The Death-Defying Mission: Impossible Stunt Tom Cruise Agreed to When He Thought His Director Was Joking

Tom Cruise has built his career on a daredevil reputation, pushing the boundaries of what’s physically possible — and what studios are willing to insure. From nearly being decapitated in The Last Samurai to flying a fighter jet at 600 mph in Top Gun: Maverick, the actor has made a habit of turning high-risk stunts into box-office spectacle. But one of his most dangerous feats in the Mission: Impossible series didn’t start as a carefully planned set piece. It began as a joke.

In Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015), Cruise clings to the side of an Airbus A400M as it takes off — a sequence that has become one of the franchise’s most iconic images. According to Cruise, speaking to Empire in 2025, the idea came from director Christopher McQuarrie during a casual moment on set.

“McQ was like, ‘Oh, look at this airplane, how would you like to hang off that airplane?’” Cruise recalled with a grin. “I said, ‘Sure!’ He later told me he was joking.”

Whether Cruise missed the humor or simply latched onto the challenge, the stunt quickly went from absurd suggestion to meticulously engineered reality. The safety concerns were extreme: any debris kicked up from the runway could strike the actor, a loose camera could become a lethal projectile, and the forces of takeoff would be unlike anything Cruise had endured on film.

“We had to go through a tremendous amount of engineering to make sure that if anything happened, the camera wouldn’t come off and hit me and kill me,” Cruise explained. The production even cleaned the runway to remove any dust or stones and devised protective “square lenses” for Cruise’s eyes, which allowed for close-ups but left him nearly blind during the take.

Adding to the tension, Cruise didn’t tell his mother about the stunt. And before the cameras rolled on the first of what would become eight separate takes, he gave McQuarrie one final instruction: “Listen, man. No matter what, don’t stop. If I look scared, I’m acting. Don’t stop. I’m gonna do this.”

He did — repeatedly — delivering a jaw-dropping sequence that would become a high-water mark for Mission: Impossible’s escalating stunt work. What began as a throwaway joke ended up as one of the riskiest moments of Cruise’s career, a testament to the actor’s unshakable commitment to doing the impossible… and doing it for real.

If you want, I can also prepare a franchise-focused sidebar ranking Cruise’s most dangerous Mission: Impossible stunts, with behind-the-scenes details for each. That would fit perfectly alongside this piece for entertainment coverage.