If it feels like Tom Cruise has been filming Mission: Impossible 6 forever, it’s because he has. But it’s not his fault the movie is taking forever — it’s his ankle’s.
The Hollywood action star has been open about the massive ankle injury he sustained while filming a stunt on set last year, but it wasn’t until Friday night when he and his co-stars made an appearance on the Graham Norton Show that we all got a front row look at his truly horrific fall.
“I was chasing Henry and was meant to hit the side of the wall and pull myself over but the mistake was my foot hitting the wall,” Cruise said of the stunt, while sitting next to co-stars Henry Cavill, Rebecca Ferguson, and Simon Pegg.
When the footage of the accident was first released, many believed that Cruise — who is somehow 55 years old — cracked a rib or two. But thanks to a slow-motion video that Graham Norton showed his viewers, you can see his ankle contort into an unnatural position that would make anyone, action hero or not, scream in pain. Jump to the 2:45 mark and get ready to cringe:
Even after Cruise’s nasty injury, he pushed through the pain to finish the scene. As Graham Norton viewers watched the video from a new angle, they could see him hit the wall, grimace in pain, and just keep going, because he’s a goddamn professional.
“I didn’t want to do [the stunt] again,” Cruise said. “I knew it was broken and I just said ‘Ugh,’ and I ran past the camera. We got the shot, it’s in the movie. That profile shot, both those shots, are in the movie. I said, ‘It’s broken. That’s a wrap. Take me to hospital’ and then everyone got on the phone and made their vacation arrangement.” Ferguson joked that she’s now had enough time off to make “a baby.”
In case you don’t believe him that he powered through the pain, here’s more video proof:
Indeed, the injury caused filming to be suspended for months; even now, Cruise said his ankle is still actually broken. The movie is set to be released in July 2018, but still has several scenes left to film.
Nobody would judge Cruise if he just let a stuntman take over to help finish things up. But this is Tom Cruise we’re talking about. He’s been in more than 20 action movies once hung outside an Airbus as it took off just to get the shot right.
Since he seems dead set on continuing to put his body in harm’s way, he may want to think about incorporating this super simple 5-minute ankle mobility regime to his routine. That way he can keep all his joints, even the tiny ones, in tip-top action star shape until at least Mission Impossible 10.
