Tom Cruise reportedly to defy death at Olympic closing ceremony

It seems like Tom Cruise may have found some inspiration watching Simone Biles and the rest of Team U.S.A. Yurchenko their way to gold on Tuesday. If anyone in America is as known for their death-defying jumps as Biles and co. it’s the Mission: Impossible actor, who will reportedly grace Paris with one of those stomach-dropping stunts at the Olympics’ closing ceremony on August 11.

The exact nature of Cruise’s routine is somewhat unclear. What we do seem to know for sure is that his role will revolve around passing the flag from Paris to Los Angeles for the 2028 summer games. Whether that will occur in a pre-taped segment, one that involves live skydiving and rappelling, or some anxiety-provoking combination of the two will be one of this years’ games’ last surprises. 

According to Variety (via French blog Sortir à Paris), Cruise was spotted in May “filming a scene while riding a motorcycle that sported a large flag.” (It’s unclear whether that was a French or American flag, but since the idea is to ceremonially pass the torch to the U.S., it’s probably the latter. It could have also been the Olympic flag—we’ll see next week.) In the clip, he reportedly rides down the city’s Champs-Élysées Avenue from the Arc de Triomphe.

If that sounds a little tame for the man who once did 30 skydives per day (about 500 jumps in total!) to prepare for Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One, don’t worry. He’s obviously planning to bring out the big guns for the Olympics as well. According to sources for TMZ, Cruise will also rappel down the side of the Stade de France, where the closing ceremony will be held, before landing on the field carrying the Olympic flag. But this is still Tom Cruise we’re talking about, so the rappelling isn’t even all he reportedly has planned. The outlet also claims that the actor was quietly filmed skydiving down to the Hollywood sign back in March, which we can now assume is related to this whole multi-city stunt. 

Even better, Cruise was apparently the one who brought all of this to the Olympic Committee in the first place. Maybe this whole thing is just high-level field research for his next film, which will revolve around a plot to steal all of the gold medals or use the Olympic torch for nefarious reasons. All he needs to do now is cast that Turkish shooter.