Tom Cruise Had Just A Six-Second Window To Pull His Chute After His Mission Impossible 7 Motorcycle Jump

In his continuing quest to risk life and limb for your entertainment, no stunt is too dangerous or foolhardy for Tom Cruise. You've already seen him jump backward out of a plane this week, but riding a motorcycle off a cliff for the next "Mission: Impossible" movie? Sure, why not?

"Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning - Part I" marks the beginning of the end for Cruise's stint as secret agent Ethan Hunt, a role he first played for Brian De Palma in 1996 before working with a succession of other directors: John Woo, J.J. Abrams, Brad Bird, and, since 2015, Christopher McQuarrie (who will have directed the last four of eight "Mission: Impossible" movies, when all is said and done). After several production delays and release date changes, "Dead Reckoning - Part I," the seventh installment in the franchise, is finally set to hit theaters next summer. To get you ready for that, Cruise has taken to Twitter — even as it goes down in flames — to share a nine-minute behind-the-scenes video showing all the preparation and training that went into a stunt he calls "far and away, the most dangerous thing we've ever attempted."

As you can see from the video below, Cruise underwent months of base-jumping and motocross training just so he could drive over a cliff and deploy a parachute on his way down. In an interview with Empire magazine last year, the 60-year-old actor and co-producer said, "I had about six seconds once I departed the ramp to pull the chute, and I don't want to get tangled in the bike. If I do, that's not going to end well."

This new video opens with all the pomp and circumstance of a reality show, and the more I think about it, the more it feels like Tom Cruise really missed his calling as a stunt performer. Instead of adapting the "Mission: Impossible" TV series for the big screen, this guy should have been playing the Johnny Knoxville role in a big-budget version of "Jackass." 

So excited to share what we’ve been working on. #MissionImpossible pic.twitter.com/rIyiLzQdMG

— Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) December 19, 2022

"Don't be careful," Cruise tells the camera. "Be confident." But seriously, kids, don't try stunts like this at home. As to why he feels the need for speed to perform such death-defying feats on a consistent basis, Cruise explains, "It all comes down to one thing: the audience."

You see, people? Tom Cruise does these things for our benefit. As he says in the video, he just wants to "involve the audience" and "give them that thrill." The least we can do is go watch "Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part I" when it arrives — in theaters only — on July 14, 2023.