Disguised as a 75-Year-Old Man to Reach Tom Cruise: Michelle Khare's Mission Impossible Premiere Stunt
Michelle Khare
In this episode of Challenge Accepted, Michelle Khare sets out to get the attention of Tom Cruise at the London global premiere of Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning and ask him one question: what would it take to do a stunt with him? Khare frames the night as an "infiltration." The plan is to slip onto the A-list-only red carpet in disguise and pull off something daring enough that Cruise himself notices. The video covers the planning, the rehearsals, a near-failure on the night, and the brief conversation with Cruise that it was all leading up to.
The Mission and Why Tom Cruise
Khare explains that the Mission Impossible franchise is known for "insane tentpole stunts," and that what keeps audiences hooked, in their view, is that Cruise actually performs them. The video shows Cruise nosediving a helicopter, along with his remark that he trained for a year and a half to fly it, and a clip of him BASE jumping off a mountain from a motorcycle. Khare points out that he has kept this up for nearly 30 years and calls that level of "raw commitment" one of the inspirations behind the channel itself.
The stated goal is to infiltrate the premiere, get onto the celebrity-only section of the red carpet, and perform a stunt bold enough to catch Cruise's eye so that Khare can ask what it would take to do a stunt together.
Not Sponsored, But Not Illegal Either
Khare is clear that the video is not sponsored by Paramount and that Paramount isn't paying them to attend. A few months earlier, though, Paramount had seen Khare's tweet about wanting to recreate the Rogue Nation stunt where Cruise hangs off the side of an A400M Airbus during takeoff, and offered Khare a ticket to the premiere. "We're not doing anything illegal," Khare says, adding that they are "way too paranoid for any of that." So the "infiltration" is really about getting noticed rather than getting in. Khare had a ticket, but believed something big would be needed to leave an impression on Cruise.
The day before the premiere, Khare and the team scouted the London venue while it was being set up. There was security everywhere, hundreds of workers in hi-vis vests, and gates at every entrance. Khare admitted not knowing how the plan would work, and a crew member said they weren't confident in it either.
A Mask Built Around the Franchise's Signature Gag
Instead of attending as Michelle Khare, Khare went as "Amir Scout," described as "a name hiding in plain sight." The idea was to turn the franchise's famous mask-reveal moments back on the film. In the movies, the IMF uses a machine to produce photorealistic masks. Since that machine doesn't exist, Khare hired someone to make one, driving an hour to Immortal Masks.
Khare says the whole stunt depended on the mask looking real. George at Immortal Masks picked one out, noting that this type of mask normally takes a long time to make (the exact figure is cut off in the transcript). Khare's reaction to wearing it was disbelief: "I feel like I'm hallucinating right now," and it was "so crazy to like see out my eyes and see this person looking back at me." George also gave advice on how to make the disguise more convincing, and the result looked, in the words heard in the video, "very real."
On the day, the hotel was full of premiere guests and Khare didn't want to be spotted, so they transformed into a 75-year-old man inside a red phone booth on the street. A passing family stopped to watch. Khare also mentions how hard it was to find men's shoes in their size, ending up with what were "basically like children's dress shoes."
Rehearsing the Premiere on a Burbank Soundstage
On premiere night, Khare walked through the streets without drawing attention, apart from an odd habit of making prolonged eye contact with strangers. Security waved them through. Khare then reveals that everything up to this point had been rehearsed "dozens of times," and compares the setup to Nathan Fielder.
To prepare for every scenario, the team spent days building an exact replica of the premiere on a soundstage in Burbank. They recreated the badges guests would be given and hired actors to play security and paparazzi. Camera operator Kevin, asked for his opinion, called it "by far the silliest thing I've ever seen you do," and Khare clarified: "silliest, not craziest."
The first rehearsal went badly. Stopped at the check-in desk by a mock security guard and asked for a badge, Khare-as-Amir said the assistant had it, refused to call because "I don't use a digital telephone, young man," and claimed to have "handled all of the dubbing and acquisitions internationally." They cut the take because Khare "got stuck at the desk," and acknowledged there were things they still had to figure out.
Learning to Move Like an Older Man
Khare says looking like an old man wasn't enough to blend in; they also had to move like one. So they brought back Richard Dorton, the movement coach they had worked with six years earlier. Dorton started by having Khare follow their instincts, then broke the performance down from there.
Several pieces of Dorton's coaching appear in the video. Men tend to stand more openly and take up more space, so Khare was told to widen their stance. Dorton noticed Khare was "leading with your belly" and switched it to leading with the chest. Then Dorton added a cane, explaining that there needed to be some kind of pain driving the movement: "Play the pain. Don't play the age." They tried putting the pain in the back first, which made the walk too slow, then moved it to the knee, which they both preferred, with a hand in the pocket and the cane used just to get through.
