Tom Cruise Held His Breath For 6-Plus Minutes In 'Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation'

With each Mission: Impossible movie, Tom Cruise tries to raise the bar. Whether it's hanging off one of the tallest buildings in the world or being strapped to the side of an airplane in flight, he knows that seeing an actor doing a stunt raises the stakes in a film. And while that airplane stunt may have seemed to be the main event in this summer's Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation, that may not be the case.

Talking to USA Today, Cruise said he trained to hold his breath upwards of 6 minutes to film an underwater scene that plays a huge role in the latest trailer. Rewatch the scene and read the Tom Cruise underwater quotes below.

To start, here's the new Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation trailer that starts with the underwater scene.

Cruise talked to USA Today about the scene. He said this:

It's something I have always wanted to do. (Director Christopher McQuarrie) and I have been thinking about it since working on 'Edge of Tomorrow.' I have done a lot of underwater sequences. But we wanted to create a suspense underwater sequence without cuts. So doing that sequence was really interesting. We're underwater and we're doing breath-holds of 6 to 61/2 minutes. So I was doing all my training with the other stuff (on-set). It was very taxing stuff.

I know what you're thinking, and I was thinking that too. Is that even possible? Turns out, it's very possible. The world record for holding your breath underwater is around 22 minutes. That makes Cruise's 6 minute hold seem totally feasible. He worked with a performance underwater trainer named Kirk Krack to figure out the breathing technique and while there's no mention of how many takes it took, you can be sure there were plenty of precautions taken with the mega star.

See the stunt in Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation when it open July 31.