How Mission: Impossible prepared Tom Cruise for Paris Olympics closing ceremony stunts

Tom Cruise had an epic part to play in the conclusion of the Paris Olympics and his entire filmography seems like it was preparing him for that very moment.

During Sunday’s closing ceremony at the Stade de France, Hollywood’s most prolific action star abseiled from the roof to receive the Olympic flag as part of the official handover to Los Angeles, the next host city. He was given the flag by the city's mayor Karen Bass and American gymnast Simone Biles.

Footage then showed Cruise racing across Paris on a motorbike bearing the Olympic flag, passing by the city’s landmarks including the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. He then drove into a cargo plane, answered a phone call and replied: “I’m on my way.”

And that was just the midway point of the mission. In the video's next segment, Cruise leapt off the cargo plane and parachuted into a clearing near Los Angeles to the energetic charge of Red Hot Chili Peppers’s By The Way. Cruise then sprinted up a hill, to where a heavy-duty toolbox was hidden, before unravelling the fabrics inside and clamping them with carabiners on steel railings. With his work seemingly done, he then sprinted off to a meeting point where he handed off the Olympic flag to American cyclist Kate Courtney.

Tom Cruise receives the Olympic flag from Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass and Simone Biles. AFP

The camera then zoomed out to show Cruise standing in the famed Hollywood sign, revealing that the fabrics he clamped were to modify the landmark to bear the multicoloured Olympics logo. It marked the end of Cruise's involvement in the video, as the Olympic flag made its way across Los Angeles with cameos by several notable US athletes and the Red Hot Chili Peppers themselves.

The handover will go down in Olympic history as one of the most spectacular and riveting. Yet, for Cruise, it was just been another day at the office.

The stunts were very much in line with the feats he has performed in his Mission: Impossible films. After almost three decades of playing Ethan Hunt, Cruise continuously ups the stakes across the franchise’s seven films, performing stunts with increasing danger and awe.

Let’s not forget that this is the man who scaled Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011). In the follow-up Rogue Nation (2015), he held on to the side of an Airbus A400M as it took off and climbed to around 300 metres. In Fallout (2018), he performed a Halo (high-altitude, low open) jump, waiting until the very last minute to open the parachute. For that stunt, Cruise famously completed 106 skydives with the broken ankle he sustained in a previous stunt to nail the scene.

Tom Cruise is lowered on the State de France during the 2024 Summer Olympics closing ceremony. AP

In Dead Reckoning, Cruise perhaps performed his most dangerous stunt to date, which brought together elements from various other feats. He drove off a steep and lofty cliff on a motorcycle before parachuting to safety. Again, he performed the stunt several times to perfect the one used in the film.

So with an oeuvre that will make even the most seasoned Hollywood stuntman envious, Cruise is one of the few industry figures who had the mettle and the experience to give the Olympics handover segment its wow factor.

However, while Sunday’s stunt was a spectacle in its own right, Cruise’s involvement was, much like the plots that Hunt finds himself embroiled in, simply a matter of calling the right man for the job.

Milestones on the road to union

1970

October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.

December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.

1971

March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.

July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.

July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.

August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.

August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.

September 3: Qatar becomes independent.

November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.

November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.

November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.

November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties

December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.

December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.

December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.

German intelligence warnings

2002: "Hezbollah supporters feared becoming a target of security services because of the effects of [9/11] ... discussions on Hezbollah policy moved from mosques into smaller circles in private homes." Supporters in Germany: 800
2013: "Financial and logistical support from Germany for Hezbollah in Lebanon supports the armed struggle against Israel ... Hezbollah supporters in Germany hold back from actions that would gain publicity." Supporters in Germany: 950
2023: "It must be reckoned with that Hezbollah will continue to plan terrorist actions outside the Middle East against Israel or Israeli interests." Supporters in Germany: 1,250

Source: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution

Gorillaz
The Now Now