Tom Cruise and his “Impossible” Helicopter Stunts for Fallout

Even during his dip in popularity following his couch-hopping stunt on Oprah and the media meltdowns that followed it, the one thing that kept Tom Cruise in the good graces of his fans was the fact that the man puts his own body on the line whenever a movie calls for outrageous stunts. The seemingly indestructible Cruise finally met his match last August doing a stunt for the sixth installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise, but completed the failed stunt himself five months later (after first biffing it again) rather than have a stunt person do it or, *gasp*, CGI the stunt.

Those clips have been around forever so why dwell on fails when Paramount has provided us with a Mission: Impossible – Fallout featurette that celebrates his accomplishments as an actor who does his own stunts. In this case, learning to stunt fly a helicopter so that Ethan Hunt can be as convincing a secret agent as possible.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout was written and directed by Rogue Nation director Christopher McQuarrie. The star-studded cast also includes Henry Cavill, Alec Baldwin, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Sean Harris, Angela Bassett, Wes Bentley, Rebecca Ferguson, Michelle Monaghan, Vanessa Kirby and Frederick Schmidt.

The movie opens in theaters on July 27th.