Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)

The most extreme stunt in the fifth Mission: Impossible film has Cruise's Ethan Hunt attempts to break into a Airbus A400M, the huge military transport plane starts to taxi down the runway, before taking off with the super-agent clinging on by his fingertips.

Cruise was attached to the plane by a harness. In order to have his eyes open during the scene, the film's team used "sclera" contact lenses that would cover them both entirely, protecting them from rogue particles and hard air.

Airbus was initially reluctant to let the star do the stunt, and it took some convincing before they agreed to it. "The things we were all very concerned about were particles on the runway and bird strikes," Cruise said in an interview with Yahoo Movies.

"We spent days clearing out the nearby grass of any birds, and they brushed the runway as best they could. My stunt coordinator would poke me if he got reports of bird strikes. The pilot had to be on the lookout for anything in the air that could impact me in any way."

In the end, they shot the scene eight times. “I fly warbirds [vintage military aircrafts], I fly aerobatic airplanes, but this was pretty damn exciting and exhilarating," said Cruise. "The adrenaline was flowing! When that thing was going down the runway it was everything to keep my feet down, then it went up and my body was slamming on the side. I was like 'Whoa, this is intense.'"