Tom Cruise has once again cemented his reputation as Hollywood’s ultimate action star by setting a new Guinness World Record for the “most burning parachute jumps by an individual.” For Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025), Cruise performed a staggering 16 consecutive jumps from a helicopter—each time strapped to a parachute soaked in aviation fuel and set ablaze mid-air.

Filmed in the stunning Drakensberg mountains of South Africa, the stunt was nothing short of death-defying. Cruise leapt from at least 7,500 feet, with his flaming parachute burning for just 2.5 to 3 seconds before disintegrating. He then had to cut away the remnants and deploy a backup chute to land safely. On some takes, he even carried a 50-pound Snorri camera rig, capturing breathtaking close-up footage of his harrowing descent. The entire sequence was meticulously planned over weeks with director Christopher McQuarrie and stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood to ensure safety amid extreme risk.

“If the parachute is twisted while it’s burning, I’m going to be spinning and burning,” Cruise explained in behind-the-scenes footage, adding with a laugh, “We’re going to be real smart—I’m not saying be risky. We don’t take risks, obviously.” The result is a jaw-dropping scene in which Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt spirals through the sky in an Icarus-like plunge, narrowly escaping disaster.

This latest feat adds to Cruise’s legacy of performing his own stunts with zero CGI, from scaling Dubai’s Burj Khalifa in Ghost Protocol to clinging to a moving Airbus A400M in Rogue Nation. Guinness World Records Editor-in-Chief Craig Glenday praised Cruise’s commitment, saying, “Tom doesn’t just play action heroes—he is an action hero! His success comes from an absolute focus on authenticity and pushing the limits of what a leading man can do.”

Cruise’s new world record is just one highlight of a career studded with milestones. He also holds the record for the most consecutive $100-million-grossing films, spanning 11 hits from Jack Reacher (2012) through The Final Reckoning, which has already grossed over $389 million worldwide. The film set box office records, claiming the biggest Memorial Day weekend ever in the U.S.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning delivers a fittingly explosive conclusion to Ethan Hunt’s saga, with a climactic battle against a rogue AI known as the Entity and villain Gabriel, played by Esai Morales. The aerial sequence features daring mid-air transfers between vintage Boeing Stearman biplanes before Cruise’s fiery parachute leap. The production faced unique challenges—from purchasing multiple biplanes as backups to coping with weather’s impact on the planes’ maneuverability and Cruise’s own hypothermia risk.

Director McQuarrie noted, “The hotter it gets, the thinner the air gets, so the plane loses its maneuverability. The colder it gets, the faster Tom gets hypothermia on the wing.”

While Cruise remains coy about whether this truly is his final Mission: Impossible chapter, his comments at the Cannes premiere hinted at closure. Fans can rest assured that if this is the last Ethan Hunt adventure, it will go down as one of the most daring—and authentic—in cinema history.