It’s been a long time, Tom Cruise. As CinemaCon heads into its final day, attendees were treated to a visit from one of global exhibition’s most beloved stars. Post Covid, it’s the first time that Cruise has stepped on stage at Caesars Palace at the Colosseum. Even during the year when Top Gun: Maverick was shown off to exhibs, he wasn’t in attendance because he was shooting Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning and Final Reckoning. In those years, Cruise has sent video messages to CinemaCon attendees. That said, Cruise has made surprise appearances at CineEurope in Barcelona post-pandemic.
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Before showing off a piece of footage, Cruise asked the room to take a moment and remember his dear friend and Top Gun 2 Ice Man — Val Kilmer, who died two days ago.
The Paramount/Skydance actioner directed by Christopher McQuarrie is billed as the epic finale to a saga that first began nearly two decades ago. It features Cruise as Ethan Hunt following the events of 2023’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning which ended on a cliffhanger with the world threatened by a rogue and sentient AI known as The Entity. It grossed over $570M worldwide.
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Cruise spent time on stage extoling The Ususal Suspects Oscar scribe winner McQuarrie who came in to doctor on Brad Bird’s installment of Mission: Impossible. “I didn’t tell them that he was there to write the script.” McQuarrie was quick on his feet and fleshed out the blue/red glove scene in Ghost Protocol. “He’s the hero of that film and put Skydance on the map,” said Cruise.
“Because of Christopher McQuarrie we were able to deliver Top Gun: Maverick and two Mission: Impossibles during shutdowns from the pandemic and two strikes,” he praised, “You’re a modern day Thalberg and asset to every studio that you serve.”
“Ladies and gentleman, let me introduce you to Christopher McQuarrie…” said Cruise before the helmer took the stage to receive the Director of the Year Award from CinemaCon.
At a time when no one would hire McQuarrie, he met with Cruise, and “Tom saw the potential for the director who is standing here holding this award.”
“Tom, I’m here because of your vision and trust and to place you in others’ harm way,” McQuarrie half-quipped. He extolled the star for pushing and supporting “beyond anything I was capable of doing.”
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Cruise also gave a shout-out while he was on stage to Brad Pitt and Joe Kosinski’s F1 (during Interview with the Vampire, Cruise said he and Pitt would “go drive go-karts” after shooting).
Cruise teed up this trailer like it’s the end — he thanked his former M:I producer Paula Wagner, former Paramount Pictures boss Sherry Lansing who taught him everything about the biz and all the Mission filmmakers including Brian De Palma, Brad Bird, J.J. Abrams and John Woo.
How jaw-dropping is this trailer? Where do we start? How about Henry Czerny’s sinister Kittridge: “If we want to bring the world back to the brink, we have to deal with him,” he says of Cruise’s Ethan Hunt. “Everything you were, everything you’re doing has come to this.” Remember the AI from Dead Reckoning, where it looks like Hunt plugs into it with a big gasmask-like thing on. Cruise’s stunts include crawling around a flying biplane, jumping off an aircraft carrier into the ocean (“you gave him an aircraft carrier?” remarks one official to Kittridge in the trailer). There’s also nuclear missiles launching.
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The Final Reckoning also stars Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Mariela Garriga, Holt McCallany, Janet McTeer, Nick Offerman, Hannah Waddingham, Tramell Tillman, Shea Whigham, Greg Tarzan Davis, Charles Parnell, Mark Gatiss, Rolf Saxon, Lucy Tulugarjuk, Katy O’Brian, Stephen Oyoung and Angela Bassett.
The film is widely expected to be part of the Cannes lineup that’s due to be announced next week (Top Gun: Maverick riveted the Croisette back in 2022 replete with fighter jets buzzing the Palais).
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Paramount begins overseas rollout on May 21 with the domestic release set for May 23.
McQuarrie produces alongside Cruise. David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger and Chris Brock are executive producers.
