Tom Cruise has revealed he almost broke his back while filming his latest movie.
Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, released in May, features a scene with a nail biting sequence where Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt clings to the side of his enemy’s plane.
While watching the clip back with his director Christopher McQuarrie the Top Gun actor confessed “Oh, this almost broke my back” according to Entertainment Weekly.
“You’re talking about a lot of pain here,” McQuarrie added. “Now watch this: The thing we haven’t talked about, holding on to this belt.”
As the villain of the movie flips the plane upside down Hunt quickly grabs hold of the seatbelt for dear life.
“Oh God, that was brutal,” Cruise remembered as the director noted: “This separated the joints in Tom’s fingers from the force, so by the time we finished this sequence, your hands were absolutely swollen — oh my God, it was so painful to watch.”
The high-speed stunt resulted in another serious challenge for Cruise when his face was exposed to the wind at speeds of over 120 miles per hour. He explained “When you stick your face out, going over 120 to 130 miles an hour, you’re not getting oxygen. So I had to train myself how to breathe. There were times I would pass out physically; I was unable to get back into the cockpit.”
Cruise and the stunt team spent weeks preparing for the action in Drakensberg, South Africa, before ascending more than 75,000 feet in the helicopter.
He even set a new Guinness World Record for the most burning parachute jumps by an individual after leaping 16 times in the latest of the Mission Impossible franchise.
‘Tom doesn’t just play action heroes – he is an action hero!’ said Craig Glenday, editor-in-chief of Guinness World Records.
‘His absolute focus on pushing the boundaries of what a leading man can do is unmatched. It’s an honour to recognise his utter fearlessness with this new title.’