Dorton also challenged a common assumption. "We always tend to think of old age as slow, and that's not the case," Dorton said, adding that a 70-year-old might act like a 50-year-old. So the work was about changing the character's energy, not just slowing down. Dorton said the cane provided "a little bit of distraction" and told Khare to "live in this character." Khare credits this coaching with getting through the real premiere's security without raising suspicion.
Stuck on the Wrong Side of the Carpet
Following Dorton's direction, Khare made it onto the celebrity red carpet, but on the wrong side. Cruise was on the far side, and there was no access there because of a barrier. Security turned Khare away before they could get into position, and Cruise was then rushed backstage.
Khare waited. Twenty minutes passed with no sign of Cruise, and people started staring. "Literally, everyone is staring at me right now. I don't know if I'm pulling this off," Khare said, thinking the cover was blown.
Mistaken for Tom Cruise in Disguise
Then something unexpected happened: some fans thought the disguised old man was Tom Cruise himself. Khare notes that celebrities sometimes go undercover at big events, and that Cruise has been known to disguise himself in public. The example given is when he reportedly went undercover as a delivery man while preparing for his role in Collateral.
Here the video brings back an earlier piece of Dorton's advice: take control of the situation and make friends, because people you befriend "become part of your solution" instead of a problem. Khare went along with the new identity and made friends with as many people as possible while they speculated about whether this was Cruise.
Moving the Stunt to the Yellow Plane
With the real Cruise still gone and time running out, Khare used the confusion among event staff to head for the massive yellow plane on site. That area was being broadcast live on a jumbotron to the whole venue, so Khare reasoned that a stunt there might still reach Cruise even without being near him.
The video then flashes back to rehearsals, where Khare and Dorton tried out ways to get attention: rushing the red carpet in a wheelchair, faking a sudden coughing fit, a fully choreographed dance, and other bits the video plays for laughs. Khare's verdict on one of them: "Well, we said extreme."
The Reveal
With everyone watching, Khare performed the reveal, which the video presents mostly through music and applause rather than narration. Afterwards Khare's reaction was "Oh my god, it works." A fan who had been following them explained, "I thought you were Tom Cruise. I kept following you," hoping to be there if anything happened. Khare also learned that the moment had been shown on the premiere's worldwide livestream.
According to the video, the stunt caught Cruise's attention, and Khare was taken to meet him.
Cruise's Answer: Build Up Methodically
Earlier on the carpet, Cruise had told an interviewer that seeing the fans was "surreal" and that "we dream of these moments," adding, "We make it for you all."
Meeting him in person, Khare asked the question the episode was built around. It is a personal dream, Khare said, to one day do a stunt with him, so what kind of dedication does it take to pull off a Tom Cruise stunt?
Cruise's answer was about training and gradual progression: "You just have to train. You have to know what you're doing." He described crawling before walking, walking before jogging, jogging before sprinting, and learning to sprint before "you go sprinting off the mountain with a parachute behind you," and knowing how to use that parachute. "I build things up methodically and very thorough," he said, describing it as how he approaches everything in his life.
As they parted, after a photo together, Cruise gave Khare a short piece of advice. The audio is garbled in the transcript, but Khare repeated it afterwards as "be competent, not careful." The video ends with Khare going over what Cruise said: train and know what you're doing; crawl, walk, jog, then sprint; build things methodically; be thorough; and be competent, not careful. The episode doesn't say whether this leads to an actual stunt with Cruise. It ends on his advice for how to prepare for one.
This is me with Tom Cruise. Such a privilege to meet you. Good to meet you. About to ask him a question that could change the course of this entire channel. I have a question for you. Yes, please. But getting to this point was its own Mission: Impossible.
Spies. Masters of disguise. They don't break in, they blend in. But the best among them know how to hide in plain sight. And that's exactly how I'm going to infiltrate the Mission: Impossible premiere.
Premiere night for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. We're just days away from the highly anticipated movie hitting the big screen.
We are here in London where the Mission: Impossible premiere will take place tomorrow, and they are already getting everything set up right now. So, we are here for a little bit of a recon mission. There is security everywhere. Hundreds of people in high-vis vests, gates protecting every single entrance. I don't know how we're going to do this tomorrow. I'm very not confident in your plan. You're not confident. Oh my God.
My mission, if I choose to accept it, and I do, is to infiltrate the Mission: Impossible premiere, gain access to the A-list celebrity-only red carpet, and pull off a stunt so daring it captures the attention of Tom Cruise himself. So I can finally ask him, what would it take to do a stunt with me?
