Tom Cruise makes 5-mile skydive in Mission: Impossible movie stunt

LONDON — Tom Cruise has jumped off buildings, slid off skyscrapers, and clung onto the outside of a plane during take-off in his roles as action movie hero. Now he can stake a claim to being the first actor to perform a “HALO” skydive on camera: a “high altitude, low opening” jump, usually done only by highly trained military professionals as a way of avoiding detection by the enemy. The 55-year-old filmed the stunt for Mission: Impossible — Fallout, the latest installment of the high-grossing action movies in which he plays agent Ethan Hunt. In a video released ahead of the movie’s release next month, Cruise leaps from the cargo door of a plane at 25,000 feet (7,600 meters) — almost five miles — opening the parachute less than 2,000 feet (600 meters) from the ground, according to the filmmakers. To prepare for the stunt, which carries a risk of decompression sickness, or “the bends,” during the 200 mph (320 kmh) fall, Cruise trained in a custom-built wind machine and used a special helmet. Cruise broke an ankle last year filming another stunt for Mission: Impossible — Fallout, when he jumped between two buildings and landed against a wall. — Reuters