Say whatever you will about movie star Tom Cruise, but you can’t say that he’s not crazy.
And unlike when referencing, say, his appearance on Oprah, this particular use of the term “crazy” is used in the most complimentary way possible.
So excited to share what we’ve been working on. #MissionImpossible pic.twitter.com/rIyiLzQdMG
— Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) December 19, 2022
Cruise, sharing a video first uploaded by the official “Mission: Impossible” Twitter account, took to social media to promote an insane stunt he and his team filmed.
The clip was both promotional, clearly getting “Mission: Impossible” fans excited for the upcoming movie, and practical, as the insane stunt will apparently play a big role in the upcoming “Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One” film.
Filmed in Norway in 2020, Cruise and his team took every young boy’s dream — building a ramp in your backyard to ride a bicycle onto it and go flying — and turned it into an absolutely wild stunt.
“This is far and away the most dangerous thing we’ve ever attempted,” the video begins.
“We’ve been working on this for years,” Cruise is then heard narrating. “We’re going to shoot it in Norway and it’ll be a motorcycle jump off a cliff into a BASE jump.”
BASE jumping, for those unfamiliar, is the recreational sport of jumping from fixed objects, using only a parachute to safely reach the ground again. Those “fixed objects” can include things like buildings, bridges and cliffs.
In Cruise’s case, it’s a massive man-made ramp on a Norwegian cliff. You can watch the whole clip above, but spoiler: He successfully completes the stunt and does not plummet to an unfathomably gruesome death.
“I’ve wanted to do it since I was a little kid,” Cruise continued. “It all comes down to one thing: the audience.”
That last line from Cruise, while seemingly a throwaway line that you’d hear from any Hollywood celebrity, may be the secret sauce in Cruise’s ongoing success at the box office.
Whereas many modern movie stars’ focus seem intent on divisive activism and having their films reflect that, Cruise, not unlike a child, just seems to find joyful glee in making fun movies. It truly is a novel idea that people would want to go to movies to be entertained, and not lectured.
Jump off a cliff riding a motorcycle? Check.
Almost getting stabbed in the eye to make a knife fight seem as realistic as possible? Check.
Holding his breath for three minutes underwater? Check.
Jumping off a Chinese skyscraper? Check.
There’s nothing particularly deep or resonating with those aforementioned stunts. They’re just fun, mindless action.
Here’s another recent clip of Cruise where he thanks all of the fans who watched “Top Gun: Maverick” by… jumping out of a plane:
A special message from the set of #MissionImpossible @MissionFilm pic.twitter.com/sfnWWluLyl
— Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) December 18, 2022
“Where was I? Oh yeah, thank you for supporting ‘Top Gun: Maverick,'” Cruise said while falling from a plane. “As always, thank you for allowing us to entertain you.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.