'MI8' director recalls Tom Cruise's death-defying stunt

Tom Cruise, known for pushing the limits in his action-packed roles, has reportedly cheated death while filming Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning.

The movie’s director, Christopher McQuarrie, told Radar Online that the 62-year-old actor and film producer almost died while filming the final movie in the Mission Impossible franchise, as he nearly got stuck on the wing of a biplane right before it ran out of fuel.

Reflecting on the scary moment, McQuarrie said being outside a plane is hard on the body because of the strong 140 mph wind and trouble breathing and it is only safe to do for 12 minutes.

The 56-year-old filmmaker quipped, "It's literally like two hours in the gym."

However, Cruise, the Mission Impossible star, wanted to keep going after 12 minutes and filmed for another 10 minutes.

"There was a moment where Tom had pushed himself to the point that he was so physically exhausted, he couldn't get back up off the wing," the producer of Top Gun 2 noted.

"He was lying on the wing of the plane, his arms were hanging over the front. We could not tell if he was conscious or not."

Notably, at that point the pilot informed that he had only three minutes of fuel left but the plane could not land as Cruise was still lying on the wing.

"We watched Tom as he pulled himself up and stuck his head in the cockpit, so that he could replenish the oxygen in his body and then climb up into the cockpit. No one on earth can do that but Tom,” McQuarrie remarked by recalling.