Tom Cruise had already made headlines with his dangerous biplane stunt in Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, but now, the fearless 62-year-old actor has landed a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for another practical stunt from the film, his climactic burning parachute jump.
Spoilers ahead: The stunt, which was performed for the scene directly following the biplane finale, featured Cruise’s Ethan Hunt jumping from the damaged plane with a parachute in hand. As he deploys it mid-air, the parachute promptly sets ablaze, leaving Hunt no choice but to cut it off and deploy his reserve chute at the very last second before impact.
While viewers might assume this highly dangerous set piece was done with the help of CGI, the sequence was actually done practically in Drakensberg, South Africa, with Cruise jumping from a helicopter at an altitude of 7,500 feet with a parachute soaked in fuel and rigged to be set ablaze. Better yet, Cruise performed this stunt not once, but 16 times.
“What I’m going to do is I’m going to be deploying, if this is twisted while it’s burning, I’m going to be spinning and burning.” Cruise explained in a behind-the-scenes clip from Paramount Pictures showcasing the stunt, “I have to kick out of the twist and then ignite, within 10 seconds.”
Cruise’s impressive feat landed him a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records, setting a record for “the most burning parachute jumps by an individual”. With 16 tries at a life-threatening stunt just for one brief scene in the movie, Cruise cements himself as one of the most passionate actors in the industry, one who would go above and beyond for his craft. Either that, or he has a really impressive life insurance package.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
Si Jia
Yong Le
