Tom Cruise Randomly Landed His Helicopter in a Nice Family’s Field

Tom Cruise never takes a day off from being a quintessential movie star, even when he’s forced to land an aircraft in a random family’s front yard. The dashing actor, currently in the UK filming the seventh Mission: Impossible flick, famously does his own stunts in the action-packed spy movies — including flying an actual helicopter. And sometimes stunts don’t go as planned, which is why Cruise needed to make the emergency landing in a private residential field.

The BBC spoke to the Webbs, the family who owns the land in Warwickshire. Alison Webb was told that a “VIP who was running late” needed to land the chopper in her field, as the nearby Coventry Airport was closed. In a scene that sounds straight out of Top Gun, Cruise emerged from the helicopter and “went straight over to the children for a chat, then came over and elbow bumped us and said ‘thank you very much.’” Naturally, the kids were chuffed, as they say across the pond: he posed for photos and offered them a chance to fly in the helicopter, which they happily accepted. “It turned out to be an incredible day,” said Webb. “It was surreal, I still now can't believe it happened.”

Indeed, Cruise is known for his love of the big blue sky. He obtained his pilot’s license and actually flew in an F-14 fighter jet for the Top Gun sequel, and is “really passionate about flying,” said his costar in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, Danika Yarosh in 2016. The as-yet untitled Mission: Impossible 7 movie has hit some turbulence during filming; in a viral video, Cruise was heard berating the movie crew for not following COVID-19 safety guidelines, but the film later shut down anyway when a production staffer tested positive.