Oppenheimer star Matt Damon recently recounted a hilarious encounter with Mission: Impossible lead Tom Cruise where Cruise told him he replaced a safety guy in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol so he could go ahead with the famously dangerous Burj Khalifa stunt in the movie.
Speaking in an interview on the Max series Smartless: On The Road (via CinemaBlend), the Bourne franchise alum Damon said: “There are the Tom Cruises of the world, who do their stunts, like literally hang off a plane and do that. I remember I had dinner with him once, and it was after he did the [Mission: Impossible movie] where he ran around the building.
“And I go, ‘Can you tell me how that happened?’ And he’s a really intense guy, and he was like, ‘I’ll tell you how it happened!’ I go, ‘Alright.’ And I’m in.”
“He goes, ‘I’ve been thinking about this shot for 15 years!’ And I’m like, ‘Wow, really?’ He goes, ‘So I go to the safety guy, and I lay it all out.’ Safety guy goes, ‘We can’t do that. It’s too dangerous, you can’t do that. So I get a new safety guy.’ That’s the beginning of his story.”
“And I just go, ‘Stop!’ That’s where we’re different. When the safety guy says no, I’m like, ‘Well, safety guy says it’s not a good idea.’”
Cruise has built a reputation as one of the most daring actors to ever have worked in Hollywood. His latest installment of the franchise, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is currently thriving in cinemas.