- Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning stunt almost turned deadly
- Tom Cruise famously does many of his own stunts
- Director Christopher McQuarrie shared a tense-tale at Cannes
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is gearing up to hit screens but according to its director, the film could’ve had a dark ending for its leading man, Tom Cruise.
This new instalment of Cruise’s long-running action series has recently had an airing at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Here, it was met with a five-minute standing ovation, with many of its stars and director Christopher McQuarrie in tow.
Read more: Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning: First reactions are in
While discussing the movie at the French film festival, McQuarrie shared a rather candid story about one particular Final Reckoning stunt that almost ended very badly.
In fact, the movie’s crew weren’t even sure if Cruise was conscious while he was filming on the wing of a plane high above ground level.
Read more: Who’s in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
It’s nail-biting stuff but hearing the filmmaker talk, it sounds like this type of thing was all part of a day’s work for the stunt-obsessed Cruise.
The Tom Cruise Mission: Impossible stunt that almost went awry
While speaking at Cannes, McQuarrie told reports about a hair-raising moment where Cruise appeared to pass out whilst working on the wing of a plane. In total, the 62-year-old actor ended up spending around 22-minutes outside of the cockpit.
“When you leave the cockpit of the plane, it’s like stepping onto the surface of another planet,” said McQuarry, according to French outlet France24.
“The wind is hitting you in excess of 140 miles an hour (225 kph) coming off the propeller. You’re breathing, but only physically — You’re not actually getting oxygen.
“Tom had pushed himself to the point that he was so physically exhausted, he couldn’t get back up off the wing. He was laying on the wing, his arms hanging over the front. We could not tell if he was conscious or not.”
Thankfully, Cruise had agreed with McQuarry and his crew to display a hand signal if there were any problems. However, this tool became problematic due to the circumstances the actor found himself in.
“You can’t do this when you’re unconscious,” explained McQuarry.
A narrow escape
Like a scene from an actual Mission: Impossible movie, more tension was added when the plane was revealed to only have six minutes worth of fuel left in its tank.
“We watched Tom as he pulled himself up and stuck his head in the cockpit so that he could replenish the oxygen in his body and then climb up into the cockpit and bring the plane safely down to land.
“No one on Earth can do that but Tom Cruise,” concluded McQuarry, to applause from the Cannes crowd.
Cruise, who was also present during this interview, chimed in to explain how he dealt with this intense situation. The key? He doesn’t find fear scary, apparently.
“I like the feeling (of fear). It’s just an emotion for me. It’s something that is not paralysing,” reasoned Cruise.
“I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s exciting’… I don’t mind kind of encountering the unknown”, insisting that “this is what I dreamed of doing as a kid”.
