This Is How Tom Cruise Pulled Off the Ultimate Stunt at the 2024 Olympic Games

Every once in a while, many A-list actors will make an extra buck (or millions of them) by popping in for a surprise appearance, be it at some rich person's birthday, the launch of a new business venture, or some exclusive club party. You can't really blame them, though: everyone needs to make a living, so why not capitalize on an already successful platform?

Well, Tom Cruise doesn't do that. But he will always pick up the phone when the Olympics call, which is precisely what happened at the 2024 Olympic Games, which just wrapped up at the Stade de France stadium in Paris, France, in an hours-long ceremony that was meant to be a culmination of more than two weeks of events.

Reports that Tom Cruise would be involved in some capacity or another in the closing ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games had been around for many weeks. Neither the International Olympic Committee (IOC) nor Cruise himself would address them in any way, and with good cause, as that would have ruined the surprise.

They were confirmed on August 11, during the closing ceremony – the flag handover segment, to be more precise. Cruise was tasked with carrying the flag from Paris, France, to Los Angeles, U.S., where the 2028 edition of the Summer Olympics will be held.

Tom Cruise being Tom Cruise, aka the most daredevil action movie star of our times and perhaps the only true movie star remaining, based only on his unwillingness to let stuntmen do his stunts, he pulled out all the stops. They included rappelling into the Stade de France stadium to take the Olympic flag, hopping on an electric motorcycle for a ride through Paris, and boarding a plane for a skydive right to the iconic Hollywood sign in Los Angeles.

It really doesn't get any better – or more Hollywood – than this. According to millions of viewers at home, it was the most Americana thing at the Olympics, and a most suitable twist for bringing the Olympic flag over to U.S. territory.

A historic jump and bike ride
The handover ceremony started when the Mayor of Paris handed over the Olympic flag to the Mayor of Los Angeles, on stage with U.S. gymnast Simone Biles. The cameras cut to the top of the stadium, where Cruise was standing, ready and rigged to jump off, down into the crowd of adoring fans.

He did just that, landing safely and making his way to the center stage while sharing smiles, hellos, and hugs with the athletes. He took the flag, walked back into the crowd, and mounted it into a motorcycle that'd been waiting for him – an all-black, all-electric 2024 Harley-Davidson LiveWire S2 Del Mar.

Cruise rode the bike out of the stadium, and the camera then cut to a pre-recorded segment that saw him race through the streets of Paris as recognizable landmarks sped by: the Saint-Georges metro station, the Pont de Bir-Hakeim, and the Arc de Triomphe.

Before you even think of a joke about how there isn't a cliff tall enough for him to jump off of so he can cross the Atlantic Ocean on his LiveWire, don't. The footage also showed Cruise boarding a blacked-out plane and making his way over the U.S. in the cargo hold before he skydived right at the Hollywood sign in the Hollywood Hills.

He climbed up the landmark to switch up the two Os so they resembled the Olympic symbols and handed over the flag to cyclist Kate Courtney, who then passed it along to other athletes before it made its way to Venice Beach. Red Hot Chili Peppers showed up on stage for a show, capping off the most Hollywood and dramatic handover at the Olympics.

Months of prep for a memorable stunt
Quite obviously, this kind of stunt was months into making, requiring intense training, rehearsals, and many takes to get right. There's no word on where or how Cruise trained for the part that saw him rappelling down Stade De France, but paparazzi and fan footage confirm that he'd been working hard on the other elements in the stunt for months in advance - 18 months including the concept stage.

For instance, he was first seen shooting "something" at the Hollywood sign as early as March this year. Since he wasn't working on any movie that shot in Los Angeles then, this was the first time word got out that he was doing a special project, though no one knew what that might be.

Paparazzi caught Cruise walking around the Hollywood sign and climbing on it. Later on, he was filmed carrying what looked like a white flag, which was the first time reports about a potential involvement in the Olympic ceremony came up.

In April, Cruise arrived in Paris to shoot scenes for Mission: Impossible 8. This was no coincidence because, initially, everyone assumed his shooting lone scenes on a LiveWire motorcycle was part of the MI production. Days into the shoot, the same white flag popped up, this time mounted onto the back of the bike, and that only fueled reports that he was working on something Olympic-related.

Tom Cruise made several appearances during the Olympic Games, cheering for the U.S. teams in various sports, so his appearance in the handover ceremony felt organic. It also doubles as excellent promotion for the upcoming Mission: Impossible film, because the "your mission, should you choose to accept it" jokes were widely used even on the Olympic official channels. A win all the way.