Tom Cruise Forces Director onto Plane Wing to Prove Stunt Feasibility

Legendary actor Tom Cruise has truly redefined the term "impossible" with the Mission: Impossible series, and the eighth installment, Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, promises to raise the bar even higher. During a recent press conference in Tokyo, Cruise revealed that director Christopher McQuarrie challenged him with stunts that were genuinely impossible. To drive home the difficulty, Cruise even had McQuarrie attempt the stunt himself.

"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,'" Cruise explained. "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 elaborated on the stunt, noting its deceptive simplicity. "Anything you'd describe, [he'd] say, 'No, you actually can't do that.' And I don't hear 'can't' from him."

Cruise, a veteran of death-defying stunts in the M:I films, explained the physical limitations he faced. "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 said. A 20-minute tutorial helped McQuarrie grasp the challenge. "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.'"

To his surprise, McQuarrie enjoyed the experience. "It was great, actually," he said. "Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I would definitely do it again." Cruise also shared that he had been training for this stunt for years, emphasizing that selecting the right aircraft was crucial for executing the stunt successfully.

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.