Original subtitles

In the 1980s, Tom Cruise emerged

fresh-faced as the brightest star in Hollywood.

Everything was there, the smile, the charm,

the physicality.

There is an intensity, a drive,

and that drive and that determination

manifested itself on screen.

More often than not,

you went to see a Tom Cruise movie,

it would be a good movie.

Yet, after a staggering run

of box office hits, at the height of his success,

he suffered an unexpected fall from grace.

In 2005, 2006,

he basically has kind of a public image meltdown.

In terms of whether anyone could have foreseen

that Tom Cruise would manage to rebuild his career,

I think maybe the only person who potentially saw it

was Tom Cruise himself.

With his career in jeopardy,

he refined his onscreen persona

and risked life and limb to get back to the top.

I think there is an element of him wanting to

excel at everything he does, being the consummate,

complete entertainer, wanting to do it all.

That's what makes him so interesting as an action star.

The fact that he's doing something

that's just outrageously dangerous becomes

part of the appeal of the films.

There's another layer of excitement to it,

and there's a certain morbid fascination

with the fact that he keeps doing this

and how far is he going to take it?

This film looks at Tom Cruise's

unlikely and remarkable career revival,

one that has seen him regain his crown

at the pinnacle of the film industry.

People look at Cruise and see him as

a movie star in the classic mold.

There's not a lot of people out there who

Hollywood is still building movies

around their persona.

He's Tom Cruise.

He's not just a big star still.

He's the biggest star,

and I don't know if anybody's had

that long of a stretch where they were

the biggest star in the world when they were 25

and they were the biggest star in the world

when they were 60.

May, 2022.

Having been delayed for nearly two years,

"Top Gun: Maverick" is finally released

into cinemas worldwide.

And all eyes are on its star and producer, Tom Cruise,

who was launched into Hollywood's top tier

by the original film, back in the 1980s.

This sequel brings his remarkable journey full circle,

and it quickly becomes a phenomenon.

Audiences starved of entertainment

and spectacle by the COVID pandemic

now flood back into theaters,

and within a month, the film becomes

the highest grossing release of Cruise's entire career.

Yet, his return to the role of Pete "Maverick" Mitchell,

after a 35-year break, was no surefire success.

If I told you three years ago

that "Top Gun Two" would not only be

one of the biggest money makers

of all time, but that it would be nominated

for Best Picture at the Oscars,

you'd think I was crazy.

I don't think Maverick's success was guaranteed

and I don't think that everyone thought it was going

to be this giant hit.

You have to go back to "Titanic" to see a movie

that was this big of a hit

and also endured as long as it did,

that stayed in theaters,

that was in the top five consistently for months on end.

People really, really liked this thing.

I think it hit the right buttons for a lot of people.

There's sort of a perfect storm

surrounding "Top Gun: Maverick".

By now, Top Gun had been seen

by generations of movie lovers

and had become just more and more popular,

and there had been talk of a sequel for years.

And again, I think Tom Cruise is very smart.

This was the perfect time for that.

People were celebrating going back to theaters.

They were celebrating big, giant, well-made action movies,

and there's Tom Cruise right at the center of it.

And perhaps more surprising

than "Top Gun: Maverick"'s triumph

at the global box office

was the fact that, only 15 years beforehand,

Tom Cruise's future as a headline star

had looked in doubt.

Los Angeles, 2005.

Hitting the red carpet with new romantic partner,

Katie Holmes, by his side,

Cruise is in town to promote his latest film,

Steven Spielberg's adaptation of "War of the Worlds."

He is riding high at the top of Hollywood's A-list,

but this is simply the calm before the storm.

He's been one of the biggest stars

in the planet between 1992 and 2005, 2006.

He has an incredible run,

where almost every movie he does

makes around a hundred million or more, at least,

back when that was actually a lot of money.

So he's incredibly consistent, box office-wise.

Having established his career

with a string of dramatic roles,

in the new millennium, he's reinventing his star persona

and transforming from a heartthrob

to an action hero.

But while the promotional tour is in full swing,

a series of PR blunders risk permanently damaging

his previously impeccable public image.

He becomes action over anything else.

He's going full tilt at this point, really, isn't he?

But then, he also kind of does that off-screen too,

unfortunately, which culminates

in the terrible year of 2005.

He had the incident

where he's on "The Oprah Winfrey Show"

and he's jumping on the couch.

You know Katie once told "Seventeen" magazine-

Yes!

Which became one of the first viral moments,

you know, early kind of YouTube,

and people just having so much fun making fun of that.

But then, it was all the stuff where

where he started talking really for the first time

about his beliefs.

Also kind of doing it in quite an aggressive way

and attacking Brooke Shields for using antidepressants

to deal with her postnatal depression and all of that.

For the first time, kind of the public view of him soured.

He was a figure of ridicule to a certain extent.

He had a huge female fan base.

What happens after 2005, 2006 is

female audiences start to turn on him.

And right around this time,

he basically loses his production deal

with his studio, Paramount.

This was a serious career crisis.

All of a sudden, Tom Cruise, who had had nothing

but really positive PR

for the first, what, 20 years of his career,

was becoming a punchline. That's a problem.

The actor's fall from grace

was as unexpected as it was rapid.

Hollywood's most bankable star had tarnished his reputation,

and many doubted that he would ever find his way back

to the top again.

And his remarkable career revival

would be an uphill battle,

compared to his initial journey to the peak

of the movie industry in the 1980s,

which had seemed so swift and steady.

Tom Cruise was 18 years old when he headed

for the bright lights of New York City,

determined to become an actor.

The teenager from Syracuse,

born Thomas Cruise Mapother,

quickly signed with an agent and, within two years,

landed his first feature film roles.

And although he received high billing

on romantic drama "Endless Love"

and comedy "Losin' It",

it was his work on two ensemble pictures,

"Taps" and "The Outsiders",

that brought him to wider attention.

I think it was pretty clear early on

that he had something, maybe this intangible quality

that's hard to define,

but I think there's a kind of angry energy

to some of his work, that's really key to his appeal.

"Taps", he was part of a group,

and his character was quite a dark character.

He was an aggressive character,

and it is interesting, from those early days,

early Cruise, a lot of people thought

he was kind of like-- he'd be a bad guy,

he'd be the psycho in things.

Shawn!

It's beautiful, man. Beautiful.

But then, that kind of intense psycho energy

got channeled towards the light, towards the good side.

Well, I think he was pretty relentless in his ambition,

his desire, to sort of get ahead.

