Tom Cruise powers 'Mission' with personality

Moments before Tom Cruise literally went airborne strapped to the side of an Airbus A400 for a daring Mission: Impossible stunt, director Christopher McQuarrie had a final word with his superstar.

"Tom shouted above the engine, 'Remember, if it looks like I'm panicking, I'm acting. Don't cut,' " McQuarrie recalls. "I did a stunned about-face, knowing there would be no distinction between (true) panic and his performance."

McQuarrie called "action," and Cruise, 53, took off standing over the wing eight times. Since the release of the first trailer in March, the dramatic stunt has been heralded as proof of just what Cruise will do to push his career and Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation (in theaters Friday) into another adrenaline-filled realm.

"Name me one other actor in Hollywood who would do that stunt," says Dave Karger, chief correspondent of the movie site Fandango.com. "You can't. Because no one else would. Tom is superhuman that way."

It's how Cruise has stayed on top of the Hollywood pyramid, with occasional dips, for 30 years. But it's also the key to keeping the Mission: Impossible franchise excelling after nearly 20 years and four installments that have made more than $2 billion worldwide, according to box office tracking firm Rentrak.

Ever since Cruise dangled more than 1,700 feet above ground from the world's tallest building, Dubai's Burj Khalifa, for 2011's Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, filmmakers have sought to top that stunt for the next film.

"The shadow of the Burj Khalifa loomed large for many months," says David Ellison, who produced the past two Mission films. "We continually talked about how we're going to top that."

The plane footage, motorcycle scenes raced without helmets, and an underwater sequence that required Cruise to hold his breath for six minutes all propel Mission over the stunt bar raised by young audiences accustomed to seeing remarkable movie effects. They also help market the film to increasingly important worldwide audiences.

McQuarrie notes that his first meeting when taking over the director job was with Paramount's marketing department. "I said, 'Tell me what you need to make a Mission: Impossible movie so you can sell it.' They were quite surprised a filmmaker had come to them and asked that."

Cruise has continued to market the film flawlessly on the media circuit, with stunts such as lip-syncing The Weeknd's Can't Feel My Face on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The viral video alone was enough to show how little attention people paid to potentially detrimental aspects of Cruise's personal life, including Katie Holmes' bombshell divorce filing in 2012 and his controversial involvement in the Church of Scientology as depicted in the recent HBO documentary Going Clear.

"Think of how many people saw Going Clear. A decent amount," Karger says. "Now think of how many people saw the lip-sync challenge on Fallon. Exponentially more. That's what people know Tom Cruise for right now."

All the factors are enough to drive the well-reviewed Rogue Nation (93% critical approval on review aggregate site RottenTomatoes.com) to a predicted cake walk at this weekend's box office. Cruise has announced he'll make a sixth Mission next summer.

The fresh challenge: He needs a new power stunt to beat the A400.

"It's always an incredibly tall task," Ellison says. "But Tom Cruise always finds a way."