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Tom cruise hangs on to a flying airbus (really) in the next mission impossible.

He wore a safety harness, but that’s really him on a real aircraft, 5,000 feet off the real ground.

MI5 - Cruise on Airbus A400M.jpg

This is not what we usually mean by “flying standby.”

The recently-unveiled trailer for the summertime action extravaganza Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation builds to a shot of what is presumably the movie’s blue-chip stunt: Star (and producer) Tom Cruise hot-foots his way across the wing of a taxiing Airbus A400M, then grabs hold of the military airlifter and holds on for dear life as it takes off and climbs, the ground beneath him falling away like taillights in a rearview mirror.

As with the prior instances of gravity-defiance in the five-film-deep, 19-year-old franchise—most notably, a stroll up the side of the world’s tallest building in 2011’s Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol —the aircraft-hang is no greenscreen-enabled illusion. It’s a genuine feat of (meticulously planned and rehearsed) derring-do by Cruise, now 52 years old but determined to maintain his much-publicized habit of keeping stunt doubles in the unemployment line. 

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In an interview with Yahoo! Movies last week, Cruise and Rogue Nation director Christopher McQuarrie discussed the genesis and execution of the set piece, which was shot at RAF Wittering in Cambridgeshire, England, last November. Preparation involved the creation of a special frame to mount a camera under the wing of the airlifter and withstand wind resistance, as well as a pair of full-eyeball contact lenses for Cruise so that he could open his eyes while the aircraft was in flight. As the actor told Yahoo! Movies :

The things we were all very concerned about were particles on the runway and bird strikes. We spent days clearing out the nearby grass of any birds, and they brushed the runway as best they could. My stunt coordinator would poke me if he got reports of bird strikes. The pilot had to be on the lookout for anything in the air that could impact me in any way. I also was testing how to keep my eyes open so you have a shot—I can’t have my eyes closed the entire time. The thing that no one else was thinking about, but I was, was the fuel. You have jet fuel coming right out of the back at me because I’m on the wing above the engine. Even when we were taxiing, I was also inhaling the fumes and they were going in my eyes.

Because the script called for Cruise’s character to wear a tailored gray suit, there was no protection from the cold at 5,000 feet. He performed the stunt eight times before he and McQuarrie were satisfied they had enough footage to create a thrilling action sequence.

The movie’s first poster features an image of the airplane-hang in progress. When it was unveiled, I wondered why a military cargo airplane would have a suspiciously-handhold-sized lattice on its side. The piece of equipment Cruise is holding onto, prominently visible in this Daily Mail photo gallery , is a “deployable baffle,” intended to give paratroops an instant to get clear of the massive aircraft when jumping before they’re caught in the Jetstream.  Airbus’ website notes the A400M—a four-engine turboprop design that had its first flight in 2009—can be configured to carry up to 116 paratroops. Dispersing that many soldiers quickly would likely necessitate the use of the cargo ramp as well as the spoiler-protected paratroop doors on either side of the fuselage.

While the stunt represents Cruise’s first flight, or eight flights, on the outside of an aircraft, he’s held a pilot’s license since 1994, according to Forbes contributor Matthew Stibbe. The star’s personal fleet includes a World War II-era P-51 Mustang. No pilot license is required for PC users to download Airbus ’ A400M — The Game .  I’m using a Mac, so I can’t tell you whether or not the game includes a level where you must try to shake off an unusually determined secret agent who’s fixed himself to the side of your airplane.

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Here's how Tom Cruise filmed the crazy plane-hanging stunt in the new 'Mission: Impossible'

Tom Cruise has always boasted that he does his own stunts.

Whether it's driving a race car in " Days of Thunder ," battling enemies with a samurai sword in "The Last Samurai"...

Tom Cruise Last Samurai

"The Last Samurai"

YouTube/Paramount Pictures

In the much-hyped trailer, Cruise, reprising his role as IMF agent Ethan Hunt, ends up on a giant Airbus A400M plane and is hanging from the door as it takes off.

tom cruise mission impossible rogue nation

Paramount Pictures

But that's not Tom Cruise's style.

