Tom Cruise’s best stunts in ‘Mission: Impossible’ franchise

American stunt actor and producer Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible franchise has been keeping audiences on the edge of their seats for almost three decades now.

Here are all the best Tom Cruise stunts in Mission: Impossible sequels, ranked from one to seven.

1. Hanging off a Flying Plane – Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)

The fifth instalment of MI featured a stunt that made everyone gasp—and question if Tom was okay mentally.

The actor strapped himself to the side of an Airbus A400M while the plane took off. It reached over 1,000 feet in altitude as Tom clung to its sides.

There were no green screens, stunt doubles, or CGI. The Hollywood A-lister did the stunt himself.

2. HALO Jump – Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)

Fallout, the sixth film in the MI series, includes a jaw-dropping scene where Tom jumps out of a plane at 25,000 feet while it’s flying at 165 mph.

But this wasn’t your typical skydive—it was a High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) jump, filmed at sunset for technical reasons.

Tom wore a specially designed helmet to prevent oxygen deprivation or the risk of blacking out.

3. Cliff Motorcycle Jump Into BASE Jump – Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

In MI’s seventh instalment, Tom pulled off a motorcycle stunt that stunned audiences—he actually rode a bike off a mountain cliff.

In the scene, Ethan Hunt (Tom) needs to reach a moving train by jumping off a cliff while riding a motorcycle.

Tom followed it up with a solo BASE jump in Norway—no stunt doubles, no CGI—making it “the biggest stunt in cinema history.”

4. Burj Khalifa Climb – Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)

While Tom is often praised for his aerial stunts, in the fourth MI film, he went vertical, climbing the tallest building in the world: the Burj Khalifa.

Wearing a harness, he ran, jumped, and hung off the 2,716-foot skyscraper in Dubai.

5. Helicopter Chase & Dive – Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)

For this aerial chase, Tom actually learned to fly a helicopter from scratch.

He piloted it for a high-speed chase sequence, all while acting and managing camera shots from inside the cockpit.

6. Underwater Vault Scene – Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)

The vault scene in Rogue Nation was the movie’s defining moment, an intense underwater heist.

Tom held his breath for over six minutes while performing the scene, proving once again that he doesn’t mess around.

7. The upside-down biplane hang - Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025)

Reportedly the franchise’s final chapter, The Final Reckoning, Tom outdid himself with an upside-down hang from a biplane.

The plane was flying at 120 to 130 mph, and Tom had to master a special breathing technique to handle the high air pressure while inverted.

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