Tom Cruise Honored With Prestigious Aeronautics Medal From Aero Club Of France

Tom Cruise can add a prestigious aeronautics medal to his long list of accomplishments.

The star of the forthcoming Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, who has a known penchant for piloting, jumping and hanging off of aircrafts, was honored with the Grande Medaille of the Aero-Club de France, presented to him by the organization’s president Catherine Maunoury Feb. 8.

The award was for his “significant contribution to the history of aviation and inspiring future pilots,” according to a press release. The medal is the highest distinction from the institution, which was created in 1898.

Video captured at the event and posted to social media shows Cruise shaking hands with officials, being presented with the award and applauded by those in attendance.

Cruise — who recently revealed he “would pass out physically” while doing one particular stunt for The Final Reckoning, which involves him dangling precariously off of the wing of a 1930s Boeing Stearman biplane at an altitude of 10,000 feet — famously does his own stunts, a number of which require him to be airborne.

For Top Gun: Maverick, the movie star faced fighter jet g-forces, and for several Mission: Impossible installments, Cruise has conducted hundreds of skydives. Last year, the veteran actor jumped off of the Stade de France to close out the 2024 Paris Olympics, in a surprising feat that blurred the lines between his fictional characters and real life.