"I knew I wanted to have an airplane sequence. I've been thinking about it for a long time," Cruise told Yahoo Movies UK during an interview with director Christopher McQuarrie. "As a kid I remember flying on an airplane and thinking: 'what would it be like out on the wing or on the side of the airplane?!'"

So after eight takes on a runway in England, Cruise's childhood dream finally came true.

When the production designer brought McQuarrie a model of an Airbus plane, the director joked to Cruise, "What if you were on the outside of this thing when it took off?' Cruise replied, "Yeah, I could do that."

"You have jet fuel coming right out of the back at me because I'm on the wing of the engine," he said. "Even when we were taxying I was also inhaling the fumes and [it] was going in my eyes."

"I remember one time we were going down the runway and there was just a little particle that just hit me, it was smaller than a finger nail," Cruise recalls. "I was thankful it didn't hit my hands or face, if it did I'd have a problem because those parts were exposed, but it still could have broken my ribs!"

Cruise notes that he was strapped to the side of the plane from the moment the engine started to the moment it landed and the engine shut down - " The climb, the taxi, down the runway, getting the shot, leveling off, turning around and landing. And I did it EIGHT TIMES to get the shot."

Tom Cruise Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol

YouTube screencap

"Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol."

NOW WATCH: Watch 52-year-old Tom Cruise beat up bad guys in the new 'Mission: Impossible' trailer

tom cruise tied to plane

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Here's how Tom Cruise filmed the crazy plane-hanging stunt in the new 'Mission: Impossible'

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Of course this is Tom Cruise, aged 60, hanging off a plane to film Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning

tom cruise tied to plane

By Olivia Ovenden

Tom Cruise Mission Impossible plane

One of the very first things that people will tell you when Tom Cruise comes up in conversation is that he does his own stunts. The cargo plane crash in The Mummy ? Cruise. The 360-degree corkscrew helicopter dive in Mission: Impossible – Fallout? Tom Cruise! The G-force battling dives in a twin-engine jet in Top Gun: Maverick ? Tom. Cruise. People love to tell you this about Tom Cruise, even though it's something that the man has made such a calling card of his career that he went so far as to fire the company insuring Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol when he was told he couldn't perform a stunt in which he jumped from the side of the tallest building on earth.

This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

In fact so known is the actor for his daredevil streak and death drive, that the image of a man dangling precariously from a red plane many thousands of feet above the ground could only be Tom Cruise. The *squints* “Yeah, that's Tom Cruise” image was shared by the director the seventh Mission: Impossible movie, Dead Reckoning Part One, which is set to be released next year and will be the penultimate in the franchise. Christopher McQuarrie wished Cruise a happy 60th birthday, a caption that can only be read as a reminder to all of us that you're truly only as old as you feel, especially if you reach 60 years old and still feel this chill about hanging out of a plane. 

Image may contain Helmet Clothing Apparel Human Person Military Military Uniform Army Armored and Soldier

Tom Cruise shows no sign of slowing despite entering his sixth decade on the planet. If anything he's speeding into his best era yet given the lap of honour he's been on following his box office destroying turn in Top Gun: Maverick. The double bill finale of Dead Reckoning means that Cruise's swan song as Ethan Hunt will dive into cinemas in the summer of 2024, when the actor himself is just shy of 62. For some of us, gravity is theoretical and age is just a number.

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Watch Tom Cruise Hang Off Side of a Plane for 'Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation'

"Why do the stunts look real? Because they are real," Cruise said.

— -- So, Tom Cruise did something kind of crazy for "Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation."

The film, due out at the end of the month, released a 1-minute video showing Cruise hanging off the side of a plane as it takes off.

Read: Tom Cruise Films Death-Defying Stunt for 'Mission: Impossible 5'

"I couldn't sleep the night before, then came the day. I thought, 'Oh, this is really going to happen?'" he says in the clip.

PHOTO: Tom Cruise seen holding onto the side of a cargo plane while filming scenes for his latest Mission Impossible movie in a video he shared on his Twitter.

Furthermore, Cruise, 53, did the take eight times.

Watch it and try not to feel queasy.

