Is Tom Cruise About To Reclaim His Underwater Record From Kate Winslet?

Tom Cruise set an underwater record for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, which was beaten by Kate Winslet in Avatar: The Way of Water, but the actor is seeking to reclaim the record in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two. Following Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Cruise set out to top climbing the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, and succeeded by not just hanging off a plane that’s taking off, but by holding his breath for a record-breaking six minutes. Cruise can be seen underwater in 2015’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, and it remains one of the most intense stunts Cruise has achieved to date.

Despite that, Mission: Impossible franchise director Christopher McQuarrie hilariously revealed that he and Cruise were actually dissatisfied by Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation’s underwater scene. The filmmaker commented, “Tom and I are constantly reevaluating our own work and asking ourselves how we could have done it better.” As a result, McQuarrie and Cruise are returning to the water, as next year’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two features an underwater scene. The scene will likely see Cruise once again outdoing himself and holding his breath for even longer. However, Cruise won’t be looking to beat his own breath-holding record, but Kate Winslet’s.

Mission: Impossible 8 Tease Means Tom Cruise Could Reclaim His Underwater Record From Kate Winslet

Nobody thought it could be done, but Tom Cruise’s record for holding his breath the longest for an underwater movie stunt has been beaten. Kate Winslet, who hasn’t ever been known for her stunt work, held her breath for seven minutes and 14 seconds while shooting Avatar: The Way of Water. Despite being no stranger to water or director James Cameron’s dedication to authenticity given her starring role in Titanic, Winslet surprisingly beat Cruise’s underwater record in the Avatar sequel. Though her time seems impossible to top, Winslet should enjoy being the record holder while she can, as there’s absolutely no doubt that Cruise is looking to take it back.

Why Tom Cruise Would Likely Want The Underwater Record Back

Tom Cruise likely holds no resentment toward Kate Winslet, and if anything, he’s probably impressed by the new record and welcomes the challenge. The actor is always encouraging his co-stars to be involved in the action scenes, and it’s part of his dedication to cinema. However, that doesn’t mean the actor doesn’t want the record back. After so many movies where Cruise challenges himself to outdo his previous stunts, he’s as much a stunt performer as he is an actor at this point in his career. As he is seemingly in competition with himself, there’s no doubt that Cruise wants to reclaim the record.

It wouldn’t be surprising if the underwater sequence that has been hinted at for Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two was even designed as a reaction to Winslet taking the record from Cruise. However, the stunt has likely been planned since before Avatar: The Way of Water‘s release, especially given that Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’s ending teases the underwater sequence. Following the epic underwater scene in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, it was only a matter of time before Cruise was going to take another dive and deliver another jaw-dropping, death-defying underwater sequence, too.

What We Already Know About Mission: Impossible 8’s Stunts

Not much is known about Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two’s underwater scene, but unlike the one in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, the 2024 movie’s aquatic scene will actually be at sea. Given the submarine tease in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One‘s ending, the next movie will likely see Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt deep-sea diving to locate the vessel and unlock the chamber housing the Entity supercomputer. As is typical of Mission: Impossible, given how far underwater the submarine is, the mission will likely be time-sensitive, but it’ll be at least seven minutes and 14 seconds.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two‘s showstopper will likely be the airplane stunt Christopher McQuarrie teased. The movie will again see Cruise hanging off the side of a plane, only it isn’t simply taking off. The plane is a mile high and mid-flight, and what’s more terrifying is that it’s a flimsy propellor plane. This stunt could outdo Dead Reckoning Part One‘s bike jump off a cliff that turns into a base jump. No other Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two stunts involving Cruise have been revealed, but McQuarrie also teased an action scene on an aircraft carrier, which is begging for some kind of outrageous death-defying stunt.