At this point, we all know that Tom Cruise does his own stunts. He can fly a helicopter. A plane. Hold his breath for like two hours. Sing. Dance. Fight. And ride a motorcycle like Ghost Rider exploding out of a cannon. But is the average motorcycle built for these death-defying stunts? Absolutely not, and there’s one man who has to build and death-proof these machines and get them camera-ready for the wildest movie star of all time in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, the 2024 Summer Paris Olympics, and the upcoming sequel releasing this summer, Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning.
Meet Kieran Clarke, former British Motorcross Champion, World Championship Road-Racer, Motorcycle Stunt Co-ordinator from the Eastwood Action Stunt Team, and designer of the ‘Ethan Hunt’, codenamed The Roczen Bike, the highest performance and specification stunt motorcycle ever built.
The famous, arguably insane, stunt from the clip above was shot on the first day of filming and was rightfully billed as the most death-defying of Cruise’s acting career. The stunt was manifested by Tom Cruise himself, who trained relentlessly and executed the stunt on the day with clinical and surgical precision.
“Doing that on day one gave us all the time in the world to understand why he [Ethan] was doing what he was doing,” said the film’s director, Christopher McQuarrie. “If we sat around and tried to figure out these movies the old-fashioned way, you’d never find it, simply because it’s such a living, breathing thing.”
Having now worked with Cruise over the last 10 years, Clarke confirms that his pedantic attention to detail is unmatched, and his dedication to authenticity is flawless. Still, designing a stunt bike for the world’s most fearless actor is no easy task, no matter how much of a daredevil he is.
“I chose Fox Racing as the technical safety partner to join the team in preparation,” Clarke said. “The stunt needed to be met with a brand with equal legacy and a pioneer in function and safety development for athletes while still leading the way in aesthetics. From my experience in racing, we could not have a single limiting factor in machinery, with no compromises made in building the perfect motorcycle.”
“Trust and respect are vital within our core team,” Clarke continues. “Which is why Midori Moriwaki was my only choice to partner with for all of my Hollywood projects. Midori’s achievements span across three generations of a motorsport dynasty, making her a dependable ally for such a massive undertaking. The Honda CRF motorcycle featured the best original manufacturer equipment such as Showa suspension, Nissin brakes, and Keihin components as standard. This gave us the perfect canvas to produce the ultimate stunt motorcycle.”
For the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Clarke and the Eastwood Stunt Team crafted a different bike for Tom Cruise, one specifically designed to generate as little noise and emission as possible for the live ceremony.
“Each stunt we do is individual,” Clarke adds, “and each bike is an exquisite work of art with perfect performance and function, with a timeless aesthetic style fit for a Hollywood movie mega-star. For the Paris Olympics, we chose the LiveWire Delmar due to its understated style and high-tech electric performance, which gave us the reliability needed for a historic live global event. The electric drivetrain was the perfect solution for zero emissions inside the stadium. In order to prepare for the stunt test track we spent months perfecting Tom’s motocross ability to where he became one with the motorcycle so his action activated in a flow state and reacted with perfect precision and timing.”
“What we have planned for the upcoming Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen,” Clarke says. “Tom Cruise is going conclude the best action franchise of all time with some of the wildest things you’ve ever seen.”
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning releases worldwide on May 21, 2025.
