Tom Cruise brought his daredevil-ish antics to the 2024 Paris Olympics closing ceremony on Sunday, August 11.
The actor, 62, was on hand to pass the Olympic flag over to Los Angeles, where the 2028 summer games will take place. With the help of a cable wire, Cruise jumped from the very top of Stade de France to the arena floor, where he made his way through a mass of athletes before retrieving the Olympic flag from L.A. mayor Karen Bass and gymnast Simone Biles.
Cruise then hopped on a motorcycle and made his way out of the arena with the flag secured on the back. “Come on now, Maverick,” closing ceremony cohost Jimmy Fallon said, referencing Cruise’s Top Gun character.
Once out of the arena, a pre-taped package showed Cruise making his way through the iconic streets of Paris, including the Champs-Élysées, with the action star eventually finding his way to a cargo plane that took him to Los Angeles.
After jumping out of the plane and touching down in L.A., Cruise climbed atop the Hollywood sign and transformed the two letter “O”s on the landmark into the Olympic logo. The Olympic flag was passed off to skateboarder Jagger Eaton, who brought it to Venice Beach where audiences were treated to performances by California natives including Red Hot Chili Peppers, Billie Eilish and Snoop Dogg.
Cruise has been in Europe as of late filming Mission: Impossible 8. He was previously spotted attending the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics in July as well as watching women’s gymnastics and swimming competitions.
Throughout his career, Cruise has become known for doing his own stunts. At the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, he explained how he took an interest in the craft when he was just 4 years old.
“I had this doll, and you throw it up in the air and a parachute comes down. I played with this thing, and I’d throw it off a tree, and I was like, ‘I really want to do this,’” he recalled. “I remember taking the sheets off my bed, and I would tie a rope … and I climbed up to the eave, and I got up to the roof. I looked and my mother was in the kitchen — she had four kids — and I jumped off the roof.”
Cruise previously revealed during a 2014 appearance on The Graham Norton Show that he “always loved fast cars, motorcycles, hiking and climbing,” so the opportunity to do his own stunts in his films was exciting.
“I feel like [when acting] you’re bringing everything, you know, physically and emotionally, to a character in a story,” he elaborated. “I’ve trained for 30 years doing [stunts], and it allows us to put cameras where you are normally not able to.”
Cruise’s closing ceremony appearance followed an unforgettable Olympics opening ceremony two weeks earlier. Céline Dion made her long-awaited comeback to the stage after publicly sharing her stiff-person syndrome diagnosis in December 2022. She concluded the event with a performance of Édith Piaf’s “Hymne à l’amour” at the Eiffel Tower.
Afterward, Dion, 56, wrote via Instagram that she was “honored” to perform at the ceremony and “so full of joy to be back” in Paris.
“Most of all, I’m so happy to be celebrating these amazing athletes, with all their stories of sacrifice and determination, pain and perseverance,” she continued. “All of you have been so focused on your dream, and whether or not you take home a medal, I hope that being here means that it has come true for you! You should all be so proud, we know how hard you have worked to be the best of the best. Stay focused, keep going, my heart is with you!”
Lady Gaga also performed during the opening ceremony, singing “Mon Truc en Plumes” on the bank of the River Seine in a tribute to French Cabaret.
