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Tom Cruise and Will Smith posing on top of Burj Khalifa has people pointing out key difference

Home> Celebrity> News

Published 11:13 22 Nov 2025 GMT

Tom Cruise and Will Smith posing on top of Burj Khalifa has people pointing out key difference

There's a stark difference between Tom Cruise's pictures atop the world's largest skyscraper and that of Will Smith's

Joe Yates

Joe Yates

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Featured Image Credit: X/David James

Topics: Tom Cruise, Will Smith, Celebrity, Viral

Joe Yates
Joe Yates

Joe is a journalist for UNILAD, who particularly enjoys writing about crime. He has worked in journalism for five years, and has covered everything from murder trials to celeb news.

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Tom Cruise and Will Smith posing on top of the Burj Khalifa sparked a buzz online, but there was with one key difference between the two catching everyone’s attention.

Standing 2,717 feet above Dubai, the Burj Khalifa isn’t exactly your average selfie spot... but for these two Hollywood legends, it’s the perfect place to prove their fearlessness.

Both Cruise and Smith have separately scaled the world’s tallest building to snap an iconic photo right at the top - because why not, right? While most of us would rather keep our feet firmly on the ground, these guys actually did it for real.

After their photos surfaced online, fans were quick to spot a pretty major difference between the Mission: Impossible daredevil and the Men in Black star - and it’s sparking a whole new debate.

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The Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world, standing 2,717 feet high (Getty stock)
The Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world, standing 2,717 feet high (Getty stock)

Cruise was first to climb the staggeringly tall tower in 2011, when he took on the challenge for a stunt in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

In his photo, the star is posing as if he's sat on a kitchen stool with a cold beer right next to him - not one wrong move away from falling thousands and thousands of feet to his death.

The photo shows him wearing jeans and a t-shirt, no shoes or socks, and he's sporting a casual grin on his face as he leans back, with one arm leaning casually on his leg. He doesn't even appear to be wearing a harness in the snap - though fact-check websites have suggested that he almost certainly is.

It's hard to believe Tom Cruise is sat upon the tallest building in the world (X/David James)
It's hard to believe Tom Cruise is sat upon the tallest building in the world (X/David James)

Fast-forward 10 years, and it's a very different story for Smith, whose smile for his photo looks more like a grimace.

The King Richard star climbed the tower in 2021 as part of a video on fitness and weight loss, but he clearly wasn't quite as comfortable as Cruise when he made it to the top.

Smith can be seen wrapped in a harness, leaning back among the safety of some of the tower's structural features at the top.

Will Smith grips tightly onto the tip of the Burj Khalifa with a grimace on his face - stark contrast to Cruise's almost effortless pose (YouTube)
Will Smith grips tightly onto the tip of the Burj Khalifa with a grimace on his face - stark contrast to Cruise's almost effortless pose (YouTube)

Social media users haven't been able to resist pointing out the differences between the images, with one writing: "One is sitting in bare feet and a t-shirt looking as relaxed as possible and the other is draped in harnesses, clinging on for dear life, looking like he's making peace with God."

A second posted: "I love how Will is all strapped up and hanging on for dear life, but Tom is not only just sitting there, nary a rope in sight, but he’s LEANING."

Cruise is clearly made of different stuff!

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