Tom Cruise admits he was terrified during airplane stunt in new Mission: Impossible film

By Rick Marshall April 22, 2015

Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation - Fate

Tom Cruise has his detractors, but one thing you can’t fault the actor for is his willingness to risk life and limb to add another level of realism to a cinematic stunt.

Case in point: When a scene in the upcoming Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation called for Cruise’s secret-agent character Ethan Hunt to cling to the side of an airplane as it takes off, the veteran actor soon found himself hanging from an Airbus A400M aircraft 5,000 feet in the air. It was a feat he pulled off not once but eight times for the dramatic, death-defying sequence.

“I’ve always wanted to do that,” laughed Cruise during a presentation of behind-the-scenes footage from Rogue Nation at the recent CinemaCon film convention (as reported by Variety). “I want to keep audiences on the edge of their seats.”

In order to make it happen, Cruise had to wear special contact lenses that would allow him to keep his eyes open amid all of the wind, and the crew had to find ways to prevent birds from colliding with the actor and avoid bathing him in fumes from the jet fuel.

“I’m actually scared shitless,” said Cruise while narrating footage of him prepping for the sequence.

In the past, Cruise’s willingness — and desire — to perform many of his own stunts has resulted in him hanging from the dizzying heights of Dead Horse Point, Utah (in Mission: Impossible 2), and running along the outside of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai (for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol).

“He’s actually out there doing these things,” said Paramount Pictures Vice-Chairman Rob Moore, during the presentation.

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation hits theaters July 31, 2015.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…

Entertainment

Is Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 streaming?

Tom Cruise looks and stares in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.

It's been five years since the release of Mission: Impossible - Fallout, but the latest film in the series has finally arrived. Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie have reunited for the new sequel, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1, and this is a story that has finally given Ethan Hunt (Cruise) a foe that he can't easily dispatch. The Entity is something that Ethan has never had to contend with before, and it will push him and his team to their limits.

Mission: Impossible regulars Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and Rebecca Ferguson are all back as Luther Stickell, Benji Dunn, and Ilsa Faust, respectively. Vanessa Kirby also reprises her role from Fallout as the White Widow, Alanna Mitsopolis. And for the first time since the original Mission: Impossible film in 1996, Henry Czerny has returned as IMF director Eugene Kittridge.

Entertainment

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1’s ending, explained

Tom Cruise and Hayley Atwell turn around in a small car, looking concerned.

Nearly three years ago, director Christopher McQuarrie started filming Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1, and it's been a long journey to get this sequel on the big screen. Franchise star Tom Cruise has been headlining the Mission: Impossible films since 1996 with increasingly risky stunts and over-the-top action that has kept audiences coming back for more. But Dead Reckoning Part 1 takes things to another level with a story that is too big for a single movie.

By most accounts, Dead Reckoning's two-movie adventure will mark the end of Cruise's Ethan Hunt and his time in the Impossible Mission Force. When the ending comes around for Part 1, Ethan's team has been forever changed, and even bigger challenges lie ahead in Part 2. If you need help making sense of it all, then you've come to the right place because we're about to dive in. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to keep reading, preferably after you've already seen Dead Reckoning Part 1.

Entertainment

All the Mission: Impossible movies, ranked from worst to best

Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt hanging above the floor in Mission: Impossible.

In 1996, Tom Cruise starred in two movies. One of those movies, Jerry Maguire, earned the actor his second Oscar nomination. The other film was Mission: Impossible, a film that drastically changed the course of his career. As Ethan Hunt, Mission: Impossible elevated Cruise into a bonafide action star, as he started his transition from dramatic and comedic movies to more action and sci-fi films.

Thirty years later, the Mission: Impossible franchise remains one of the most consistent series in Hollywood. Mission: Impossible continues to raise the stakes with each entry as Cruise risks his life with each death-defying stunt, all in the name of entertainment. Before Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, we have a task for you to complete. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to read the Mission: Impossible movie rankings below and discover which one is the best in the series. Cue the theme song.