It's interesting to see Cruise in Coppola's "The Outsiders",

because he's not the Cruise that we know.

But there is a scene, prior to a fight scene,

where he suddenly does this sort of back flip off a car.

Apparently, he improvised it, reminding the director,

the audience, everybody else,

"I may be just one of the characters in the background.

I'm not the lead, I'm not Matt Dillon,

but you're going to look at me."

And with this desire to be center stage,

in 1983, he headed to Hollywood.

With producers recognizing his star potential,

he bagged the lead role in college football drama,

"All the Right Moves,"

which brought him his first million dollar paycheck.

Yet, it was the commercial and critical hit satire,

"Risky Business", that propelled him to stardom.

It was Cruise's presence in "Risky Business".

It was his big lead breakthrough role,

and everything was there, the smile,

the charm, the physicality.

♪ Just take those old records off the shelf ♪

It plays on his image of a hunk,

but there's also something kind of ridiculous

and adorable about him.

That iconic scene where he's dancing in his tighty-whities,

it's funny.

He looks ridiculous and that's kind of

always been Tom Cruise's appeal.

He's a little too good-looking,

but he's also able to kind of

slightly poke fun at his image.

So how we doing?

Looks like University of Illinois.

In his early films in particular,

Cruise had this brashness, this cockiness,

and I think he just had that mix of

charm and physicality.

Even though he did make actually a real variety of films,

he always seemed quite similar in all of them,

but he was so likable and so good at doing that

that it didn't really matter.

With all the great Hollywood stars of the studio period,

the roles are variations of themselves.

They're not character actors.

They're stars, and Cruise, from the earliest days,

was a star.

And he was just waiting for the right time

for that star power to be unleashed.

Although hopes were high that his next feature,

Ridley Scott's dark fantasy epic "Legend"

would propel him into the A-List,

it was a surprising box office disappointment.

Yet, the director suggested him for the lead role

in his brother Tony Scott's new film.

Produced by the duo behind breakout hits "Flashdance"

and "Beverly Hills Cop", Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer,

"Top Gun" was looking for a charismatic actor

to play Pete "Maverick" Mitchell.

And with John Travolta, Matthew Modine,

and Rob Lowe having already passed on the opportunity,

Cruise stepped in.

His presence would prove vital, both for the film

and his own career, and "Top Gun"

would become the highest-grossing blockbuster

of 1986.

I think that you can really play down

too much the importance of Cruise

to the success of "Top Gun".

Simpson and Bruckheimer, when they were prepping,

they wanted someone for Maverick who would be aggressive,

but in a positive way.

What's your problem, Kazansky?

You're everyone's problem.

That's because every time you go up in the air,

you're unsafe.

I don't like you, because you're dangerous.

That's right, Iceman.

I am dangerous.

If there's one thing Cruise knows how to do,

it's command a movie,

and he certainly commanded "Top Gun".

I feel the need.

The need for speed.

Even at that young age,

where he only had a limited star persona,

the notion of Tom Cruise playing that character,

that way, in a uniquely Tom Cruise way,

was a huge reason of why "Top Gun"

was as big of a hit as it was.

It very much captures the vibe of the MTV 1980s generation,

and in terms of its aerial adventure,

it was on a scale that had never been seen before.

It played as, and was received as,

an earthbound "Star Wars".

Whoo!

Splash four!

It wasn't made for critics.

It was made for the mass audience.

It's entertaining as hell,

but it's also really cheesy and really corny.

But Tom Cruise fit the role perfectly.

"Top Gun" was the beginning of Tom Cruise as a movie star.

And as a movie star,

Cruise chose to tread a very different path

than many of his contemporaries.

Rather than follow "Top Gun" with another action blockbuster,

he instead looked to develop as a dramatic actor,

and he set his sights on working

with the most talented professionals in the business.

Even very early in his career,

he made a point to work with the best directors

he could possibly get.

Even before "Top Gun",

he was working with Ridley Scott in "Legend",

and then, after "Top Gun", he would work with

people like Martin Scorsese in "The Color of Money",

Barry Levinson in "Rain Man",

which was a Best Picture winner

and the biggest grossing movie of 1988,

which is unthinkable in this day and age.

Today, that'd be like a 10-hour streaming miniseries,

and nobody would watch it.

It was Cruise deliberately putting himself

onto projects or putting himself into things

that paired him with, either or both, great actors,

like Paul Newman and Jack Nicholson later

in "A Few Good Men",

and just great directors.

This is a pattern where he would absolutely just think,

"Who will bring the best out of me?

And who can I really, really learn from?"

Despite this ambition,

he was being viewed with skepticism by many observers.

In America, under President Ronald Reagan,

the 1980s was a decade of excess, materialism,

and conservatism.

And as Cruise continued to play variations of the same role,

he was seen to be embodying the yuppie ideal.

The Young Cruise is the quintessential '80s actor,

that very individualistic '80s zeitgeist feeling,

that came in Reagan era,

he embodied on screen definitely.

I think, while a number of Tom Cruise characters

could be described as stereotypically cocky

in an '80s way, I do think one thing

that set him apart from some of his peers

is that his characters were intelligent enough

to know that they were mortal and fallible

and they might not win.

Most of those characters end the film

by being taken down a peg.

If they do start the film as a stereotypical '80s asshole,

they don't end the film that way.

And Cruise's final role of the decade

was a departure from this trend.

He was taken back to a darker time

in the country's recent past,

one which still haunted America in the Reagan era.

Again, working with one of Hollywood's leading directors,

Oliver Stone, in "Born on the Fourth of July",

he played real-life Vietnam veteran

turned campaigner Ron Kovic,

who had been confined to a wheelchair

during the conflict.

With no heavyweight co-stars

from Hollywood's past alongside him,

for the first time,

Cruise carried a dramatic picture by himself.

"Born on the Fourth of July" was very essential,

in terms of, where even some doubters, not all,

began to see him as more than just a matinee idol.

"Born on the Fourth of July" is a huge role for him,

both for his career, for his critical appreciation,

and for the country in a way.

The beautiful thing about "Born on the Fourth of July"

is he's still playing Tom Cruise.

The early scenes of that film, he's running, he's wrestling,

he's a high school star,

he's confident, he's driven,

he knows what he wants to do.

This is like Tom Cruise, the Tom Cruise persona

in a nutshell.

And then, he goes to war and is broken.

Goddamn it.

