'Last True Movie Star' Closes Out the Olympics

As rumored, Tom Cruise did indeed perform an epic stunt at the closing ceremonies for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The actor rappelled from the top of the Stade de France down to the ground, where he greeted Olympic athletes before receiving the Olympic flag from Simone Biles and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (who had just received it from Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo), USA Today reports. He then stowed it on a motorcycle on which he rode away; in a pre-recorded sequence, he took the flag all the way to LA, which will host the next summer games in 2028, People reports.

Cruise is a well-known Olympics fan and had been spotted cheering on Team USA in Paris. In 2004, he participated in the LA portion of the Olympic torch relay, carrying the torch in Dodger Stadium. Of Cruise's closing ceremony stunt, film critic Bilge Ebiri writes at Vulture, "I must admit, I found this whole spectacle strangely moving. It wasn't so long ago that Cruise's career seemed to be in free fall." After a "bizarre, one-of-a-kind, decades-long rollercoaster ride," the symbolism of Cruise arriving triumphantly in Hollywood with the flag was not lost on Ebiri. "The last true movie star was back home." (More 2024 Paris Olympics stories.)