Back in April, I was lucky enough to attend CinemaCon in Las Vegas, where I saw the world premiere of a little movie called Top Gun: Maverick, which has since gone on to make a few bucks. While Tom Cruise wasn’t there in person to promote the film, he did send along a greeting to the audience of distributors that left everyone in the room suitably impressed. Basically, Cruise was sitting on the wing of a biplane, wearing nothing but a safety rig, while speaking into a headset about the importance of movie theaters. Then, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 director Christopher McQuarrie flies up next to him in another plane, calling action, while the plane Cruise is on goes into a dive with the actor hanging onto the wing for dear life. It was pretty breathtaking stuff, and now the clip itself has leaked online somehow – you can see it embedded below.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 hits theatres on July 14th and seems like a safe bet to perhaps become the biggest grossing movie of the franchise so far. Why is that? My theory is that Top Gun: Maverick has done a great job reintroducing the old-school thrills of a Tom Cruise movie back to the public, leaving them with a hunger for more. It’s the kind of movie that reignites an audience’s passion for a star such as Cruise, and they’ll likely be eager for the sort of big-screen experience his films provide. The Mission: Impossible movies have always been big, but folks – they’re about to get a lot bigger.
If you still haven’t seen Top Gun: Maverick, I urge you to catch it in theatres while it’s still open. It plays tremendously well on the big screen, as it is genuinely the movie event of the year.
What’s your favourite Tom Cruise/Mission: Impossible stunt? Let us know in the comments.