Did Tom Cruise really do Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning’s plane stunt?

The action spy film Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning was released in theaters on May 23, 2025, in the United States. The film was directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who wrote the script alongside Erik Jendresen. McQuarrie was also involved in the production with the lead of the film, Tom Cruise.

The synopsis, as per the movie's official website, reads:

"Our lives are the sum of our choices. Tom Cruise is Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning."

In Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, Tom Cruise is seen walking on the wings of a biplane while it is flying dangerously in the air. The scene involved no CGI or stunt double, as Cruise performed the stunt himself. At the age of 62, Cruise continues to perform the stunts in his action movies.

From climbing the Burj Khalifa to motorbiking off the cliff, Cruise has done it all in the Mission: Impossible franchise. Details regarding the biplane stunt, the movie's plot, and the cast are discussed further in the article.

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The biplane stunt from Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning explored

Paramount Pictures released a behind-the-scenes video of the biplane stunt as seen in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning. The video, released on April 17, 2025, confirmed that no CGI was used and Tom Cruise performed the entire stunt himself.

According to Deadline, McQuarrie revealed the details of the stunt performed by Cruise. While filming him walking on the wings of the biplane, the crew could only communicate with Cruise via hand signals.

“He has no radio, which means I have to fly up next to Tom in my helicopter,” said Christopher McQuarrie.

Due to the intensity with which the wind hits after coming off the propeller, the crew could only allow the actor to be on the wings for 12 minutes. Since the oxygen supply to the body becomes indirect, the physical strain becomes immense to the point that it feels like a 2-hour-long, excruciating gym workout.

Tom Cruise had the crew on the edge of their seats with this action sequence from Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.

“He was lying on the wing of the plane. Arms are hanging over the front of the wing. We could not tell if he was conscious or not. And we also knew that unless Tom did this, it was expressly agreed he was not in trouble, and he could, like, [call] Cut,” explained the director.

Fortunately, Cruise was able to recover from the intense physical strain after 20 minutes and land the plane safely, with just three minutes of fuel left.

“And we watched as Tom 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 and bring the plane safely down to land. No one on Earth can do that,” McQuarrie continued.

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Tom Cruise's penchant for performing his dangerous stunts

Tom Cruise attends the "Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning" Mexico Red Carpet and Premiere at Auditorio Nacional on May 20, 2025, in Mexico City, Mexico. (Image via Getty)

In his 44-year-long career, Tom Cruise has performed many of his action stunts himself, including the biplane stunt from Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning. Cruise, during one of his appearances on The Graham Norton Show, stated that he always wanted to do his stunts to help with the storytelling.

“I feel that when acting, you’re bringing everything, you know, physically and emotionally, to a character in a story, and I’m able to do it, and I’ve trained for 30 years doing things like this that allows us to put cameras in places where you normally are not able to,” said Cruise on the talk show.

For his movie Top Gun: Maverick, Cruise flew his plane, a P-51 Mustang, and also a fighter jet, the F/A-18 Super Hornet. The biplane stunt in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is not the first time that Cruise has performed a stunt while putting his life at risk in the Mission: Impossible franchise.

In Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, a scene involved Cruise hanging onto the door from the outside of a plane while taking off with just a single harness. In the above clip shared by Paramount Movies via their YouTube channel, Cruise explains the whole action sequence while showing the viewers some behind-the-scenes footage of it.

While the rest of the cast and crew were inside the plane, Cruise hung onto the door and also had to say his lines for the scene. Another sequence from the movie involved the actor holding his breath underwater for an uncut scene for 6 minutes.

In the above clip, Cruise and the crew explain to viewers the biggest stunt in the history of cinema from Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning. The scene involved Cruise riding his motorbike off the cliff and then parachuting his way onto the incoming train.

While his landing part involved the use of CGI, the whole sequence of him riding his bike and gliding with a parachute was performed by Cruise himself.

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What is Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning all about?

Snippet of Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in the trailer for Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning. (Image via youtube.com/Paramount Pictures)

The story of Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is set two months after the retrieval of the key to the source code of the artificial intelligence known as The Entity. Ethan and Grace are searching for Gabriel so that he can lead them to it.

While Gabriel has been abandoned and searches for the Entity to control it, Ethan and his team tackle his devious plans as they intend to destroy it to save the world.

The cast of Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is led by Tom Cruise, who stars as Ethan Hunt, the Impossible Mission Force agent. The cast list also includes Hayley Atwell as Grace, Ving Rhames as Luther, Simon Pegg as Benji, and Esai Morales as Gabriel.

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