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One of the industry’s biggest stars is also its most enthusiastic evangelist. He is hoping it pays off for the eighth “Mission: Impossible” film.
May 23, 2025Updated 8:26 a.m. ET
Tom Cruise’s characters are defined by their enthusiasms. Jerry Maguire boosts his clients. Daniel Kaffee wants the truth, whether or not he can handle it. Maverick feels a need — a need for speed.
In real life, Cruise, 62, has enthusiastically cast himself as the great champion of cinema. You can almost hear the deep-voice narration over the trailer: In a time when movies are endangered after a pandemic and the streaming age, one man stands up for old-fashioned filmmaking — with stark stories and real stunts intended for the Cineplex.
In 2020, during the first Covid summer, Cruise posted video to social media of going to Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” (“Big Movie. Big Screen. Loved it”). An introduction ran before screenings of “Top Gun: Maverick” in the spring of 2022 in which Cruise thanked audiences for “seeing it on the big screen.” As Cruise put it in another short video: “I love my popcorn. Movies. Popcorn.”
As he invariably does in his movies, Cruise has succeeded. “You saved Hollywood’s ass!” Steven Spielberg told him at a pre-Oscars lunch after “Top Gun: Maverick” grossed $1.5 billion, Variety reported. The turnout proved people would still go to the movies en masse.
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As his latest blockbuster, “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” hits theaters Friday, it is clear that Cruise’s persona has stuck. His press tour has featured his own paeans to moviemaking and fans’ appreciation for his commitment to doing his own stunts and even how he eats popcorn.
