‘Mission: Impossible 8’ Trailer: Tom Cruise Dangles Upside Down From a Plane in Death-Defying Stunt

Mission Impossible 8

Paramount

“I need you to trust me — one last time.”

That’s Tom Cruise begging his fellow IMF teammates to go on one more death-defying expedition to save the world in a new action-packed Super Bowl trailer for “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.” Paramount Pictures will release the film, which is being billed as Cruise’s final outing as super-spy Ethan Hunt, in theaters on May 23.

The spot doesn’t stint on the crazy stunts that have become the franchise’s signature. At one point, Cruise dangles upside down from a plane, clinging on for dear life. Cruise is no slouch when it comes to risking it all on screen, having previously scaled the side of the Burj Khalifa and piloted a motorcycle off a cliff. But even he seemed to think his latest stunt pushed the limits.

“When you stick your face out [of an airplane], going over 120 to 130 miles an hour, you’re not getting oxygen,” Cruise said in an interview with Empire. “So I had to train myself how to breathe. There were times I would pass out physically; I was unable to get back into the cockpit.”

There’s plenty more high-octane thrills in store based on the new spot. The teaser also includes footage of someone breaking into a nuclear submarine that’s rapidly flooding, as well as shots of Cruise sprinting away from some unseen threat.

“Everything you were, everything you’ve done, has come to this,” intones Henry Czerny’s IMF director Eugene Kittridge.

“The Final Reckoning” was originally conceived as the Part Two to the previous “Mission: Impossible” outing, “Dead Reckoning.” The first trailer, which was released last November, revealed the “Final Reckoning” title — and that Angela Bassett would return as CIA Director Erika Sloane, after she first appeared in “Mission: Impossible – Fallout.”

“Dead Reckoning” raised the stakes for Cruise and company with its cliffhanger ending. After surviving a train crash, Ethan is searching for a powerful AI program called The Entity that can predict his every step before he takes it. If it ends up in the wrong hands, the program could be disastrous for the world. The previous trailer showed Ethan searching an underwater submarine for The Entity and hanging off the wings of a biplane.

Bassett is far from the only returning cast member for “The Final Reckoning.” Simon Pegg’s Benji Dunn, Ving Rhames’ Luther Strickell and Vanessa Kirby’s Alanna Mitsopolis are back, as are “Dead Reckoning” cast members Hayley Atwell as Grace, Esai Morales as the villain Gabriel, Shea Wigham as Jasper Briggs, Greg Tarzan Davis as Degas, and Pom Klementieff as the assassin Paris. Newcomers to the “Mission: Impossible” franchise include “Ted Lasso” star Hannah Waddingham, Nick Offerman, Lucy Tulugarjuk, Katy O’Brian, Tramell Tillman and Stephen Oyoung.