Tom Cruise agreed to join Olympics closing ceremony for free on one condition: that he do his own stunts

Tom Cruise was responsible for one of the most memorable moments of the 2024 Olympics closing ceremony, offering his services for free under one condition.

Casey Wasserman, who serves as president and chairperson of the LA28 committee for the forthcoming 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, recently explained how the Jerry Maguire star became involved in the ceremony, during which he jumped from the top of the Stade de France, greeted fans, and rode a motorcycle out of the stadium while carrying the Olympic flag. The broadcast then cut to prerecorded footage of Cruise cruising through Paris, boarding a plane, skydiving out of the aircraft, and landing near the Hollywood sign, where he converted its letter Os into two of the Olympic rings.

"The backstory is that we realized we were producing a 15-minute live TV show, and so I hired who I think is the best person in the world to do that,” Wasserman said at the CNBC x Boardroom: Game Plan in Santa Monica, Calif., this week, referring to producer Ben Winston, who had the idea to bring Cruise into the fold.

“The best part of the story is we pitched on a Zoom, and the original idea was a person in the stadium as a stunt double,” Wasserman continued. "We're like, 'Well, there's no way we're getting this. We're going to get four hours of filming time. We'll do the thing with the Hollywood sign, he'll hand the thing off, and he's done. Maybe we'll get the other stuff and the rest will be just a stunt double.'"

To their surprise, Cruise agreed to the gig almost immediately, but not without setting the terms for his participation. Wasserman recalled, "About five minutes into the presentation, [Cruise] goes, 'I'm in. But I'm only doing it if I get to do everything,'" effectively rejecting the idea of a stunt double and insisting on performing every aspect of the segment himself.

However, Wasserman said Winston told him, "Don't get too excited. [Cruise] loves doing this stuff, but when his team realizes how many shooting days it's going to be and rehearsals, this is never happening. I’m telling you I got it, but it’s never happening."

But the Magnolia star proved them wrong. "Sure enough, every step of the way, he got more involved and more engaged," Wasserman said.

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In addition to participating for free, Cruise agreed to get involved in the Hollywood section of the segment during a particularly busy moment in his schedule, as he was still shooting the eighth Mission: Impossible movie across the pond.

"He finished filming Mission: Impossible at 6 p.m. in London, got right on a plane," Wasserman recalled. "He landed in L.A. at 4 a.m. and filmed the scene where he pulls onto a military plane. In L.A., he does two jumps out of the [plane]. He didn't like the first one, so he did a second jump. Then he helicoptered from Palmdale to the Hollywood sign, filmed from 1 until 5, helicoptered to Burbank Airport, and flew back to London."

Cruise's still-untitled eighth Mission: Impossible movie is set to hit theaters on May 23, 2025.