There doesn’t seem to be any stunt that is too dangerous for Tom Cruise to attempt. And while just one of the stunts he’s performed for the Mission: Impossible franchise would be enough of a feat for most actors, they’re just jumping-off points for Cruise.
Ghost Protocol saw Cruise scale the world’s tallest building, while the motorcycle chase in Rogue Nation left viewers with their jaws dropped. But these stunts were nothing compared to the high-speed train chase and motorcycle-riding off a cliff in Dead Reckoning – Part 1. So, of course, the ante had to upped for Dead Reckoning – Part 2.
“It took decades to figure out, honestly,” Cruise explained on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The stunt in question? Holding onto the wing of an airplane as it flew up to 150 mph.
Footage From His Childhood was the Crazy Inspiration Behind the Insane Stunt
While viewers have seen brief glimpses of the stunt in the Mission: ImpossibleâDead ReckoningâPart 2 trailer, the extent of the scene has been kept hidden to attract people to the theater. “We release little pieces as we go along to give the audience what it’s like,” he told Fandango. “On purpose, we’re just showing little pieces. We’re not going to show them; you have to go see the movie.”
Cruise first got the idea for holding onto the airplane after seeing black-and-white footage of wing-walking as a kid. “I was even younger [than 8]; I don’t know what age I was when I saw it,” Cruise said. I remember the aircraft and seeing them do it.”
As a kid, he thought he’d love to do that. Decades later, he has.
But Cruise, being the thrill seeker he is, knew the speeds of the plane he’d be on would be much faster. Those aircraft were traveling a lot slower than these airplanes. These are 80-year-old aircraft,” he said. “But the speeds that we were ranging were from 97 mph to 145 mph.”
Tom Cruise Explains Intense Rigors of Wingwalking Scene
When he and director Christopher McQuarrie decided that the final film would include an aerial sequence with wingwalking, they began creating Cruise’s vision. “We chose the airplane, and I know how to fly that airplane and figure it out. And we just start seeing how can I get zero-G between the wings and what can we do,” Cruise told Fallon.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever had your hand outside a window going about 145 miles an hour,” he said. “Well, 60 miles an hour and then, you know, multiply it. But feel the force of it. It was pretty intense, I’ve got to say.”
Of course, the pressure from the wind in his face made breathing extremely difficult. “So I had to figure out how you’re taking the wind, and you’re breathing down here like this,” he said, demonstrating how he had to hold his head down and away.
They also ran into other issues. Due to the “brutal” wind, he and McQuarrie had to communicate using hand signals instead of words. They also had to find a solution to stop the plane’s engine when it went upside down. “We spent a lot of time figuring this out,” Cruise admitted.
Looking back on his career and all of his stunts, he realized that it was all leading up to this moment, this one stunt.
“Like, I fly all these airplanes, and I’ve been creating and building different aerial stuff even privately and studying cameras and developing the technique and technology to be able to tell a story with aerials,” he said. “Because if you look at Top Gun, American Made, Fallout, that led into Top Gun: Maverick, and this leads into this aerial sequence.”
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