It's taking that very Tom Cruise image and then,

just shattering it, turning it on its head,

and putting that character through the journey

that Ron Kovic went through, to become protestor of war.

Cruise goes to some very dark places

in that film emotionally,

that we've really never seen him do before.

You tell them all,

tell them all what they did to me,

what they did to this whole block, this whole country.

They're going to call the police this time.

We went to Vietnam to stop communism.

We shot women and children.

You didn't shoot women and children.

What are you saying?

The church blessed the war, communism,

the insidious evil.

They told us to go.

Yes, that's what they told us.

It was surprising to a lot of people.

A lot of people didn't think he had it in him,

including Ron Kovic, who was like,

"Why is this guy going to play me?

What are you talking about?"

What turned Kovic around

was he was waiting to have his first meeting with Cruise,

and he looked out the window, car door opens,

Cruise gets out, gets straight into a wheelchair,

and that impressed Kovic.

And that's so Cruise.

He's known for commitment, his absolute 100% commitment.

And the results were absolutely spectacular.

His wheelchair, our wheelchairs, this steel,

our steel is your Memorial Day on wheels.

We are your Yankee Doodle Dandy come home.

It's an incredible performance.

He got a ton of acclaim for it.

Obviously, he was nominated for a ton of awards.

I think, today, it's aged incredibly well.

It's one of the great films of the 1980s.

Despite an Oscar nomination,

rather than follow the obvious route,

with more highbrow roles,

Cruise re-teamed with director Tony Scott

for action drama "Days of Thunder".

And although the film was dismissed by many

as "Top Gun with cars,"

on set, he began a romantic relationship

with co-star Nicole Kidman.

And when the pair married at the end of 1990,

Cruise was transformed from a movie star into a celebrity.

There's always been this fascination

with Hollywood power couples.

For better or worse, there's this renewed interest,

this combined star power, so Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.

And of course, they kind of looked a little mismatched.

She's Australian, she's taller than him.

So yeah, it's just going to increase both

of their star wattage, when you have two huge stars

who are together.

And although their first film together

as a couple, "Far and Away",

failed to ignite the box office,

Cruise followed this with a string of hits.

Legal thrillers "A Few Good Men" and "The Firm"

further cemented his reputation as a dramatic leading man,

while his performance as Lestat

in "Interview with the Vampire"

gave him the opportunity to show greater range.

A new challenge was on the horizon for Cruise, however,

and it was one that would involve his longtime associate,

Paula Wagner.

Paula Wagner started off as a stage actress and then,

became an agent with CAA, Creative Artists Agency,

one of the biggest agencies in the world,

and became Tom Cruise's agent.

She started working with him

when he was relatively unknown and he just had a presence,

a sort of a charisma, that sort of struck her immediately.

He was always a great actor,

from the time he did a picture called "Taps",

and which was the first film really that he did.

And you could see that he had amazing talent as an actor.

Great potential.

So Paula Wagner, he trusted implicitly.

She was his manager for 12 years,

obviously had guided him

and helped him pick out some great projects.

Now, they form a production company,

and this is the first time

where Tom Cruise gets a lot more freedom.

And in May, 1996, Cruise/Wagner Production's

first feature film

made its star-studded premier in Los Angeles.

"Mission: Impossible" was handpicked by Cruise

as the company's inaugural project,

reviving a classic TV series,

and reworking it for the big screen.

With veteran director Brian De Palma on board

to bring his own unique style to the film,

it was nevertheless a Tom Cruise vehicle,

both as its star and, for the first time in his career,

its very hands-on producer.

And as his first action film, it was a risk.

This is actually the biggest movie

I've ever been involved in, in terms of production.

It's very satisfying.

You come up with an idea, you bring everyone together,

and you start seeing it come to life, and, uh...

that level of creativity was exciting.

"Mission: Impossible" is really

very surprising to people.

Tom Cruise is the producer on the project,

and we've heard a ton by this point

about how Tom Cruise is the engine

behind this production and this whole idea

of reviving the "Mission: Impossible" series.

But Tom Cruise hadn't really done a ton of action movies.

"Top Gun" is an action movie, but it's a fighter jet movie.

"Days of Thunder" is kind of an action movie,

but it's about car racing.

Tom Cruise was not an action star in a typical sense,

and in fact, a lot of people wondered

whether this would work.

I am going to venture that pre-"Mission: Impossible",

of all the major stars in Hollywood,

he was responsible for the lowest body count.

But I think the timing was absolutely right,

in terms of where action cinema was going,

because we were coming out of this period

of the one-man-army, muscle men movies

typified by Schwarzenegger or Chuck Norris

or Sylvester Stallone, of course,

and coming into an era of sort of more...

lithe and wily action heroes,

and it just felt like a very natural evolution.

The first "Mission: Impossible"

is not the best "Mission: Impossible".

It's a good solid big budget action film

but it's interesting, because Hollywood was trying

to make a movie out of "Mission: Impossible",

the television series, for decades.

"Mission: Impossible" was about

the Impossible Mission Force,

so it was really an ensemble piece.

And the first "Mission: Impossible" movie,

at least they kept the same names of a lot

of the characters from the original,

and it was about the Impossible Mission Force.

But it became clear about halfway through the film

that this was going to be the Ethan Hunt storyline.

This is Ethan Hunt.

- They're dead. - Wait, who's dead?

My team. My team is dead.

- Jesus. - The list is gone.

They knew we were coming, man.

They knew we were coming, and the disk is gone.

I do think it was unusually savvy of Cruise

to make that play with "Mission: Impossible".

If you watch "Mission: Impossible" on TV,

it was a sort of an ensemble show.

It wasn't about the glorification of one person

at its center, and Cruise says, "I can take this,

I can use this intellectual property

that people are aware of, and we can sell that.

But at the center of it, it's really going to be about me."

It gave Tom Cruise the opportunity to play James Bond,

which he was never going to play,

because he wasn't right to play James Bond.

But this was his James Bond franchise.

And the role of Ethan Hunt allowed Cruise

to bring his physicality to the foreground.

Always a part of his acting arsenal,

from his strutting performance in "The Color of Money"

to the kinetic chase sequences of "The Firm",

it was crucial in "Mission: Impossible",

that he convince as an action star.

And unlike the majority of his contemporaries,

he took this to another level

by performing several of the film's key stunts himself,

including its most iconic set piece,

the break in at Langley.

You don't really appreciate it

when you're watching it at the time.

It's only in retrospect, knowing what we know now,

that you are looking at what he's doing there,

holding his entire body inches off the ground

for a long time, really,

and it's really him doing it.

