Tom Cruise has turned stunt work into a defining part of his screen image, but that commitment has also left him with a long record of painful injuries. Across films including ‘Mission: Impossible,’ ‘Mission: Impossible 2,’ ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout,’ ‘Jack Reacher,’ and ‘Oblivion,’ Cruise has pushed through broken bones, hard crashes, and punishing action setups that would sideline many actors.
Tom Cruise’s stunt injuries in major action films
Cruise’s interview with Empire stated that he filmed part of the opening climb in Mission: Impossible 2 while wearing a cast on a broken foot. Cruise said, “What people don’t know is that there’s a section where I’m jumping high to low, but my foot was broken. And I never mentioned it to anyone.” He added, “Some of these injuries, what’s the point? You just keep going. So I’m jumping, and my foot wasn’t right.”Entertainment Weekly also recalled Cruise’s explanation that director John Woo thought they already had the shot, but Cruise wanted another take. “No, we want it in one shot, I gotta keep doing it,” he said. The outlet also cited Woo’s earlier reaction to the climb, with the director saying, “I was really mad that he wanted to do it, but I tried to stop him and I couldn’t,” and adding, “I was so scared I was sweating. I couldn’t even watch the monitor when we shot it.”
Tom Cruise’s injuries beyond ‘Mission: Impossible’
People added another early example from the first ‘Mission: Impossible.’ In its rundown of the franchise’s biggest stunts, the magazine said the exploding aquarium sequence was so dangerous that co-producer Paula Wagner said Cruise hurt his foot while filming it. That injury came early in the series and helped set the tone for the all-in physical approach that followed.Variety reported one of Cruise’s most disruptive setbacks in 2017, when he suffered a broken ankle during a stunt on ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout.’ The trade said Paramount confirmed the ankle break and that production faced a delay after the London accident. A separate Variety report said Cruise broke his right ankle, while MovieWeb’s later recap said the ankle was broken in two places during the rooftop jump.NBC Washington reported that Cruise called a foot injury from ‘Jack Reacher’ his “worst injury.” The outlet reported that he did not get hurt in a huge crash, but while repeatedly kicking during a fight scene, it serves as a reminder that even grounded action work can cause serious damage through repetition. LADbible, meanwhile, revisited behind-the-scenes footage from ‘Oblivion’ that showed Cruise misjudging a motorcycle ramp landing, crashing hard, and narrowly avoiding a more serious injury when the bike nearly trapped his legs. Cruise’s stunt-heavy career has delivered memorable action, but it has also repeatedly left him hurt.
