Simon Pegg reveals one ‘Mission Impossible’ stunt that made Tom Cruise ‘nervous’

When it comes to action movie legends, Tom Cruise has quite literally set the bar sky-high—sometimes by dangling off the top of the world’s tallest building or launching himself off cliffs for his and audience’s fun. And according to his longtime Mission: Impossible co-star Simon Pegg he has seen it all.

Pegg, who has played tech-whiz Benji Dunn since 2006’s Mission: Impossible III, is all too familiar with Cruise’s wild stunts and the nerve-racking moments that come with them. 

“I’ve said, ‘You’re absolutely nuts’ many times to him,” Pegg tells People in their Mission: Impossible special issue. “But he just cares that much about it.”

Now 62 and gearing up for what might be his final outing as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning—hitting theaters May 23—Cruise continues to push the limits.

Pegg vividly remembers the moment Cruise scaled the Burj Khalifa in 2011’s Ghost Protocol. 

“Just leaning out of the window and seeing Tom sort of hanging there, smiling, this big s— eating grin on his face, like, ‘I’m having the best time,’” he recalls.

But when it comes to his personal favorite death-defying Cruise moment, Pegg points to the jaw-dropping motorcycle-off-a-cliff scene in 2023’s Dead Reckoning Part One. 

“It was nail-biting, because we’d literally see [Cruise] just disappear, and then we’d have to wait to hear ‘good canopy’ [meaning his parachute opened safely] on the radio,” Pegg shares. “And so it was a kind of breath-hold moment.”

And yes, even Cruise has his “maybe-this-was-a-bad-idea” moments—like clinging to the side of a military plane during takeoff in Rogue Nation. 

Pegg says that was the first time he saw Cruise genuinely “nervous”. 

“There were a lot of variables involved in that stunt … a lot of things that could have gone wrong. Everything is managed to the micro detail. You know, the stunt team is amazing. Tom is obviously incredibly dedicated to making sure he’s ready.”

Cruise himself admits the plane stunt made him second-guess things—briefly. 

“I said, ‘But it’s too late. We’re committed. We’re shooting. The crew’s in there,’” he recalls. 

“When we looked at the shot, I was like, ‘Oh, it really works in the story.’” His mother’s reaction? Classic mom-mode, “‘Oh, honey, I’m so glad you didn’t fill me in on that one beforehand.’”

Through it all, Pegg gets to be the guy in the film—and sometimes in real life—whose jaw hits the floor. 

“It’s fun to play the guy who is almost like a member of the audience,” he says. “To be the one that’s kind of going, ‘This is crazy.’”