Fans are still talking about the death-defying stunt Tom Cruise pulled off at the 2024 Paris Olympics closing ceremony… and apparently he did it for free.
The closing ceremony usually marks the handover to the city that will host the next Olympic Games, which will be held in Los Angeles in 2028.
Cruise, 62, who made headlines last month for paying his daughter Suri’s $65,000-a-year college tuition despite not seeing her for 11 years, descended from the top of the Stade de France before taking the Olympic flag back to Los Angeles.
While the stunt was making headlines around the world, Casey Wasserman, the president and chairman of LA28, spoke candidly about the stunt.
Not only was the action icon deeply involved in the execution, he and his dedicated stunt team also did it completely for free.
Fans are still talking about Tom Cruise’s death-defying stunt at the 2024 Paris Olympics closing ceremony… and apparently he did it for free
Cruise, 62, who made headlines last month for paying his daughter Suri’s $65,000-a-year college tuition despite not seeing her for 11 years, descended from the top of the Stade de France before carrying the Olympic flag to Los Angeles
Wasserman participated in the CNBC x Boardroom: Game Plan panel at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel and Bungalows in Santa Monica with LA28 board member Jessica Alba and Team USA director Grant Hill.
After rappelling from Stade de France, Cruise rode a motorcycle across France and boarded a cargo plane, from where he skydived into Los Angeles.
He passed the flag to mountain biker Kate Courtney as we watched him get to work adding the Olympic rings to the iconic Hollywood sign.
Courtney then passes the flag to US Olympic track and field legend Michael Johnson, who flies the flag from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum through the streets of LA, where he passes it to professional skateboarder Jagger Eaton
Wasserman joked, “It’s amazing how fast he got to LA, isn’t it?” before delving into the origins of the stunt.
“The story behind it is that we were going to produce a live 15-minute TV show, so I hired the person I think is the best in the world to do it,” Wasserman said, referring to Ben Winston.
He said Winston had two ideas: one with Cruise and the other where the Olympic rings would rise out of the ocean, “like David Blaine did.”
Wasserman explained that they pitched their idea to Cruise over Zoom. “The original idea was to have someone in the stadium act as a stunt double.”
After abseiling from Stade de France, Cruise rode a motorcycle across France and boarded a cargo plane, where he skydived into Los Angeles
He passed the flag to mountain biker Kate Courtney as we watched him work to add the Olympic rings to the iconic Hollywood sign
Wasserman explained that they pitched their idea to Cruise over Zoom, adding, “The original idea was to have a person in the stadium as a stunt double.”
While Winston tried to tell Wasserman that it might not happen after all because of Cruise’s ever-changing schedule, Wasserman said, “Every step of the way, he got more and more involved.”
“We thought, ‘Well, we’re not going to get this. We’re going to get four hours of film time. We’ll do the thing that LA does with the Hollywood sign, he hands it over and he’s done. Maybe we’ll get the other stuff and the rest of it is just a stunt double.’ About five minutes into the presentation (Cruise) says, ‘I’m in. But I’ll only do it if I get to do everything,’” Wasserman explained.
Winston tried to tell Wasserman that it might not happen after all because of Cruise’s ever-changing schedule, but Wasserman said, “He just got more and more involved with every step he took.”
Winston praised Cruise, saying, “I don’t think there’s anyone like him in the world. There’s no better collaborator.”
Not only did Cruise do the entire stunt for free, he also filmed the pre-taped segment on an insane schedule, in between shooting days of his new Mission: Impossible movie.
“He finished filming Mission: Impossible in London at 6 p.m., got on a plane right away. He landed in L.A. at 4 a.m. and filmed the scene where he gets on a military plane,” Wasserman says.
“In L.A., he does two jumps out of the thing. He didn’t like the first one, so he did a second jump. Then he helicoptered from Palmdale to the Hollywood sign, filmed 1 to 5, helicoptered to Burbank Airport, and flew back to London,” Cruise said.