Could A Mission: Impossible 8 Stunt Involve Tom Cruise And A Blimp? Blame Twitter If It Does

Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible Rogue Nation

After six Mission: Impossible movies you'd think they'd be running out of amazing stunts for Tom Cruise to do. Although, if you think about it, many of them involved the actor hanging off of things. Cruise has dangled from planes, helicopters, and buildings. And we now know that in Mission: Impossible 7 Tom Cruise will hang off the side of a train. What's even left for Tom Cruise to hang from? How about a blimp? But if it does, we'll have social media to blame.

That suggestion was made by a Mission: Impossible fan on Twitter, and it was picked up by, of all things, the official Twitter account of the Goodyear Blimp. It seems the blimp would like to offer its expertise to Mission: Impossible director Christopher McQuarrie if he would like to get Ethan Hunt hanging from a blimp, and McQuarrie seems, at the very least, curious.

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Tom Cruise does most or all of his own stunts in most movies but the Mission: Impossible franchise has been his showcase. In those films he's done some pretty incredible things, including, in the most recent movie, performing multiple HALO jumps. Part of looking forward to the next Mission: Impossible movie is wondering what crazy thing Tom Cruise will do to try and top whatever he did before. So maybe hanging from a blimp isn't that crazy an idea.

I mean, our understanding is that Christopher McQuarrie wrote the two screenplays for the next Mission: Impossible movies together, and so whatever is planned for them has likely already been set. But if the writer/director wanted to add or change a sequence to include a blimp, there's no reason he couldn't do that, right?

The most difficult part would probably figuring out how to work a blimp into the plot of the movie. Blimps aren't exactly a popular mode of transportation these days, so unless Mission: Impossible 8 takes place during a major sporting event, I'm not sure why a blimp would be available for Tom Cruise to hang from. Which is not to say such a scene wouldn't be awesome. While blimps don't exactly move fast, they are usually quite high in the air, which would make such a stunt as dangerous as anything the actor has done before.

While I feel like a blimp is probably an unlikely location for a future Mission: Impossible movie, what we can be certain of is that both of the forthcoming films will have plenty of exciting action and that Tom Cruise himself will be in the middle of it. Mission: Impossible 7 is now set for release next May and Mission: Impossible 8 will follow one year later. Whether either one will include Tom Cruise hanging from a blimp, only time will tell.

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.