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Tom Cruise jumped from the Stade de France in Paris during the 2024 Olympics closing ceremony — for free.
The actor leaped from the roof into the stadium, was given the Olympic flag by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and gymnast Simone Biles, then drove it out of the stadium on a motorbike.
For audiences at home, the ceremony then showed Cruise driving through the streets of Paris, boarding a military plane, and doing a solo skydive to the Hollywood sign.
The sequence, which riffed on Cruise's stunt-based acting career, was part of handing over the Olympics to Los Angeles for the 2028 games and honored the Hollywood side of the city.
LA28 chairman Casey Wasserman revealed how the team pulled the sequence off at Game Plan 2024, an event hosted by CNBC and the business-services company Boardroom.
Wasserman explained that they originally planned to have a stuntman do most of the sequence in a balaclava, but the actor wanted to do it himself.
"About five minutes into the presentation [Tom Cruise] goes, 'I'm in. But I'm only doing it if I get to do everything,'" Wasserman said.
Cruise has famously done all of his own stunts in recent years, including the exhilarating mountain jump in 2023's "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One," so it's unsurprising that he wanted to do the sequence. But the LA28 chief said he did the whole thing for free, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
That is a little surprising given the logistics of filming the separate jumps in Paris and Los Angeles. Wasserman explained that the star was filming the next "Mission: Impossible" movie at the time, but managed to squeeze in the Olympics jump.
"He finished filming Mission: Impossible at 6 p.m. in London, got right on a plane. He landed in L.A. at 4 a.m., and filmed the scene where he pulls onto a military plane," Wasserman explained.
"In L.A., 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."
Considering Cruise's role in the 2024 closing ceremony, it's possible he'll be involved in the opening ceremony in 2028. But there's plenty of time to figure out how he'll top the stadium jump.
When speaking to Business Insider in 2023, Cruise said he tries to outdo himself on every project.
"I'm always pushing. I just remember, every time they say, 'Can you top it? Can you not top it?' we're always pushing. Every film I do, whatever genre it's in, I want to make it as entertaining as possible for that audience. I know I can do things better," he said.
