Hollywood star Tom Cruise to perform stunt at Paris Olympics closing ceremony
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Hollywood star Tom Cruise watches the victory ceremony of the women's 4x100m freestyle relay swimming event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Paris La Defense Arena in Nanterre, west of Paris, on July 27, 2024.
PHOTO: AFP
Hollywood A-lister Tom Cruise has scaled a skyscraper, ridden a motorcycle off a cliff and broken his ankle jumping from one building to another.
And now the 62-year-old actor, who often performs his own death-defying stunts in action movies such as the Mission: Impossible film series (1996 to present) and Top Gun: Maverick (2022), will take on his most high-profile feat yet: closing the Paris Olympics by rappelling off the roof of the Stade de France – the host country’s national stadium.
According to a Los Angeles Times report, Cruise will be involved in the handing-over of the Olympic flag from Paris to Los Angeles, home of Hollywood and host of the 2028 Olympics.
The rumoured plan, first reported by tabloid TMZ, is that Cruise will begin his performance by rappelling from the roof of Stade de France to the stadium’s field while carrying an Olympic flag.
The broadcast will then cut to a pre-recorded segment that shows the movie star racing through the streets of Paris before flying to Los Angeles and skydiving to the Hollywood sign.
According to TMZ, Cruise was spotted filming at the Hollywood sign in March, but little was made of it then.
French blog Sortir a Paris reported that the star was seen in April at iconic spots such as the Arc de Triomphe, speeding around the streets of Paris on a motorcycle, which once again went largely unremarked.
Cruise has been in Europe over the past months for the filming of the upcoming Mission: Impossible 8, a sequel to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023).
He has been spotted at the Paris Games as well. He showed up to support the American team in artistic gymnastics and swimming.
While details of the closing ceremony on Aug 11 have been kept secret, a source told Hollywood media outfit Deadline to expect “a major Hollywood production”.
The closing ceremony, which will be directed by Frenchman Thomas Jolly and held at Stade de France, will feature over a hundred performers, acrobats, dancers and circus artists.
Part of the show will take place in the air and there will be gigantic sets, costumes and spectacular lighting effects that promise to take spectators on a journey through past and future.