You have to really kind of stop and think about it and go,

"No, wait a minute.

That's really difficult.

As a physical exertion, that's really intense."

That's not really something that was baked into

the first "Mission: Impossible" film really.

Even though actually it was Cruise getting drenched

by the aquarium and he did insist

on the scene where he is blasted backwards,

even though obviously it's not a real explosion,

everything, he did it. "That's got to be me.

You got to see that that's me."

But I just think it was so new, it was, at the time,

it wasn't really dwelt upon.

It wasn't really highlighted that much.

Soon, this would become a major part

of the Cruise brand.

But in 1996, the main focus was seeing whether audiences

would accept him in an action role,

and "Mission: Impossible" proved a towering success

at the box office,

Cruise's highest grossing release to date.

I think it's kind of amazing that Tom Cruise

was able to transition from being

sort of a Hollywood pretty boy

was how he was seen by a lot of people and

to kind of seamlessly transition

into being an action star is kind of remarkable.

Honestly, I think it just helped

that "Mission: Impossible" was good

and that people liked it.

His continual pursuit of action roles

that allowed him to put his physicality front and center,

made that transition possible.

And while he continued

carving his own unique path in the movie industry,

Hollywood began frantically looking for the next Tom Cruise.

Talented young actors from Matthew McConaughey

to Matt Damon were being hailed

as the future heirs to his crown.

Yet, audiences were clearly happy

with the Tom Cruise they already had.

His purple patch continued

with romantic comedy "Jerry Maguire" in 1997,

but then Cruise suddenly disappeared

from both Hollywood and the limelight

for over two years.

The filming of Stanley Kubrick's final project,

"Eyes Wide Shut", opposite his wife,

would take the star out of the game

at the very height of his success.

And when it was eventually released,

it was quickly followed by another offbeat performance,

as part of an ensemble cast in "Magnolia"

by up and coming director Paul Thomas Anderson.

With these fascinating roles,

Cruise was expanding his range further than ever before.

Just in those four years between "Mission: Impossible"

and "Mission: Impossible 2",

he almost completely redefines himself again as an actor,

just with those three pictures,

"Jerry McGuire", "Eyes Wide Shut", and "Magnolia".

By 1999, he is known enough as a guy

that works with great directors

and makes interesting movies

and only occasionally will make a stereotypical blockbuster,

like "Days of Thunder" or "Mission: Impossible",

that I think him working with Stanley Kubrick

almost feels like, "Oh, that makes sense."

"Magnolia" is a little different,

because this is Tom Cruise

not working with a veteran legendary director.

This is Tom Cruise calling up some kid

who made one really well-liked movie,

that got a lot of raves, and is like,

"Hey, help me help you."

And it's such a wonderful, generous thing for him to do,

knowing that it wasn't going to be a big hit.

But in May, 2000,

having disappeared from the public eye for so long,

Cruise was back in front of an audience

eager to see him return to mainstream cinema.

"Mission: Impossible 2" was a landmark in his career,

as he had previously resisted making sequels.

Yet, as both star and producer,

he embraced the opportunity

to develop the franchise as a series.

And for this film, from the opening sequence onwards,

his remarkable stunt work took center stage.

"Mission: Impossible 2" is marketed

with that opening scene of him free climbing,

and everybody talks about

how he's doing his own stunts.

This is, I think, the first time

that this becomes a thing for him.

It's Cruise clinging to,

I think, Dead Horse Rock in Utah,

and there's a moment during that sequence

where he literally looks directly into the camera.

He's looking directly at the audience as if to just say,

"Yeah, it's me, it's Tom Cruise,

I am on the side of a mountain.

I am doing this."

I do think that "Mission: Impossible 2" is the moment

where the idea that Cruise was doing his own stunts

in these movies became part of the press cycle,

became part of the chatter around them,

and the fact that he's doing something

that's just outrageously dangerous becomes part

of the appeal of the films.

Some of the stunts in that are insane.

In the climax when he almost gets stabbed in the eye,

they did that.

They tied a rope to the end of the knife.

They didn't do that digitally.

He was, at that point in his life, saying,

"I have to do this stuff myself."

But with Hong Kong director John Woo on board,

this sequel was a very different proposition

than Brian De Palma's first outing.

And not only have the tone of the film changed,

so too had Cruise's action persona.

Tom Cruise, prior to "Mission: Impossible 2",

he not only was not primarily known as an action hero,

even when he did make films with action in them,

he wasn't running around killing people.

This was the first time we saw Tom Cruise not just

as an action hero, but as a gun-toting action hero.

He was making something that you might have seen

from Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone.

When you're eight years old

and you're wearing your leather jacket

and you have sunglasses and you're pretending

to be an action hero in your backyard,

"Mission: Impossible 2" is that movie to a T.

Although its critical reception was mixed,

the film was a smash hit with audiences worldwide,

quickly overtaking the original "Mission: Impossible",

to become Cruise's biggest success at the box office.

Having returned from three years away from the limelight

and buoyed by the film's reception,

now he began planning a string of blockbuster releases,

keen to cement his reputation as an action star.

After "Eyes Wide Shut",

he's Hollywood's number one sort of box office draw,

and he doesn't want to let his crown slip.

How do you prove you're back?

By making blockbuster after blockbuster after blockbuster.

You are compensating.

So you've gone off on sabbatical,

you've done your odd thing in England with Stanley.

Now, it's time to sort of pay back Hollywood.

Once the "Mission: Impossible" franchise takes off,

Tom Cruise, I think, understands to some extent

the limitations of doing the smaller movies.

Remember, he's now a producer as well.

He needs to make films that will kind of continue to sort

of sustain his star power.

Following one final fling

with more left-field material

in Cameron Crowe's "Vanilla Sky",

Cruise now launched himself into action roles,

beginning with 2002's "Minority Report".

The following year, he would be back

with "The Last Samurai", while the summer of 2004

saw him play his first villain since "Taps",

in Michael Mann's propulsive thriller, "Collateral".

All of these films pushed his intensely physical presence

to the fore, and his journey as a serious dramatic actor,

from "Born on the Fourth of July" to "Magnolia",

was now put on hold.

Certain aspects of his star persona

kind of fell to the wayside.

He realized that, as a movie star,

the thing that people liked from him the most

was this kind of determination, this kind of steeliness,

this kind of hyper-competence.

"As a movie star, what my thing is

is I'm just constantly pressing forward."

It's determination made flesh, basically.

I think Cruise's age is starting to play into this.

I'm not saying it's a midlife crisis,

but is a little bit of "I'm getting older,

but why should I get older?"

And it's almost like the roles he did

when he was younger were the kind of roles

you'd expect someone to do later in their life

and the roles he's doing later in his life

are the kind of roles you'd expect people

to do earlier in their life.

Perhaps a significant factor

in this change of gear was his divorce

from Nicole Kidman back in 2001.

Although it was a very public split,

Cruise took solace in his fans,

making headlines when he spent over an hour

signing autographs and posing for photos

at the premier of "Minority Report",

and again, when dedicating over two hours to the crowd

for the release of "The Last Samurai".

It's fun.

You get out and have a chat and sign.

It's really nice. It's nice that they show up,

and I want to let them know that I appreciate it.

Yet, although he was happy

to get up close and personal with his audience,

they knew very little about the man himself.

Cruise wasn't somebody who a lot of people

knew a lot about his private life.

He was somebody who they knew mostly

through the flash bulbs and they saw on magazine covers.

He doesn't do a ton of interviews.

He'll do appearances, he'll do premieres,

he'll do red carpets and things like that,

but there's a very controlled quality to his public image,

up until this point.

Yet, in 2003, he began to speak more openly

about his involvement with the secretive

and controversial Church of Scientology.

After his publicist, Pat Kingsley,

who had been by his side since the early '90s,

tried to dissuade him from discussing his beliefs

on promotional tours,

he replaced her.

His sister Lee Ann took over the role,

but without Kingsley's guiding hand, very quickly,

Cruise's public image was in free fall.

Pat Kingsley was the publicist for Tom Cruise

for I think about 14 years.

You think of publicists as people who get stars

onto TV shows, into newspapers, onto websites.

Her significance was as much for keeping him out of trouble.

For two decades, she was at the center

of Cruise control, famed for her red carpet tactics,

guiding him round with military precision.

On her watch, his interviews were paragons

of marketing virtue, avoiding the subject of Scientology.

As his sister becomes his publicist,

I think the fact that he is a Scientologist

becomes a much bigger part of who he is on the outside,

as well as who he is on the inside.

And that does manifest itself in some media-unfriendly ways.

The reception to the promotional campaign

in and around "War of the Worlds",

it wasn't just that he was associated with Scientology,

it's that some of those interviews

came off as judgmental,

in a negative and almost hurtful way.

With his unprovoked on-air criticism

of his friend Brooke Shields,

his argumentative interviews with Matt Lauer in the US

and Peter Overton in Australia

and his widely mocked appearance on Oprah Winfrey,

the wheels had come off the Cruise machine.

In August, 2005, summing up the wider public's reaction

to these events, "Vanity Fair" ran the cover story,

"Has Tom Cruise lost his marbles?"

For the first time, the kind of public view of him soured.

I don't think he was able to really process that.

Like "Why have people got a problem with what I'm saying?

Usually, everything's fine."

He was a figure of ridicule to a certain extent,

and suddenly, he's this weirdo jumping on couches

and attacking Brooke Shields,

and yeah, people start to turn on him,

and this is his audience turning on him.

This isn't just like people who never liked him

turning on him. This is the people

who liked him turning on him,

and it puts him in a tough spot.

And this is a huge thing for all huge stars.

If you don't have somebody around you to say "no"

or to take you aside and say

"You're going down the wrong path,"

left to their own devices, like any of the rest of us,

you're going to make a lot of big mistakes

and he made huge mistakes.

And although this crisis erupted

just as he was promoting his new Spielberg blockbuster,

"War of the Worlds",

it didn't affect that film's commercial fortunes.

The following year however,

with the shockwaves having spread across popular culture,

Cruise returned to the big screen

with "Mission: Impossible 3".

And although it turned a profit,

it was the least successful film in the franchise so far

and was considered a disappointment

by its studio, Paramount.

I don't think you can discount this kind of

souring of opinion on Cruise

having an impact on "Mission: Impossible 3".

The reviews were strong,

but for whatever reason, the buzz was muted.

There was certainly a real world impact

in terms of Tom Cruise's reception.

Was "Mission: Impossible 3" an underperformer

because of how it was associated with the PR stuff?

Maybe. Do I think it killed the film? No.

But even if it didn't kill the film itself,

the backlash did kill Cruise's deal with Paramount Pictures.

The studio had signed an exclusive distribution agreement

with Cruise/Wagner Productions back in 1992,

and as the scandal escalated,

this crucial partnership was terminated.

Sumner Redstone, who was the head of the company

that owned Paramount Pictures, saying

"This guy is hurting our brand."

Amazingly, the number one brand in movies,

all of a sudden, is considered to be a liability.

So he was in a real career crisis at the time.

The fall from grace was complete.

Immediately firing his sister Lee Ann,

the star was in crisis management mode.

Looking for a new deal, Cruise/Wagner Productions

was thrown a lifeline by MGM, who approached them

to revive the floundering studio, United Artists.

Yet, their first film of this new arrangement,

Robert Redford's "Lions for Lambs",

with Cruise on board as both producer and co-star,

met with a tepid critical and commercial response.

And then, in late 2006,

when he appeared to be running on empty,

he was contacted by Christopher McQuarrie,

an award-winning writer-director at a similar low ebb.

It's interesting, you see these stories in Hollywood,

where people who have been through the mill

and had a great success and then,

are kind of on tougher times, will turn to each other.

Because Christopher McQuarrie wins the Academy Award

for "The Usual Suspects",

one of the greatest screenplays of all time.

And now, here's somebody,

it's only 10 years after he won the Oscar,

and he can't get arrested in Hollywood.

He had a big success with "The Usual Suspects",

which he wrote, and then tried directing himself.

And he made a film, which I think is brilliant,

called "The Way of the Gun".

It wasn't a hit for any number of reasons.

It was a very dark picture, it was very grimy,

but for whatever reason, he ended up in director's jail.

And it was a very long time before he made another picture.

The project McQuarrie brought to Cruise

was "Valkyrie", an historical thriller

focused on a real-life plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler

by a group of rebel Nazi officers.

Cruise agreed to finance the film through United Artists

and took the lead role

with McQuarrie's "Usual Suspects" partner, Bryan Singer,

on board as director.

And although early reports were negative,

upon its release, "Valkyrie" proved

a minor critical and commercial success.

I think "Valkyrie" is just a rock solid studio programmer,

and it kind of reminded people that, "Oh wait, that's right.

