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Friday July 11, 2025

Rob Lowe, Ralph Macchio makes wild claims about Tom Cruise stunts

Rob Lowe and Ralph Macchio comes up with far-fetched theory on how Tom Cruise performs his stunts

By TN Web Desk
June 16, 2025
Rob Lowe, Ralph Macchio makes wild assumptions about Tom Cruise stunts
Rob Lowe, Ralph Macchio makes wild assumptions about Tom Cruise stunts

Rob Lowe and Ralph Macchio, who starred alongside Tom Cruise in The Outsiders, recalled how Cruise was dedicated to doing his own stunts even 40 years ago.

The Outsiders was based on Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of S.E. Hinton of the same name, an early '80s hit featuring an avalanche of heartthrob hunks.

The two actors sat down for a chat on Literally! With Rob Lowe podcast gushing over Cruise’s mind-blowing skills.

"Whenever I see Tom do these amazing, insane stunts," Lowe remembered, "I look back at when Francis made us, for whatever reason, practice to be gymnasts. Do you remember this?"

Macchio admitted revealing that he got away without much training since his character, Johnny Cade, was more introverted.

Lowe then shared that rest of the cast had "a lot of pressure" to learn how to do backflip saying that only Cruise was able to ace it.

"I don't know if you've ever learned a standing backflip. It's hard, it's scary as s--- . Tom was the only one who did it. And if you watch the movie, the movie's playing but then the movie just stops and there's a shot of Tom doing a backflip for no reason and then the movie continues," he recalled.

The co-stars then began to wonder if the director deployed Texas switch (a filmmaking term for when careful blocking can mask when an actor is replaced by a stuntperson within the frame.)

Lowe then came up with a wild idea of starting up rumours of "Tom Cruise actually doesn't do his own stunts" adding that they can provide evidence.

However, Macchio backed away from that, noting, "It's kind of tough with the current footage that is playing on your feed right now of him not wearing a parachute," referring to a moment in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.

Lowe and Macchio concluded the discussion on calling out Cruise's performance in M:I 8 "incredible."