It is no understatement to say that, since the Covid lockdowns, Tom Cruise has done more than any other artist to get people back into cinemas. From his Oscar-nominated sequel “Top Gun: Maverick”, to the (supposedly) penultimate movie of his long-running action series “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”, Cruise has brought long-term fans and newcomers alike into theatres to experience the adrenaline rush of watching his characters pull nine G’s in a military jet or ride a motorcycle off the precipice of a cliff. Finally, last week saw the release of – to a record box office opening for the franchise – “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning”: a feature which Cruise himself called “the culmination” of all the preceding films.
It would be easy to wave away the film as “just another action movie” without giving it any more thought. It is true, of course, that the film is not intended as some profound and stirring drama; it was most certainly made for the primary purpose of entertaining audiences with its showstopping action sequences. However, this is in fact exactly where the film’s significance lies.
The Covid lockdowns appeared like a death sentence for the cinema industry. According to the European Audiovisual Observatory, cinema admissions in Europe dropped staggeringly, from 1119 million in 2017, to 339 million in 2020. With the rise in popularity of streaming platforms coinciding, people no longer found it necessary to go back to theatres. After all, what was the reason?
Tom Cruise gave audiences a reason. In 2022, to critical and audience acclaim, Paramount Pictures released “Top Gun: Maverick”, the long-awaited sequel to Cruise’s career-making 1986 classic “Top Gun”. The movie opened to over $126 million on its first weekend, and has since grossed a total of over $1.4 billion. The film was lauded across the world as one of Cruise’s best, and was nominated for the academy award for “Best Picture”. Cruise realised that it would take something truly incredible to get audience back into cinemas after 2020, so he gave it to them.
“Top Gun: Maverick” was a worldwide phenomenon, and an investment well worth the studio’s money. Nevertheless, the greater influence of the movie was its effect on the cinema industry. People came flocking back to the theatres to see Cruise cruising through canyons and dogfighting enemy planes in a fashion too spectacular to watch on the couch. Cruise managed, almost completely by virtue of this film alone, to save cinemas worldwide from what might otherwise have been a death spiral.
Likewise, in his last two “Mission: Impossible” films, he delivered the kind of spectacle that would leave audiences thirsting for more. It was largely due to these jaw-dropping shows that the cinema industry began to find its feet again. In the age of streaming, where there are literally thousands of movies at people’s fingertips for €12 a month, it requires something truly phenomenal to bring people to the cinema. “Dead Reckoning” saw Cruise performing some of his most daring stunts yet, including a high-octane car chase through the streets of Rome, a race to the back of the Orient Express as it slowly tumbled over the edge of a blown-up bridge, and a parachute dive off a motorcycle driven straight off the edge of a sheer cliff. In other words, Cruise was giving audiences another reason to return to cinemas. Finally, Cruise (seemingly) completed the franchise in a characteristically impossible manner with the recently released “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning”, in which the 62-year-old navigated his way through the torpedo room of a sunken submarine as it rolled down an ocean cliff and clambered into a vintage biplane while flying, balancing himself on top of another one. Cruise is, in essence, a man dedicated to excellence. He can recognise what audiences want, and is willing to push himself to his absolute limits to give it to them.
The influence this attitude has had on Hollywood is already visible. In a much talked about acceptance speech for a Screen Actor’s Guild Award a few months ago, 29-year-old Timothée Chalamet told the audience that he aspired to be “one of the greats”. Although the acceptance was for a different performance, Chalamet had recently turned in a terrific performance as the revolutionary leader Paul Atreides in the sci-fi epic “Dune: Part Two” – another cinematic event which was widely credited with reviving the cinema industry. This “pursuit of greatness”, as the actor put it, is the same pursuit that motivates Tom Cruise.
Ultimately, “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” is significant not only for its incredible action, but also for its symbolic nature. The film is in a way the climax of all the work that Cruise has done, particularly in recent years, where he has helped to resurrect the dying cinema industry and saved countless jobs both behind the camera and in movie theatres around the world. Not only this, but the film displays Cruise’s true determination to be great, even if it comes at the risk of hanging onto the extremities of an antique aircraft as it loops in the air.
Many of those who have seen the film in a cinema will be aware that Cruise took the time to record a message addressed to them, in which he said that the cast and crew had “all worked very, very hard to bring you the most authentic cinema experience that we could”, and thanked them for coming out “to watch the biggest mission yet on the big screen – the way it was meant to be seen”. He ended by asking everyone to “enjoy the show, because we made it for you”.
This encapsulated the purpose of the film. The movie was not made to be a cinematic masterpiece of the calibre to rival “The Godfather”. It was made to bring the best and most enjoyable experience to the audience; and the only way fully to participate in this experience is to see the film in the cinema. In saying this, Tom Cruise recognises that, ultimately, art is not selfish, but selfless, serving of the viewer. Such an exemplary attitude should be admired and imitated by all artists.
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Patrick Vincent is a Gript Contributing Writer, based in Dublin