PARIS: Hollywood action icon Tom Cruise channelled his inner Ethan Hunt, his iconic character from the blockbuster "Mission: Impossible" films, as he helped bid adieu to the 2024 Paris Olympics and hand things off to Los Angeles for the 2028 Games with a daring skydiving stunt.
At the closing ceremony on Sunday, the 62-year-old descended from the top of the gigantic Stade de France to the "Mission: Impossible" theme song, shook hands with the athletes on his way to the stage, took the Olympic flag from star gymnast Simone Biles, and carried it on a bike through Paris streets to a cargo plane ready to take off for Los Angeles.
Cruise, who shot his 2018 film "Mission: Impossible Fallout" in Paris, later on his official X account shared a selfie when he was in the air suspended from the safety cables above the stadium.
"Thank you, Paris! Now off to LA," he captioned the photo.
In a pre-recorded segment after being lowered on a rope live from the roof's giddy heights, Cruise drove his bike past the Eiffel Tower, onto a plane and then skydived over the Hollywood Hills.
Three circles were added to the O's of the famed Hollywood sign to create five interlaced Olympic rings.
In Los Angeles, a cyclist then took the flag to four-time Olympic gold medallist track legend Michael Johnson, who jogged through the streets of California and handed it over to skateboarding legend Jagger Eaton at the iconic Venice Beach.
Earlier, the two-hour-long show, created by Thomas Jolly, began with a musical ode to the Games' host city, with French singer Zaho de Sagazan singing the famous 'Sous le ciel de Paris', which became a symbol of Paris for the world.
Multiple time zones away, multiple Grammy winner Billie Eilish, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, rapper Snoop Dogg along with his longtime collaborator Dr Dre then took over to begin an evening of fun and music that also included Red of Chili Pepper and Dr Dre in Los Angeles beachside.
Emmy Award-winning artist Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson, popularly known as H.E.R., sang the US national anthem live from the Parisian stadium, crammed with more than 70,000 people.