The Olympics this year provided something that none of the others could ever match: Tom Cruise.
Obviously, he wasn’t an Olympian at the event, but he did put his skills in death-defying stunts to the test during the closing ceremony.
Maybe he should get a medal for his outstanding performance? I think so.
Anyway, the Hollywood star - who is well known for his dedication to dodging death while he performs absolutely bonkers choreography - leapt from the roof of the Stade de France as he nabbed the Olympic flag from Karen Bass, Los Angeles mayor and Simone Biles.
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The 62-year-old then went on to hop on his motorcycle and board a plane, before jumping out, deploying his parachute and changing the Os on the Hollywood sign into the Olympic Rings.
However, not everyone was impressed... Namely, those who watched from home.
As the next Olympic Games will be hosted by Los Angeles in 2028, the whole set up was a way to show the French passing off the flag to the US.
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But even with its meaning, fans just didn’t feel impressed by Cruise and his stunt.
One wrote on X: "Um, is this Tom Cruise's big stunt?" as another said: "Tom cruise entrance was underwhelming."
And someone else wrote: “Why was Tom Cruise’s Olympics appearance so weird?”
Okay, so it wasn’t a hit with everyone. It was, however, a hit with those in attendance.
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The coordinated stunt may have looked like it was easy-peasy to the pro stuntman, but you’d be shocked at how long it took him to prepare for it.
18 whole months.
That’s right, the Top Gun star took a year and a half to get himself ready to pull off this crazy performance for the Paris Olympic Games.
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Usually, you’d probably have a stunt doubt taking charge when the dangerous parts came up, but not Cruise.
The actor wanted to do ‘the whole thing’ himself, which led to a lot of anxiety from Ben Winston, the exec of Fulwell 73 Productions who personally asked Cruise to do the performance.
Just one day before the Mission Impossible actor went on to pull off the insane stunt, Winston told Vogue that he had been worried he’d be unable to pull it off.
He explained: “We've been planning this for a year and a half, and we had this idea that it would be so beautiful if we could take the flag from the Paris stadium and make it travel all the way to Los Angeles and then go live and do something spectacular here.”
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It was something spectacular indeed.
In the clip, Cruise can be seen donning a similar getup that you’re used to seeing when he plays his infamous American pilot character, wearing all black with a leather jacket.
The choreography was something that looked like it should have been in one of his movies and the execution was fabulous.
However, if he was utterly jet lagged from flying 11 hours from London to LA and back again, you couldn’t tell.
He’s currently filming the next Mission Impossible in the UK, and had to leave to switch up the Hollywood sign before immediately coming all the way back to resume his film set.
Topics: Sport, Olympics, Entertainment, Celebrity, News
Britt Jones