Tom Cruise -- he's just like us.
Speaking in London ahead of the release of "Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One," Cruise shared that, yes, he feels fear.
"It's not that I don't get scared," the actor said. "It's that I don't mind being scared."
And there ends our delusion.
Cruise, who famously does his own stunts, has put his body on the line time and again for the multibillion-dollar franchise. As superspy Ethan Hunt he's dangled from the world's tallest building, clung on to the outside of a plane during take-off, and performed a military-level high altitude, low opening (HALO) skydive no less than 100 times.
In the latest movie Cruise can be seen riding a motorcycle off a cliff before BASE jumping on to ... actually, let's keep this spoiler-free. The stunt was filmed in Norway back in 2020 on the first day of the film's arduous, Covid-stricken production. It was one thing for Cruise to perform the stunt, quite another to watch, powerless to intervene, said writer-director Christopher McQuarrie, Cruise's long-term creative partner affectionately known as "McQ."
"I was just staring at the crosshairs on the screen, and I was waiting to see blue -- blue was the color of his parachute," he recalled. "Once I saw blue, I was just making sure it was a square, because if it wasn't a square, it meant there was a malfunction. There was no coming back from it."
Cruise put his director through the experience six times to capture the stunt from all the necessary angles, which looks even more spectacular in the finished movie than the marketing material suggests.
With all that heart-in-mouth action, is McQuarrie still able to have fun? "It's more fun to finish a 'Mission Impossible' movie, for sure," he said. "It's a huge relief when it's all behind you and everybody's safe."
"Dead Reckoning" sees "Mission: Impossible" lean into 21st century anxieties in the form of its villain. Dubbed The Entity, this faceless, stateless antagonist is an artificial intelligence capable of infiltrating pretty much any digital network to chaotic ends. (Yes, Tom Cruise hates streaming so much he's now squaring up to an algorithm.)
The star was reluctant to say much about the AI baddie, but when CNN's Becky Anderson caught up with the cast and crew in Abu Dhabi -- the next stop on the film's globetrotting promotional tour -- McQuarrie was more candid.
"We were talking about it probably in early 2018, as something that even a few years prior would have been an intellectual or an abstract idea," he explained. "I felt that people were starting to become aware of the way information and information technology was affecting their lives."
As for AI's impact on the movie industry itself, McQuarrie was diplomatic. "Like any of the technologies that have been used in previous 'Mission Impossible' movies, it's less about the technology and more about who's using (it)," he said. "What we're presenting here is just what happens when the technology potentially falls into the wrong hands."
For resident gadget man Benji Dunn, The Entity is "his worst nightmare," shared actor Simon Pegg. A series veteran who's known Cruise for 17 years, Pegg saw the actor-producer forced to go through more off-screen action than either would have liked when the film became the first major production impacted by Covid, while on location in Venice, Italy in February 2020.
"We kind of wrote the rulebook on how to make a film in a pandemic," he said. "The time that that took was challenging, because often we'd have to stop, and there'd be pauses in shooting, but we wanted to be as safe as possible.
"Tom is never reckless with the stunts; with everything he's always very careful. But that was a challenge. It took much longer than it would normally do. But I think it's all up there on the screen."
Pegg did point to one upside, however: because of lockdowns, the cast, which included newcomers Hayley Atwell and Pom Klementieff, bonded quickly.
For Klementieff, a childhood fan of "Mission Impossible," it was "a dream come true" to sign on as Paris, who puts Hunt through his paces, including a thrilling hand-to-hand fight scene down a dark alley.
Delivering a similarly athletic performance, Atwell described it as "an all-encompassing experience that asked everything of me physically," adding, "I think I'll probably never have the experience again."
Never say never, because as the movie title suggests, Part Two is coming. "It was McQ's idea," said Cruise. "When we were there (on shoot) I was like, 'remember, this is your idea.' There's so much story ... it won't be confined by one film."
"Everything is on track," McQuarrie divulged of the sequel, slated for release in June 2024. "We've shot in Africa, we've shot in the Arctic, we're back here in London. Everything is standing by for us to go back to work after we're done promoting this movie.
"We've done some amazing, amazing things -- and the biggest is yet to come."
Cruise, arguably working in a category of one when it comes to Hollywood action heroes, is only competing with himself these days. "I strive for excellence," he said. "There's always another story to tell, there's always another mountain to climb. And I always feel like I can do it better."
"I'm not the kind of person that will beat myself up," he added, "but I'm constantly working to become competent and strive to understand my craft and the world, and just keep pushing myself."
As for what happens after Part Two, the cast and crew are keeping mum. "I have been misquoted many times -- I don't know what happens next," said McQuarrie.
Pegg is a little surer about Cruise, Ethan Hunt and the franchise's fate. "I don't see this story stopping," he said. "I think he'll be jumping off things when he's 100."
"Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One" is released in cinemas worldwide starting July 12.
