Tom Cruise surprised some fans while performing stunts for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1. Directed by frequent collaborator Christopher McQuarrie, Mission: Impossible 7 will feature Cruise reprising his role as Ethan Hunt for the first time since 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout. Other members of the cast include franchise fixtures Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames, as well as Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, and Hayley Atwell in her Mission: Impossible debut. After Cruise’s massive success with the long-awaited Top Gun sequel Top Gun: Maverick this summer, he’s hopped right back into another plane while filming for the next Mission: Impossible installment.
As many viewers know, Cruise makes a point of performing his own stunts, often making headlines for his daring escapades, especially while filming Mission: Impossible films. In the trailer for Mission: Impossible 7, Cruise was seen jumping off a cliff on a motorcycle and participating in a thrilling fight on a train. Additionally, a promotional video shared this month shows him standing on a two-seater plane in midair. Based on the way the Mission: Impossible sequels have ramped up in terms of action, it’s likely that audiences can expect even more impressive maneuvers in Dead Reckoning – and some fans even saw the star in action.
According to a report from The Northern Echo, Cruise surprised a pair of Mission: Impossible fans during filming for the spy flick. A couple was walking their dog in the Lake District of North England when multiple helicopters interrupted the stroll. The couple confirmed that Cruise was doing his own stunts, paragliding several times out of the helicopter while another filmed his descent. They waited along with a few other spectators to meet the actor, who greeted them with enthusiasm and happily posed for a photo before paragliding off of the mountain back to his camp.
The anecdote about Cruise graciously greeting spectators before bowing out with such an impressive exit is fitting, showing that Cruise is practically embodying a real-life version of his action hero character. After more than two decades of portraying Ethan Hunt, it makes sense that the actor has come to resemble his on-screen persona. The couple’s description of his amicable interactions with them implies that Cruise still manages to be down-to-earth after forty years in Hollywood, even when he’s flying high. With Mission: Impossible filming taking place over several locations across the globe, perhaps more fans will casually run into the movie star as production continues.
Whether or not they run into him in their everyday lives, audiences will be able to see Cruise in action when Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One premieres in theaters in July 2023. Part Two will continue the franchise in summer 2024. Dead Reckoning Part Two was previously said to be the franchise’s final installment, but Cruise’s future in the franchise remains to be seen.