These are the craziest, death-defying Tom Cruise stunts
"With Tom, there are no limits."

BY NOW, I think we’ve all come to learn that Tom Cruise is a little mad when it comes to doing his own stunts. In the name of “cinema”, Cruise is the first person to tell you that what you are seeing — whether it’s riding a motorbike off a cliff, climbing down the Burj Khalifa or hanging from the outside of a plane — is all him, proving that the 61-year old is beyond nuts. But hey, the end result produces some pretty compelling action sequences.
But now, Cruise has taken things to the next level by partaking in one of the most dangerous sports in the world: SpeedFlying. As part of a sequence for his new film Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, Cruise is seen in the video below gliding and spiralling at extreme speeds (up to 80km per hour) where anything could go wrong.
It begs the question: what are the craziest stunts Cruise has done? Well, we’ve ranked the actor/stuntman’s most daring sequences below.
1. SpeedFlying
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1
“With Tom, there are no limits,” says Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One writer and director, Christopher McQuarrie. In the video below, it’s explained that Cruise is doing his own SpeedFlying stunt — a sport very few people in this world partake in due to its danger level. Unlike sky diving, SpeedFlying is fast, unpredictable and can be incredibly dangerous. Cruise trained years for this sequence, which is included in his latest Mission Impossible epic.
2. Holding Onto the Outside of a Plane
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
One of the wildest scenes from the whole Mission: Impossible franchise, Tom Cruise was crazy enough to actually hold onto the outside of an Airbus plane in Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation (2015). The stunt was shot within 48 hours, with the plane taking off and landing 8 times before getting the perfect take. According to the actor, the plane was going so fast, that at one point a tiny pebble hit him in the rib, nearly shattering it. He also said that if something were to go wrong mid-scene, he would have to remain outside until the plane landed.
That’s some dedication, folks.

3. Helicopter Chase
Mission: Impossible – Fallout
In the 2018 blockbuster, Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt takes the wheel of an out-of-control helicopter and proceeds to go on a high-speed chase weaving through the picturesque Southern Alps of New Zealand. Naturally, Tom Cruise is actually flying the helicopter. Surprised? We’re not. Cruise’s stunt coordinator, Wade Eastwood, said: “If you let go of the instruments normally on a green screen, you’re not going to crash, nothing happens. You let go [and say] ‘sorry, cut, let me do another one.’ On this, if you let go of the instruments, you’re crashing, you’re dead.”

4. Scaling the Burj Khalifa
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
How about this one for the resume: Tom Cruise scaled the world’s tallest building as a stunt for Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol. The stunt, which makes for an amazing sequence, is credited in helping reinvigorate the Mission: Impossible franchise when it was released in 2011.
If you haven’t seen Cruise scale, run, cling onto and smash through a window of the iconic Burj, we highly recommend you watching the clip below.
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