WASHINGTON — As a teaser for the 2028 Summer Olympics, actor Tom Cruise pulled off a death-defying stunt and sped through the streets of Paris with the Olympic flag to close out the 2024 Games.
It's a moment that is still being talked about a month after the Closing Ceremony, but according to organizers, Cruise did it just for the thrills and all for free.
The "Mission: Impossible" star started his stunt by jumping off the Stade du France, landing inside the stadium and wading through a crowd of Olympians to accept the Olympic flag from L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and the GOAT herself, gymnast Simone Biles.
Cruise then rode a motorcycle through the crowd before viewers were then shown a pre-recorded continuation of the sequence with the action star driving across Paris with the flag in tow before driving it straight onto a plane, which took off for California. Cruise then skydived into the hills behind the Hollywood sign.
It was a stunt fully in the wheelhouse of the daredevil actor, who regularly does his own stunts in films, including holding onto an airplane as it took off.
You would expect that Cruise would ask for a hefty payday to perform a stunt routine as complex as the one he did in Paris. But according to Casey Wasserman, chairman of the LA2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the actor did it for free.
"About five minutes into the presentation he goes 'I'm in. But I'm only doing it if I get to do everything,'" Wasserman said during an interview on CNBC's Game Plan Summit after the Games.
The original plan organizers pitched had a stunt double doing the Paris stunt work leading up to the Tom Cruise cameo from L.A. They figured that Cruise would be too busy to take part in the actual ceremony.
"And by the way, did it all for free, everyone on that program - that 15-minute (video) did it for free," Wasserman explained.
He shared this week that Cruise was fresh off a shoot for the next "Mission: Impossible" movie when he flew from London to Los Angeles to record the Closing Ceremony segments that took place in California.
“He finished filming ‘Mission Impossible' at 6 p.m. in London, got right on a plane. He landed in LA at 4 a.m. He filmed the scene where he pulls onto a military plane in L.A.,” Wasserman said. “He does two jumps out of the thing. He didn’t like the first one, so he did a second jump. Then he helicoptered .... from Palmdale to the Hollywood sign, filmed from 1 until 5, helicoptered to Burbank Airport and flew back to London.”
Wasserman also teased that they'd love to have the Olympic rings on the Hollywood sign for the 2028 Summer Olympics, but nothing has been finalized yet.