Is it fair to say Cruise is the modern-day Evel Knievel of Hollywood?
Had Tom Cruise missed his true calling as an actor, he’d have made an excellent stuntman in Tinseltown. Once again, the star of the Mission: Impossible franchise left it all on the Silver Screen in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. And Cruise admits his fascination with daredevil feats dates back to his childhood.
Cruise said during an interview posted on Instagram:
“I was that little kid. As soon as I could ride a bike, I set it up so that I could jump over the trash cans. So, I start down that hill. The pedals are going so fast, [and] I couldn’t keep my legs on the pedals. Halfway through it, the wood breaks. My body’s flying like a rag doll! I hear a child screaming.”
Check out the full video below:
During the sit-down promoting the seventh installment in the Mission: Impossible series, Cruise was joined by director Christopher McQuarrie along with actors Hayley Atwell and Greg Tarzan Davis for the discussion. And Cruise couldn’t help but laugh as he reminisced about his daredevil antics as a kid.
There’s Nothing Tom Cruise Can’t Do On-Screen
Tom Cruise is the Swiss army knife of his creative trade: He can seemingly do anything in cinema. Whether it’s holding his own in the iconic courtroom scene with Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men or hanging off the side of a plane in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Cruise is all-in when it comes to entertaining audiences.
World-renowned for doing his own stunts, Cruise doesn’t disappoint in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. During the aforementioned interview posted on Instagram, Born for Stunts, fans catch a glimpse of Cruise’s formative years — and his passion for trying the impossible even at an early age. The bicycle jump he discusses is the perfect segue into the massive motorcycle dive he did off of a mountain while trying to board the Orient Express in Mission: Impossible 7.
McQuarrie and Cruise laughed as the director teased the actor about his Evel Knievel-like childhood recollection, during the same interview:
“The ramp is considerably larger now.”
Cruise responded:
“I’ve gotten a little better at it.”
Ultimately, that jump off of the mountain may be the stunt Cruise is remembered for in Dead Reckoning – Part One. However, the car chase through the streets of Rome, while Cruise is handcuffed to actor Hayley Atwell, and he is driving one-handed — that’s quite impressive. And the jaw-dropping fight Ethan Hunt (Cruise) has atop the speeding Orient Express against Gabriel (Esai Morales) was edge-of-your-seat filmmaking.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is now playing in theaters. The official synopsis for the film is below.
Ethan Hunt and the IMF team must track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity if it falls into the wrong hands. With control of the future and the fate of the world at stake, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than the mission — not even the lives of those he cares about most.
