Tom Cruise shows off latest daredevil ‘Mission: Impossible’ stunt

Actor Tom Cruise is seen on the set of “Mission Impossible 7” while filming in Rome, Italy October 13, 2020. (REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane)

LOS ANGELES  – Tom Cruise on Thursday presented what he called his most dangerous stunt ever in a clip from his upcoming “Mission: Impossible 7” movie.

Cruise, known for doing his own stunts, takes a motor-bike ride down a ramp and off a giant cliff in Norway and lets go in mid-air before his parachute is released.

The clip, and a featurette of Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie talking about the feat, were shown at the CinemaCon gathering of movie theater operators and Hollywood studio executives in Las Vegas, entertainment media reported.

“This is far and away the most dangerous thing I’ve attempted; we’ve been working on this for years,” Cruise said in the video, according to Deadline Hollywood. “I wanted to do it since a little kid.”

“Mission: Impossible 7,” in which Cruise returns as suave spy Ethan Hunt, is due for release in May 2022 after a coronavirus-disrupted shoot in Italy, Norway and the U.K. of more than a year.

Cruise, 59, said he trained for more than a year to perfect the stunt, including making 500 sky-diving sessions and 13,000 motor-bike jumps, the Hollywood Reporter said. The stunt was filmed six times.

In past movies, Cruise has hung off the side of a plane as it takes off, piloted a helicopter through narrow mountain ravines, scaled the 2,717-foot high (828 meters) Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, and performed a sky dive from almost five miles high.

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