Tom Cruise shares childhood inspiration behind daring Mission: Impossible- The Final Reckoning stunts: I remember thinking how exciting it looked

As Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning approaches its highly anticipated release, Tom Cruise opened up about two moments from his childhood that set him on the path to becoming one of Hollywood’s most fearless action stars.Cruise, who returns to cinemas as Ethan Hunt this summer, shared that his fascination with adventure began not on a film set, but as a child lying in the grass.“It all started when I used to lay on the ground, looking up at the birds—maybe three and a half years old,” he recalled. Narrating how things progressed, he shared, “Then I’d climb trees because I liked the feeling of the wind and the tree swaying with it. I used to climb out of the window and onto the gutters just to look at the stars. I always wanted to go to space and travel the world.”Another life-defining moment came when he watched a television programme about vintage aviation, specifically featuring wing walking—an extreme stunt where a person stands on the wings of an airborne plane. “I remember looking at this and thinking how exciting it looked—to be both the pilot and the guy on the wing,” Cruise said.It took a few years and a whole lot of practice and dedication for Tom to take the leap and recreate these death-defying stunts himself. Sharing how his views about performing stunts changed over the years, he shared, “Now I look at things and think, ‘How do I tell the story? How do I get a camera in there?’ Because doing it without being able to share it isn’t enough—it’s the story that makes it worth it.”In The Final Reckoning, Ethan Hunt embarks on his most risky, highly intimate and visually complex mission to date, one that threatens not only international security but even his existence. Ethan is forced to the verge of his physical and mental limits by an unrelenting enemy from the shadows, broken alliances and a revelation of long-buried secrets. Ethan Hunt must choose how much of himself he is willing to lose in order to save the world one last time as betrayals mount and time runs out. And just when you think you know where the story is going, it takes a dramatic turn in the end but it's just the beginning.The film hits the big screens on May 17, 2025 in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.