Tom Cruise has no need for a stunt double. In “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol,” the fourth film of the blockbuster franchise, Cruise was insistent on doing his own stunts, including dangling by a cable from the world’s tallest building.
A new video at MSN UK goes behind the scenes of the movie, showing filming atop the Bhurj Khalifa, a building in Dubai that is more than 2,723 feet tall. Cruise looks fearless as he swings around on a cable with the city spread out beneath him. And he runs perpendicular to the building’s facade. At one point, he even takes a running jump out of a window and freefalls along the face of the skyscraper.
PHOTOS: CRUISE’S SKY-HIGH STUNTS
“This is just another day at work,” director Brad Bird jokes in the video.
Last year, while promoting the action-comedy “Knight and Day,” Cruise explained to the Daily Record why he does his own stunts.
“I want to entertain the audience, and part of making these movies is doing my own stunts,” he said. “There’s always that adrenalin before you do a stunt. But we go through everything, we prepare and we make sure we are ready.”
Cruise added that wife Katie Holmes tries not to worry while he shoots his action scenes.
“When I jumped from a car that was travelling at about 60 miles per hour, Katie and Suri were watching. But [Holmes] is used to me doing this stuff … Suri and my other two kids have grown up with it. They know I do everything to be safe,” Cruise said.
He further explained that his daredevil streak started when he was very young. “I used to set up ramps and try to jump over gullies and stuff on my bike,” he said at the time, “now I tell my kids, ‘If you’re going to do it, let me teach you how to do it right’.”
His newest “Mission Impossible” movie opens in theaters on Dec. 21.