Tom Cruise has spent decades doing the kind of movie stunts that would make most people think twice — and at 64, the Hollywood superstar says fear still is not stopping him.
Cruise made a striking admission during a rare new interview with GQ when he was asked directly whether he fears death.
“No. I don’t,” Cruise said.
But the Mission: Impossible star’s full answer was more nuanced than the dramatic declaration might suggest. Cruise explained that he does experience fear — he simply does not see fear as something that should stop him.
“I’m not afraid to feel afraid,” he told GQ, describing his life as an adventure that has repeatedly required him to step into the unknown.
Cruise also compared his approach to life with standing on the edge of a cliff, both “physically and metaphorically.”
That comparison is especially fitting for an actor who has actually ridden a motorcycle off a cliff for a movie.
GQ directly brought up that now-famous stunt, along with Cruise’s history of hanging from aircraft, while questioning him about his attitude toward danger. The full video interview was released September 14 and can be watched through GQ.
Watch Tom Cruise’s full GQ interview
Cruise told the magazine that the risks audiences see on screen are not simply spontaneous acts of daredevil behavior.
He said much of what he has done throughout his career has been deliberate, involving the development of new skills and extensive preparation.
Cruise described himself as someone who is “constantly pushing” himself and said he wants to keep taking what he has learned and putting it back into increasingly ambitious projects.
That philosophy has become one of the defining features of his career.
During Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation, Cruise famously clung to the exterior of an Airbus A400M as it took off.
Years later, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One featured Cruise riding a motorcycle off a Norwegian mountain before opening a parachute in midair.
And he continued escalating the action with Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.
Paramount released behind-the-scenes footage showing how Cruise and the filmmaking team created the movie’s elaborate aerial sequences rather than relying entirely on computer-generated action.
The spectacle has also remained valuable for the studio. Paramount reported that The Final Reckoning had earned more than $590 million worldwide by the end of July 2025 and delivered the biggest global opening in Mission: Impossible franchise history.
RadarOnline reported that Cruise’s latest comments have caused concern among people in the entertainment industry, quoting unnamed sources who questioned how far the actor might continue pushing himself.
Those comments, however, are not attributed to Cruise’s representatives, family members or named collaborators.
There has been no public indication from Cruise himself that he intends to take risks without extensive planning. In fact, his comments to GQ emphasized preparation, learning and attempting to turn uncertainty into something more controlled.
The interview arrives less than a year after Cruise reached another major milestone in a career stretching back more than four decades.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Cruise with an Honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards on November 16, 2025.
The Academy specifically praised his commitment to filmmaking, theatrical movies and stunt work. Cruise previously received acting Oscar nominations for Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire and Magnolia, as well as a Best Picture nomination as a producer of Top Gun: Maverick.
It was his first competitive-or-honorary Oscar win after decades as one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
Despite reaching that milestone, Cruise told GQ he has little interest in living in the past.
His attention is instead turning toward new projects, including Digger, his movie with Oscar-winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu. During the interview, Cruise repeatedly returned to the idea that completing one challenge simply creates room for another.
That appears to be the larger message behind his comments about death and fear.
Cruise is not claiming that he never gets scared.
He is saying that being scared has never been enough to make him stop.
And after more than 40 years of increasingly elaborate stunts, there is little indication that Hollywood’s most famous daredevil plans to start playing it safe now.
