‘Madman’ Tom Cruise cheats death 16 times with a burning parachute, jumps from 7,500 feet in Mission Impossible BTS video. Watch | Hollywood News

Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning isn’t just earning big bucks at the box office, but has also barged straight into the Guinness World Records. Cruise, who’s never blinked at death-defying stunts, may have taken things a notch too far this time. In the film’s climax, Ethan Hunt jumps off a damaged biplane, and his main parachute catches fire. While most of us assumed it was all CGI wizardry, a behind-the-scenes clip just confirmed it was the real stunt. 
Also read: Tom Cruise has fans freaking out over incredible behind-the-scenes look at biplane stunt from Mission: Impossible 8: ‘Tell me you had a parachute…’
Tom Cruise awarded Guinness World Record for 16 burning parachute stunt
“What I’m going to do is I’m going to be deploying,” Cruise says in a video shared Paramount on June 5. “If this is twed while it’s burning, I’m going to be spinning and burning. I have to kick out of the tw and then ignite. I got 10 seconds.” The video then captures the moment when the Top Gun star leaps from a helicopter at 7,500 feet in South Africa’s Drakensberg Mountains. The actor can be seen wearing a parachute soaked in aviation fuel, which was set ablaze mid-fall. He repeated the same shot until perfection, not twice or thrice, but 16 times over, and after each jump, he would release the burning chute and deploy a backup to land safely. Cruise was also seen actively engaged in the stunt choreography, working with the team and discussing the stunt’s logics. The clip also shows him jumping with a 50-pound camera rig strapped to him to capture close-up shots of the stunt. “We’re going to be real smart. I’m not saying be risky. We don’t take risks, obviously.”
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“Wait, I thought the parachute explosion was VFX they added to a normal parachute scene. They actually did that? Nuts, I say—nuts,” a fan commented on the video. “Tom Cruise is something else. Hollywood will never see another actor like him again,” another added. “Tom Cruise is a madman, and we love it.”
Guinness World Records now recognises Cruise for “the most burning parachute jumps an individual.” Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning made its debut at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and received a five-minute standing ovation. The film has grossed over $360 million worldwide, with critics and fans heaping praise. It opened at the box office with a massive $200 million haul, the highest yet in the franchise. “This weekend was one for the hory books!” Cruise earlier wrote in a heartfelt note to fans and the makers. “Congratulations and thank you to every filmmaker, every art, every crew member, and every single person who works at the studios. To every theatre and every employee who helps bring these stories to audiences, thank you.”