Mission Impossible 8 Director Celebrates Tom Cruise’s 60th Birthday With Photo of Him Hanging Off a Plane

It’s Tom Cruse’s 60th birthday today (Sunday, July 3rd) and to mark the occasion, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two director Christopher McQuarrie took to social media, posting a photo of the star hanging upside down from an in-flight vintage airplane with a simple caption: “Happy 60th Birthday, Tom”. It’s an impressive stunt and it makes for an impressive birthday greeting as well. You can check it out for yourself below.

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The idea of someone hanging off of an in-flight airplane sounds wild, but the idea of Cruise hanging off the World War II era biplane isn’t exactly a new one. Last year, it was reported that Cruise was filming his first stunt for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two, with that stunt involving the actor climbing out of the cockpit of the plane before making it onto the wing in a maneuver similar to the opening sequence of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. In reports of the stunt, it was noted that Cruise was harnessed to the wing while the plane rolled upside down, does a nosedive and a spin before Cruise climbed back in. It was also reported that Cruse was learning to fly a World War II era military plane for the film as well.

Cruise dangling from a plane also isn’t the craziest stunt the actor has pulled off, either. Mission: Impossible 7 includes a stunt that Cruise has called “the most dangerous thing we’ve ever attempted” in which he rides a motorcycle off a giant ramp, across a cliff, and then opens his own parachute: “It’ll be a motorcycle j ump off a cliff, into a base jump. I’ve been wanting to do it since I was a little kid. It all comes down to one thing: the audience.”

As for when fans will get to see the plane stunt as well as the motorcycle stunt, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is set to open in theaters on July 14, 2023, while Part Two is set to open in theaters on June 28, 2024. Currently, Cruise can be seen dominating the box office in Top Gun: Maverick, which recently crossed the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office.

What do you think about the photo McQuarrie posted in honor of Cruise’s 60th birthday? Are you excited to see the stunt play out on screen? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section!