what’s it about? What’s it called? CinemaCon would be a great time to let everyone know.

The new Deadpool & Wolverine trailer

It’s been a few months now since the first Deadpool & Wolverine trailer. Disney’s next big genre movie , Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, is coming soon. You have to think we’re just about due for a new trailer.

The plot of Joker 2

One of the very, very few things we know for a fact we’ll be seeing at CinemaCon this week is the first trailer for Joker: Folie à Deux . Will the trailer for the October film explain what’s happening in it though? Or could info like that be saved for a more extended presentation at CinemaCon? Only one way to find out.

A newly revealed sci-fi masterpiece

One of the coolest things that happens at CinemaCon is we get our first glimpse of movies we’ve never heard of before. This happens a lot for sci-fi projects too. CinemaCon, for example, was the first place anyone saw footage from Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival , even before it was called that. It’s also where we learned about The Creator . Will this year hold a new mystery sci-fi epic? We hope so.

When this could happen: Anytime!

What Transformers One looks like

One of 2024's biggest films that we haven’t heard or seen anything from is the animated Transformers prequel, Transformers One . What does the animation look like? What do the characters looks like? Maybe CinemaCon will be the first place we catch a glimpse.

Fantastic Four confirmations

We, of course, know who is playing the Fantastic Four and when the movie is coming—but after last week’s teases about potential stories and characters, as well as the Silver Surfer casting, Disney could let the world know more about this highly anticipated film.

The studio will probably wait until D23, but maybe not.

When this could happen: Disney Presentation, 2:30-4:45 p.m. PT April 11.

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Search for an article, deep gop divides on trump; biden administration touts milestones, former president trump’s ongoing “election integrity” in 2020 crusade faces scrutiny, sanders report highlights deepening retirement crisis in america, belgium launches prosecution over russian interference in eu through mep cash payments, kesha takes a stand at coachella, revises ‘tik tok’ lyrics with reneé rapp in defiance of p. diddy, jessica chastain and anne hathaway navigate friendship on set amidst onscreen adversity, mastering the art of bathroom bliss: design essentials for a perfect space, surge in motorcycle deaths in missouri raises concerns post helmet law repeal, why diversifying your investment portfolio is crucial, revealing the beginnings of broccoli: the culinary birth story, from medical prescription to fashionable leisure: the evolution of beachgoing and sea-bathing, ai-generated food imagery found to whet appetites more than real photos, treasury’s new database hits 100,000 firms in bid to end shell company anonymity, generative ai: a new frontier for online content and legal liability, global dividends hit record high despite economic slowdown, how apple’s $500 billion buyback strategy pays off for buffett and other shareholders, netflix raises prices for basic and premium plans in u.s. and europe, dakota fanning’s enduring birthday tradition: annual gifts from tom cruise since 2005.

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Dakota Fanning has disclosed a sweet and enduring token of friendship from none other than Hollywood heavyweight Tom Cruise: an unwavering tradition of receiving birthday gifts annually since her days as a child star. The famed actress, now 30, first worked with Cruise on the blockbuster hit ‘War of the Worlds’ in 2005, and it appears that the bond formed during filming has lasted much longer than their on-screen father-daughter relationship.

During a candid interview alongside her co-star Andrew Scott for Harper’s Bazaar, Fanning reminisced about the memorable milestone from her 11th birthday on the set of Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi epic. Cruise had surprised her with a gift that was emblematic of the times, a Motorola Razr, which Fanning recalls with glee: “Oh, my God, I was so excited.” Despite acknowledging she had no one to actually call or text at that age, the gift held a sense of excitement and novelty. “You know, I was 11,” she quipped. “But I loved having it. I loved it. I felt so cool.”

But this wasn’t a one-off gesture. Cruise has maintained this thoughtful routine for over 17 years, ensuring that a gift finds its way to Fanning each year without fail. “Tom sends me a birthday gift every year, and has since that birthday,” Fanning revealed, with the most recent gift arriving to celebrate her 30th birthday. This consistency in showing appreciation and maintaining a friendship is not something you often hear about in the transient nature of Hollywood relationships.

