Between them, Matt Damon and Tom Cruise have produced some of the best movies of all time, from the Jason Bourne saga to the Mission Impossible movies.
But for all their similarities, Damon revealed a stark difference between himself and the Top Gun cast member during an appearance on Smartless: On the Road. During his segment on the Max TV series, Damon shared how he came to discover this difference after talking to Cruise about the infamous Burj Khalifa stunt in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.
“There are the Tom Cruises of the world, who do their stunts, like literally hang off a plane and do that. I remember I had dinner with him once, and it was after he did [Ghost Protocol] where he ran around the building. And I go, ‘Can you tell me how that happened?’ And he’s a really intense guy, and he was like, ‘I’ll tell you how it happened!’ I go, ‘Alright.’ And I’m in,” he recalled.
“He goes, ‘I’ve been thinking about this shot for 15 years!’ And I’m like, ‘Wow, really?’ He goes, ‘So I go to the safety guy, and I lay it all out.’ Safety guy goes, ‘We can’t do that. It’s too dangerous, you can’t do that. So I get a new safety guy.’ That’s the beginning of his story.”
This, Damon added, is when he realized the big difference between himself and Cruise. “And I just go, ‘Stop!’ That’s where we’re different,” he continued. “When the safety guy says no, I’m like, ‘Well, safety guy says it’s not a good idea.’”
Still, twelve years on from this iconic action movie, Cruise is showing no signs of slowing down. Footage from the upcoming Mission Impossible 7, for instance, shows him driving off a cliff on a motorbike.
And with the Mission Impossible 7 release date rolling around next month, it won’t be long until you get to see this ambitious sequence and more envelope-pushing stunts on the big screen.
While you wait, however, check out our guides to some other new movies coming your way this summer, or revisit some classics with our guide to the best Tom Cruise movies of all time.