Cruise is “allowed” to do his own stunts because he wills it so; because he’s a big star.

There’s a great anecdote relayed by Matt Damon on Conan that encapsulates Tom Cruise’s approach to stunt-work.

Years ago, somewhere around the shooting schedule of Edge of Tomorrow, Damon had lunch with Emily Blunt and Cruise in London.

During said dinner, Cruise giddily revealed to Damon his vision for a grand stunt that he’d been planning for 15 years for a Mission: Impossible movie.

Although Damon doesn’t outright say it, it’s likely the stunt in question is the now iconic skyscraper run from Ghost Protocol.

Damon asked Cruise how the stunt came to pass.

“Okay, so I go to the safety guy, and I tell him this is what I’m going to do,” said Cruise to Damon.

But the ‘safety guy’ had other ideas. He point-blank declared, “You can’t do that. That’s too dangerous.”

What Cruise says to Damon next is essentially the TC experience crystallized in a sentence.

“So I get another safety guy.”

That’s when Damon knew he’d been dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight.

I looked at him and I’m like, ‘Well, I’m tapping out because you win. You are the best.’

At that point, when the safety guy, whose only job is to keep you safe, says ‘That’s too dangerous,’ my reaction is ‘Too bad we can’t do that sequence I came up with. It would have been really cool.’ His reaction is ‘No, we’re getting another safety guy.’

That’s Tom Cruise. Chewer of bubblegum, kicker of ass, jumper of skyscrapers and hanger of planes.

And the bane of all ‘safety guys.’

For context, this picture is of Tom Cruise (not a stunt double with Cruise’s face CGed on). He is sitting atop the Burj Khalifa. And this wasn’t even for the movie itself.

UPDATE: For those that don’t believe the above picture is real (it is). Click on the picture link above. And you can watch this video on how and why they did this:

Why is he allowed to do these risky stunts? Is it because he’s such a big star?

First off, it’s not directly because he’s a big star. It’s because he produces all of his movies, which makes him the boss. He gets the final say.

If he wants to hang off a building…

(again, no CG, green screen, or body double here)

If he wants to hang off of a plane thousands of feet above the ground with only a cable supporting him…

(again, no CG, green screen, or body double here)

If he wants to forgo a stunt pilot and fly the damn helicopter himself…

(one more time, no CG, green screen, or body double here)

If he wants to do all of that dangerous and risky stuff, he can because he’s the producer of the film. Not because he’s the star. Because he’s the producer, which gives him the power to make those decisions.

Other big stars couldn’t make such demands if the director and/or studio felt it to be too risky. And, yes, I’m sure that Tom has contracts with the studios he works with that take care of the insurance risks, etc.

Here’s Tom talking about his stunts. He actually states that since he’s the producer, he can say, “It’s okay that I’m going to do this.”