Tom Cruise does an insane stunt for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 while introducing Top Gun: Maverick. The actor revisited one of his most iconic roles this year in the Joseph Kosinski-directed Top Gun sequel. Despite various delays, Top Gun: Maverick proved worth the wait as it became both a critical and financial success, still performing at the box office several months since it premiered back in May. It has also topped home media release charts, becoming the #1 week-one digital sell-through title of all time in the United States and several other major international territories.
SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY
Fans of the actor have another big project to look forward to, with Mission: Impossible 7 slated for a 2023 release. Directed by the actor's frequent collaborator, Christopher McQuarrie, the movie was supposed to be released this year, which would have seen the actor star in two major blockbusters, but Paramount opted to push it to 2023. Despite the premiere change, production on Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 overlapped with his marketing work for Top Gun: Maverick, resulting in arguably the most impressive introductory video of all time.
Shared on Twitter by Erik Davis, the original video was played before Top Gun: Maverick premiered at Cinema-Con back in April, where early Mission: Impossible 7 footage was also shown. In the clip, Cruise stands on a two-seater plane in midair while he talks about the Top Gun sequel. The whole stunt that's for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 became much more daring, however, right at the end. Watch the exhilarating video below:
Cruise is no stranger to stunts, including aerial ones. He hung on the side of a plane as it took off for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, and he both jumped out of an aircraft and did a dangerous helicopter action set-piece in Mission: Impossible – Fallout. But this one is different. While there's already an expectation he will stage a wild string of Mission: Impossible 7 stunts, this is the first time fans are seeing this particular one. A motorcycle cliff-jump and train fight sequence, among others, were previously revealed in the movie's first trailer that was released back in May, just before Top Gun: Maverick premiered.
For what it's worth, it seems like all the risks Cruise is taking in the name of filmmaking have been getting more and more rewarding. While Top Gun: Maverick doesn't have stunts as flashy as Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1, the actor made sure they used as minimal CGI effects as possible. This is why all of Maverick's fellow pilots, like Glen Powell's Hangman and Miles Teller's Rooster, had to actually learn how to withstand the G-force of a fighter jet. If anything, the success of the Top Gun sequel would only be beneficial to the Mission: Impossible franchise, as more people will be inclined to see what Cruise does next on the big screen.