Simon Pegg says Tom Cruise will ‘risk his life’ for moviegoers: “He just cares that much”

Simon Pegg has seen it all — from elaborate gadgets to vertigo-inducing skyscrapers — but what truly leaves him awestruck is Tom Cruise’s relentless commitment to entertaining his audience, even if it means defying death.

Tom Cruise ‘will literally risk his life for the audience’, says longtime co-star Simon Pegg

In a recent interview, the British actor and screenwriter sang praises of his Mission: Impossible co-star, calling Cruise ‘absolutely nuts’ in the most admiring way possible. “Tom Cruise literally will risk his life for the audience,” Simon said. “I’ve said, ‘You're absolutely nuts’ many times to him. But he just cares that much about it.”

Tom’s high-octane stunt work has become the stuff of legend — from clinging to the side of an Airbus A400M mid-flight to scaling the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. And Simon, who has played tech whiz Benji Dunn in the franchise since Mission: Impossible III (2006), has witnessed the madness up close. Recalling the Burj Khalifa shoot in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Simon described a moment that perfectly captured Cruise’s thrill-seeking spirit. “Just leaning out of the window and seeing Tom sort of hanging there, smiling, this big s***-eating grin on his face, like, ‘I'm having the best time,’” he said.

Simon and Tom have now worked together across six instalments of the blockbuster spy series, with their seventh collaboration just around the corner. The highly anticipated eighth film, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, directed by Christopher McQuarrie, hits cinemas on May 23. In a cinematic landscape often dominated by CGI, Tom’s insistence on performing his own stunts — often under extreme conditions — continues to set him apart. It’s not just for show; it’s a deliberate choice driven by his commitment to giving fans an authentic, edge-of-the-seat experience.