Tom Cruise, who will be 60 next year, is still doing his own stunts. It would actually be more of a stunt if he hired a stuntman at this point.
The actor is currently filming the eighth (!) installment in the Mission: Impossible series, and some pictures are out featuring the 5′ 7” actor hanging from a biplane and generally laughing in the face of death.
But the flip side of being notorious for doing your own stunts is that you’re bound to get hurt in the process.
“I am a very physical actor, and I love doing them,” Cruise said on The Graham Norton Show. “I study and train and take a lot of time figuring it all out. I have broken a lot of bones. The first time of any stunt is nerve-wracking, but it is also exhilarating. I have been told a few times during shooting a stunt to stop smiling.” The smiling is a bit much.
Cruise’s latest stunt involves him hanging upside on the wing of an airplane. The jet flips upside down and he’s then sitting upright for some reason. It looks pretty wild. And also scary. Cruise maybe doesn’t fear death. He’s obviously operating on another level and no vessel of the sea or sky can contain him.
Cruise is hanging off a 1941 Boeing B75N1 Stearman biplane at 2,000 feet and attached to the plane with a harness. He is estimated to be worth $600 million. There is no reason for him to be doing this except that he is wild and should be studied. The Eyes Wide Shut actor is also taking flying lessons, because why wouldn’t he?
The stunt is for the upcoming movie Mission: Impossible 8, which will come out sometime in 2023. But before that, we’ll see Cruise next in Mission: Impossible 7, currently slated for a 2022 release after COVID-19 pushed back the schedule.
Cruise is likely psyched to make Mission: Impossible movies for much longer than the lifespan of your Peloton, but that’s just how it is for a multimillionaire that chooses to stand on top of the tallest building in the world instead of taking a bubble bath.