Tom Cruise Shares Secrets from 5 of His Craziest Stunts in the ‘Mission: Impossible’ Series

There is no movie stunt too impossible for Tom Cruise. The 53-year-old star seems to relish putting his body in harm’s way, especially when it comes to his role as special agent Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible series.

At the Vienna press day for his fifth go-around with the IMF, Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation, Cruise gave us some insight into what happens behind the scenes of filming some of his riskiest business. (Watch the video above.)

Among the moments Cruise reminisces about: the confusion surrounding the timing of his leap away from the exploding water tank in Mission: Impossible (1996); how the crew got that (very real) knife so close to his eyeball in the fight scene in Mission: Impossible II (2000); what it felt like to be hurled against a car from the blast of a missile in Mission: Impossible III (2006); and how he avoided blacking out while dangling from a Dubai skyscraper in Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol (2011).

Related: 50 Impossibly Awesome Facts About the Mission: Impossible Films

That brings us to his latest feat: the already infamous and well-documented moment in Rogue Nation which finds Hunt hanging from the side of an airplane as it takes off. Cruise has called it his most dangerous stunt yet, and described dealing with the threat of birds, particles, fumes and cold temperatures — not to mention the fact that he was actually harnessed to the side of speeding plane.

“The reason I do this — it really is to entertain an audience,” Cruise said. “And to tell a story. How can I create an emotional response, a physical reaction with an audience to invest them into a story?”

So, are you not entertained?

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation opens Friday. Watch the trailer: