It is well known that Tom Cruise is, with total certainty, the most daring actor in all of Hollywood. From his early film career, Cruise has managed to be his own stunt double; and today with his 59 years of age this has not changed much. After all, he was the protagonist of the most risky scenes of Top Gun: Maverickthe latest production starring his talent.
However, although it is hard to believe, Tom Cruise is not as invincible as all his movies have led us to believe – although these stories almost prove otherwise. We know in good faith that the actor has been about to pass away during the filming of certain productions, and it is in honor of his risk and courage that today we come to bring you a list of the 5 films that led Cruise to real danger.
from the first top gununtil Mission Impossible. Tom Cruise has a lot of stories to tell on the set of his productions, and some of them are more painful than we would like. Of course, keep in mind that in this list there will be spoilersso proceed with caution.
We start with one of the most disturbing stories in Cruise’s repertoire. During the screening of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocolrecorded in 2011, we see Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) trying to climb the facade of a skyscraper of 830 meters, with only a suction glove to help him scale the glass facade. This scene took place in the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world located in the city of Dubai.
As is customary for Cruise, the actor decided it was best if he did the climbing himself. To do this, he armed himself with a harness and prepared to do so. Everything was already “pretty well planned”, but it seems that the wind that he could do at that height had not been taken into account. As reported by both the actor and the director of Ghost Protocol, the wind caused Cruise to repeatedly hit the facade of the building.
Needless to say, the danger of repeated hits at such a height. Fortunately, the situation did not get worse. However, the actor commented during an interview that at the moment he could only think of, “I hope I don’t fall.”
One night, after one of the first days of shooting, I bolted out of bed realizing that we had our star dangling a mile up on a thin wire, and my brain was screaming, “What the hell? What are we doing? It was all a long and scary time, but we planned it well.
Brad Bird, director of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Thunder days
Although Cruise usually studies and follows every step that his action instructors recommend, there was a film where the professional felt that the actor did not fully understand the situation. The movie in question is Thunder daysand NASCAR veteran Hut Stricklin revealed that Cruise didn’t fully understand the instructions given to him just before filming began.
The result was Cruise spinning out of control in his vehicle. Later, it ended up hitting one of the obstacles while everyone present could do nothing but watch. The story had a happy ending, and that is that Cruise was unharmed. The camera equipment installed in the car, meanwhile, did not have the same fate.
I guess I’d seen the guys squirming left and right on TV. He was turning left, the car was turning left. But when he turned right… [choque].
Hut Stricklin for For the Win
Top Gun (1986)
Much is being made of the latest iteration of this movie. In Top Gun: Maverick we saw a Tom Cruise just as energetic as 36 years ago, and it has also become the best premiere in its history. However, although Maverick has not been without its dangers, It was in the original version of top gun where many thought that Tom Cruise would not live to tell about it.
The scenes of this film were so brutal that they even led to the death of one of the pilots. Cruise was about to join, and it is that during the scene where Goose, the best friend of our protagonist, dies, the actor had to carry the “inert” body of his co-pilot while struggling to stay afloat in the middle of the ocean. The problem here is that Cruise was still tied to his parachute, which began to quickly fill with water and sink in the middle of the sea..
Fortunately for the actor, one of the people on set noticed what was happening. He jumped in and quickly untied Cruise before he sank. along with his parachute. If it had sunk, it is quite likely that they would never have heard of it ever again.
Cruise came as close to dying on set as anyone I’ve ever seen. They were refilling the chamber or something, and luckily one of the men in the helicopter saw his parachute deflate. He jumped and released Cruise just before she went under. They would never have found it. She would have been at the bottom of the ocean.
Barry Tubb (Wolfman), for The New York Post
The last Samurai
Tom Cruise almost lost his mind on the set of The last Samurai… literally. While they were recording the film in 2003, a movement error almost took his head off from rennet to our dearest actor.
During one of Cruise’s duels against Hiroyuki Sanada, they were both riding mechanical horses. The shooting plan was for one of these horses to stop just before Sanada launched a lunge at Cruise’s neck, but due to some kind of mistake this did not happen, throwing directly at the actor of top gun against the edge of metal.
The entire film crew thought Cruise would be beheaded., but fortunately Sanada managed to withdraw the sword in time. Had he not done so, it is quite probable that we would not have had the fortune to see Top Gun: Maverick some days ago.
Mission Impossible (1996)
During one of the scenes of the first film of Mission ImpossibleTom Cruise had to face one of the most dangerous moments —until then— of his career. In statements to Los Angeles Timesthe actor comments on how it all happened.
There was a scene where we were blowing up these tanks, huge fish tanks, thousand liter tanks. First they are going to blow up the tank [de dos metros] behind me and then they’re going to blow up the tank above. And if I’m in there, you know, I’m going to get really hurt… Then there’s a big crowd watching, and I don’t want to get dusted. They count: “One, two”; my adrenaline spikes, and on “two” I hear the first explosion and do my best to stand there, and on the third, I’m gone, and it’s a wall of water. Then the water rushes in and I have to run faster than the water and there’s glass everywhere and I have to jump on some guy.
Tom Cruise
Cruise left the scene with a bruised ankle, though he didn’t want to complain. The reason? One of the stunt doubles ended up with a torn legso he rather felt lucky to finish filming in one piece.