Tom Cruise is no stranger to loitering on the very precipice of death. From driving a motorcycle off a cliff to running on the roof of a moving train, the Mission: Impossible star has, as a matter of fact, executed even the most impossible of stunts. But besides being one of the most bankable action icons of Hollywood, Cruise, as it turns out, is also a lifesaver. In the most literal sense possible.
Tom Cruise Saved Elisabeth Shue From A Gruesome Death
Tom Cruise has been making big boy moves from the very beginning of his career.
Roger Donaldson’s Cocktail is one of Cruise’s earliest works, a romance/drama starring him and The Karate Kid star, Elisabeth Shue. And usually, the tales of him achieving death-defying feats are reserved for his time on the set of more action-packed films like the entirety of the Mission: Impossible series, Days of Thunder, Top Gun, and so forth. But the fact that the 1988 film had little or no action sequences involved didn’t matter because the Oscar-nominated actor ended up risking his life regardless, only this time, it was to save his co-star from walking toward her own demise.
Since the film crew needed an aerial shot of a scene wherein Cruise and Shue rode horses along the beach, they were filming it from a helicopter, one which landed not too far away from the director’s paraphernalia. Bill Bennett, who served as an aerial operator on Cocktail, revealed how the back of the helicopter, “where the tail rotor is spinning” is incredibly dangerous since it could result in instantaneous death. But because that particular area isn’t too discernable, Shue, 59, who was unaware of it being a “no-go area,” took off right in that direction.
Thankfully, since Cruise is a licensed pilot, well-versed with both airplanes and helicopters, he “instantly saw the danger” and grabbed the Back to the Future star, “dragging her at the same time,” to stop her from walking into the mouth of instant death.
“He lunged after her, but only was able to grab her legs, tackling her to the ground. He rolled her over, dragging her at the same time, and you could see the momentary anger on her face while she was yelling ‘Why did you do that?’ But by that time he is pointing at the tail rotor which is now a couple feet away, screaming at her that she almost died […] Tom had, in that instant, truly saved her life.”
Can he be any more heroic? Yes, he can, because that wouldn’t be his first and last rodeo.
Saving Lives & Risking Some
Well, he mostly risks his own life, but you get the expression.
While the Jack Reacher star did save Shue from being sliced open by a helicopter blade, his valorous acts didn’t come to an end after Cocktail. He also saved a cameraman from tumbling down off a moving stream train when they were shooting Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.
And it looks like Cruise is always siphoning his inner Ethan Hunt even off the cameras because he’s saved people in real life on more than one occasion. In 1996, the 60-year-old rescued five people who were on the verge of drowning after their yacht caught fire. He also helped a hit-and-run victim by ensuring she reached the hospital safely post the accident and even paid a hefty $7000 medical bill after finding out she didn’t have insurance.
“If he’s not Superman, he can be Batman — Batman doesn’t have superpowers,” the girl in question later told People magazine.
Source: The Sun
