Tom Cruise has dangled from planes, scaled skyscrapers, and jumped motorcycles off cliffs. On Thursday’s Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon gave him a slightly different assignment: become the claw.
Cruise faced Fallon in the latest edition of the “Claw Machine Challenge,” the show’s human-sized recreation of the arcade game, with both men strapped into harnesses and lowered over a giant pit of prizes.
“This is totally ridiculous. I can’t wait,” Cruise said after Fallon explained the rules.
The prizes were Cruise-themed, including plush versions of characters from Risky Business, Top Gun, and Mission: Impossible, along with fighter jets, motorcycles, and Maggie the cat from his upcoming film Digger.
Fallon went first, collecting five points during his 30-second turn. Cruise followed—and quickly had Fallon regretting inviting one of Hollywood’s most famously competitive stunt performers into a game involving a harness.
There was one more wrinkle: hidden somewhere inside the pit was a golden shovel, a nod to Digger, that would automatically win the game for whoever found it.
For the final round, Fallon and Cruise were lowered into the machine at the same time. Watch how it played out at the top of this post.
The stunt marked the third time Fallon has broken out the oversized claw machine on The Tonight Show.
The game debuted in July 2024 with Hugh Jackman during a visit promoting Deadpool & Wolverine, with both Jackman and Fallon wearing Wolverine-style claws as they were lowered into the machine. (Ryan Reynolds eventually crashed that segment.) Fallon brought it back in March 2025 for a Minecraft-themed edition with Jack Black and Jason Momoa.
