Now, new behind the scenes footage for Mission: Impossible - Fallout shows the 55-year-old take on a number of stunts including leaping from buildings and hanging from a high-flying chopper.
The film's stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood told Empire magazine the helicopter stunt sequence was completely Cruise's idea and that he'd been planning it since 2012.
He said while stunts at this altitude would normally involve 10,000 hours plus in the seat, Cruise had to learn it all in a few hundred hours.
There was however one stunt that had to be abandoned that saw Cruise drop onto a ball hanging from a helicopter.
"We had to abort one take because we got into the rotor wash [the air turbulence created by the blades turning]. If you have engine failure at that height you are pretty much guaranteed a crash landing," Eastwood told the magazine.
Cruise trained to become a helicopter pilot prior to filming and worked "around the clock to reach the level of skill the sequence needs".
Aerial coordinator Marc Wolff says: "Flying a helicopter takes a lot of skill. To put someone like Tom in a situation like this is almost impossible to imagine."
While there were no reports of injuries when the film shot in New Zealand, filming was held up after a stunt went awry in London when Cruise fell short while jumping across a building while rigged to a harness.
Fallout is the sixth film in the popular Mission: Impossible franchise.
