Tom Cruise to receive honorary Oscar
Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise is set to receive a prestigious Honorary Oscar at the upcoming 2025 Governors Awards, celebrating his decades-long contribution to cinema.
The Top Gun: Maverick actor, who has received four Oscar nominations during his career, will be recognised for his lifelong commitment to filmmaking, especially for championing the theatrical experience during the COVID-19 pandemic and for performing his own stunts in action films.
The event, scheduled for November 16 at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Hollywood, will also honor legendary choreographer Debbie Allen, renowned production designer Wynn Thomas, and music icon Dolly Parton, who will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Academy President Janet Yang praised Cruise as “one of the most recognized and highest-grossing actors of all time,” noting his passion and impact on the filmmaking community.
The honorary Oscar is awarded by the Academy to recognize extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or outstanding service to the Academy.
According to Tom Cruise's film crew, he actor was about to die after he appeared to pass out on the wing of a stunt plane over Africa.
The 62-year-old was laid out flat on the wing after spending 22 minutes out of the cockpit – 10 more than safety guidelines allowed, his director Christopher McQuarrie told a masterclass at the Cannes film festival, where "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning" was premiered.
"When you leave the cockpit of the plane, it's like stepping onto the surface of another planet," McQuarrie said.
"The wind is hitting you in excess of 140 miles an hour (225 kph) coming off the propeller. You're breathing, but only physically. You're not actually getting oxygen.
"Tom had pushed himself to the point that he was so physically exhausted, he couldn't get back up off the wing. He was laying on the wing of the plane, his arms were hanging over the front of the wing. We could not tell if he was conscious or not," said the American filmmaker, who has shot the four last movies of the franchise.
Cruise, a trained acrobatics pilot, was alone on the biplane and had agreed a hand signal to show if he was in trouble, McQuarrie said.
"You can't do this when you're unconscious," the director told an audience at Cannes, with Cruise sitting beside him nodding sheepishly.
To make matters worse, the plane had only six minutes of fuel left. But the star finally stirred.
"We watched Tom as he pulled himself up and stuck his head in the cockpit so that he could replenish the oxygen in his body and then climb up into the cockpit and bring the plane safely down to land.
"No one on Earth can do that but Tom Cruise," he said to rapturous applause.
Asked about how he dealt with the fear, Cruise pointed to the years of preparation that went into his movies. But in the end, "I like the feeling. It's just an emotion for me. It's something that is not paralysing.
"I'm like, 'Oh, that's exciting'... I don't mind kind of encountering the unknown."
It was far from the only scare the pair had on the $400 million epic, the eighth in the franchise known for its dizzying set pieces and heart-stopping action scenes.