Tom Cruise has been known to be a daredevil when it comes to cinema. Some might even call him a maverick, especially after the 2025 movie Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning saw him flying pretty high for the stunt of a lifetime on the side of a plane. That apparently wasn’t the only thing the star was doing, however, as co-writer/director Christopher McQuarrie revealed another earned credit for Cruise’s resume: cinematographer.
During a talk that saw both collaborators on hand at this year’s Cannes Film Festival (via That Shelf’s YouTube channel,) it was revealed that the ever intrepid leading man was truly an army of one while shooting some of those painful Mission biplane stunts. McQuarrie started to share that knowledge with the crowd with an anecdote, saying
When you watch Tom tonight, there’s a moment where he’s in an airplane. He’s in a biplane completely alone. He’s at the controls, and his biplane suffers some damage. Spoiler — there’s tension in this. There’s a moment where Tom — the camera’s in profile, and Tom Cruise looks over at the damaged strut of his biplane, and the camera throws focus, and it’s this beautiful backlit shot. There’s sun, and you see this vibrating strut, and Tom turns back, and the camera racks focus to Tom. I want you to remember there’s no crew with Tom in an airplane at 10,000 feet above Africa.
I still can’t believe what I just read. Tom Cruise, the mad man that he is, was actually operating his own camera to get some of those shots where you might have been convinced Ethan Hunt’s near death was imminent. Physically, and logistically, it makes sense - because the man of the hour wouldn’t want to risk his crew’s lives in the making of his Mission: Impossible swan song.
If Tom Cruise stopped Henry Cavill from a HALO jump, you’d bet he’d tell the crew to stay on the ground. The results kind of speak for themselves, as the biplane chase joins the rest of the ridiculous Mission: Impossible stunts in the big screen hall of fame. But a little further background from Christopher McQuarrie certainly couldn’t hurt, with the filmmaker saying,
Tom is lighting the shot. By now, he’s positioning the plane and its relationship to the sun, and he’s operating focus just off camera. He is the crew in every single shot you’re seeing.
At this point, I’m wondering when Tom Cruise is going to go full Buster Keaton and direct a film of his own. I can’t think of another piece of the process that the man hasn’t touched in some way that he’d need to take that gig on, and I’m dying to know what he’d cook up behind the camera. Also, that might be the only way Cruise's mysterious space movie gets made at this point. Do you want to be the person to tell him he can't leave the planet?
That’s no slight to trusted helmers like Mr. McQuarrie though, and if you’ve seen Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, you’d probably agree. For those of you who need some more convincing, that eighth chapter in the IMF saga is now playing in a theater near you.
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