There was a time when the movie theater itself seemed slightly dangerous. A motorcycle jump or a man hanging from some tall building… Surely they did not actually do that. Sometimes, remarkably, they did. Stunt performers have always been essential to filmmaking, and many of cinema’s most famous moments belong to them. However, there are actors who insisted on stepping into the harness, climbing onto the roof, learning the fight, or getting behind the wheel themselves. The reasons varied. Pride played a part, authenticity mattered, and a few performers simply seemed incapable of standing safely to one side. Looking back at these scenes now, especially in an age when computers can manufacture almost anything, there is an extra thrill in knowing that the nervous smile, shaking hand, or hard landing was not entirely acting.
#1: Tom Cruise
By the time Ethan Hunt climbed the Burj Khalifa in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011), audiences already knew that the man playing him had an unusual relationship with the word “impossible.” Cruise was secured by safety equipment, naturally, but the exterior shots genuinely placed him hundreds of feet above Dubai rather than safely recreating the moment on a soundstage. Four years later, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) opened with another image that looked too ridiculous to be genuine: Hunt hanging from the side of an Airbus A400M as it left the runway. Cruise was really attached to the aircraft…
