Tom Cruise ‘begged’ Mission Impossible director to perform ‘insane’ stunt alone

Tom Cruise is gearing up to release his eighth Mission: Impossible movie next month – Dead Reckoning Part One – where he will be seen carrying out how most death-defying stunt yet.

The movie will show him driving a motorbike off a cliff before parachuting to safety.

This is the latest in a long line of frivolous and dangerous stunts Cruise has carried out in the spy franchise.

But the first (and perhaps most memorable) stunt was brought to screens in Mission: Impossible 2 when Cruise scaled a mountain without any equipment.

The movie’s director, John Woo, tried to talk him out of it though. “I refused,” he told Letterboxd. “I was angry and worried.”

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Woo, who is known for directing Broken Arrow and Face/Off, went on: “I think the most dangerous and scary moment was when we were shooting Mission: Impossible 2, and Tom Cruise climbed 2,000 feet up a cliff by himself.”

He added that Cruise “didn’t allow him” to use any stunt doubles.

“He wanted to do all of the action by himself,” Woo said. “It was insane!”

Woo revealed Cruise was “begging” him to do the sky-high stunt.

“I was so scared,” the director continued. “I couldn’t even bear to watch the monitor. But we set it all up, and he’s climbing up there by himself, and I’m sitting there praying: ‘Jesus, please don’t let anything happen.’

“He had no protection, so it was very scary, very dangerous. But the scene turned out really great.”

Cruise’s stunt, of course, went perfectly, and the final product is an incredible feat – but it only got him started in the world of Mission: Impossible stunts.

Since then, he has run up the Burj Khalifa building in Dubai, hung off the side of a flying plane, and carried out dozens of HALO jumps from a cargo plane.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One hits cinemas on July 10, 2023.