Tom Cruise is no stranger to danger. In fact, he likes it that way. The Mission Impossible star prides himself on performing as many of his own stunts as he possibly can – even when they put his life at serious risk.
Even for someone as fit as Tom, 62, defying the laws of gravity can have hazardous consequences. But he won’t listen to anyone’s warnings, even from his children, because he’s addicted to the adrenaline rush, an insider exclusively tells In Touch.
“Tom seems to think he’s invincible,” the insider says.
While filming the next installment of the star’s Mission Impossible franchise, the A-list aviator was spotted hanging from an upside-down biplane mid-air.
“He’s had his pilot’s license since 1994 and owns several planes but this is beyond dangerous,” the insider tells. “What he’s doing crosses the line.”
Production on the eighth piece of the Mission Impossible story was briefly stalled due to the SAG-AFTRA strike in 2023 but picked up again recently. Tom has been filming in the U.K., where he currently resides, along with Esai Morales, who plays the antagonist in the upcoming film.
“A lot of his peers increasingly rely on stunt doubles especially when they get to a certain age, and Tom does do it to a limited capacity, but mostly does his own impossible feats,” the insider says of the Top Gun star’s daredevil streak.
“He pretends to be an action man, but the truth of the matter is he’s risking life.”
Tom is familiar with the perils of performing one’s own stunts. To date, he’s scaled the Dubai skyscraper Burj Khalifa, clung onto the side of a flying plane, drove a motorcycle off a cliff, smashed into the side of a car, learned to fly a helicopter and then flew one down the side of a mountain, dangled 2,000 feet over the edge of a rock face, and landed in water after a parachute drop, to name a few.
American actor Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, escaping through the collapsing aquarium in a restaurant, in a scene from the film ‘Mission: Impossible’, 1996. (Photo by Murray Close/Getty Images)
The stunting star has managed to stay alive thus far, but Tom’s racked up an impressive litany of injuries from his antics, including broken ribs, a broken ankle and a near decapitation from mechanical horses while filming The Last Samurai. Despite the pain, the actor refuses to give up performing the death-defying work himself.
“No one asked Gene Kelly, ‘Why do you dance?’” Tom said at Cannes in 2022. “Why do you do your own dancing?’”
While Tom may be gung-ho about his risky business, friends and family behind the scenes are worried for the actor.
“[He’s not] getting any younger,” the insider says, “Loved ones and his adopted kids must be especially worried about him.”
Getting the Edge of Tomorrow star to press pause on the peril may be more difficult for his family and it sounds. He’s been performing his own stunts for decades now, and feels it improves the movies he’s in by lending authenticity and allowing the director to shoot angles not normally available when using stunt doubles.
But it goes beyond the craft: “It’s not just the pride and acting factor, Tom’s also addicted to adrenaline.”
