Tom Cruise refused to kick Pom Klementieff in the stomach as they filmed Mission Impossible 7

He might be one of the greatest action heroes of all time, but there are some stunts even Tom Cruise won’t do.

According to Pom Klementieff, her Mission Impossible co-star refused to kick her in the stomach during a fight scene.

While the A-Lister may have been worried about injuring his fellow actor, he didn’t have the same concerns for himself and even did ‘the most dangerous stunt of his career’ on the first day of filming.

Initially shot over the pandemic, the insane stunt involved the 60-year-old launching himself on the back of a motorbike off a cliff.

Shoot in remote Hellesylt, Norway, the scene would see Cruise’s bike hurtled towards the edge with the Top Gun: Maverick actor then having to deploy a parachute. (Seriously, is there nothing he can’t do?)

Despite hours of rehearsals and prep by crew members, it was done on day one of filming for Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part One – just in case something should go amiss.

Paramount Pictures/Christian Black

Two years later, Cruise recalled the intense shot in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, joking: “Well, we know either we will continue with the film or we’re not. Let’s know day one!”

He then quipped: “Let us know day one what is going to happen: Do we all continue or is it a major rewrite?”

Though most of us would have had second thoughts about the insane stunt, Cruise was actually more concerned for his co-stars.

In fact, the Tropic Thunder star flat refused to kick Pom Klementieff in the stomach for real – despite her playing one of the villains in the upcoming movie.

“I kept telling him to just kick me,” Klementieff told Entertainment Weekly. “I was squeezing abs. [I said], ‘You can just go for it.’ He was like ‘No, no, no, no, no.’ I was like, ‘But it’s going to help me!’ But he wouldn’t do it.”

However, Klementieff took the chance to teased fans about how lethal her character is, saying: “She's a rebel, she's a killer, she's extremely skilled and quite lonely too."

With Cruise reprising his role as Ethan Hunt, the super spy must join forces with the illusive Grace (Hayley Atwell) to stop a terrifying new weapon from falling into the wrong hands.

Klementieff, meanwhile, plays Paris who is the partner and love interest of big bad Gabriel (Esai Morales).

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One speeds into cinemas on July 10.

Topics: Tom Cruise, Film and TV, Celebrity

Katherine Sidnell

Katherine is an entertainment journalist with a love of all things nerdy. Starting out writing Doctor Who fan fiction as a kid, she has gone on to interview the likes of Matt Damon, James May and Dua Lipa to name a few. Published in The Sun, The Daily Mail and Evening Standard - she now joins Ladbible as resident nerd in chief.

@ksidnell