Tom Cruise reveals how ‘Mission: Impossible 7’ motorbike stunt took unexpected turn

Tom Cruise got candid about his death-defying stunt in his new blockbuster film Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.

The Top Gun star alluded that the crazy motorcycle stunt could have claimed his life due to the unexpected turn it took after the parachute opened.

In a conversation with ET Canada, the superstar talked about his headline-making stunt when he rides his motorcycle off a cliff before jumping off and pulling a parachute to land safely in the new movie.

Speaking about what was going through his mind while performing the stunt, he said, “It’s funny that you mentioned engineering, because there’s as you know, there’s a lot of engineering in there to figure out that ramp, where the bowl is, the speed, you know, we’re testing wind conditions early on, I set all that up. That’s how I approach these things.”

“You know, I’m thinking, first of all, Mc Q [director Christopher McQuarrie] and I, we come up with something and then go, ‘how do we do it?’ and we break it down. And luckily, like I’ve been skydiving for years and [riding] motorcycles and [doing] jumps, but you’ve got to hone it and make it perfect. I’m thinking about performance, I’m thinking about where’s that helicopter going across the stuff to make sure I don’t get blown off of the ramp,” he added.

Cruise continued: “I don’t want to get blown off that ramp. And once I hit it, I don’t want that drone to hit me, you know? And then when my chute opens and you can see it in EPK when I’m in the bowl and I was testing the wind in that bowl and I jumped out of the helicopter… you can see when I opened it, I was in the wrong position and I opened the parachute, and the parachute turned into the side of the mountain,” he added of the stunt that almost ended with a catastrophe.”

The Jerry Maguire actor further said, “I could just at the last second, I was very close. My chute was pretty close to the side of the mountain. So you really have to watch every aspect of that to make sure that [nothing goes wrong],” before noting that he was definitely “thinking about a few things” in the moment.

Before concluding, the Hollywood hunk said, “You know, I’ve got a few things on my mind when I’m doing that. Plus I’m producing the movie. And it was day one. So I’m thinking, ‘Let’s get through this, let’s get this done.'”

The highly anticipated action thriller will hit the theaters on July 12, 2023.