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Tom Cruise has done it all: dangling off planes, scaling skyscrapers, and riding motorcycles straight into danger. But leave it to Logan director James Mangold to nearly send him to the great action star afterlife during a stunt that looked way too chill to be deadly. No helicopters, no explosions, just one tiny misstep away from disaster.
Tom Cruise in American Made | Credits: Universal PicturesWhile Cruise is usually the guy who laughs in the face of danger, even he probably broke a sweat on this one.
Tom Cruise’s wild rooftop run: The one stunt that nearly went horribly wrong
Tom Cruise in Knight and Day | Credits: Regency EnterprisesJames Mangold, director of Logan, dropped some serious truth bombs about a Tom Cruise stunt that almost went horribly wrong. The scene in question? That rooftop run in Knight and Day.
Picture this: Cruise, running full speed on an icy rooftop in Salzburg, five stories in the air, in the dead of night. Mangold said (via DenofGeek),
I mean, there’s a level where I fear on my next film I’ll just say. “Oh, you’ll hang from that building and we’ll tie a cable to you,” and they’ll be like…Tom makes it look really easy. He just prepares. I mean, if he’s doing a stunt, he’ll be on set three, four hours in advance, stretching, walking, checking the locale, the footing.
I mean, it’s not like he’s this kind of hot dog, that just arrives and acts like nothing’s going to touch him. He arrives, and he’s like a pilot, coming in and checking the controls. It’s incredible how much effort he makes.
He continued,
And also measuring what he feels good about, the actual most hair-raising thing he did – which may not be the most hair-raising looking thing in the movie – was the rooftop running sequence in Salzberg. It’s icy, it’s 3am, he’s five stories in the air on a pitch roof running at full speed. One false step and he’s gone.
But of course, Cruise didn’t blink. Mangold shared how Cruise doesn’t just show up and act like a daredevil — he prepares like a pro. Hours of stretching, checking the surroundings, making sure everything’s perfect before even thinking about hitting the ground running.
Mangold went on to talk about how he didn’t want the action scenes in Knight and Day to feel scripted or stiff. He aimed for something more organic, a little chaos mixed with control. And with Cruise on set, that’s exactly what they got — raw, adrenaline-pumping action that felt real.
When it comes to stunts, you can’t top Tom Cruise’s fearlessness. Whether it’s hanging off a building or running across rooftops, this guy’s got it.
Tom Cruise breaks down why he skips method acting and does it his way
Tom Cruise in Top Gun | Credits: Paramount PicturesTom Cruise doesn’t buy into method acting. When asked about it, he straight up said, “I don’t find it necessary.” For him, acting’s about tapping into that pure imagination, not digging into his personal life. He revealed (Farout Magazine),
It’s not that I don’t like doing that, it’s that I don’t find it necessary…You know, you look at a child who’s there, and he has the most amazing imagination. You know, children, you’re just looking at them and they can create, become different characters instantly. That’s just how I develop character.
In Magnolia, he played Frank Mackey, a guy with serious daddy issues. But instead of following the script, Cruise rewrote his big opening monologue to make it his own. He never went to drama school, so he’s all about doing, not talking about it.
Cruise’s hands-on, no-nonsense approach to acting might be different from the typical method, but it worked like a charm for him. And honestly, who can argue with that?
Watch Knight and Day on Max & Apple TV.
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