Mission: Impossible 8 stunt was so intense it made Tom Cruise pass out

Mission: Impossible 8 is suspected to be the end of Tom Cruise’s run of high-flying action movies – and it may be his most thrilling yet.

What started as a simple spy series has since become the most high-pressure franchise around. For every Mission: Impossible movie that passes, the stunts become more death-defying and more realistic.

And at the heart of it all: Tom Cruise. The actor isn’t afraid of putting himself in the middle of the action, and the new movie, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, is no exception.

According to Cruise himself and director Christopher McQuarrie, one sequence ended up causing the star to pass out in the sky.

Mission: Impossible 8 plane stunt made Cruise pass out

“There are stunts in this movie that will melt your brain,” McQuarrie said [via Empire]. “There would be a day in Africa – any day in Africa – where Tom would go out and do something that topped anything he had ever done before.”

One specific stunt, as seen the trailer, shows Cruise hanging from a 1930s Boeing Stearman biplane. At 10,000 feet in the air, it’s set to be one of the most breathtaking stunts yet – literally.

As Cruise explained, “When you stick your face out, going over 120 to 130 miles an hour, you’re not getting oxygen. 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.”

Even just watching the stunts take place was an intense experience, according to McQuarrie.

“I truly want to puke thinking about the stress,” he said. “It was intense.”

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning arrives in theaters on May 23 in the US.