At this point, Tom Cruise clocked the danger and sprung into action, employing a physical restraint maneuver to be referred to henceforth as "Cruise control:" He tackled Elisabeth Shue and dropped her to the ground, saving her life in the process.
"Tom is a pilot, rated in both airplanes and helicopters, and instantly saw the danger. He lunged after her, but only was able [to] grab her legs, tackling her to the ground. He rolled her over, dragging her at the same time, and you could see the momentary anger on her face while she was yelling 'Why did you do that?' But by that time, he is pointing at the tail rotor which is now a couple feet away, screaming at her that she almost died," Bill Bennett explained in his post. "At that point she turned white, and he pulled her back towards the front of the helicopter and they walked away."
Bennett noted that the near-death situation frazzled everyone's nerves, but they were all thankful that Cruise was there to save Shue from danger: "All of us in the helicopter, we're quite shaken up by the close call, but there was nothing to be said. Tom had, in that instant, truly saved her life."
As the Sun reported, this story made its way back to Cruise on the set of "Mission: Impossible 7," and he confirmed it was true. Thank goodness the superstar was so on the ball — the loss of his co-star would have left some big Shues to fill.
