Tom Cruise is the epitome of an adrenaline junkie – the only fierce actor who performs his own stunts, even if they plunge him to death. Every stunt of his is anxiety-induced and almost stops your heartbeat to know the behind-the-scenes of the action sequences. Moreover, his passion and dedication to his craft are praiseworthy and with each sequence there is perfection. It is not even an exaggeration to say that no other actor can do what Cruise has achieved in his work.
The man of action – Tom Cruise never shies away from dangerous and gruesome stunts. It is a delight to watch him drive the car over a cliff, leaping across rooftops and sprinting away from explosions, but Cruise takes it too far with his addiction to hyper-realistic action sequences.
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Mission Impossible (1996)
The most iconic part of the ‘Mission Impossible‘ franchise is hands down when Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) attempts to infiltrate the CIA Headquarters. In order to clear his name, Ethan must retrieve the NOC list and will stop at nothing to recover the document.
Ethan is suspended out of the overhead vent and has to avoid setting off any alarm in place, even the tiniest unprovoked action puts the entire operation at risk. This nail-biting tension is executed so well as various hurdles are thrown at Ethan such as a pesky rat, beads of sweat, and Krieger’s butterfingers, which result in Ethan dropping a mere centimeter from the floor. It is the scene that makes the film epic, eliminating all sounds excepts Cruise’s breaths of exertion. This scene is shot so perfectly that it shows how far can an actor go to secure such a shot.
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011)
Ethan Hunt seems to enjoy making his life difficult. In order to evade security and hack a server, the team chooses to have Ethan clamber his way up a building. Tom Cruise has a hankering when it comes to performing his own stunts. This stunt – climbing up the Burj Khalifa not only proved to be extremely dangerous but also went on to become a controversial career move within the ‘Mission Impossible‘ franchise.
Initially, the ‘Ghost Protocal’s insurance team was denied permission for this particular and controversial stunt. However, Tom Cruise flew solo and sourced his own company to give him the go-ahead. Despite being dangerous, Cruise pulled it off beautifully and smoothly which resulted in a pretty cool stunt.
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Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015)
Any stunt related to water is risky and height is dangerous as it requires one to hold the breath. While fans saw Tom Cruise soaring in the sky and climbing tall buildings like the Burj Khalifa, ‘Rogue Nation‘ saw Cruise underwater with very little support. This underwater stunt also tops the deadly Burj Khalifa action sequence.
First suspended by wires or gripping onto various barriers, Ethan Hunt goes underwater. Hunt has to access a secure vault in order to swap out some personnel data. And since it’s the ‘Mission Impossible‘ franchise acquiring data has to be in a difficult location – hence underwater. It can be accessed by diving through a giant vertical tunnel. Also, the security alarms were set to go off if any metal was sensed in the vault’s perimeter, meaning no air tanks. Which led Ethan to hold his breath for at least three minutes to pull off this heist. But Cruise adapted himself to hold his breath for a whole six minutes. This move is risky even for veteran divers.
Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)
It’s in ‘Mission Impossible‘ films where Tom Cruise has proven to be a daredevil. One of the most squish and nerve-wracking scenes was from the 2000 film ‘Mission: Impossible 2‘. This scene proves that there is no limit for Tom Cruise when it comes to action sequences and he can go to a great extent to deliver a gut-wrenching scene.
Tom Cruise doesn’t appear to be afraid to face real danger. To make the scene realistic, the actor uses a real blade, which heightens the risk of injury. Cruise excels in creating a truly tense environment for the fans as well as the crew.
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning- Part 1
The director of ‘Mission Impossible 8‘, Christopher McQuarrie revealed that it has by far the most dangerous thing they have ever attempted. Tom Cruise earlier survived a halo jump, held his breath underwater for six minutes, climbed Burj Khalifa, and hung from the aircraft breaking his ankles in the process. But the trailer of the upcoming Mission Impossible promises more insane stunts like fighting between train compartments. And, the motorcycle stunt tops it all off.
It has to be the most dangerous and near-death stunt of Cruise’s career. Jumping off a cliff on a motorcycle just a mere seconds before the ground impact is no child’s play. And still, Cruise got no stunt double. It took months to train for the stunt, something Cruise wanted to do since childhood. Before the actual jump, he did skydives just to get a feel of the rock bowl and he had to get out after safely deploying his parachute.
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