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It took Tom Cruise 8 takes to pull off this insane 'Mission Impossible' airplane stunt

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Ever since the first trailer for "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" premiered, the one thing people can't stop talking about is that insane airplane stunt that Tom Cruise pulls off . 

That stunt was not aided with CGI; Cruise was really hanging off the side of a plane. 

A new behind-the-scenes video gives a closer look at how exactly they pulled this wild stunt off. He even had to pull the stunt off eight times in order to get it just right.

It took a lot of preparation, including putting something in Cruise's eyes. A Paramount spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider Cruise had to wear special contact lenses so he could keep his eyes open despite the wind pressure.

Here's Cruise getting strapped in and closed off:

Cruise said he "couldn't sleep the night before," but he doesn't look too scared.

The only thing keeping him attached to the plane was a rope and harness.

Related stories

The stakes were high.

"If something went wrong, I can't get into the airplane until we land." Cruise said.

Here he is just as the plane is about to take off:

And here he is, dangling in the air with very little support:

"I'm feeling the force of the wind hit me and I'm actually scared s***less." Cruise said.

"Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" opens in theaters on July 31.

You can watch the full behind-the-scenes video below:

tom cruise tied to plane

Watch: Watch 52-year-old Tom Cruise beat up bad guys in the new 'Mission: Impossible' trailer

tom cruise tied to plane

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'Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning': Tom Cruise Dangles Off a Vintage Plane in New Behind the Scenes Image

Christopher McQuarrie posted the image in honor of Cruise's 60th birthday.

In honor of Tom Cruise ’s 60th birthday, director Christopher McQuarrie posted a behind-the-scenes image of the star dangling upside down from an airborne World War II plane. The stunt sequence will presumably be seen in either Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One , or its immediate sequel, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part Two , due out in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

McQuarrie wished Cruise a happy birthday in his tweet, as he teased what could possibly be among the final times Cruise gets to perform crazy stunts as Agent Ethan Hunt. The actor has played the character for over a quarter-century now, and will be 62 by the time the eighth film is released. Cruise has developed a reputation as a daredevil performer of his own stunts, which have been escalating in intensity with every new project that he does.

McQuarrie's new picture shows Cruise harnessed to a vintage plane, clearly flying at a significant altitude above what appears to be the countryside. A small camera can be seen attached to the rear fin, and a closer look reveals a pilot seated in the rear cockpit. It was reported by The Sun last year that Cruise had learned to fly a Boeing-Stearman biplane for a major sequence in the then-untitled Mission: Impossible 8 . The report also cited witnesses as describing the sequence being filmed over Cambridgeshire in the U.K. Cruise was harnessed to the wing, sitting upside down while the plane performed a belly-roll. The pilot then sent the plane into a nosedive and a spin, as Cruise made his way back into the cockpit.

RELATED: 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1': Release Date, Cast, Trailer, and Everything We Know So Far

There is nothing that audiences currently seem to enjoy more than the sight of Cruise inside an airplane, preferably engaged in a high-stakes aerial combat sequence. And the bar has certainly been raised (by Cruise himself) after the blockbuster success of Top Gun: Maverick .

Filming on the eighth Mission: Impossible movie began immediately after the seventh film wrapped in September. The Hollywood Reporter carried an in-depth story earlier this year about how Cruise and McQuarrie mounted a back-to-back production , braving the pandemic, a budget that had ballooned to nearly $300 million for the seventh movie, and various other setbacks. But all this was before Cruise proved (again) that he is a massive box office draw when it comes to large-scale franchise films.

A first trailer for Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One has already teased that film’s action set-pieces, the most prominent of which seems to be a chase scene aboard a vintage train , and Cruise riding a motorbike off a cliff. M:I 7 features Ving Rhames , Simon Pegg , and Rebecca Ferguson as returning players, while Hayley Atwell , Pom Klementieff , Shea Whigham , and Cary Elwes will be playing new characters, and Esai Morales will appear as the film’s primary antagonist.

Mission: Impossible 7 and 8 were originally slated to premiere on September 30, 2022, and July 7, 2023, respectively. The films have now been pushed to July 14, 2023, and June 28, 2024. You can get a better look at McQuarrie's picture here:

Simple Flying

What planes does tom cruise own.