And, while thinking about working with Cruise, Russell, and other big celebrities as a child star, Dakota told the magazine that she wasn’t intimidated because it became normal for her.

“Because I grew up familiar with being around people who would be considered ‘intimidating’ kind of, I think it might’ve numbed that side of me a little,” she said. “When you’re 8 years old you’re sort of just getting to know a person as a person and not thinking about all of the other stuff, you know?”

The ‘Twilight’ actress’s experience is not an isolated case when it comes to Cruise’s generosity. His giving spirit extends widely within his professional circle. Hayley Atwell and Pom Klementieff, Cruise’s ‘Mission: Impossible’ co-stars, have previously praised his propensity for thoughtful gifts and shared experiences. Klementieff noted that Cruise even helped her fulfill a dream of skydiving by arranging for her lessons, a testament to his personal touch when it comes to gift-giving.

“Another beautiful gift that was so thoughtful is that I wanted to skydive with him and also the stunt team, but they said that I needed to get my license. So when I wrapped the movie, he gifted me, as my wrap gift, the lessons of learning how to skydive. He found a teacher for me and I learned how to skydive and I got my license and we even did jumps together,”Pom Klementieff stated

Relevant articles: – Dakota Fanning Says Tom Cruise Has Given Her a Birthday Gift Every Year Since Working With Him in ‘War of the Worlds’ in 2005 – Tom Cruise Gave Dakota Fanning Her First Cell Phone — and Still Sends Her a Birthday Gift Every Year! , Yahoo Singapore News, Sat, 13 Apr 2024 18:59:52 GMT – “You know I was 11”: Dakota Fanning Reveals Tom Cruise Hasn’t Stopped Gifting Her on Birthdays After His First Ever Present in $603M Steven Spielberg Movie , FandomWire, Sun, 14 Apr 2024 10:11:32 GMT – Dakota Fanning reveals firsts she gets by Tom Cruise as birthday gifts , The News International, Sun, 14 Apr 2024 08:14:00 GMT

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Screen Rant

10 dc characters tom cruise would be perfect for in james gunn’s dc universe.

Tom Cruise praised DC's The Flash, and as one of the most sought-after movie stars, the actor could bring to life some amazing characters in the DCU.

• Tom Cruise's stunt experience makes him perfect for delivering groundbreaking superhero action on the big screen.
• Cruise could join DC as mentor character
• Cruise would be perfect for the Green Lantern Hal Jordan, who he has been fancast as for years.

Tom Cruise has yet to join a superhero franchise, and the actor could do so by becoming part of James Gunn's DC Universe , with Cruise's talents fitting some exciting DC characters. Cruise has become one of the most interesting movie stars to watch, with the actor consistently delivering crowd-pleasing movies that also score well with critics . Some movies helped define Cruise's career , with his action role in the Mission Impossible franchise as Ethan Hunt being his most popular character.

Throughout seven Mission Impossible movies so far, Cruise has shown that he has a knack for stunts like few actors. At DC, the star could deliver some of the most complex and impactful action sequences superhero movies have ever seen. Further tying Cruise to DC is the fact that he was one of the people who watched 2023's The Flash before its release and sang heavy praise for the film . Cruise also signed a deal to produce and star in original and franchise movies for Warner Bros., making his debut in future DC movies possible.

10 Best Tom Cruise Movies, Ranked

10 the human target, the actor would be great for a noir story.

James Gunn has assembled an all-star roster of writers to help him craft the DCU . Among them is DC Comics' Tom King, who Gunn revealed was one of the first people who read his script for the Superman reboot movie and has praised several of his comics at DC. King and artist Greg Smallwood created the perfect DC limited series for Cruise to star in the DCU.

