Tom Cruise is at it again, churning the stomachs of the insurance underwriters for Mission Impossible 5 by performing an outrageously batty stunt: hanging out the side of a giant plane 5000 feet above the English countryside.

This follows his other bits of derring-do as permanently rogue agent Ethan Hunt, be it swinging around the red rocks of Colorado, running from a giant exploding fishtank, or, most impressively, running down the side of the world’s tallest building in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

Cruise is 52, and for the cynical viewer these antics will be taking on a tinge of mid-life crisis, a blockbuster version of the ageing exec hanging off a zipline on a corporate awayday. “Pain is temporary, film is forever,” said Ghost Protocol director Brad Bird, enobling Cruise’s exertions – as if CGI couldn’t give a near simulacrum of his beautifully straining cheeks.

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