Tom Cruise Was So Exhausted After His MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE Plane Stunt, He Had to Be Carried Off the Wing

Tom Cruise has spent three decades redefining the action genre by throwing himself off cliffs, scaling skyscrapers, and hanging onto planes mid-flight, and with these kinds of stunts come absolute exhaustion.

According to Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning stunt coordinator and second-unit director Wade Eastwood, Cruise pushed himself to the limit for the franchise’s epic aerial sequence.

In an interview with The Times, Eastwood shared just how brutal the shoot was for the actor:

“It beat the hell out of him. The wind hitting him, and the blast of the propeller, particles hitting him. It was the hardest workout you could ever do, it was very dangerous and very exhausting for him. Many times we were carrying him off the wing because he was so tired. And he was flying all day.”

Cruise was just so physically drained. The man was literally clinging to a moving biplane in mid-air, day after day. To communicate during these sky-high shoots, Cruise used simple hand signals. A tap to the mouth meant he needed a break, at which point he'd lay down on the wing (still in the air!) for 10 to 15 minutes before getting back to the stunt.

Despite the grueling conditions, Cruise never let the pressure show. Eastwood added:

“Tom doesn’t show fear, Tom shows competence. He had fun during all his stunts, even when it was exhausting. He’s always positive, he’ll always put on a smile, and he genuinely enjoys it.”

This marks the possible final chapter in the Mission: Impossible saga, and Cruise went out swinging. But don’t expect the 61-year-old actor to stay grounded for long.

His next project pairs him with The Revenant director Alejandro González Iñárritu for a sci-fi drama where Cruise plays a man who almost destroys the world… and is now out to prove he’s the one who can save it.

Eastwood doesn’t think we’ve seen the last of his death-defying antics:

“No, no chance. He’s a machine. He acts like a 20-year-old. And there’s no magic there, it’s just hard work and discipline with his food, nutrition, and training.”

So yeah, Cruise may have had to be carried off a plane this time, but something tells us he’ll be right back in the cockpit soon enough.