Cruise would be a solid choice to take on the role of Christopher Chance, aka the Human Target. The character can disguise himself as anybody he signs on to serve as a bodyguard — using realistic masks like Cruise's Ethan Hunt does in the Mission Impossible movies — putting himself in danger to protect his clients. DC Comics' "The Human Target" followed Chance as a PI unraveling the mystery of his own murder, and the noir story would fit Cruise's nuanced acting style, evoking his early career work .

9 The Flash (Jay Garrick)

Cruise would be a great mentor to other heroes.

Another hero Cruise could be great as is Jay Garrick, the original bearer of the Flash mantle . Cruise already has a connection to the speedster through his praise for Ezra Miller's The Flash movie, which means the actor could be inclined to take on a role within that side of the franchise. Cruise's running in his movies has also become a popular trait of his, so having him play a version of the Flash in the DCU would be a fun bit of casting in that way.

More importantly, Cruise has the skills to be one of the best mentors in the DCU. In Top Gun: Maverick , Cruise excelled as a famous action hero who was now in charge of training the next generation . Cruise's Jay Garrick could follow that same line, helping Barry Allen, Wally West, and any other possible Flashes to reach top form thanks to his years of expertise.

8 Green Lantern (Alan Scott)

The role could make a long-time fan request come true.

Cruise could also be an interesting pick for another original bearer of an iconic DC hero title — the Green Lantern Alan Scott. While Cruise has never been part of a superhero franchise, he has often been fancast in Marvel and DC roles. His most popular DC fan casting has been as Green Lantern , and given the actor's age, the 61-year-old Cruise might be able to make that dream from fans come true as the veteran version of Green Lantern.

10 Marvel Characters Tom Cruise Would Be Perfect For After Losing Iron Man Role 18 Years Ago

With Nathan Fillion playing Guy Gardner in Superman and Hal Jordan & John Stewart confirmed for DC's Lanterns series , it could be possible for Alan Scott to be included in the franchise. Cruise would be a big name to be part of the DCU's Justice Society of America , helping give the universe another major team other than the Justice League.

7 The Question

The actor has the right energy for the role.

Tom Cruise has the kind of hand-to-hand fighting experience and talent in darker roles that would make him perfect to take on a street-level vigilante in the DCU. That character could be Vic Sage, aka The Question. It would be interesting to see Cruise truly lose himself in the role, as The Question's signature mask would make it so the actor's face would not be on-screen as much as one would imagine DC would want it to be.

Still, The Question would be a fitting role for Cruise. Vic Sage has become known as a paranoid character, always doubting others and what is happening. Cruise has the kind of manic energy in some of his roles that would be perfect for The Question. Cruise's version of the character could be intriguing, creepy, and cool, all at the same time .

6 John Constantine

The justice league dark could finally debut.

While DC is currently developing Keanu Reeves' return as the Hellblazer in Constantine 2 , there is plenty of space for both him and Cruise to play John Constantine. That is because Constantine 2 will not be part of the new DC Universe canon, with the project being developed as one of DC's new Elseworlds movies . Keanu could have his own Constantine franchise, while Cruise would play the character in the DCU.

DC Just Raised The Bar For Constantine 2

Cruise can play a snarky, smart, and cunning character like Constantine to perfection , with roles in movies like Interview with the Vampire giving a taste of what such a performance would be like. Fans have requested the live-action debut of the Justice League Dark for some time. With DC's Swamp Thing movie confirmed, the team could be part of the DCU, and a high-profile name like Cruise as Constantine would elevate the team's status.

5 Doctor Fate

The dceu's version was great.

While Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam was not the major DCEU event that the actor had promoted for years, the movie had some great casting. Black Adam 's most exciting character was Pierce Brosnan's Doctor Fate , with the Justice Society of America hero being extremely powerful, wise, and gentle. Sadly, Doctor Fate died in Black Adam , which likely would have ruled out a return from Brosnan in the role for a future project.

