Tom Cruise held his breath for 6 min underwater for an ‘MI5’ stunt: really?

Tom Cruise

The newest trailer for Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation has arrived. This is the fifth installment in the franchise, and Paramount Pictures is already developing part six. Of course they are! In this trailer, Tom Cruise risks his life several times (including the creepy plane-hanging stunt) as super spy Ethan Hunt, who almost dies seven times in a few minutes. The movie co-stars Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Alec Baldwin, and Jeremy Renner (ugh) is back. Here’s the trailer. Warning: Contains a shirtless and running Tommy.

Tom has a new interview with USA Today where he talks about the film’s daring underwater scene. Tom claims to have held his breath for over six minutes to preserve a long shot:

“It’s something I have always wanted to do. [Director Christopher McQuarrie] and I have been thinking about it since working on Edge of Tomorrow. I have done a lot of underwater sequences. But we wanted to create a suspense underwater sequence without cuts. So doing that sequence was really interesting. We’re underwater and we’re doing breath-holds of 6 to 61/2 minutes. So I was doing all my training with the other stuff (on-set). It was very taxing stuff.”

[From USA Today]

At first, I didn’t believe Tom because tis sounds like an impossible amount of time to go without oxygen. The National Institutes of Health says brain damage can occur after 4 minutes without oxygen, but that’s usually when someone is unconscious. Also, the Guinness world record for underwater breath holding is actually 22 minutes. That diver did hyperventilate with oxygen before the stunt, which made a huge difference. Tom probably did the same thing. He has something to prove to the world. Tom must be the best actor-stunt-guy ever, which is an odd legacy to pursue.

A new story in this week’s Life & Style (via Jezebel) says Tom recently splashed out $50,000 for plumping fillers to make his 52-year-old self look young. Maybe so, but the story is based upon Tom’s slightly rounder face on the Mena set (he plays an overweight pilot). Tom has certainly gone in for fillers for many years. But I think the Mena makeup artists worked some magic to make his face look puffy. Tom is too vain to purposely make his face look chubby.

Here are some photos of Tom in April. His face looks chiseled as always.

Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise

Here’s Tom on the set of Mena, which also stars Jesse Plemons. I don’t think Tom gained much weight for this film.

Tom Cruise

Movie stills courtesy of Paramount Pictures; photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN

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35 Responses to “Tom Cruise held his breath for 6 min underwater for an ‘MI5’ stunt: really?”

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  1. springingforward says:

    6 minutes? It would explain a lot…..

    • Babalon says:

      Xenu probably helped him through it.

    • phlyfiremama says:

      Too bad it wasn’t 7…;) There is NO WAY he held his breath for that long. Brain damage starts at over 4 minutes, and even the very rare people that CAN hold their breaths for extended periods of time train EXTREMELY rigorously for doing so. Liar liar, pants on fire.

    • Duchess of Corolla says:

      Bwaha! I was thinking the same thing! 🙂

    • Sarah says:

      My thoughts exactly! Well, I thought, that would cause brain damage for the brain to be without oxygen for so long and yes …………… that does explain a lot about the behaviour of Tom Cruise.

  2. MP says:

    I don’t believe it. Especially since he was doing a scene which required action. That increases the oxygen consumption. None of the record times have been achieved while moving.

    • *North*Star* says:

      Totally agree.

      But it boosts his poor ego…normally I’d let it pass. But I can’t with Tom.

      *digs for needle to prick ego’s fragile balloon*

    • SnarkGirl says:

      Agreed. Just out of curiosity I checked out vids of dynamic apnea, swimming underwater on one breath. The guy did 225m in under 6 minutes, but he trains for it, and was swimming with as little movement as possible. On top of that, he was seriously fatigued and winded afterward. I doubt 50-something Tom could out do that without YEARS of training.

  3. Lucy2 says:

    Tom is believable as an action star, but I don’t want to support his films anymore.
    Did anyone see that photo of him and his assistant? Apparently she looks a lot like Katie Holmes!

  4. Lilacflowers says:

    Not like Tom Cruise could suffer brain damage.

    • Size Does Matter says:

      Ha! I can totally see Napoleonic Tom needing to demonstrate his manliness through exaggerated movie stunts. But Daryl Hannah and Tom Hanks already did this 25 years ago in Splash, amiright? 😉

    • boredblond says:

      Could’ve lost his footing on the couch and smacked his head

  5. Belle Epoch says:

    Does anybody care?

  6. TeaAndSympathy says:

    Only 6-6 1/2 minutes? Come on, Cruise, I’m sure you could improve on that. Let’s say 12 minutes? Or even 18…

    Off topic: It was just announced that Going Clear will finally be shown in Australia very soon. After reading all the write-ups and comments about the documentary on Celebitchy, I can’t wait.

  7. funcakes says:

    He held his breath for six minutes.
    Not long enough. 🙂

  8. Crumpet says:

    Men tend to gain weight in their faces, so it might just have been that. Injecting fillers is is not without risk ( I have a crater on my chin to prove it). I can’t believe Tom would risk his entire face to fillers.

    And I have a hard time believing his breath holding claim. Maybe those were Xenu minutes?

  9. Pixi says:

    His hair in that plane scene though… hahaha

  10. Nicolette says:

    What’s holding your breath for six minutes if you’re the Grand Master Poobah or whatever of a cult? Mere child’s play mortals, mere child’s play.

  11. Deedee says:

    Confirmation that Tom Cruise is brain dead.

  12. Lara K says:

    All the stories about him these days are just sad.
    Under the mental illness, he must be terrified and so lonely.

  13. 15minutes says:

    Kim jong un can hold his breath for 6 days.

  14. MediaMaven says:

    “Xenu take the wheel………”

  15. Darlene says:

    A lot of pools/states are banning the practice of holding your breath for long periods of time: http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/05/29/410331432/breath-holding-in-the-pool-can-spark-sudden-blackouts-and-death

    It’s being tied to more and more deaths. I wish he hadn’t mentioned any of this, especially before summer and tons of kids who think, if Tom Cruise did it, so can I, not realizing he had scads of safety precautions taken and people watching him at all times, waiting with oxygen. 🙁

  16. Dr.Funkenstein says:

    Um, no, not buying that. Maybe he stored a couple of mini O2 cylinders in his spacious lift heels. I’m sure there’s room for them in there, along with his anti-Xenu proton accelerator.

  17. Ankhel says:

    Right. More like nobody on set dared protest when he guessed he’d been under six minutes. ” Yes Tom. You the best Tom.”

  18. Mrs.Krabapple says:

    Numbers have different meanings to Scientologists. Tom Cruise held his breath for 6 minutes the same way Kristie Alley fits into a size 6 dress.

    • Suzanne says:

      OMFG!!! THAT is too funny! spacious life heels……LOLOLOLoO!
      Dammit…there are some funny ass comments…Kristie Alley size 6!

  19. Bea says:

    Was Suri waiting for him outside?

  20. Rose says:

    My friend is an underwater camera operator on this film and this story is true! My friend was telling me how tiresome it is that he won’t just have divers with oxygen tanks and had is own free diving trainer . I was joking that it’s so he can brag about stunts in the press junket and low and behold there he goes with the ‘I did my own stunts’ song again.