Hollywood legend Tom Cruise secretly battled with producers over his death-defying stunt at the Paris Olympics closing ceremony, with insiders claiming his inner circle are desperate to curb his passion for increasingly risky stunts in his 60s. The A-list actor, 62, stunned the world after he jumped from the roof of the Stade de France on Sunday night during an extravagant handover ceremony to Los Angeles in the French capital.

For the spectacle, which took a staggering 18 months of preparation, Tom was strapped into a harness as he flung himself off a ledge in front of thousands of fans and Olympians. But according to insiders, Tom clashed with bosses behind-the-scenes as he argued the safety ropes were preventing him from plunging at a greater speed – while they rightly worried for his life. ‘Tom helped to create this stunt and said that he needed to do something that has never been done before,’ they told DailyMail.com.

They explained: ‘He argued with producers over his safety rope which was clearly visible and he felt it did not make the jump believable enough and he did not plummet as fast as he wanted. His close circle strongly advised him against the jump and have told him he really needs to stop throwing himself into so many death-defying stunts. It’s one thing when he’s shooting a movie, but now this Olympics stunt – it’s incredibly worrying.’

The source added that there are fears that eventually one of his stunts will backfire and he could end up seriously injured or losing his life. They said: ‘Tom knows the risks involved and he doesn’t care. He refuses to pull back. He truly believes he is larger than life. Part of his belief has to do with fact that he is one of the biggest action movie stars of all time. Part of it is his Napoleon complex and also the fact that he is pretty much a demigod in his religion. But he’s not 25 anymore – not even 35 or 45.’

Tom is no stranger to daredevil stunts. From jumping off buildings to fighting with samurai swords and scaling mountains without ropes, he has always insisted on doing his own stunts. Just last month, he was seen hanging off the side of a plane while filming scenes for the upcoming Mission Impossible film. In 2010, he famously dangled almost 2,717ft in the air from the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, for the fourth Mission: Impossible film.

Not all of his stunts have gone smoothly though, and in 2017 he injured himself during a failed building jump while filming Mission: Impossible 6 in London. At the time, video footage emerged showing the esteemed actor taking a gigantic leap off some rigging and onto a rooftop while attached to a harness, but his jump fell short and he crashed into the side of a building and broke his ankle. Tom braced himself for his abseiling stunt on Sunday night as Paris 2024 organizer Tony Estanguet thanked everyone for ‘playing their part’ in the Games. While H.E.R. sang and played the American national anthem on her guitar, Tom descended into the stadium.

Once safely back on the ground, the Mission Impossible star greeted several fans as he made his way through the crowd – and in a viral moment, one woman even attempted to kiss him on the cheek . He was then handed the five-ringed Olympic flag by gymnast Simone Biles and the Mayor of LA which he loaded onto the back of a waiting motorcycle. Dressed in his trademark Top Gun black leather jacket, the action star then drove out of the arena while standing up on the vehicle.

The switch across the Atlantic kicked off with live performances from California natives Red Hot Chili Peppers, Billie Eilish and Snoop Dogg on Venice Beach. The day before Tom’s major stunt, executive producer and creative director Ben Winston told Vogue the masterpiece took more than a year to put together, and at times he feared they might never pull it off. ‘We’ve been planning this for a year and a half, and we had this idea that it would be so beautiful if we could take the flag from the Paris stadium and make it travel all the way to Los Angeles and then go live and do something spectacular here,’ he said.

‘One of the things LA is best-known for is its beaches, so we thought, what if we could steal that flag, bring it to LA, and do a massive, amazing concept on the beach with all these amazing LA artists?’ Revealing Tom’s dedication to the job, Ben told how the actor was filming Mission Impossible in London when he got on an 11-hour flight to LA, shot for the Olympic video and got straight back on the plane to the film set.