More than a month after Tom Cruise stole the spotlight with his risky rappelling from the roof of the Stade de France during the closing ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, new details about the stunt have come to light.
During his most recent appearance on the CNBC x Boardroom panel, Casey Wasserman, president of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Organizing Committee, revealed that Cruise’s stunt was 18 months in the making, during which the actor “demanded” to perform all the stunts in addition to avoiding charging any kind of monetary amount for the same action.
I only do it if I can do everything”
How was Tom Cruise’s stunt performed?
In the sequence starring Cruise, and after descending the Stade de France to take the Olympic flag, the 62-year-old actor climbed onto a motorcycle that took him to the outskirts of the French stadium. After this action, a series of scenes were projected to both attendees and television viewers of the event, in which Cruise can be seen boarding a plane and then parachuting down to the famous Hollywood letters in Los Angeles.
Finally, and within the same scenes, you can see Cruise “climbing” the iconic letters to show that the sporting spirit had arrived in California.
This action, which could be considered “short” compared to the well-known action scenes that the actor usually stars in, represented a planning work of more than a year, according to Wassermann, in which the interpreter of “Magnolia” committed himself entirely by making a “space” in his busy schedule.
About five minutes into the proposal he said, “I’m willing. But only if I can do it all.”
According to RMC Sport, Cruise filmed his entire sequence over a day. According to the report, the American arrived in Los Angeles at around 4 a.m. (local time), after finishing filming “Mission Impossible.”
During this time, the actor filmed the scene where he climbs into the plane and then did two takes of his parachute descent because he didn’t like the first sequence. After this, he traveled from Palmdale to the Hollywood sign to film the final scenes in a span of 4 hours.
Finally, he was transferred to Burbank Airport to take a flight back to London, England, where he currently resides.
Following Cruise’s performance, other big stars of American music, such as Snoop Dogg, Red Hot Chilli Pepper and Billie Eilish, were part of the musical acts that welcomed the first Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028.