Tom Cruise scores Guinness World Record for most burning parachute jumps

Tom Cruise has soared his way to a new stunt accolade: according to Guinness World Records, he has now performed the most burning parachute jumps by a single person.

This specific feat was achieved during the filming of Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, the latest instalment of the action franchise that has become defined by Cruise's jaw-dropping stunts. Sixteen times in a row, Cruise leaped out of a helicopter and plummeted toward the ground strapped to a flaming parachute.

As the character Ethan Hunt, Cruise has performed a number of eye-popping feats since the first Mission: Impossible film, including clinging to an airplane as it was taking off, scaling the tallest building in the world and driving a motorcycle off a cliff before parachuting to safety.

In 2018's Mission: Impossible - Fallout, Cruise became the first actor to complete something called a HALO (high altitude, low opening) drop on camera, which involved jumping out of a plane and freefalling thousands of metres before deploying a parachute.

Craig Glenday, editor-in-chief of Guinness World Records, said Cruise didn't just "play action heroes" but was one himself, in a release about the new record. Cruise is known for his insistence on performing the stunts himself.

"A large part of his success can be chalked up to his absolute focus on authenticity and pushing the boundaries of what a leading man can do," Glenday stated.

Before each jump, the parachute would be soaked in fuel so that Cruise would be able to light it on fire mid-jump, according to a behind-the-scenes video of how the team set up the stunt.

"I have to kick out of the twist, and then ignite, within 10 seconds," Cruise says in the video.

Once the chute had burned up, Cruise would cut the lines free and activate a backup chute to glide safely to the ground. But since the parachute material burned so quickly, disappearing in a matter of seconds, they needed to perform the jump multiple times to get enough footage for the scene: sixteen times, to be exact.

Guinness World Records didn't specify if Cruise had to surpass anyone to get the record, although the organization noted that "no other actor or stuntman has come close" to that number.

Not every stunt has gone exactly to plan. Cruise broke his ankle on the set of Mission: Impossible - Fallout when he landed badly jumping from one building to another. The take made it into the film; he can be seen limping after pulling himself up.

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning hit theatres in May and is the eighth instalment of the franchise.