Most Tom Cruise movies are good."

I think, in a lot of ways, "Valkyrie" may prove

to be one of the last gasps, for now,

of Tom Cruise, actor,

as opposed to Tom Cruise, action star.

- They will wipe you out. - It doesn't matter.

It only matters that we act now

before we lose the war.

Otherwise, this will always be Hitler's Germany.

And we have to show the world

that not all of us were like him.

That is not enough for me.

There has to be a chance of success.

Then find a way.

Even though it didn't do huge business,

it wasn't a complete bomb, and I think that, in a way,

that was almost good enough,

that it wasn't a complete-- it got mostly good reviews.

It did fairly well. It did okay,

so I think, because expectations were so low,

it might have worked in his favor.

I think the arrival of Christopher McQuarrie

in the Cruise story is absolutely huge.

I think Cruise and McQuarrie is just an amazing partnership.

It really made Cruise turn a corner from that bad period.

So while "Valkyrie", which actually is a pretty good film,

while that film wasn't a particular success, and again,

has been kind of forgotten about in the Cruise story,

however that film turned out,

I think that that relationship was established.

And although Cruise had a key new creative ally,

the road to recovery would not be simple.

Following the release of "Valkyrie",

the United Artists deal fell apart,

and Cruise split with his long-term partner,

Paula Wagner.

Without his own production company

to launch films that he could control,

he was now thrown back into the uncertain acting world,

auditioning for roles in studio projects,

like "Salt" and "The Tourist".

He eventually took the lead in "Knight and Day",

alongside Cameron Diaz,

before entering discussions with Paramount

to return to the "Mission: Impossible" franchise.

But when the film was released,

it was a commercial and critical disaster,

and many questioned whether Cruise would ever

be able to headline a blockbuster again.

It's interesting with "Knight and Day",

because on paper, you'd think this is a surefire hit.

He's reunited with Cameron Diaz from "Vanilla Sky"

in a very different kind of movie.

She's so likable and has done all these great comedies

that were huge hits, but for some reason--

and it's not a good film--

I think Tom Cruise found out people either wanted

to see him playing in a romantic comedy or a drama

or in an action film with real consequences.

I think the failure of "Knight and Day",

it certainly upped the ante in terms

of what he needed to achieve with "Ghost Protocol",

the fourth "Mission: Impossible" film,

bearing also in mind

that it's the "Mission: Impossible" film

that follows the least successful

"Mission: Impossible" film as well.

In that sense, he had to go back

to the series that he'd set up himself,

had now come to define him.

He has returned to that, but he had to make it better

than it had ever been before.

And in December, 2011,

"Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" was released.

At the premier and in its promotion,

Cruise was front and center once again.

Yet, ongoing doubts at Paramount

over its star's popular appeal

had seen initial versions of the script

sideline his character, Ethan Hunt,

and the final cut was a very different film

than the original concept.

It was supposed to originally be

Ethan Hunt's last appearance

in a "Mission: Impossible" movie.

So they brought in Jeremy Renner as somebody

who would step up and become a new team leader.

If you look back on that idea now,

it seems completely absurd.

Renner is a terrific actor,

but he doesn't have the kind of charisma

that Tom Cruise does.

That's what you need in a "Mission: Impossible" movie.

You need charisma.

You need him to be Ethan Hunt.

Having repaired his relationship

with Paramount kingpin, Sumner Redstone,

during the production Cruise drafted in

his new creative partner, Christopher McQuarrie,

to rework the script and shift the focus back onto Hunt.

Yet, after five years of

underwhelming box office returns,

"Ghost Protocol" was still a pressure project for its star.

But when it opened, it became the biggest hit

of Cruise's entire career.

"Ghost Protocol" is incredible,

because it's the fourth installment of a franchise.

Usually it's by three

that things really fall off the edge

with most great franchises.

And here's "Ghost Protocol", the fourth entry

in the franchise, and it's the best by far.

If none of the other movies had been made

and it was just a standalone film,

it would be considered one of the great action thrillers

of all time.

If you argue

that "Mission: Impossible 3"

marked the end of Tom Cruise

as an unimpeachable, matinee idol movie star,

"Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol"

basically saved his career.

And with "Incredibles" director Brad Bird

at the helm, the focus of this fourth installment

was action.

And where "Mission: Impossible 3"' had been light on stunts,

with his return to the franchise,

Cruise pulled out all the stops.

Brad Bird kind of conceived "Ghost Protocol"

as this set piece machine.

In the series, I think that is the one

that most acknowledges that what people love

about these movies is seeing Cruise and company squirm

out of really difficult situations.

I think it has some of the best stunts in the whole series.

I think him climbing the Burj Khalifa is

really hard to top, actually.

I think he's been trying to top it since,

and I don't think there's been a sequence

in the franchise that's as exciting as that sequence.

Okay, now remember, it's a rolling off motion

that disengages the bond.

When the meter is blue, that's full adhesion.

Easy way to remember-- Blue is glue.

- And when it's red? - Dead.

Here's your cutter, okay?

And your server interface both going back here.

One, two.

Okay, Ethan,

the hotel server's 11 stories up

and seven units over. Okay?

- Com check? - Yeah, copy.

So...

"Ghost Protocol" gave Tom Cruise his mojo back

by letting audiences see his fear and laugh with him again.

None of the gadgets work, none of their plans work.

They're constantly perplexed and flustered

and on the brink of death,

because nothing around them goes right.

He's relatable again.

And I think he transitions from Tom Cruise

to being almost like an American Jackie Chan.

Yet, at almost 50 years old,

Cruise was still determined to provide the audience

with a performance of remarkable physicality.

What's amazing about "Ghost Protocol" is,

at this point, it is probably

the most physical performance he's ever given.

It's interesting, because we don't say,

"You know, that Tom Cruise, he's got a lot of star power

and energy for his age."

He just does, and I guarantee

a lot of 30-year old actors are sitting around going,

"What is it with this guy, that Energizer Bunny thing?"

We actually believe he could chase down

the 26-year old bad guy from behind, because he can.

I think it's absolutely astonishing that Cruise,

at the age that he was when he made "Ghost Protocol",

was doing the kind of things that you would

only expect an actor in their 30s to do,

that even he wasn't doing himself in his 30s.

So it just adds to this idea of him being ageless.

The character of James Bond is ageless

because they keep recasting new people as it.

The character of Ethan Hunt is ageless

because he's Tom Cruise.