So, the Mission: Impossible franchise has become known for these insane tentpole stunts. And the reason why I think this continues to captivate audiences all around the world is because these stunts are actually being performed by Tom for real, which is just insane. Here is Tom Cruise nosediving a helicopter. I trained for a year and a half to fly the helicopter. He trained to fly a helicopter for this movie. Who does that? And here he is willingly BASE jumping from a motorcycle off a mountain.
And this man has been able to keep this up for nearly 30 years. You guys like Tom Cruise? Oh my God, we've seen every movie he's ever done. It's incredible. They are just amazing. And this level of raw commitment was one of the many sources of inspiration for this channel.
Now, this video is not sponsored by Paramount, and they are not paying me to see this movie, though that would be nice. However, a few months ago, they did see my tweet about wanting to recreate Tom Cruise's stunt from Rogue Nation in which he is hanging off the side of an A400M Airbus as it's taking off. As such, they offered me a ticket to this premiere. So, we're not doing anything illegal. I am way too paranoid for any of that.
However, I know that to capture Tom's attention and to leave an impression, I'm going to have to do something big. And that is why I'm not actually going to this premiere as Michelle Khare. Instead, I'll be going as Amir Scout. A name hiding in plain sight.
You're that scum. Mission: Impossible is famous for these iconic mask reveal moments. So, the goal is to use their own gag against them. Now, in the movies, the IMF uses a machine to generate photorealistic masks. But since that machine is essentially magic and does not exist in our world, my first step is to hire someone to make one.
We are driving an hour out to Immortal Masks. We're going to go and try them out. Then everybody keep your fingers crossed that this works. The entire stunt hinges on this looking real. And with the help of George, he picked out the perfect mask for my stunt.
Okay, so you're actually in. It's not even really that bad on you. Oh my God. So shocking. This is a mask that usually takes me 14. Wow, this is crazy. Oh my God, I feel like I'm hallucinating right now. Genuinely, this is so crazy to see out my eyes and see this person looking back at me. Oh my God. If you really want to fool something, especially with this one, right, this is what I recommend. Oh my God, that looks—yeah, that looks very real.
With my disguise secured, it was finally time to head to London to pull off my mission.
[Music]
Okay, here's what's going on. The hotel is completely filled with guests going to the premiere, and I don't want to risk getting caught. So, I am getting ready in a red phone booth. While I transform into a 75-year-old man, I am going to tell you about today's sponsor, Odoo. If this goes wrong, I'm not only going to embarrass myself at this event, but also, I might just not get invited to another premiere ever again.
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Oh my God, I don't like people looking at me. This is the part I was dreading the most because the next time that I breathe fresh air, I will be with Tom Cruise. Be sure to click the link in the description and try Odoo free for 14 days. And thank you so much to Odoo for sponsoring really weird episodes of Challenge Accepted like this one. I hope nobody noticed that.
[Applause]
It is the global premiere of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning in London. The day is finally here. I am here with the one and only Tom Cruise. What does it mean to you to see all these fans? We dream of these moments. It's surreal. It's very exciting. We make it for you all. So, it's a real privilege.
[Music]
As I'm walking over to the premiere and passing people on the street, my disguise actually seems like it's kind of holding up. As long as I don't make weird prolonged eye contact with anyone, which I don't know why I kept doing, people are walking right past me and not even thinking twice about me. But the first real test would be seeing if the premiere security would be suspicious.
Everything was going well. Do I check or good? I think it's good. Okay. And in fact, you might even say it's going a little too well. And that is because everything that has happened so far tonight, I have rehearsed dozens of times.
Oh my God.
[Music]
This is some Nathan Fielder. In order to perfectly execute an impossible mission, I knew I had to be prepared for every potential scenario. So, our team spent days constructing an exact replica of the Mission: Impossible premiere in a soundstage in Burbank to give me the best possible chance of success. We even recreated badges that we'd be given at the premiere and hired actors to play the security and paparazzi at the event.
Kevin, you've seen me do many things. Yeah. What do you think about this one? This is by far the silliest thing I've ever seen you do. Definitely silliest, not craziest.
Now, it's one thing to be dressed like an old man, but if I want to fully blend in with the crowd, I need to move like an old man. So, I brought back my amazing movement coach from six years ago, Richard Dorton, to train me to fully embody the physicality of a senior citizen. This is really a challenge.
I just want to see your process. So, let's just go through what you think your instincts tell you to do, and then we'll start to break it down. Got it. All right. Here we go. Good evening, sir. How are you?
[Music]
It's skin. Okay. And as it turns out, learning to be an elderly gentleman is extremely challenging. Do you have your badge on you? My assistant has my badge. Would you be able to call her and bring her out here? I don't use a digital telephone, young man. What's your connection to the premiere tonight? I handled all of the dubbing and acquisitions internationally.
