An Inside Look at Tom Cruise’s Olympic Jump and LA28 Mission

Tom Cruise has jumped from great heights under the guidance of Ben Winston, co-founder of Fulwell73 and creative producer of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics delivery, once before.

But this time it was different, the whole world was watching.

Cruise, who previously jumped out of a plane alongside James Corden in Late ShowWinston produced the film, titled “Summer Olympics 2028,” which premiered Sunday at the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics as Los Angeles was handed the right to host the 2028 Summer Olympics.

After Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo handed the Olympic flag to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (the first black mayor to receive the official Olympic flag during a closing ceremony) and Simone Biles (the most decorated American gymnast of all time), Cruz jumped into the Stade de France before taking off on his motorcycle.

Related: Paris Olympics Closing Ceremony in Pictures

the Mission Impossible The star, who interrupted filming for the latest installment of the action franchise to perform a stunt, then jumped from a plane onto the Hollywood sign, passed the baton to Team USA Olympic athletes, including mountain biker Kate Courtney, track and field legend Michael Johnson, and two-time Olympic snowboarder Jagger Eaton, who took it to the beach — literally.

Winston told Deadline that what viewers saw at the ceremony was almost identical to what he showed Cruise, with one slight difference.

I said to [Cruise]“HER sings the national anthem, and starts playing her guitar. We see a man on the roof wearing a mask. He jumps off the roof, grabs the flag, drives through Paris, gets into the back of a plane, takes off his mask, and we find out it’s you,” Winston said.[Cruise] He said, “I absolutely love this, I’m 100 percent excited.” I remember how excited he was. He said, “There’s just one thing. There’s no way I’m going to use a stunt double. I’m on the roof, I’m jumping, I’m doing everything. There’s no guy wearing a mask.”

That was a year and a half ago. With a stunt double, it would only take one day of shooting, instead of five or six, Winston explained. “He was like, ‘Either we do it and do it wholeheartedly and do it completely, or we don’t do it,’” Winston added. “He’s an incredible guy, the greatest collaborator you’ll ever work with. He’s inspiring. He’s hardworking, and he’s kind to everyone around him.”

After the Olympic athletes carried the flag through the city, there were performances by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who performed “Can’t Stop” from By the way This was followed by Billie Eilish performing Birds of a Feather atop a lifeguard tower. Snoop Dogg, who is undoubtedly one of the stars of the Olympics, then performed Drop It Like It’s Hot and teamed up with Dr. Dre for a surprise performance of The Next Episode.

“There are a lot of amazing LA artists, and there are a few other amazing hip-hop stars like Kendrick Lamar, but those three were my first choices,” Winston said. “They were in my original lineup before they even agreed a year and a half ago. I was so sure that when I pitched the idea, I had already chosen the Red Hot Chili Peppers as the soundtrack to the Tom Cruise movie.”

Winston, whose company Fulwell73 produces series such as Hulu’s The Kardashian FamilyHe said he had his first meeting with LA28’s Casey Wasserman in January 2022.

Most of it was filmed live, although Winston admits some of it couldn’t be filmed live due to security concerns on the beach. “Some people said none of it was live,” he said. “Some people said it was all live. It’s a bit of both, but for different reasons, because obviously you’re exposed in the middle of the beach, and we had to keep what was going on secret for security reasons. If information had leaked about where we were or what was going on, we would have been shut down. I’m fully aware that we couldn’t afford to be shut down, because we’re broadcasting live to a billion people around the world. It was a complex project.”

The Grammys executive producer admitted it was a bit stressful. “It was probably the most stressful I’ve ever been in my career,” he said. “We had some technical issues connecting from Paris to Los Angeles. You’re juggling a lot of elements that have to be played, and you’re also at the mercy of the Olympic broadcast team and the Paris team. There were a lot of technical things that were challenging and testing, and then you also realize that the biggest movie star in the world was about to jump off a roof.”

Winston and his team have extensive experience in live TV broadcasting with projects such as: Elton John Live: Goodbye From Dodgers Stadium and Adele: One Night Only.

The live shows were directed by Hamish Hamilton, who has also directed several live television shows. Glenn Clements collaborated with Winston on the film, Dave Bendak and Raj Kapoor served as producers, Patrick Minton supervised talent, and Misty Buckley and Gloria Lamb led the set design for the beach concerts.

“It’s kind of like when you have a newborn baby and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, this is a nightmare, he’s sick and he needs to be changed,’ and then he’s three and he’s so cute, and you’re like, ‘Let’s do it again.’ It’s kind of like live TV. When you’re on it, you’re like, ‘Why am I doing this?’” he said. “And then I looked around yesterday and I looked at the team, and I was like, ‘We had the greatest musicians in the world on this stage. We had Tom Cruise, the greatest movie star, and we had the best in our industry come to perform.’”