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As the Mission: Impossible series gears up for what might be its grand finale, The Final Reckoning, hitting theaters May 23, longtime co-star Simon Pegg is taking a moment to reflect on some of Tom Cruise’s most jaw-dropping stunts—and how Cruise handles the crazy risks in real time.
Since joining the franchise back in 2006’s Mission: Impossible III, Pegg has been not only on screen as Benji Dunn but also a firsthand witness to Cruise’s insane daredevil antics. One moment that really stuck with Pegg happened during 2011’s Ghost Protocol, when Cruise climbed the Burj Khalifa—the tallest building on the planet. Pegg watched through a window as Cruise dangled high above Dubai, grinning like a kid on the world’s most extreme roller coaster, clearly loving every second of it.
But it’s not all fearless smiles. Pegg recalls seeing Cruise genuinely nervous for the first time while filming the heart-stopping plane scene in Rogue Nation, where Cruise clings to a speeding military jet. “That was the first time I’d seen him nervous,” Pegg says. “There were so many things that could have gone wrong.” Cruise himself later admitted he had second thoughts just as the plane was rolling down the runway, thinking, “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.”
The most intense moment for Pegg came on the set of Dead Reckoning Part One (2023), when Cruise rode a motorcycle off a cliff and then parachuted mid-air. Pegg and the crew waited with bated breath for the radio call, “good canopy”—the sign that Cruise’s parachute had opened safely.
Despite the hair-raising stunts and close calls, Cruise’s commitment never falters. “He literally risks his life for the audience,” Pegg says, confessing that he often tells Cruise, “You’re absolutely nuts.” But that mix of respect and disbelief makes their on-screen chemistry even better. Pegg says he enjoys playing the “audience surrogate,” the guy who watches and thinks, “This is crazy.”
With Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning just around the corner, fans are in for more edge-of-your-seat thrills—and plenty of those classic Tom Cruise grins. Whether dangling off skyscrapers or braving jet blasts, Cruise’s fearless stunt legacy is something Pegg—and all of us—won’t forget anytime soon.