Tom Cruise Executes High-Risk Airplane Stunt in New ‘Mission: Impossible’ Trailer

The actor hangs upside-down from a plane in flight in the eighth installment of the action-packed franchise, slated for a May 23 release.

Tom Cruise attends the premiere of "Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One" at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater in New York on July 10, 2023. Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures

The latest trailer for “Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning” has arrived, previewing what could mark the final chapter in Tom Cruise’s three-decade run as action hero Ethan Hunt.

Paramount Pictures released the new footage on April 8, highlighting Cruise’s signature death-defying stunts, including a scene in which the 62-year-old actor hangs upside-down from a flying airplane—at times using only one hand.

According to IMDB, the film will arrive in theaters on May 23. The trailer features ominous warnings to Hunt from various characters: “If we want to bring the world back from the brink, we have to deal with him,” one says. Another warns, “Your team has been betrayed, Ethan. All your secrets, compromised.”

Cruise, known for performing his own stunts throughout the “Mission: Impossible” series, detailed the extreme training required for such sequences.

“When you stick your face out [of an airplane], going over 120 to 130 miles an hour, you’re not getting oxygen,” he told Empire magazine. “So I had to train myself how to breathe. There were times I would pass out physically. I was unable to get back into the cockpit.”

Director Christopher McQuarrie, who has helmed the franchise since 2015’s “Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation,” told Empire in February that the stunts performed in the film “will melt your brain.”

“There would be a day in Africa—any day in Africa—where Tom would go out and do something that topped anything he had ever done before,” he said.

The ensemble cast for “The Final Reckoning” includes Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn, Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell, and Pom Klementieff as the assassin Paris.

“The Final Reckoning” follows last year’s “Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One,” which earned more than $571 million at the global box office, according to Box Office Mojo.

Cruise’s Commitment to Stunt Work

Cruise’s dedication to performing his own stunts has long been a defining aspect of his career. The actor’s extreme stunts have become one of the key elements that separate the “Mission: Impossible” franchise from other action films.

The Golden Globe-winning actor reached a new peak in the opening sequence of “Rogue Nation.” Cruise’s plane stunt in the film, which saw him hanging from the side of a real Airbus during takeoff, was described by the actor as “undoubtedly the most dangerous thing I’ve ever done.”

McQuarrie recounted how the concept came to be while searching for shooting locations. “The production designer James Bissell bought me a model of this Airbus airplane and presented it as something we could use in the movie,” McQuarrie explained in an interview with Yahoo UK. “I suggested to Tom, ‘What if you were on the outside of this thing when it took off?’ I meant it as sort of a half-joke, but he said back to me, ‘Yeah, I could do that!’”

Cruise has also performed dangerous stunts outside the “Mission: Impossible” franchise. While filming the 2010 action-comedy “Knight and Day,” Cruise and actress Cameron Diaz found themselves in one of their most unforgettable on-screen moments.

In one scene, the two speed through narrow streets on a motorcycle, weaving through chaos while a herd of bulls charges behind them. The high-stakes stunt, which placed Cruise at the wheel and Diaz hanging on behind him, was performed solely by the two stars.

Cruise admitted it was a nerve-wracking experience. “I always thought I wanted to run with the bulls until I was on a motorcycle doing it, running and getting ping-ponged into walls with big bulls in front of us,” he told Irish Independent. “I was just thinking to myself, ‘Do not go down on this motorcycle with Cameron on the back.’”