Tom Cruise and Will Smith posing on top of Burj Khalifa has people pointing out key difference

The two stars climbed the world’s tallest building, 10 years apart

Have you ever looked up at a 829.8-meter-high building and thought, ‘I want to sit outside, at the top of that tower’?

It’s never something that’s crossed my mind, but I know there are some adrenaline junkies who dream of that kind of rush, and apparently Tom Cruise and Will Smith are among them.

The two stars have both separately taken the time to venture to the very top of the tallest building in the world, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, and settled themselves outside for a photo.

I could probably have AI whip up a picture of me doing the exact same thing in a matter of seconds, with much less risk, but I guess the prospect of losing your balance is half the fun?

That is one tall building (Getty Stock Photo)

However, after Smith and Cruise’s photos made their way online, viewers couldn’t help but notice some key differences when looking at the two stars.

Cruise was first to climb the staggeringly tall tower in 2011, when he took on the challenge for a stunt in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

In his photo, the star is posing as if he’s sat on a kitchen stool with a cold beer right next to him – not one wrong move away from falling thousands and thousands of feet to his death.

The photo shows him wearing jeans and a t-shirt, no shoes or socks, and he’s sporting a casual grin on his face as he leans back, with one arm leaning casually on his leg. He doesn’t even appear to be wearing a harness in the snap – though fact-check websites have suggested that he almost certainly is.

Fast-forward 10 years, and it’s a very different story for Smith, whose smile for his photo looks more like a grimace.

Will Smith on top of the Burj Khalifa. (YouTube)

The Men in Black star climbed the tower in 2021 as part of a video on fitness and weight loss, but he clearly wasn’t quite as comfortable as Cruise when he made it to the top.

Smith can be seen wrapped in a harness, leaning back among the safety of some of the tower’s structural features at the top.

Social media users haven’t been able to resist pointing out the differences between the images, with one writing: “One is sitting in bare feet and a t-shirt looking as relaxed as possible and the other is draped in harnesses, clinging on for dear life, looking like he’s making peace with God.”

A second posted: “I love how Will is all strapped up and hanging on for dear life, but Tom is not only just sitting there, nary a rope in sight, but he’s LEANING.”