Let’s take a look at Tom Cruise’s aircraft collection.

  • Tom Cruise is a licensed pilot with qualifications as a multi-engine instrument-rated pilot and helicopter flying skills.
  • Cruise owns a collection of airplanes, including a vintage P-51 Mustang fighter from World War II and a Gulfstream IV G4 jet.
  • There may be additional aircraft in Cruise's fleet, such as a HondaJet and a Bombardier Challenger 300 jet, according to a travel expert.

It wasn't just a show for 'Top Gun.' Tom Cruise is one of the few actors who genuinely love aviation. He has been a licensed pilot since 1994 and is able to fly several types of aircraft. However, it doesn't stop with a license. The famous Hollywood actor also has a collection of airplanes varying from vintage fighters to business jets.

What kind of license does Cruise have?

In various discussions, Tom Cruise has revealed that his affinity for aviation was crucial to his initial attraction to the original 'Top Gun.' He shared that he holds qualifications as a multi-engine instrument-rated pilot and has continued to enhance his skill set throughout his life. Notably, he acquired helicopter flying skills for the remarkable stunts seen in the 2018 film 'Mission Impossible: Fallout.'

Plane collection

North American P-51 Mustang fighter

During a segment on The Late Late Show, Cruise took host James Corden for a ride in his own vintage P-51 Mustang fighter plane. Tom Cruise acquired this World War II fighter in 2001, which was initially built in 1946.

The P-51 Mustang was an American long-range fighter bomber that served alongside other conflicts during World War II and the Korean War. It was developed by North American Aviation and was retired in 1984. Nevertheless, even today, the fighter is utilized for air racing by civilian pilots. After being donated to an Illinois museum, the plane underwent restoration in 1997.

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Making his recent performance in ' Top Gun: Maverick ,' Tom Cruise takes to the skies in the P-51 Mustang fighter. What adds intrigue to this is the revelation that he wasn't just portraying the pilot on screen – he was actually at the controls of his very own P-51 Mustang fighter.

Gulfstream IV G4 jet

With an estimated price tag of $20 million, this jet boasts the capability to accommodate as many as 19 passengers. Notably, it reportedly comes furnished with luxuries, including a jacuzzi and a dedicated movie-screening room, according to Business Insider.

The Gulfstream IV G4 is a long-range executive jet designed and built by Gulfstream , a General Dynamics company based in Savannah, Georgia, United States, from 1985 until 2018. Its production spanned from 1985 to 2018, resulting in over 900 G4 units taking to the skies. This jet can cover distances of up to 7,100 kilometers and achieve a top speed of 850 kilometers per hour.

Is there more?

Whether the actor has more aircraft in its fleet has been under speculation as it was never officially confirmed. But according to a Business Insider report, in addition to the vintage fighter jet and the Gulfstream IV G4, Jack Sweeney, who is famous for reporting the travel habits of numerous celebrities, including Elon Musk, said he has been able to identify Cruise's HondaJet and a Bombardier Challenger 300 jet.

Want answers to more key questions in aviation? Check out the rest of our guides here .

Sources: Business Insider , South China Morning Post

The Film Bandit

Behind tom cruise’s insane ‘rogue nation’ airplane stunt.

Tom Cruise , known for executing his own stunts, once again pushed boundaries in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation , the fifth mission for Ethan Hunt. In an era when green screen and CGI dominates cinema, Cruise’s decision to perform the heart-stopping airplane stunt was admirable. Let’s dive deeper into the famous Tom Cruise airplane stunt and how it was shot and check out the crazy behind the scenes footage below:

From Top Gun to Rogue Nation

Many recall the days of Top Gun , where Cruise made a name for himself flying the skies in a fighter jet. However, it was in Rogue Nation that he defied gravity. While the Mission Impossible movies are known for its stunts, this particular stunt took things to a whole new level.

Behind the Scenes of the Tom Cruise Plane Stunt

For this particular scene, Cruise clung to the side of a massive Airbus as it took off. You might assume this was shot using a green screen, but in reality, it was Cruise himself attached to the wing at take-off.

