As the Olympic flame was extinguished to signal the Paris 2024 Games officially closed, a surprising famous face stole the show at the epic closing ceremony. 

In true Olympics style, as the French capital wrapped up their Games, they passed the torch to the 2028 host city Los Angeles, who were having their own celebratory concert. 

To help in the handover, acting legend Tom Cruise, who is famous for doing many of his own stunts, came in with a skydiving stunt reminiscent of his Mission Impossible films that saw him swing from atop Stade de France before touching down on the stadium’s field.

The 62-year-old actor greeted athletes as he walked toward the stage to the final guitar shreds of the American national anthem, as the crowd erupted in cheers. 

He received the Olympic flag from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and gymnast Simone Biles, then strapped it safely to the back of a motorcycle and rode off into the sunset, which switched into a pre-recorded video that tracked his journey to Hollywood.

In the video, Cruise sped down the streets of Paris on the motorcycle, passing landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, and cruised onto a waiting airplane.

“I’m on my way,” he said, as he put on skydiving gear, as he then leapt from the plane and headed to the iconic Hollywood sign, where he turned the “O”s into Olympic rings before passing the flag off to Olympic cyclist Kate Courtney.

The Olympics wrapped up with USA winning over overall medal tally with an impressive 126 medals, followed closely by China in second place and Japan in third place. 

Australia wasn’t far behind in fourth place, as Nine commentary applauded the Aussie athletes for their most successful games ever.

“The theme of the Closing Ceremony tonight: record,” Eddie Maguire said in commentary for Nine.

“It was a record performance by our Australian athletes. Paris provided record crowds, record ratings around the world on all platforms of media.”

“Paris, merci beaucoup, au revoir. See you in four years when the City of Angels welcomes the world to the city of dreams for LA 2028.”

Image credits: Nine NetworkÂ