It’s hard to top much of what we’ve seen come out of this summer’s Olympic Games . (The gymnastics friendships! The sweet parent-child moments ! The jewelry! ) Yet Sunday’s closing ceremony—which featured a one-of-a-kind stunt courtesy of Tom Cruise that took producer and director Ben Winston ( The Late Late Show with James Corden ) and his team over a year to put together—was a definite contender for the most exciting moment of Paris 2024. Shortly after a performance of the national anthem by H.
E.R. at the Stade de France, Cruise could be seen rappelling from the roof down to the ground; accepting the Olympic flag from Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass; boarding his motocycle, and riding off into the Parisian night.
Then, all at once, he was on a plane, jumping out of said plane, and turning the double Os of the Hollywood sign into the Olympic rings. All the while, the Olympic flag was being handed off to a series of athletes including mountain biker Kate Courtney, former sprinter Michael Johnson, and skateboarder Jagger Eaton. A day before the ceremony, Vogue spoke to Winston about ferrying the Olympic flag from Paris to Los Angeles via a carefully orchestrated, largely live production; organizing a live (and secret!) beach concert featuring the likes of Billie Eilish and the Red Hot Chili Peppers; and the mind-bending travel schedule Cruise kept in order to close out the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Vogue : I’d love to hear a little about how this video came about. Ben Wi.