20 Declassified Facts About The Mission: Impossible Series

1. Tom Cruise Kept Banging His Head In The Franchise's Most Famous Scene

D'ONK Mission Impossible
Paramount

Cruise's physical risk-taking began with the very first M:I film, in the scene where he does his work suspended from a cable. This scene has its roots in Topkapi, was mirrored in both M:I TV series, and inspired a lot of homages (Cars 2, Shrek 2, Toy Story 3, Tangled, Charlie's Angels, Inspector Gadget-- and every other movie in the Mission: Impossible franchise).

But when filming the moment when the line almost fails and Ethan is dropped to about an inch above the floor, Cruise kept hitting his head until he got the idea to put pennies in his shoes for balance. Unfortunately, no known outtakes of said head-klonking exist, but Photoshop handily does.

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Contributor
Contributor

T Campbell has written quite a few online comics series and selected work for Marvel, Archie and Tokyopop. His longest-running works are Fans, Penny and Aggie-- and his current project with co-writer Phil Kahn, Guilded Age.