The Wildest Mission: Impossible Stunts That Defined A Franchise
As Cruise takes his final bow, we revisit the wildest moments from our favourite franchise
There’s a kind of madness to Tom Cruise that Hollywood doesn’t really produce anymore. Not the tabloid kind—but the “strap-me-to-a-plane-and-hit-record” kind. With Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two (finally) out in the wild, Cruise’s last dance as Ethan Hunt has reignited the collective awe that surrounds the franchise—not for its plots, nor for its high-tech gadgets, but for the fact that Tom Cruise, 62, continues to risk his actual life for your entertainment. And somehow makes it look fun.
While other franchises lean into CGI, Cruise doubles down on gravity. Every film has functioned like a dare to himself, a tightrope walk between spectacle and lunacy. And through all the tonal shifts and changing directors, one element has stayed rock solid: Cruise will do the damn stunt.
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Over the last 30 years, Mission: Impossible has gone from high-concept spy thriller to high-octane stunt ballet — a genre unto itself where the choreography is as much about bone-breaking commitment as it is about narrative necessity. The gadgets have changed, the villains have rotated, but one thing’s remained consistent: Cruise putting his entire vertebrae on the line for the shot. It’s madness, sure. But it’s also cinema. Real, old-school, practical-effects, no-green-screen movie magic.
Mission Impossible Stunts
So, in honour of the final Mission, we’re looking back at the stunts that redefined action cinema — one impossible moment at a time.
The Motorcycle Cliff Jump
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
Tom Cruise rides a motorbike off a Norwegian cliff, free-falls, and parachutes onto a moving train. Obviously.
This isn’t just a stunt — it’s the Super Bowl of stunts. Marketed by Paramount as the “biggest stunt in cinema history,” the sequence is Cruise’s magnum opus: a death-defying fusion of motocross, base jumping, and sheer cinematic lunacy. There were no wires. No green screens. Just a 62-year-old man yeeting himself into the abyss with the calm of a barista pulling espresso shots.
If Dead Reckoning Part One is the penultimate film, this stunt is the metaphorical summit—equal parts insane and iconic.
The Plane Hang
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)
You know how every Mission: Impossible opens with a bang? This one starts with Cruise clinging to the side of an Airbus A400M as it takes off.
You know how most films simulate danger? This one skipped the simulation. Cruise was actually strapped to a military aircraft as it accelerated down a runway and lifted 5,000 feet into the air. Eight takes. Eight real-life takeoffs. At one point, a bird almost collided with his face. Let that sink in.
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The HALO Jump and Rooftop Chase
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
Fallout gave us two headline acts. First, a HALO (High Altitude, Low Opening) jump from 25,000 feet, captured in a single, dusk-timed shot that required military-level prep. Cruise trained for over a year to master it. Most actors struggle with green screens. Cruise was calculating wind resistance at terminal velocity.
And then there’s the London rooftop chase where he actually broke his ankle mid-jump—and the take stayed in the movie. The sound of his foot hitting that wall? That’s real. The limp afterward is also real.
Climbing the Burj Khalifa
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
This is the stunt that made people physically queasy in IMAX. Cruise scales the world’s tallest building, the 2,722-foot Burj Khalifa in Dubai, using suction gloves that promptly start failing mid-climb. He then sprints down the side of the building and flings himself into an open window. Director Brad Bird films it with just the right amount of vertigo-inducing awe—no shaky cam, no digital trickery. Just clean, open shots. It’s a literal high point for the franchise, pun fully intended.
The Langley Heist
Mission: Impossible (1996)
The stunt that started it all—and arguably still the most iconic. No explosions. No death-defying heights. Just Cruise, suspended inches above a pressure-sensitive CIA floor in total silence. Every movement precise. Every drop of sweat a threat. It’s De Palma doing Hitchcock with a spy twist, and Cruise selling tension with his face and core strength. Still one of the most suspenseful scenes in modern cinema, and it set the tone for what the franchise would become: a playground for practical magic.
The Underwater Heist
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)
For a guy who climbs buildings and clings to planes, drowning seems like a boring way to go out. But Rogue Nation upped the ante with a breath-hold stunt that saw Cruise submerged in a high-tech vault, performing choreography underwater for minutes at a time — all without cuts.
Cruise held his breath for over six minutes. No cuts, no scuba doubles, just Cruise swimming through an underwater vault, avoiding rotating arms and dodging electric shocks. He trained with free-diving experts to get it right, because of course he did. It’s one of the most stylised sequences in the franchise—clean, cold, and surgical—but underpinned by very real risk.
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Every Time He Runs — All of Them (1996–2025)
Tom Cruise doesn’t just run. He RUNS.
You know the run. Arms pumping like pistons. Knees high. Back straight. Each chase filmed like an Olympic sprint commercial. Whether he’s sprinting down the side of a building, through a sandstorm, or across London rooftops with a shattered ankle, Cruise’s sprinting deserves its own IMDb page.