Action star Tom Cruise brought the Paris Olympics to a jaw-dropping close when he abseiled off the roof of the Stade de France to help close out the 33rd Olympiad.
But the moment was briefly hijacked by a woman who was seen grabbing Cruise as she attempted to kiss him on the cheek as he made his way through the crowd on the stadium floor.
As the Mission: Impossible star shook hands with some of the athletes, he took took the Olympic flag from gymnast Simone Biles before leaving the stadium on a motorcycle and racing towards a waiting plane. The stunt continued with Cruise parachuting out of a plane and affixing five Olympic rings to the famous Hollywood sign, signifying the handover of the Games to Los Angeles for its next edition in 2028.
“Thank you, Paris! Now off to LA,” Cruise shared on X.
While Cruise’s stunt wowed fans at home, the woman’s attempt to smooch Cruise divided viewers.
“That woman who just grabbed Tom Cruise to kiss him made me so uncomfortable…… WTF,” one person wrote, with another adding, “That one woman trying to kiss Tom Cruise… that’s just embarrassing OMG he didn’t ask for that.”
“Have some respect ladies,” a third person wrote, chastising the unnamed woman. “Imagine if this was a guy to a girl?”
“OK THAT WAS TOTALLY INAPPROPRIATE FOR THAT ATHLETE TO KISS TOM CRUISE,” a fourth person remarked. “But I admire her for taking her shot.”
“That woman who kissed Tom Cruise on the cheeks saw her moment and took it,” another agreed.
In an interview with Vogue, producer and creative director Ben Winston said that the closing stunt took over a year to plan.
“The first thing we did was pitch Tom, because there’s nobody better to do an incredible stunt,” Winston told the publication. “I pitched him on the idea of a stuntman grabbing the flag, coming down from the roof of the Stade de France, and then taking his mask off and you see it’s Tom Cruise, who then jumps out of a plane and lands in LA. Tom said, ‘I’m in, but I want to do the whole thing,’ so it was this huge undertaking of this live stunt with Tom jumping off the roof.
“We wanted to keep Tom doing this daredevil jump off the roof a surprise, and then cut to this video we’ve been making where Tom gives the flag to these Olympic athletes, who then take us to a massive live concert on the beach with Billie Eilish, Snoop, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Every element took a lot of work!”
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According to Winston, Cruise, who is the midst of filming Mission: Impossible 8 in Europe, flew from London to Los Angeles to film the pre-recorded skydive to the Hollywood sign earlier this year.
“Tom was filming Mission: Impossible in London, then got on a plane, flew 11 hours to LA, got off the plane, shot with us, then got right back on the plane and back to set,” Winston said.
Cruise, 62, was a fixture at this year’s Games as he cheered on various members of Team USA.
“It’s awesome,” the Oscar nominated actor told Reuters. “Great stories, great athletes. It’s incredible what they have to do, the sense of accomplishment.”