The film’s director Christopher McQuarrie , made sure every safety measure was in place. Under the watchful eye of a stunt coordinator and an experienced crew, Tom was secured with a full-body harness. This safety harness was concealed beneath his attire, ensuring the intensity of the moment was captured by the filmmakers without any visual distractions.

Tom Cruise behind the scenes of Rogue Nation.

A specialized aluminum truss was also constructed to securely hold the camera. And to protect the actor’s eyes from the rushing wind and debris, special contact lenses were made.

But why would an actor risk so much when a green screen might suffice? The answer is, it’s Tom Cruise. When the clip was unveiled at CinemaCon , the audience was left speechless.

Comparing Rogue Nation to Past Mission Impossible Films

The airplane scene in Rogue Nation wasn’t the first time Cruise attempted a death-defying stunt. In Ghost Protocol , he scaled the Burj Khalifa , the tallest building in Dubai. This was yet another insane sequence. No wires, no CGI – just a dangling Cruise, 130 floors high. See the terrifying behind the scenes footage of the Burj Khalifa stunt here .

Tom Cruise hangs from the Burj Khalifia in Dubai, in Ghost Protocol.

Tidbits from the Cast

Simon Pegg , a regular in the Mission Impossible franchise, expressed his amazement at Cruise’s dedication. Rebecca Ferguson , Ving Rhames , and Hayley Atwell also shared behind-the-scenes video clips on their social media platforms. Fans eagerly awaited the release of Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, which hit theaters in July, wondering if Cruise would attempt to top the airplane and Dubai stunts.

Beyond Rogue Nation

Apart from Rogue Nation , Tom Cruise piloted his own biplane during the shooting of a PSA in April , while flying over Blyde River Canyon in South Africa.

From Top Gun to Rogue Nation , Cruise signifies the golden age of cinema, where real stunts beat digital effects. As audiences are once again hitting theaters for Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning , one thing remains clear: Cruise’s commitment to authenticity remains unmatched.

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Screen Rant

Mission impossible: how tom cruise pulled off rogue nation's plane stunt.

Tom Cruise is as reckless as Ethan Hunt, but it takes more than a strong gut to dangle from a flying plane for Mission Impossible's craziest stunt.

Against all odds, Tom Cruise outdid himself with his dangerous airplane stunt in  Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation , but how did he achieve it? Tom Cruise has a long list of highly successful movies , yet his acting skills aren't his only tool to maintain his Hollywood superstar status. Throughout the years, he has performed plenty of crazy stunts that have repeatedly put his life at risk, but every time the actor seems to have reached his limit, he comes up with an even crazier display of courage and physical prowess. Tom Cruise has now become the face of elaborate action sequences, drawing massive crowds who are always eager to watch him hanging from a cliff or break his ankle while jumping between rooftops.

After climbing the Burj Khalifa in  Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol , both Tom Cruise and his iconic character Ethan Hunt decided they needed to raise the stakes. In typical  Mission Impossible   fashion,  Rogue Nation  opens with  Agent William Brandt (Jeremy Renner)  leading a mission to intercept a cargo plane in Minsk, Belarus. When computer specialist Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and intelligence operative Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) fail to hack into its system, Ethan Hunt comes to the rescue and jumps onto the plane, grasping one of its side doors as it takes off. As one would expect from him, it really was Tom Cruise hanging from the plane, with almost no aid from CGI and minimal safety measures. The stunt was so intense that it was heavily featured in all promotional content for the movie, including the main poster.

Related:  Every Mission: Impossible Movie In Chronological Order

Curiously, the whole sequence had to be incorporated into the script after director Christopher McQuarrie conjured up the mental image of Mission Impossible 's main star dangling from a cargo plane. Tom Cruise, being the athletic daredevil that he's always been, proposed to do the stunt without any green screens or stunt doubles. So, McQuarrie, Cruise, and stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood shot eight different takes, elevating the aircraft to an altitude of around 5,000 feet and slanting it at a more pronounced angle than what a regular cargo aircraft normally would when it takes off. Of course, nobody is strong enough to cling to a plane door at 260 mph. Despite being Tom Cruise's most extreme  Mission Impossible stunt , he was actually strapped to a full-body harness which in turn was wired and bolted to the interior of the aircraft.

Still, a stunt at such a high speed could have gone very wrong. It had to be rehearsed a few times beforehand without the star in order to find the right conditions to shoot. The crew made sure that the plane would take off with the ideal weather and with the clearest environment so that the actor could enjoy the smoothest possible flight. Additionally, he had to wear special contact lenses to protect his eyes from wind and debris. After Tom Cruise landed safe and sound for the eighth time, the only remaining thing director Christopher McQuarrie had to do was to edit out the wires and the additional cameras that were attached to the plane.

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation  kept the franchise's tradition of upping the ante from the get-go. However, few other franchises keep the audience on the edge of their seat with real-life hazards. All of it is thanks to Tom Cruise, who keeps cheating death onscreen and offscreen with a level of audacity that no other major actor has ever matched.

Next:  Top Gun 3 Would Be Better For Tom Cruise Than Mission: Impossible 9

Key Release Dates

Mission: impossible - dead reckoning part one, mission: impossible - dead reckoning - part two.

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Tom Cruise wearing a black helmet and brown protective suit moments before practicing a stunt for "MI8"

It’s risky business being one of Hollywood’s biggest action stars.

Just ask Tom Cruise, who was spotted climbing onto the wing of a tiny airplane on Saturday while practicing a stunt for a film in these photos obtained by Page Six.

Tom Cruise sitting on the wing of an old war plane while practicing a stunt for "Mission: Impossible 8"

In the pics you can see Cruise, 59, hanging upside down as the plane itself flips over to perform a “loop-the-loop” mid-air so that it appears the actor is actually sitting upright. It’s easy to spot Cruise in the pics due to the plane being yellow and his protective bodysuit and headgear being brown.

Tom Cruise sitting upright on the wing of an airplane for a stunt

A safety harness was worn by the the Scientologist to keep him from falling off of the plane as it whirled around the open skies with him moving along the wing.

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tom cruise tied to plane

The plane being used for the stunt is a 1941 Boeing B75N1 Stearman biplane in which the pilot sits in the back. It took off from Duxford airfield to practice the wild stunt at 2,000 feet over the Cambridgeshire countryside.

The yellow 1941 Boeing B75N1 Stearman biplane being used by Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 8

The stunt is likely for the eighth installment of Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible” franchise, which has reportedly been filming throughout the United Kingdom for several months, according to the BBC .

Tom Cruise seated in the front of a yellow bi-plane used for a stunt

Photos show that Cruise was sitting in the plane’s front seats before it took off. Once the plane was in the sky he appeared to crawl out of his seat and onto the wing to practice the terrifying stunt.

A look at the plane following the yellow plane Tom Cruise performed his stunt on

A second small plane can be seen following close behind Cruise’s stunt plane, likely to practice filming the stunt itself for the film.

Death defying stunts are nothing new for the actor who was also spotted filming another on a train earlier this year, as Page Six exclusively reported, for another “Mission: Impossible” film.

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Tom Cruise sitting on the wing of an old war plane while practicing a stunt for "Mission: Impossible 8"

tom cruise tied to plane

Tom Cruise Owns More Than One Plane – Here Are The Coolest In His Fleet

O ne of Tom Cruise's most famous movie roles is that of fighter pilot Captain Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell, a part he first brought to the screen in 1986 in "Top Gun" and reprised in last year's "Top Gun: Maverick."

Both films feature plenty of shots of Cruise behind the controls of an aircraft, a position he is comfortable with off-screen as well. Cruise earned his pilot's license in 1994 and has used the skill in previous films like "Mission Impossible: Fallout" and "American Made."

Cruise is famous for doing his own stunts, and going into the filming of "Top Gun: Maverick," he was determined to use as much real footage as possible and even wanted to fly Maverick's F-18 himself, but the Navy wouldn't let the actor behind the controls of their $70 million war machine. 

