Tom Cruise has run the gauntlet of on-screen stunts in the Mission: Impossible series. From HALO jumps at 25,000 feet to literally clinging to the side of a plane during takeoff, Cruise has put his body on the line as Ethan Hunt across seven movies and almost 30 years.
The upcoming eighth movie, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, is taking Cruise underwater – and it's for a sequence that's decades-in-the-making.
"From Legend in 1985 to Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, I have been studying and filming underwater sequences for over 40 years. We have always tried to push our filmmaking to the next level," Cruise wrote on Twitter, accompanied by an image of Cruise getting ready for the stunt in question alongside a video of the actor swimming through a submerged set.
"In this movie [director Christopher McQuarrie] and I saw an opportunity to create an underwater sequence unlike any other. We are excited to share it with you."
In this movie McQ and I saw an opportunity to create an underwater sequence unlike any other. We are excited to share it with you.2/2 pic.twitter.com/ugbTets3cWMay 5, 2025
We have previously seen a glimpse of The Final Reckoning's big underwater scene, with Cruise looking uncharacteristically nervous as he prepares to take the plunge.
Whatever happens next (it's still unclear on whether this is Ethan Hunt or Mission: Impossible's final mission, despite marketing strongly suggesting it could be), it's sure to deliver all the pulse-pounding thrills an audience could wish for – and then some.
Speaking to Empire, Christopher McQuarrie revealed, "We had a small screening and someone said, 'I was suffocating throughout the entire sequence. I almost had a heart attack.' And I thought, 'I guess we did something right."
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, starring Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Esai Morales, Vanessa Kirby, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, and Pom Klementieff, hits cinemas on May 23, 2025.
For more, check out our rankings of the best Mission: Impossible movies.