With some of the best reviews

he had ever received and a worldwide gross

of nearly 700 million dollars,

"Ghost Protocol" provided Cruise's career

with the shot in the arm it so desperately needed.

The reaction to his adrenaline-fueled performance

also provided him with a roadmap for future success.

Yet, when 2012's "Jack Reacher" and 2013's "Oblivion"

divided critics and failed to attract large audiences,

it suggested that Cruise's career revival

was a work in progress, rather than a certainty.

In 2014, however, he returned to the big screen

with the high-concept science fiction thriller

"Edge of Tomorrow",

and critics instantly hailed it

as one of the strongest films he had ever made.

"Edge of Tomorrow"'s a terrific film,

based on some great source material.

It's kind of a "Groundhog Day",

except with much higher stakes.

Adapted from the Japanese novel,

"All You Need is Kill", Christopher McQuarrie

was once again drafted into the script writing team.

And the film's narrative, of a cowardly military officer

caught in a time loop

after dying on the battlefield during an alien invasion,

allowed Cruise to probe his own onscreen persona.

"Edge of Tomorrow" in some ways, I think,

is sort of a culmination of Cruise's career.

That movie is Tom Cruise, I think, acknowledging

and even playing with the audience's

love-hate relationship with him.

At the beginning of the movie, he's playing this kind of

slimy military big wig

who has been sort of thoughtlessly propagandizing

for this war that's causing the death of

thousands of people every day,

and he is drafted into the war and dies on the battlefield.

And I think those early scenes very much play

with the idea that there probably is a portion

of the audience that doesn't like Cruise,

that would really relate to being allowed

to dislike a Cruise character.

The film plays to multiple aspects of his career

and elements of his versatility as an actor.

Come on! The ship is going to explode!

What are you doing?

Find me when you wake up.

What?

Come find me when you wake up.

It is an interesting way to do it,

because he's doing it within the context

of this surreal, fantastical situation,

where he's just constantly dying

and having to repeat this day over and over and over again.

And through that, he builds up his expertise,

which is also such a Tom Cruise thing to do.

It is totally like the young cocky Tom Cruise,

him going from that to the sort of man-of-action Tom Cruise.

It's all about him sort of

redeeming himself in a way, that, I think,

as a movie star, he kind of has over the years,

at least in some people's eyes.

But despite rave reviews

and positive word of mouth,

"Edge of Tomorrow" was yet another disappointment

at the box office.

"Edge of Tomorrow" continues to confound me,

in terms of why it was not more successful.

It's one of his strongest films.

It's a great performance.

It's one of his funniest performances.

The film's really smart.

It's a great sort of sci-fi setup, alien invasion film.

And again, Christopher McQuarrie was involved

in working on the script.

So they've taken it and spun it and twisted it

and done everything interesting they can do with it.

He had a great co-star in Emily Blunt.

So there's all these things, and yet,

for some reason, it doesn't add up

to a box office success.

But obviously, it's become, over time,

appreciated and recognized.

And I guess it's one of those weird things.

It's a Tom Cruise cult hit.

And although the film did gain in stature,

its initial struggle to attract an audience

demonstrated how the landscape was changing.

When Cruise's career was revived by "Ghost Protocol",

back in 2011,

the Marvel Cinematic Universe was only five films

into its unprecedented run of releases.

By 2015, it was king of the box office

and soon to be joined by a raft of remakes, revivals,

rival superhero universes, and the return of "Star Wars".

Refreshing original star vehicles

like "Edge of Tomorrow"

stood little chance of getting noticed

amidst the appeal of the familiar.

The studios are trying to find things

that people are familiar with and then,

just making more and more and more of them.

This does also change the star system.

Stardom is defined not so much as

this actor making whatever they want,

but it becomes this actor playing this character.

Mr. Robert Downey Jr.!

The paradigm has shifted in a really big way,

in terms of Hollywood's relationship to movie stars.

I do think that audiences don't necessarily require it

in the same way they used to,

and it is about the intellectual property,

it's about the characters.

Now, some of the films are good,

some of the films are bad,

some of the films are middling,

but it's almost like it doesn't matter.

The best Avengers movie and the worst Avengers movie

both make a ton of money,

and it doesn't seem to matter if one is better than the other.

Marvel's success also happened to coincide

with people no longer going to the movies

to see regular movies.

So it wasn't just that Marvel was taking over

the blockbuster ecosystem, which fine, whatever,

but they were basically taking over cinema in general,

because the people that would've seen everything else

stopped going to the movies.

Now, within this world, Tom Cruise, I think,

understands that people like to see him playing Ethan Hunt.

And Cruise returned

in the "Mission: Impossible" franchise once again,

in the summer of 2015, with "Rogue Nation".

Upon its release, it was surrounded

by high-profile comic book blockbusters.

But unlike "Edge of Tomorrow",

it didn't struggle to find an audience.

"Mission: Impossible" had become one of the most popular

and lucrative franchises in the entire film industry.

And Cruise's nearly 20-year tenure as Ethan Hunt

was unprecedented.

It took some amount of foresight

to put himself in this position,

because he made his first "Mission: Impossible" movie

in 1996, and he sticks to it.

Through thick and thin, he sticks to it, and now,

suddenly, he is essentially kind of a superhero.

With Christopher McQuarrie not only scripting,

but also taking the reins as the film's director,

it proved another critical and commercial smash hit.

And "Mission: Impossible" was now more popular

than it had ever been before.

"Rogue Nation" absolutely built on "Ghost Protocol", 100%.

To be honest, it's been escalation ever since

with those films.

"Ghost Protocol" was the best "Mission: Impossible" movie

up to that point, then "Rogue Nation" comes along,

and it's the best "Mission: Impossible" movie

up to that point.

That is the film when you realize that

this franchise has become an ensemble franchise.

They take this ensemble cast and turn them

into a surrogate family, and you want to spend time

with all of them.

It's interesting, because the first film

is about sort of killing off the idea

of "Mission: Impossible" as a group franchise.

It's all about Tom Cruise.

It felt to me like a process of figuring out

which characters people liked

and kind of getting that perfect configuration over the years.

And then, at a certain point, you get a core team

that people really like.

And "Rogue Nation" wasted no time

in introducing this core team.

The opening scene, when they're

waiting for the big plane to take off,

first, you see Simon Pegg.

You're like, "Ah, I remember that character.

I like him."

Then you see Jeremy Renner,

"Ah, I liked him in 'Ghost Protocol'.

I'm glad he's back."

And then you see Ving Rhames.

