What’s up everybody I’m Dev and I’m gonna go see ‘American Made’ ‘cause I’m a sucker for a good Tom Cruise flick.
I know he’s an extremely weird dude who’s deep in bed with Scientology,
But the man just brings it, every time.
Especially when it comes to crazy stunts.
Cruise is one of the most driven, intense actors on the planet,
And he’s willing to take insane risks to make the action that much more authentic.
News broke in August that he injured himself jumping across a rooftop filming the sixth ‘Mission: Impossible’ movie.
It delayed production for three months, and honestly, he should consider himself lucky.
His body has been put through more than any mortal could possibly endure,
Let alone a megastar whose teeth are probably insured for more than your house.
So I’ve got one question for you, Tom Cruise:
How The Hell Are You Still Alive?
I mean, look at what this man has gone through just to entertain you.
Yes, you.
Like the time he dangled from a plane in mid-air.
The ‘Mission: Impossible’ franchise is Cruise’s baby,
And with every installment he finds some new way to recklessly endanger himself.
Case in point: In ‘Rogue Nation,’ he was strapped to the outside of an A400 Airbus as it flew 5,000 feet in the air.
This is THE most badass way to join the mile high club.
When the crew found out what Cruise was planning, they had some grave concerns about his safety.
And, probably, his sanity.
It's beautiful, man! Beautiful!
But the star knew he had to top the insane Burj Khalifa climb in ‘Ghost Protocol.’
We’ll get to that one in a little bit.
The biggest danger wasn’t necessarily falling off the plane.
Although it’s gotta be a concern when there’s just a single rope to keep you from becoming a blot on the pavement.
The real danger came from the wind and debris flying at him at hundreds of miles per hour.
Ever see what happened to Fabio when a bird hit him in the face on a rollercoaster?
I was pissed.
Now imagine the damage one could do to Cruise.
At those speeds, something as tiny as a pebble could hit with the impact of a bullet.
And even if Cruise miraculously dodged the debris,
He still had to protect his eyes.
No one pays to see an action hero with their eyes wide shut in the face of danger,
So he wore custom-made contact lenses that covered his entire eyeballs.
It took eight takes and ten days to get the footage for one unforgettable 90-second scene.
But it wasn’t the first time Cruise could have lost one of those piercing eyes.
That’s because in 2000 he almost took a knife to the eye.
One of the wildest moments in ‘Mission: Impossible 2’ is during the climactic fight between Cruise and the villain, Dougray Scott.
After some sweet kung-fu, Scott starts slashing wildly at our hero.
During the shoot, director John Woo decided to have Scott attempt to stab Cruise in the face.
And, in true Tom Cruise fashion, he basically said
“Why not plunge the knife directly at my eyeball?”
He was so stubborn, he said "no, no, no, right in the eyes."
There was no time to rig up a special effect, but that didn’t bother him.
He insisted on going through with the stunt,
with a real knife,
and having the tip come as close to his eye as possible.
So how’d they do it?
A cable was attached to the the knife and tied to a bar above the two actors.
Anybody else wanna lay there with their eye open and let the thing stop a half inch or quarter inch from their eye?
No way.
It was precisely measured to stop the blade millimeters from Cruise’s cornea,
Once again, just looking at dangerous shit and going "I can do that."
I couldn't bear to watch my monitor. I was shaking, praying to God to keep him safe.
My lawyers are going to have a field day with this.
I will f*ck you up!
You wanna shake hands with the devil, that's fine. I just wanna make sure that you do it in Hell!
Look, not only is it safe, it's better that I know how to hold my breath.
Because I'm going to be very relaxed, no one has to rush in, no one has to panic.
Who is this guy?
You're dangerous. That's right!
Ice... Man...
I am dangerous.
Breathe... 1... 2... 3...
One... Two...
Jesus Christ, I can't do this. I'm like super lightheaded right now.
[BIZZARE LAUGHTER]
You don't know the history of pschiatry. I do.
The only actor in the world who can find their frame mid-air three times.
"It's really me!" "It's really me!"
Even with Scott stabbing at full strength,
If the cable snapped,
or it was measured wrong,
or even if Cruise moved his head just a tiny bit,
He would have needed an eyepatch long before ‘Valkyrie.’
But everything went smoothly, somehow, and the blade stopped just a quarter-inch from his eyeball.
And that’s not even the craziest stunt in MI:2,
Because one of Cruises’ specialties is climbing all the things.
MI:2 starts with an incredible opening sequence of Cruise scaling the fearsome cliffs of Dead Horse Point.
Originally, Cruise was going to climb a much smaller, artificial rock built by the crew.
But he took one look at it and decided to ascend the real deal.
Because death is a myth to this guy.
Swear to God.
Sorry, swear to Cruise.
In the movie, it looks like he’s completely free-climbing, without any safety gear whatsoever.
But in reality, Cruise was attached to a thin safety cable that was later removed by CGI.
That still didn’t stop the crew from being scared shitless.
Which must have made his job pretty difficult, considering they had to shoot seven takes under the blazing hot Utah sun.
But Cruise took it like a champ, and in the end he only needed a stunt double for one moment.
And honestly, he probably regrets that today, considering everything else that he’s done all by himself.
Like climbing the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
Actually, climbing might be an understatement.
He ran up and down the outside,
freefell four stories,
and did basically everything else you shouldn’t at 2,700 feet in the air.
They rehearsed it for months on a soundstage replica,
designed to simulate the boiling surface temperature of the actual building.
When it was time for the real deal, the crew took over the entire 123rd floor.
They removed twenty windows for camera gear and safety equipment.
Which means, yes, the CGI-erased cables were present again.
But they weren’t enough to satisfy Cruise’s insurance company.
They refused to cover the insanely dangerous climb, so he fired them and found someone who would.
It’s kind of like getting a second opinion after a doctor refuses to remove your heart,
But that’s just what Tom Cruise does.
To him, danger is as essential for life as oxygen.
Speaking of which, Tom Cruise once went six minutes without Oxygen.
Usually, when actors film underwater scenes, they just do it in 15-second bursts and rely on editing to make it seamless.
Not Tommy Boy.
He wanted to hold his breath for the entire underwater heist.
And the safety technicians were skeptical to say the least.
But after some Cruisesplaining, they agreed to let him try.
He went through military special ops training to maximize the amount of time he could spend underwater.
By hyperventilating and saturating his blood with oxygen, he could go without air for extended periods.
It’s the same theory behind some of David Blaine’s nuttier stunts.
Cruise being Cruise, he actually overtrained to the point where he could hold his breath for over six minutes.
And it’s actually kind of scary to watch.
The crew sounds legit freaked out by the end, but somehow he survived without any noticeable brain damage.
So what good did all that training and oxygen deprivation do?
Did we get an unbelievable single-shot underwater sequence?
Nope.
The final film cuts back and forth between Cruise and other characters.
But hey, it’s still impressive, and he got to go home with a valuable new skill.
Look, the real answer to “how is Tom Cruise still alive” is pretty simple:
His stunts are the combined effort of some extremely talented coordinators and crew.
Cruise might be the one at risk, but there’s a lot of people working very hard to make sure he walks away intact.
Still, he’s taken part in so many insanely dangerous stunts
that I’m starting to wonder if he should rethink his stance on psychology.
Whether it’s getting run over by a tanker truck,
Nearly getting decapitated by a Samurai sword,
Or leaping off a Shanghai skyscraper,
Tom Cruise is willing to risk his life in the name of entertainment,
And look damn good doing it.