TOM CRUISE has kept audiences on the edge of their seats for more than a quarter century.
From hanging out of planes to scaling the world’s tallest building - the actor’s death-defying stunts get riskier with every Mission: Impossible release.
And now, ahead of the release of new film Dead Reckoning Part One on Monday, the Ethan Hunt actor has offered a peek behind his most jaw dropping stunts.
In the special interview for Sky, Tom Cruise: Impossible Missions, the Hollywood star jokes: “What’s my secret?
"I am just trying not to get it wrong.
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When I first said I wanted to do Mission Impossible, there was some scepticism – it was a TV show, but a cancelled TV show.
“But there was something about being able to produce a movie where I could create a different kind of action.
"Luckily, they trusted me and here we are.”
Here, Jessica Lester looks at some of Tom’s biggest stunts as the movie daredevil and co-stars Simon Pegg and Hayley Atwell chart his maddest.
Fallout (2018), Plane Jump
Tom said: “The jump was at 25,000ft. It was all one shot. I had to pull off (my oxygen), and if I have a problem with oxygen, that’s a real problem.
"I’m travelling at a high speed – I have to move within a few inches. I am framing myself into this close up and I’m looking down.
"It was very challenging, we had about a minute every day to figure out how to do it.
"Crew was like, ‘Did we get the shot or not?’ Something like 108 jumps just to get that. You want that real shot.”
Mission: Impossible (1996), Smashed Water Tank
Tom said: “We wrote this scene right before we shot it; this tank blowing up, look at how much water.
"Because of the glass, (we did it) only once.
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"We are getting out and a piece of glass cut my ankle while I was sprinting out.”
Mission: Impossible III (2006), Truck Missile Slam
Tom said: "There was a wire, a hard pull slamming me into the car.
"There was a piece of tape, and I knew when I hit that piece of tape, I got pulled. Slam!
"I was like, ‘Get rid of the tape’, beause in earlier takes I flinched.
"I’ll start running, you slam me into the car.
"Just get it over with’. It really hurt!”
Mission: Impossible 2 (2000), Cliff Face Climb
Tom said: “It was so much fun the studio did NOT want me shooting this.
"I literally jumped from one cliff to the other. That was tricky. It was fun to hang off the rock.
"There wasn’t a radio where I could communicate to anyone if there was a problem so they couldn’t see it. It was awesome.”
Ghost Protocol (2011), Scaling the Burj Khalifa
Tom said: “You can’t fake this. To train for it, I built three storeys of the Burj Khalifa on a sound stage.
"They lifted the windows out, originally they only approved us taking out two windows but as it went through I said, ‘If you lift this out I can get the camera here and I can jump over the camera’.
"We ended up taking out 24 windows. Safety officers did not want us to do that.
"So we found a safety officer that would say yes.”
Rogue Nation (2015), Army Plane Take Off
Tom said: “I couldn’t even keep my eyes open because of the fuel.
"Any kind of particle when you’re travelling at that speed, it can go through you.
"When I first did it, I had a rock come through and luckily it just hit my ribs.
"Had it gone up it could’ve gone through my skull. It was like, ‘What’s going to happen?’”
Dead Reckoning (2023), Mountain Bike Cliff Jump
Tom said: “The first day of filming was this jump.
"As you’re opening your parachute, you don’t know, it could throw you into the side of the mountain.
"And I’m acting too, I’m thinking about what I’m doing, I have to hold on long enough for the cameras before I let go.”
- Tom Cruise: Impossible Missions airs tonight on Sky Max at 7pm.
