Tom Cruise is one of dozens of American celebrities in Paris for the Olympics. I’ve actually been shocked at how many big-name American celebrities are turning out for gymnastics, tennis, swimming and more. Flavor Flav has been camped out at women’s water polo (he’s a sponsor) and Snoop Dogg has a full itinerary of events he’s attending as a special NBC correspondent. Lady Gaga, Nicole Kidman, Kendall Jenner, Spike Lee, Serena Williams, Mariska Hargitay and many more have all been sighted at the Olympics. Tom has become sort of a late-in-life enthusiast for women’s sports too – in recent years, he’s been showing up for female athletes as often as he shows up for the dudes (I really respect that about him).

Well, it looks like Tom has some ulterior motives for showing up at the Olympics. He’s obviously enjoying himself and supporting American athletes, but it looks like he’s going to also be involved in the Closing Ceremony on Sunday, August 10th. The closing ceremony is where the Olympic host nation “passes the flag” to the host of the next Summer Olympics. The 2028 Olympics will be held in LA, so they’re going to trick this bitch out, Hollywood-style. Tom Cruise is going to land a chopper on top of Versailles or parachute to the top of the Eiffel, right? Well, according to TMZ, it’s going to be Tom rappelling down the Stade de France.

Tom Cruise is engineering an epic stunt to close out the Paris Olympics and pass the flag to Los Angeles for the 2028 Games … TMZ has learned. Sources with direct knowledge tell us … the plan for the upcoming Closing Ceremony involves Tom rappelling down from the top of Stade de France … landing on the stadium field and carrying the official Olympic flag.

The TV broadcast will then cut to a previously recorded film … and the first 2 minutes shows Tom’s journey on an airplane … flying with the Olympic flag from France to Los Angeles, where he skydives down to the Hollywood sign.

The Hollywood sign stunt was actually filmed on a Saturday morning back in March, and our sources figured someone would spot Tom in the air, connect the dots and the story would leak … but his descent went completely unnoticed.

Now, there are photos of Tom on the Hollywood sign from back in March, but no one got him in the air … only after he was already on the ground, and no one had a clue this was related to the Olympics. We’re told the film will then show Tom passing the flag to other Olympians — including a cyclist, skateboarder and volleyball player — as they make their way around the next host city for the Summer Games.

[From TMZ]

I’ll be nice… it’s kind of cool that LA was so organized and prepared, they were thinking about how to do a big Hollywood stunt for the Paris closing ceremony. It’s also sort of cool that Tom wanted to be involved? He is a Hollywood movie star, after all (even if he lives in England now). I’m trying to think of who else they could have gotten for this kind of stunt and I’m drawing a blank. Tom Hanks would never rappel down anything. Denzel is probably on vacation with his wife. I mean… they could have asked Kendrick Lamar to come and represent LA?? Maybe they’re saving him for the LA Olympics Opening Ceremony though.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.