Willingly putting his life at risk to ensure fans’ entertainment is just another Tuesday for Tom Cruise, following his unreal determination to the craft and his passion for practical effects. But unsurprisingly, there have been some downsides to this practice, which have resulted in the Mission: Impossible Star encountering lethal situations, often leading to grave injuries.
But it wasn’t the acclaimed MI series that witnessed Cruise experiencing the most deadly situation in his career, as during his time on the Jamie Foxx-led Collateral, things went wild during the car crash scene.
Tom Cruise Laughed Out Loud After Engaging in an Accident in Collateral
While the past decade has witnessed Tom Cruise becoming one of the biggest action stars of all time, the actor also hasn’t shied away from showcasing his acting chops whenever given the chance. Arguably, one of the Top Gun Star’s most impressive performances arrived during 2004’s Collateral, which witnesses Cruise playing the villainous Vincent. And while the end result became a big hit for all the right reasons, things behind the scenes weren’t exactly smooth sailing, especially during the car crash sequence, where Cruise barely avoided life-altering injuries.
Touching on the subject, Jamie Foxx, who stars alongside Cruise in the film, revealed that he accidentally rammed the car on Cruise’s Mercedes, leading to the actor’s car flying off the sets. And while this incident would’ve been traumatic for most of us, the Top Gun Star was unfazed despite hitting the car’s roof and Foxx recounted that Cruise couldn’t help but laugh after the accident. On the bright side, Cruise was content with how the shot turned in the first take. He said,
“He slammed into these cars and that’s the take. I mean he ripped them and uh.. Hard, tore up a Mercedes and we got it in one take. I thought he was going to clip the side of the thing”
This isn’t the lone time Tom Cruise was more focused on how the shot turned out rather than his own safety after a stunt went wrong, as this was also the case for arguably the best MI release.
Tom Cruise Completed the Shot Despite Breaking Ankle
Like every other Mission: Impossible film, Fallout witnesses Tom Cruise pulling off jaw-dropping stunts, but unfortunately, he broke one of his ankles while jumping off a building. But despite the injury, the Minority Report Star did pull off the scene, even though he wasn’t able to continue filming for the next 6 weeks. Per Slash Film, he said.
“First two takes I went in quite hard, and it knocks the wind out of you, but it looks cool so I was like, ‘alright.’… Put my foot out literally for a split second to try to soften the impact just a hair. I looked down…I crawled over the wall just to get the past camera because I knew this is the take.”
Thankfully, he didn’t suffer any major injury during Collateral, even though his costar Foxx, who was once engaged with Cruise’s ex-wife Katie Holmes, feared that he might’ve accidentally killed the actor.
Collateral is available to stream on Paramount Plus.
Source: Tom Cruise’s Collateral Interview, Slash Film
