Tom Cruise's Smashed One-Wheel Stunt Motorcycle Is an Expensive Piece of Memorabilia

That's not to say the resulting "trash" can't be further capitalized.

In mid-October, a very strange item popped up for auction on Norwegian auction sites, reportedly with backing from the Norwegian government: a one-wheel motorcycle that had clearly and painfully seen better days.

It was one of the six bikes Tom Cruise had crashed during the now-super famous BASE-jumping scene from the film Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, in which he jumped it off the edge of a cliff, parachuting himself to solid ground while the bike was in freefall.

Much was said about the scene even before the movie wrapped production. Cruise himself would later confirm that it was, to date, his most daring stunt, both in terms of the level of danger involved and the costs. Crashing six bikes for six individual takes just to get the right shot was the least of expenses, as it turns out.

So this might fall under "turning lemons into lemonade." One of those bikes ended up in the hands of a town mayor, and he decided to put it for sale, with the benefits going straight to charity. If you'll recall, the first part of the last installment of Mission: Impossible shot throughout the pandemic. For a while, the production moved to Norway, where it got serious backing from the government.

That bike ended up fetching $6,500 at the auction, says one British tabloid. The money is going to Save the Children, which makes it entirely pardonable for one person to pay this kind of cash for a bike that's missing the front wheel and looks like it was dropped down a mountain cliff. Because it was.

"None of the bikes were anywhere near roadworthy after Tom had finished," a source says. Well, duh, what did you expect? These were real, fully functional Honda bikes that Cruise rode on the platform before launching himself into the air and off the cliff. He had a parachute, but the bikes had to fall freely for maximum effect – and maximum realness for the scene.

Cruise trained for months for this scene alone, which explains why he said it had been his most challenging.

Part of the rehearsals was building an entire set in the UK, where he'd practice jumps. He did more than 13,000 of them, which were then computer-analyzed to see how the stunt would play out when the jump was off a cliff. He also took over 500 hours of skydiving and had to do all six shots during the same day, lest they lose the favorable weather for the shoot.

When Tom Cruise says he'll do anything for his fans, he means it.

It looks like there is an auction in Norway for one of Tom Cruise's destroyed motorcyles from the big Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One bike jump! Certainly looks like it's seen better days... https://t.co/STX0AtKqIv pic.twitter.com/dikDGnV1bL

— Mission: Impossible - Behind the Scenes (@MissionMemes) October 16, 2023