Tom Cruise now has a world record for most burning parachute jumps by an individual.

Guinness World Records announced on Thursday that Cruise had pulled off the feat 16 times while filming Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.

"Tom doesn't just play action heroes - he is an action hero!" said Craig Glenday, the organisation's editor-in-chief.

"A large part of his success can be chalked up to his absolute focus on authenticity and pushing the boundaries of what a leading man can do. It's an honour to be able to recognise his utter fearlessness with this new Guinness World Records title."

In the eighth instalment of the action-packed franchise, Cruise's character Ethan Hunt has a showdown with nemesis Gabriel, played by Esai Morales, in the skies.

The sequence ends with Hunt falling from one of the planes as it's on fire. He deploys a parachute only to have it burst into flames and disintegrate.

Cruise, a licensed skydiver, "leapt out of a helicopter 16 times while strapped to a parachute pre-soaked in fuel and lit ablaze, before cutting away the charred remnants of the first chute and safely deploying a backup," according to the Guinness World Records website.

"No other actor or stuntman has come close to that amount of death-defying drops."