No, it wasn’t a scene from “Mission: Impossible.” Tom Cruise, one of Hollywood’s most well-known movie stars, rappelled down into the Stade de France as H.E.R. played guitar, and the crowd of Olympians went wild as Paris handed over to the next Summer Games, in Los Angeles. He accepted the Olympic flag, shook a lot of hands, jumped on a motorcycle, and drove right out of the stadium and into prerecorded footage.
It’s hard to imagine a more apt melding of the Olympics’ awe-inducing athleticism and Hollywood’s showy sensibility than Cruise, who, at 62, still famously loves to perform as many of his own “Mission: Impossible” stunts as feasible in the film series. At the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, ahead of the release of “Top Gun: Maverick,” he was asked about his penchant for death-defying feats, which he might reasonably be expected to delegate to a stunt person. “No one asked Gene Kelly, ‘Why do you dance?’” he quipped.
Cruise’s carefully choreographed acrobatics (and selfies with athletes) were fit for this closing ceremony’s vibes — especially the showmanship behind them. The details of what exactly was going to happen had been kept quiet, although People reported that back in March he had filmed the segment in which he sky-dives to the iconic Hollywood sign. Nobody quite knew until now what he’d do on live television in Paris. But it’s Tom Cruise: He lives, and occasionally defies death, to give us a good time.
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