Okay, let's cut this here because that was so bad because we got stuck at the desk. There are certain things that we're going to have to figure out. And it was thanks to Richard and his amazing coaching that allowed me to breeze through security without raising suspicion on premiere night.
Look at the way the men are standing. We tend to be a little bit more open, right? There we go. We're finding a little bit more space. We're manspreading. Give me a more excited walk. Okay. You're leading with your belly. Let's try with the chest. Okay. What if we gave you a cane? There's got to be some kind of pain that you're playing with. Okay. Play the pain. Don't play the age. Where is the pain? Put it in your back first. Okay. Too slow. Put it in your knee. You're just using it just to get through there. Good. I think I like the knee better. Okay. Hand in pocket. Use the cane.
We always tend to think of old age as slow, and that's not the case. A 50-year-old acts like a 30-year-old. A 70-year-old might act like a 50-year-old. So, the energy that we're looking for in this person is what we're going to try to change for you. How's that feel? A little better. Yeah. What it's doing is it's giving you a little bit of distraction. Yeah. You got to live in this moment. You got to live in this character.
And using Richard's direction, I began to make my way to the celebrity red carpet. And it's actually working. But I'm still not where I need to be for my big reveal. There's a chance I will get to this side of the red carpet, but I need to be on this side of the red carpet because that side of the carpet, that's where Tom is. But there's one problem.
There's no access this way. There's meant to be a barrier here. We're going to be going that way now. Security stopped me before I could get into position. And suddenly Tom was rushed backstage before I could make my move. And so I waited and waited and waited.
But Amir is impatient, so he decided to have a little fun. But this will not do. But 20 minutes had passed and Tom was nowhere to be found. And even worse, people were starting to stare at me. Literally, everyone is staring at me right now. I don't know if I'm pulling this off. I thought my cover was blown until the unthinkable happened.
[Applause]
Some of the fans thought I was Tom Cruise in disguise. You have to take control of every situation. You have to make friends. When you make friends with people as opposed to creating a problem, they become part of your solution.
Apparently, it's not unheard of for celebrities to go undercover at big events. And even Tom Cruise himself has been known to disguise himself in public, like the time he went undercover as a delivery man while preparing for his role in Collateral. So I rolled with my new identity and made friends with as many people as possible.
Speculating if I was Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise. But the real Tom was still missing and time was running out. With enough of the event staff confused, I pivoted and made a break for the massive yellow plane because this area was being live broadcasted to the entire venue on a jumbotron. So, if I pulled off my stunt there, maybe there was a chance Tom would still see it.
And here we are. The big moment. Oh, yeah. I could be here. You are right. Yeah. And all that's left is to decide on a performance big enough to catch the attention of Tom. Do we want to try something a little bit more extreme? Let's do it. All right.
Richard and I tried everything from rushing the red carpet with a wheelchair. We better hurry because he may not last long. To having a sudden coughing fit. Go for it. Just go for it. We're waiting to see what happens. You got to go. Whoa. To doing a fully choreographed dance and even whatever this is. Wa. Go get a set. I can't leave. Come here. Let's cut it there. Well, we said extreme.
With all eyes on me, it was finally time to Mission: Impossible the Mission: Impossible for me.
[Music]
What?
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
Thank you. Oh my God, it works. We knew that was very fast for sure, but obviously we didn't know and he didn't give it away. Wait, you thought I was—I thought you were Tom Cruise. I kept following you. I'm like, if anything's going to happen, I want to be there. I don't know if you know, the worldwide live stream just saw that.
Best of all, it caught the attention of my prime target. Okay, now we are running down here because we might get to meet Tom. My God, I look like Les Grossman to meet Tom.
Hello, Tom. It's such a privilege to meet you. Nice to meet you. It was finally time to ask him one of the most important questions in the history of this channel.
A personal dream of mine, and I'm sure many people here, would be to one day do a stunt with you. So, I'm curious, what type of dedication does it take to pull off a one-on-one Tom Cruise stunt?
You just have to train. You have to know what you're doing. I crawl before I walk. I want to walk before I jog. Jog before I sprint. And definitely learn how to sprint before you go sprinting off the mountain with a parachute behind you and know how to use that parachute. So, I build things up methodically and very thorough in how I approach everything in my life.
Incredible. Tom, thank you so much for a few minutes of your time. Real privilege to—privilege. You're doing well. Can we get a picture together? Congratulations.
Thank you, sir. Thank you so much. Very inspired by you. Thank you, sir. Good luck. You go. Be competent. Don't be careful. Be careful. Yes, sir. Oh my God. What was the advice? Be competent, not careful.
I have to train and know what I'm doing. I need to crawl before I walk, walk before I jog, jog before I sprint. I need to build things methodically, be thorough in my approach to everything I do. Competent, not careful.
[Music]
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