Tom Cruise’s most dangerous “Mission: Impossible” stunts

My wife and I recently saw the sixth installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise. We were not alone: the film grossed $61.2 million in its first weekend.

You can’t see one of these films and not wonder if Tom Cruise does his own stunts. It turns out, he does. Or at least, the most death-defying ones.

Christopher McQuarrie directed Cruise in the two most recent Mission: Impossible movies (Rogue Nation and Fallout). He was asked by the New York Times to rank the most difficult stunts he and his star have executed. According to McQuarrie, Cruise did his own motorcycle chase scene in Fallout, sometimes “going in excess of 100 miles an hour with cars chasing him and coming at him.”

The scene in Fallout where he jumps from an airplane at 25,000 feet? Cruise actually did that. He made 106 jumps in total to film the sequence. He hung from an airplane in Rogue Nation and qualified for pilot certification so he could pilot a helicopter in Fallout.

Cruise didn’t have to do any of this, but as he and the movie cast explain, such realism makes the movies better.

Bible removed from military memorial

Heroism takes many forms. Four firefighters died last month while battling wildfires in California. At least fifty-four American law enforcement officers have died while on duty this year. The courage of those who risk their lives to protect ours should never be forgotten.

It especially takes courage to do what our culture rejects.

A Bible has been removed from the “Missing Man” table at F. E. Warren Air Force Base near Cheyenne, Wyoming. The table is a POW/MIA memorial common in military base dining halls, hospitals, and ceremonies since the Vietnam War. It is set for a meal honoring prisoners of war, the missing in action, and the fallen. A Bible is traditionally placed on the table.

However, Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, claimed that the Bible violates the civil rights of military personnel….