Cruise did, however, fly several other aircraft in the film, including helicopters and one of his own planes, a World War II-era fighter-bomber. Let's take a look at that aircraft and some of Cruise's other personal aircraft. (Cruise doesn't just collect aircraft, he also has several cars and other vehicles as well.)

Read more: The 10 Most Legendary Planes Of WW2 Ranked From Worst To Best

P51 Mustang

The military propeller plane Cruise flew in "Top Gun: Maverick" was a P-51 Mustang that was built in 1946 and purchased by Cruise in 2001. Paramount released a featurette about the plane, in which flight instructor and "Top Gun: Maverick" technical advisor Steve Hinton remarked, "There's still a lot of that pioneering spirit of aviation when you're flying a P51. I know Tom loves doing aerobatics, it's a wonderful plane to do aerobatics with." The video also shows Cruise taking co-star Jennifer Connelly for a ride in the plane, something she called "an incredible experience, certainly like nothing I've ever done before. And he's an amazing pilot," she added.

Cruise also took "The Late Late Show" host James Corden for a ride in the P-51, although Corden was noticeably unsettled to be flying in the vintage aircraft, particularly when Cruise warned him about the contingency plan should the plane's lone engine fail -- inverting the plane and ejecting Corden to parachute to the ground.

"I'm just going to turn over and I'm gonna plop you out of the plane," Cruise teased. 

"I don't want to be plopped out," an ashen-faced Corden responded. Cruise took Corden on a thrilling ride, even staging a mock dogfight with another P-51 pilot. 

Gulfstream IV

Cruise's fleet of planes is not limited to vintage fighter-bombers. Cruise reportedly travels in a Gulfstream IV, a $20 million jet equipped with a jacuzzi and private film screening room. The Gulfstream IV was first produced in 1985, just a year before the first "Top Gun" movie was released, and can be configured to carry a maximum of 19 passengers. The twin-engine craft has a maximum range of a little less than 5,000 miles and a top speed of 552 mph. 

Gulfstream made the IV for just eight years, producing only 862 of the model. Most of them were sold to government and military customers, but it's no surprise that a movie star of Cruise's stature and with his military connections was able to get his hands on one and outfit it with the equipment necessary to allow him to cruise the skies in comfort while also being able to review his latest work. 

HondaJet And Challenger 300

Jack Sweeney, who had a since-suspended account on X, the platform previously known as Twitter, was able to identify three other aircraft belonging to Cruise before his account was removed. One was a HondaJet HA-420 with the identification number N77VA, the same plane Cruise arrived at Burbank Airport with when he came to take Corden for a ride in his P-51 Mustang. The HA-420 has two engines, seats eight people, and can fly at a maximum altitude of 43,000 feet. It has a top speed of just under 500 mph and a range of just over 1,200 nautical miles. Sweeney also identified a Bombardier Challenger 300 as belonging to Cruise.

The Challenger is a twin-engine jet that typically seats eight people but can accommodate up to ten. It has a range of 3,220 miles, a top speed of 460 mph, and a maximum altitude of 45,000 feet. Cruise reportedly keeps all of his planes at a private hangar in Burbank, giving him easy access when it's time to take one for a spin.  

Read the original article on SlashGear .

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Tom Cruise’s Expensive Airplane Collection

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If You Could, You Would

Tom Cruise is a highly decorated actor with money to spend and an undying dedication to aviation. As a certified pilot, Cruise flies his two planes regularly to sets, for vacation, or for his wife’s groceries.

His Gulfstream IV is one of the finest private jets in the world right now. Manufactured by Gulfstream Aerospace, this $20 Million luxury plane carries up to 19 people. Did we forget to mention that it has a built-in jacuzzi and movie theater installed? 

However, that $20M plane isn’t Cruise’s favorite airplane. That distinction belongs to his own personal P-51 Mustang. This iconic warbird was built in 1946, just after the war, and was situated in a museum before the actor purchased it in 2001. Today, this Merlin-engine-powered warbird has an estimated price of $4 Million.

Nobody can blame Cruise for his expensive taste in vehicles. After all, if we all had the money to own and fly any of these planes, we all would in an instant.

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IMAGES

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