Tom Cruise's journey from childhood roof-climber to action hero

After much anticipation, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning has finally arrived, starring Tom Cruise, along with Simon Pegg and Hayley Atwell. The film serves as the eighth and final film in the franchise that started back in 1996.

Of course everyone wanted to sit down with Tom, but Absolute Radio's Dave Berry was the lucky one! Tom Cruise, who has played the main role of Ethan Hunt throughout the films, as well as producing the hit movies. Speaking to Dave, Tom reminisced about his childhood, the dreams he had, and how he makes sure the Mission: Impossible films connects with the audience.

Watch Tom Cruise speak to Dave Berry below:

Tom Cruise's childhood dreams

Tom, who is known for doing his own incredible stunts, revealed even as a young child he had no fear. He always wanted to make movies and explained how at the age of about three, he was found on the roof of his house.

Speaking about his daredevil childhood, Tom said: "Things haven't changed. I remember being a little kid. I mean, I must have been, I don't know, maybe 3-years-old, 3 1/2 years old. I climbed through the window at night and I climbed onto the roof to look at the stars. The neighbours, you know, ratted me out to my family. My mum was like, 'what is happening?'

"They said: 'I think there's a child on your roof!'"

Working on Mission: Impossible

During the chat, Tom also revealed how he's keen to make sure the audience have a connection with the films. Mission: Impossible (1996) was the first film he officially produced, and he explained he loves reading a script and working out what it will look like on the big screen.

He told Dave: "It's like I can't wait to do that (stunt). I would love to do that." Tom went on to reveal he's always thinking about: "The camera position to communicate it to an audience.

He continued: "Mission: Impossible was the very first film I ever officially produced... when I read something I can look at it and know... you know what it's going to take. I'm evaluating already the estimation of effort.

"And thinking about... and I write down all of the knowledge and all the data that I need to learn and educate my crew on and myself on, to be able to accomplish this and how I bring it and I kind of do everything."

Bringing Mission: Impossible to the audience

Each of the films has a very different location, from Prague in the first film, to the iconic free rock climbing scene (Utah) in the second, and Norway and Rome in Dead Reckoning Part One. Tom explained why it was his dream to put a spotlight on the filming locations, bringing them to the audience through the movies.

"My dream for my whole life is to go to different places and not just be a tourist, but to see it and engage with the people there," Tom said.

"(The) beautiful thing about making movies... You go there and you're working side-by-side together and you get to really know people when you're creating with them and I appreciate that.

"And I wanted to go to those places always and my dream was to be able to do that. My dream with Mission (Mission: Impossible) was to have that privilege, to be able to go, 'OK', now I'm going to turn the camera on your culture...

"I'm going to turn the camera on this building or this area, and we're going to show the world."

Reuniting with Val Kilmer

Back in 1986, Tom played the iconic role of Lt. Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell in Top Gun, along with the late actor Val Kilmer, who played Tom 'Iceman' Kazansky.

Nearly 40 years later, and in 2022 the pair reunited for Top Gun: Maverick, reprising their well-known characters. Tom reminisced about seeing Val again, saying: "I remember with Val Kilmer.

"He and I hadn't seen each other for such a long time and we sit down and the joy of just… of talking about things and catching up and it's that way with everyone, throughout world."

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is now in cinemas, however if you want to catch up on all seven of the previous films before, here's how you can watch all of the Mission: Impossible films.

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