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Tom Cruise brought a touch of Hollywood glamour to the Olympics closing ceremony in Paris on Sunday night when he hurled himself off the roof of the Stade de France — firmly secured to a cable, of course — to cheers from the 71,500-strong crowd.
After rappelling all the way to terra firma to the Mission Impossible soundtrack played by Grammy-winning R&B artist H.E.R , the movie legend grabbed the Olympic flag, jumped on a motorbike, and raced out of the stadium. Viewers around the world were then treated to a slickly produced action sequence featuring Cruise racing through the streets of Paris, riding straight onto an aircraft, and parachuting into Los Angeles — the location of the 2028 Olympics — before handing the flag to American mountain biker Kate Courtney.
“Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to bring the Olympic flag to Los Angeles.”
Tom Cruise: #Paris2024 #LA28 #ClosingCeremony
📸 Tom Cruise, Olympics pic.twitter.com/gkMmCUEb0P
— GSC (@GSCinemas) August 11, 2024
Passing the flag from the current host city to the next one is part of the Olympic tradition and so using a representative like Cruise made perfect sense for an Olympic Games being held in a city that’s home to Hollywood. The sixty-two-year-old Cruise has long been known to love performing his own stunts (including this utterly crazy one in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation), and so the closing ceremony provided an excellent opportunity for him to add yet another one to the list.
The movie star also posted a photo of himself at the Olympic stadium with the message, “Thank you, Paris! Now off to L.A.”
Thank you, Paris! Now off to LA. pic.twitter.com/MxlAb0hZbT
— Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) August 11, 2024
Taking place within the confines of a stadium, the Paris Olympics’ closing event was a more traditional affair compared to the opening ceremony last month, which took place outside for the first time in the sporting extravaganza’s history. While rain at the opening event soaked athletes and the gathered crowds, Sunday night’s closing ceremony enjoyed decent weather in what looked to be an exciting evening of entertainment.