As Mission: Impossible 8 nears its theatrical release date, director Christopher McQuarrie has come out to shed light on a mind-bending plane stunt that Tom Cruise performed for the project. The film, titled Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, is a direct sequel to 2023’s Dead Reckoning and is expected to conclude the actor’s lengthy stint in the franchise. With Cruise continuing to up the ante with his daredevilry in each Mission: Impossible installment, it seems that he has saved the most adventurous act for what could be his last outing as Ethan Hunt.
Tom Cruise on filming Mission: Impossible 8’s death-defying plane stunt
As confirmed in a recent interview, the veteran actor participated in a daring plane stunt for the upcoming Mission: Impossible 8.
The said scene showcases Tom Cruise latching onto the wing of a 1930s Boeing Stearman biplane as he courses through the wind at a whopping 10,000 feet. While talking about his inexplicable feat, Christopher McQuarrie told Empire, “There are stunts in this movie that 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.”
Cruise himself acknowledged the extreme difficulty level of his plane stunt for Mission: Impossible 8, noting, “When you stick your face out, going over 120 to 130 miles an hour, you’re not getting oxygen. 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.”
Nevertheless, the eighth entry in the long-running film series promises more such stunts that even surpass the intrepidity of the aforementioned plane act, according to McQuarrie. “I truly want to puke thinking about the stress. It was intense,” the director remarked while talking about an undisclosed Mission: Impossible 8 stunt that supposedly overshadows all of Tom Cruise’s previous dares.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning will glide into the theatres on May 23, 2025.
