Tom Cruise just performed his most dangerous stunt yet – riding a motorcycle off a cliff and base jumping

Tom Cruise has performed another daring stunt for the “Mission: Impossible” film series. 

He called this one the most dangerous thing he’s ever attempted. Shot in Norway, the stunt required Cruise to ride a motorcycle off a cliff and base jump – something he said he’s wanted to do since he was a kid. 

Cruise, 60, is currently working on the two-part “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning” film. He’s known for performing his own stunts, but this one took years to plan, he said in a video shared on Twitter. 

In the video, writer and director Christopher McQuarrie said Cruise put together a “master plan” using experts to help execute the stunt.

He had a year of sky diving training, during which he was doing 30 jumps a day – more than 500 skydives, said Wade Eastwood, the film’s stunt coordinator. He also had motocross training, doing over 13,000 motocross jumps. Once he got those skills down, the production team created 3D models to try and predict how Cruise would fly through the air during the stunt so they could film it.

Then, it came time for Cruise to execute the stunt – driving a motorcycle up a long ramp, which lead to a cliff, launching off of it and base jumping to the bottom. Cruise first jumped out of a helicopter over the cliff to practice, before attempting the full stunt for the cameras.

“The only things you have to avoid while doing a stunt like this are serious injury or death,” base jumping coach Miles Daisher said. “You’re riding a motorcycle, which is pretty dangerous, on top of a ramp that’s elevated off the ground, so if you fall off the ramp, that’s pretty bad. You’re falling, so if you don’t get a clean exit from the bike and you get tangled up with it, or if you don’t open your parachute, you’re not going to make it.”

The behind-the-scenes video show Cruise not only execute the stunt once, but six times in one day. 

“Pretty much the biggest stunt in cinematic history,” said base jumping coach John DeVore. Viewers can see the final product when part one of the film premieres July 2023. The “Mission: Impossible” series is from Paramount Pictures (a division of ViacomCBS).

Cruise has performed countless hair-raising stunts, including jumping off of scaffolding while filming “Mission: Impossible 6” in 2017 – a stunt that left him injured and limping. 

Cruise has been in Europe filming the seventh and eight “Mission: Impossible” films for several years. The seventh movie was scheduled to premiere in November 2021, but the COVD-19 pandemic shut down production and was pushed to May 27, 2022, according to Variety. The date was pushed several time after that, and the film will now premier next year. 

While shooting in the U.K. last year, Cruise, who was traveling by helicopter, needed a place to land, BBC News reports. He ended up landing in a family’s backyard, and then let their kids go for a ride in the helicopter, making headlines.

Caitlin O’Kane

Caitlin O’Kane is a digital content producer covering trending stories for CBS News and its good news brand, The Uplift.