“This big sh*t eating grin on his face…” - Simon Pegg talks about how working with Tom Cruise made him ‘nervous’

While Simon Pegg established himself as an actor with his work on the Cornetto trilogy directed by Edgar Wright, he cemented himself as a household name thanks to the Mission: Impossible franchise. Pegg made his first appearance as Benji Dunn in the third film of the M:I series in 2006 and has been a central cog in the cast ever since.

Part of being a cast stalwart for all these years has put Pegg in a very unique position. He has gotten to see several of Tom Cruise’s death-defying stunts first hand, and has become singularly convinced that Cruise “literally will risk his life for the audience”. Pegg recalls one instance on the set of Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, where Cruise had to scale the outside of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. He recalled:

“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.’"

While Cruise and the entire stunts team have proved more than capable of carrying out their ambitious vision time and time again, Pegg still feels ‘nervous’ whenever it’s time to shoot another one of Ethan Hunt’s daunting set pieces.

Pegg shares insights on more Mission: Impossible stunts

When it comes to Pegg’s favorite stunt from Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie’s building list of intrepid attempts, he singles out the motorcycle jump sequence from 2023’s Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One. In the scene, Cruise rides a motorcycle off the edge of a cliff and then parachutes to safety.

“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. And so it was a kind of breath-hold moment.”

Cruise underwent extensive training, including 500 skydives and 13,000 motocross jumps to prepare for the stunt, and a total of six takes of the shot were filmed.

As part of People’s new special Mission: Impossible issue, Pegg went on to detail a moment from Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, which released in 2015, where Cruise looked visibly agitated. In the stunt that also serves as the film’s opening scene, Cruise grips the outside of a military plane as it takes off.

“That was the first time I'd seen him 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.”

In many of Cruise’s most harrowing moments in the franchise, Pegg’s character is as stunned at Hunt’s prowess at executing the ‘impossible’ as the audience. The actor said:

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

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, the franchise’s curtain call is scheduled to release on May 23, 2025.

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