The 2024 Olympics Closing Ceremony Already Has Us Looking Forward to 2028

The 2024 Olympics Closing Ceremony bid adieu to the Paris Summer Games in epic fashion with quite the handoff to the 2028 host city, Los Angeles.

The handoff officially started with the Olympic flag being passed to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who then passed it to GOAT gymnast Simone Biles.

All due respect to Mayor Bass and Biles, if we're being really honest, it actually started with 62-year-old (!) Tom Cruise jumping from the top of Stade de France. Yeah, he had a harness, but one of the biggest movie stars in the world (and we assume a rather large safety crew) pulled off this over-the-top stunt on live television.

Friggin' Maverick then walked through the crowd of athletes, retrieved the Olympic flag, put it on the back of a motorcycle, and then rode off back through the crowd of athletes. (Real talk: Who else was worried some of the athletes weren't going to get out of the way in time, causing a very unfortunate moment?)

This then cuts to a pre-recorded vignette of Cole Trickle riding through Paris on his motorcycle and eventually to a waiting airplane, which takes him to 2028 host city, Los Angeles. Ethan Hunt then, of course, jumps from a plane, lands on the ground and passes off the Olympic flag. Naturally, in the process, Jerry Maguire managed to make some alterations to the iconic Hollywood sign by adding three O's above the two O's in "Hollywood" to make them look like the Olympic Rings. Honestly, it was a nice touch. Bravo, Jack Reacher! Even in the face of all of the Scientology stuff, you manage to still be cool.

Mind you, the above vignette was beautifully soundtracked by an edited/looped version of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "By the Way." This song continued to soundtrack the Olympic Flag making its way through Los Angeles until it made its way to the beach, where the Chili Peppers performed "Can't Stop."

Billie Eilish and Finneas then performed "Birds of a Feather" from a lifeguard lookout next to the Chili Peppers' stage following their performance.

Then, Olympic mascot Snoop Dogg appeared and performed "Drop It Like It's Hot." After that, Dr. Dre made a surprise appearance, and he and Snoop performed "The Next Episode."

Paris seemingly set a new standard for the Olympics, especially with the presentation of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. Los Angeles has just under four years before the next Olympic Games. Here's hoping they bring it, because the Paris Games truly were something else.

Summer Olympics 2024 is officially in full swing in Paris following an Opening Ceremony for the ages.

Seriously, this Opening Ceremony had something for everyone, and get ready for us to do our best Stefon:

-Can-Can dancers.
-Lady Gaga.
-A surprising sub-plot in the overall ceremony's narrative that involved a ménage à trois.
-References to the beheading of Marie Antionette, which led into a performance from French metal band Gojira.

-A buttload of rain.
-Priceless artwork from the Louvre coming to life.
-A silver horse galloping across the Seine in majestic glory.

-A catwalk from out of nowhere highlighting France's club scene and the country's influence on fashion.
-A brief performance from Les Misérables.

And then, as if things couldn't get any more over-the-top, Celine Dion delivers a stunning performance of Edith Piaf's "Hymne A L'Amour" from inside of the Eifle Tower. The legendary singer has been battling stiff-person syndrome, which is a condition that impacts the central nervous system. This condition has affected Dion's ability to sing. She revealed her diagnosis in December 2022, stopped performing and made very few public appearances while she sought treatment to return to performing.

Even once the Olympic cauldron is extinguished, people will still be talking about this triumphant moment.

Now that we've gone through all of our tissues from happy-crying about Celine, it's time to get down to business and talk about the athletes.

This 2024 Opening Ceremony was very unique for the above reasons, but also because it saw the Parade of Nations actually make their way down the Seine in boats of all sizes. Some small countries had a small boat to themselves. Oftentimes, there were multiple countries sharing a boat, while countries with large delegations had massive boats just for their athletes.

Regardless of boat size, pretty much every athlete got drenched by the pouring rain throughout the entire Opening Ceremony. However, the rain didn't seem to dampen the moods of the athletes. In fact, Kelly Clarkson commented, "Everyone is killing that wet look. Just sayin’!"

Now, because of the rain, this led to many of the athletes to wear clear plastic rain ponchos over their Opening Ceremony outfits, which had to be a bit of a bummer. (It certainly got in the way of checking out all of the various team outfits.) However, this also made us take a closer look at the fashion choices of each nation, and it's led to our very serious (wink-wink) assessment of the best and worst fashion choices from the Summer Olympics 2024 Opening Ceremony. Enjoy!