The new DC Universe could theoretically leave the death behind, bringing back Brosnan. However, only a handful of actors seem to be returning for the new universe. If Doctor Fate is in the DCU, then having a new actor of the same caliber as Brosnan would be the most likely move for the role. Cruise fulfills those prerequisites, with the actor's charisma being a great fit for Kent Nelson .

Tom Cruise Could Be Set Loose As The Villain

Tom Cruise has made a successful career out of playing heroic characters, such as Ethan Hunt in the Mission Impossible movies or Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in the Top Gun franchise. However, that is not the full scope of the star's acting skills. Cruise also has some magnetic and unsettling roles as villains in his filmography, with his character in Collateral showing that the actor would be a great fit for multiple DC foes.

One of those roles could be the Batman villain Two-Face. Cruise can easily play the charismatic Harvey Dent, who wants to use the law to clean up Gotham City. Adding to that, the actor could give life to a truly unpredictable Two-Face when Dent inevitably snaps . Cruise has the energy to make Two-Face one of the most frightening villains in the DCU, and having the actor appear in Batman movies would be a recipe for box office juggernauts.

3 Reverse-Flash

The character could make cruise a major dcu villain.

Another villain Cruise would be perfect for is the Flash's nemesis — Reverse-Flash. As a fan of the DCEU's The Flash movie , Cruise could be inclined to play the evil speedster if offered the part, with the actor having the skills to make Eobard Thawne a major threat. While Cruise's Reverse-Flash could be the main foe of the DCU's Flash Family, with the inclusion of Superman & Supergirl and the Bat-Family pointing to the Flash Family being likely, he could play a greater DCU role.

Director Zack Snyder revealed that his original DCEU plans included Reverse-Flash being the universe's surprise main villain. The character is certainly one who is smart and powerful enough to pose a threat to all DCU heroes and the fabric of reality itself. Cruise could make that idea come true in the new DCU, with the big-name actor being perfect to serve as the DCU's main villain .

2 Ozymandias

The dcu could use the watchmen.

While not exactly part of the main DC canon, Watchmen is a property that has crossed over into the greater DC universe in the comics . "Doomsday Clock" from DC Comics brought together characters like Doctor Manhattan, Ozymandias, and Rorschach with DC icons such as Superman and Batman. After a popular movie and a critically acclaimed limited series, Watchmen could be brought back as part of the DCU by Gunn and team.

Doctor Manhattan is a character who would fit thematically with the DCU's Chapter One, titled "Gods and Monsters," and the reflections it sets up. Essentially playing god in Watchmen , Ozymandias would be another great DCU addition. Cruise would excel in the role, with the actor being able to make the character's complex nature shine on the big screen, having fun with Adrian Veidt's intellect and arrogance.

1 Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)

Tom cruise's perfect dcu role.

Finally, the perfect DCU role for Cruise is the Green Lantern Hal Jordan. The only live-action version of the character so far comes from the criticized 2011 Green Lantern movie starring Ryan Reynolds. As the most popular version of the DC hero, Hal deserves more than that, and after the DCEU never used the character, the DCU has confirmed Hal Jordan will debut in the Lanterns series .

Casting Hal Jordan For The DCU Green Lantern Reboot

Cruise has been fancast as Hal Jordan for years , and it is easy to see why. The actor's role as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in the Top Gun franchise is basically a tease of how perfect he would be as the Green Lantern. Cruise would excel as DC's confident and charming test pilot-turned-Green Lantern. With the 53-year-old Nathan Fillion playing Guy Gardner — a Green Lantern younger than Hal Jordan — there is hope for Tom Cruise to play Hal in the DCU.

DC Universe

The DC Universe is one of the biggest comic book franchises and often competes with Marvel. DC Comics started as National Allied Publications, founded by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson in 1935. Since then, the franchise has exploded with thousands of comic books, movies, TV shows, and video games. 2013 marked the beginning of the most recent iteration of the superheroes, with Zack Snyder introducing Henry Cavill as Superman. After several movies with mixed reviews, DC underwent a soft reboot under the helm of James Gunn and Peter Safran.

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