Tom Cruise talked to The Tonight Show's Jimmy Fallon about filming the action sequence on an aircraft in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. Cruise said that it was inspired by his viewing of black and white footage of wing walking, which means walking along an aeroplane's wings. Explaining the stunt, Cruise said that he discussed how to get to a zero gravity space between the wings of the plane, which he knows how to fly. He then quipped to the audience, "I do not know if you have ever had your hand outside a window going on about a 145 miles an hour," alluding to the sheer intensity of the moment.
Tom Cruise then explained how he breathed in that situation. "I did not realise that I cannot breathe with that amount of force of air. So I had to figure how you are taking the wind (with the face tilted to one side) and breathing down (with it pointed to the other side)." The actor went on to talk about the "brutal" force of the air coming off the fuselage, the body of the aircraft. He also said that he did an intense weight workout to prepare for the action scene in the film.
In a behind-the-scene footage explaining the making of the scene, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning director Christopher McQuarrie said that communication with Cruise had to be done with hand gestures as the actor was clinging on to the aircraft's wing and the speed went from 100 to 140 miles per hour.
