Failure separates Jackass from Tom Cruise, says Johnny Knoxville

The biggest difference between Jackass and Mission: Impossible: “Our stunts are designed to fail”

By Matt Schimkowitz  |  July 6, 2023 | 7:28pm
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Failure separates Jackass from Tom Cruise, says Johnny Knoxville
Johnny Knoxville Photo: Phillip Faraone (GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images)

With another Mission: Impossible on the way to sate audience appetites for Tom Cruise’s suicidal vacation videos, we must show proper respect to another crew that does their own stunts: the perpetually injured Jackass team. We’re not saying driving a motorcycle off a mountain is easy, but has Tom Cruise ever boxed Butterbean? Okay. We know Cruise and Knoxville don’t do the same thing, but we needed to be sure they weren’t doing the same thing, so we went straight to the source: Johnny Knoxville.

Speaking to the A.V. Club on the differences between Mission: Impossible and Jackass, Knoxville put it simply: “Our stunts are designed to fail.” We also would’ve accepted there’s a lot less poop in the Mission: Impossible movies, but Knoxville makes a great point. “I think his [stunts] have to succeed.”

That’s fair, but we can imagine Ethan Hunt using the high-five prank to distract or thwart his enemies. For example, that giant hand could’ve been, um, handy in Ghost Protocol when Hunt breaks into the Kremlin.

But even with the tactility of the Mission: Impossible movies, the stunts are embellished by CGI effects that can make Tom Cruise look like he’s skydiving into a thunderstorm. Jackass doesn’t have that kind of budget. What happens in Jackass is 100% real and subject to the laws of physics. “Gravity, really,” is the difference, says Knoxville. “Gravity and Newton’s Third Law of motion really come into it.”

Of course, Knoxville does hand it to Mr. Cruise and his ridiculous mission to die on screen. “To his credit, he does more stunts than any other Hollywood actor,” Knoxville said. “He’s really trying and going for it, so more power to him. It’s just we do different things.”

Now we know. However, if Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part Two features a scene where Cruise gets clobbered by a bull, we’ll be sure to give the credit to Knoxville.

Johnny Knoxville’s The Prank Panel airs Sundays on ABC 8/7c.

 
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