Tom Cruise continues his quest to be America’s most death-defying stuntman in a leaked promotional video that shows him harnessed to an airplane hurtling toward earth.
The video was used to introduce “Top Gun: Maverick” at CinemaCon in April, then was shared online last weekend, according to EW.
“Hey everyone!” Cruise yells in the video. “Wish I could be there with you. I’m sorry about the extra noise. As you can see, we’re filming the latest installment of Mission: Impossible right now. And right now we’re over the gorgeous Blyde River Canyon in stunning South Africa.”
Cruise adds he was “making this film for the big screen” before “Maverick” writer Christopher McQuarrie appears alongside him in a separate biplane. McQuarrie directed the last two “Mission: Impossible” films and is helming the next two: “Dead Reckoning Part One” and “Part Two.”
“Hi everybody,” McQuarrie says from the passenger seat. “Listen, I hate to interrupt but we really gotta roll, we are losing the light.”
The video shows Cruise standing up and urging viewers to have “a great summer” before the two biplanes veer off and screech toward earth.
The sweat-inducing footage was posted on social media by several people over the weekend, including Stephen Ford, an actor and director.
“Maverick” was Cruise’s biggest success and marked his first $100 million opening weekend ever. It surpassed $700 million at the domestic box office last weekend to become the fifth-highest grossing film in U.S. history, according to The Wrap.
The new aerial video starkly contrasts with a more grounded one filmed by Cruise and McQuarrie in 2018, in which the duo urge people to reconfigure their TVs to turn off motion smoothing.
As for Cruise’s relentless mission to one-up himself with every stunt, his costar Simon Pegg said he was both impressed and concerned.
“There are no stunt doubles for him,” Pegg told SoHo House in June. “There’s a frisson you get when there’s authenticity: the idea that this guy is actually jumping off a cliff on a motorbike and deploying the parachute 100 feet from the ground? It puts the willies up you.”
“Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One” hits theaters on July 14, 2023.