Tom Cruise Makes History by Touching the Hollywood Sign

Four-time Academy Award nominee Tom Cruise was seen taking part in an epic stunt during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Olympics, where he abseiled in from the stadium roof, Mission: Impossible-style, before meeting the Mayor of Los Angeles and Simone Biles to carry the flag on to the Olympics’ next home: LA.

However, new details have emerged that the stunt’s grand nature isn’t the only impressive thing about what we witnessed, but it also holds a moment of history.

Chairman of the Hollywood Sign Trust, Jeff Zarrinnam, revealed to NBC Los Angeles that “Normally when there’s filming done up here, no one is allowed to touch the Hollywood sign”.

If you caught the action when it happened, you’ll remember the brilliant final moment where Tom ends the stunt while holding onto one of the pillars attached to the W.

“This was the first time that the Hollywood sign was actually touched,” Zarrinnam reveals.

The team behind the stunt “just wanted to do something spectacular,” says Zarrinnam, “something with the Hollywood Sign because the Hollywood Sign represents Los Angeles.”

This specific part of the stunt was actually filmed earlier in the year, in March, NBC reveals, and it had to remain hush hush.

“Even our own cameras, our security cameras were turned off and not recording during this stunt,” Zarrinnam told NBC.

So, if you thought Cruise managed to pull off the impossible in flying from Paris to Los Angeles in less than thirty seconds, you’ll be mind-blown to know that it was actually all just a bit of movie magic.