New Delhi:
He's dangled impossibly for the film before, and for the fourth edition of Mission Impossible, there was Tom Cruise this weekend, hanging heart-stoppingly down the side of the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, to do what appears to be running across the outer surface of the skyscraper. It's a chase.
A week before the stunt was shot, Cruise was all adrenalin explaining how doing his own stunts is a big thrill. The world waited for what he would do next. Watch, he does not disappoint. At 48, Tom Cruise is still Top Gun. Catch him here, but he is not entirely today's catch.
Only yesterday, before I saw Cruise's cool stunt, I was gaping at another video. A five-minute montage of some...well...awesome acts, to borrow from the video. No Cruise-like harnesses or safety lines for most part here and some acts are clearly fakes, but all in all, a must watch. If only to see how far human ability can stretch.
Curiously, the video, with a tagline that reads, "A compilation of awesome people doing incredible things," has notched up 192 dislikes. I watched it several times just to comprehend why. Couldn't. There are of course 24,000-odd likes and 4.7 million views in the seven days since it was posted to balance things.
My personal favourite on the video is not a dive or tumble. In fact, it does not involve calisthenics or risk at all, but is the smoothest bit of parking that I ever saw. Catch the little girl park her bicycle at 3.47.
The man walking on water (0.45) has many people crying "fake." Others urge the naysayers to shed the disbelief. A tad difficult to do that. The Roger Federer stunt at 1.11 seems staged if not fake. See if you can you spot some more? I, honestly, couldn't tell.
Write in here.The People Are Awesome video above is a follow up to one from last year called the 100 greatest hits of YouTube in 4 minutes, which is as many minutes of fun and laughter. Includes a George W Bush moment. And a glimpse of Barack Obama. But the clear winner for me is the infant biting a finger at 1.52. Priceless.
Both videos are set to -- and have been posted to showcase -- the songs of British new rave band Hadouken. The People are Awesome video plays to Mecha Love, and it begs listening again. The 100 greatest... video is set to M.A.D.
We are crawling the Web for more great videos, tweets pictures, blogs and people that just must be showcased. If you spot some that make you stop and stare,
send them in here. We'll be happy to credit it to your spidery efforts on the WWW.