Florence Pugh Channels Her Inner Tom Cruise With a Daring Stunt in Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts

Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts, is ready to unleash chaos on 1st May to much audience anticipation and glowing early reviews. Featuring a band of disillusioned misfits and anti-heros, the reluctant gang has been thrown together to face the menacing entity – The Void, in the absence of the Avengers. These castoffs have already set the internet ablaze with fan-anticipation, even before their film has hit the theatres.

Previously, the fact that Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova) performed her own death-defying stunt, leaping off the 2,272 foot Meredeka 118 (second tallest building in the world) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia not only made its way through the internet, but also landed her a place in the Guinness Book Of World Records. Recently, Pugh candidly fawned over having her own ‘Tom Cruise’ moment in the upcoming Marvel Studios film. 

“So what I will say is that it wasn’t my idea to go up there. That was already in the script, and it was already such an impressive way to start a script by having someone fall off a building. I was just really, really amazed that they had written that version of an opening. And then, when it got taken out, that was when I really got sassy,” revealed Pugh.

“Anything that Tom Cruise does, stunt-wise and acting-wise, is just totally impressive. I mean, I’d be mad if I didn’t want to pretend that I was him for two seconds.” Talking about her crazy stunt sequence where she almost pretended to be Tom Cruise, Pugh cheekily added, “I don’t think I’m going to be flying any machines or riding any motorbikes, but this was a perfect amount of stunt for me. So, it certainly was fun to pretend to be Tom Cruise for a few seconds.”

With Tom setting a new bar with his every stunt, fans are highly looking forward to the jaw dropping action he will bring to the table in Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning. However, Florence’s self-performed stunt was no short of mind boggling  and supported by the efforts of her stunt double (Sarah Irwin) and stunt coordinator (Heidi Moneymaker), the fiery trio managed to perform the daunting leap. 

Thunderbolts* follows a crew of an irreverent team-up featuring depressed assassin Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) alongside the MCU’s least anticipated band of misfits. The film also returns to the screen the Marvel Cinematic Universe characters Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian (David Harbour), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), in addition to some exciting new faces. Jake Schreier directed Thunderbolts* with Kevin Feige producing it. Louis D’Esposito, Brian Chapek, Jason Tamez and Scarlett Johansson served as executive producers.

Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts* opens in Indian theatres a day early on May 1, 2025 in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu