Tom Cruise Forces Director to Walk Plane Wing for Stunt Proof

Legendary actor Tom Cruise has truly redefined the term "impossible" with the Mission: Impossible series, and he's set to raise the stakes even higher with the eighth installment, Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning. In a fascinating twist, Cruise shared that director Christopher McQuarrie proposed some genuinely impossible stunts for the film. To drive home the difficulty, Cruise had McQuarrie attempt the stunt himself.

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

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

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

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

Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning is set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival from May 13 to May 24, 2025, and will hit theaters worldwide on May 23, 2025.