"Ah, Ving, always happy to see you."

And then, you see Ethan Hunt.

Can you open the door?

- Ethan, where are you? - I'm by the plane.

Benji, can you open the door?"

And it's a perfect introduction to the movie.

And then, you have this crazy ass stunt.

Benji, you open that door right now!

Yeah, I'm trying.

There's a collaborative quality to these films,

and really, Tom Cruise is there

to provide some emotional throughline

and also to do like two or three big stunts.

And into this ensemble,

"Rogue Nation" added both charismatic veteran Alec Baldwin

and an electrifying newcomer, Rebecca Ferguson,

as British agent Ilsa Faust.

That's probably the first "Mission: Impossible" movie

where the most interesting character isn't Ethan Hunt.

Pretty much everybody's favorite character

in that film was Rebecca Ferguson.

She's a brilliant character.

She leapt off the screen, she looked great,

and she was very sexy, but she wasn't there as a sex object.

She was there because she was a really capable agent,

almost as impressive as Ethan Hunt himself, one might say.

Cruise is smart enough to know,

he's always been smart enough to know,

if the whole movie is good, if everyone else in it is good,

it will raise your profile, it will raise your ship as well.

These films have helped regain some of his mojo,

by being, again, willing to step back

and let somebody else be your favorite character.

But although "Mission: Impossible"

had now firmly reestablished its blockbuster credentials,

Cruise's appeal away from the franchise still looked shaky.

A 2016 sequel to "Jack Reacher"

performed even more poorly at the box office

and killed off the franchise,

while the following year's "The Mummy" opened

to the worst reviews of the actor's entire career.

So, following a well-received starring role in the smaller,

more mature feature, "American Made",

in 2018, it was announced that Cruise was

due back at movie theaters once again

as Ethan Hunt in "Mission: Impossible: Fallout".

And this time, during the film's promotional campaign,

an injury he sustained during the production

became a key selling point,

highlighting more than ever his unique daredevil appeal.

The world we live in now, I think,

where all of this pre-release information is out there,

it doesn't surprise me that they would weaponize

the fact that he hurt himself.

There's a certain morbid fascination with the fact

that he keeps doing this,

and how far is he going to take it?

The stunt itself wasn't that remarkable, really.

It was Cruise jumping from one rooftop to another rooftop,

but compared with hanging off the Burj Khalifa

or clinging to the side of a plane,

it seemed pretty mundane, relatively speaking.

He did the jump,

and it went a little bit wrong.

He broke his ankle,

and then, and this is the amazing thing,

pulls himself up, and ever the pro, he doesn't go,

"Oh, God, I've broken my ankle, guys. Stop rolling."

He carries on. He gets up and runs,

so that they can complete the shot.

And that to me is sort of the defining attribute

of Tom Cruise's career in a nutshell,

is that he will break his leg to entertain you.

Cruise was willing to go further than that.

With the key ensemble returning

and Christopher McQuarrie at the helm once again,

"Fallout" featured a blistering array of stunts

and set pieces, including a high speed motorbike chase,

a helicopter battle,

and a dangerous halo parachute jump,

all performed by Cruise himself.

"Fallout", just for the record, I think,

is an absolutely astonishing film.

It's almost up there with "Mad Max: Fury Road" in my mind

as just being a masterpiece of action cinema.

The film is terrific.

The action sequences are incredibly creative,

and because they're doing a lot of this stuff for real,

it has a kind of immediacy

that really translates to the audience.

When you're watching the film, you feel the danger.

You feel the danger for these characters.

I watched "Fallout" convinced Tom Cruise was going to die.

The idea that he's this kamikaze daredevil

who's just like you, but he's willing to do

these crazy things that you won't do

to make the best movie possible,

that plays very well.

And "Fallout" did play very well,

both the highest-grossing film in the franchise,

and in 2018, the highest-grossing film

of Cruise's entire career.

And when he hit the publicity circuit

with his co-stars to promote it,

he was already in production on another blockbuster,

the long awaited sequel to "Top Gun".

Having resisted a follow up

to the iconic '80s hit for 30 years,

Cruise had finally signed on to return

as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell.

But in February, 2020,

the COVID pandemic hit

and everything ground to a halt.

There are much huger problems with COVID,

real-life tragedies, but for the industry,

it was a crisis that the movie industry

had probably never seen ever.

Productions were paused and theaters closed,

leaving a huge backlog of unreleased films.

A lot of major studios and a lot of big films,

they were saying, "Well, it's better to get it out.

Let's put it on Disney Plus.

Let's put it on Hulu.

Yeah, it was shot for the big screen,

but we can't just sit on these movies."

With streaming services thriving

due to a captive audience,

the fate of the cinema industry hung in the balance.

In the summer of 2020,

when restrictions were being tentatively lifted,

the release of Christopher Nolan's "Tenet"

was the first real test

of whether audiences would return to theaters.

And Cruise, keen to show his support

for the big screen experience,

issued a video on his social media.

It's hugely heartening to have seen Cruise

go out there and bang the drum.

There was an element of that kind of caution,

but at the same time, it's like,

"Well, we can't let this entertainment form,

this art form, die, can we?"

He's a champion of cinema, of movie making,

and of the thousands of jobs behind the scenes

that go with making movies.

And as a producer, Cruise was acutely aware

of his responsibility to those working on his films.

He had been keen to restart shooting

on the next "Mission: Impossible" film,

in an effort to keep the industry going,

with the production governed

by strict health guidelines.

But in December that year,

audio was leaked from the set

of Cruise berating crew members

for not following COVID protocols.

The clip quickly went viral.

You would've thought, certainly, whatever,

looking back on what happened in 2005

or looking back on other incidents, like,

for example, Christian Bale.

Again, he was someone that got caught ranting

at a crew member.

Those things, they don't really come out well.

People quite rightly say "You shouldn't be like that.",

But what's really interesting with Cruise

in this instance,

he came out of it pretty well.

I think the vast majority of people out there were like,

"He's looking out for the safety of people.

He's trying to keep this production

from being shut down,"

which happened with a lot of major movies.

He's saying what other people probably wanted to say

on that set and couldn't say,

because he could get away with it.

So I think it actually worked in his favor.

After his reputation had been so damaged

in the early 2000s,

this response was evidence that Cruise

had turned a corner and that public opinion

was back on his side.

And his standing was further enhanced

when he continued to resist the opportunity

to sell "Top Gun: Maverick" to streaming,

holding out for a theatrical release.

As the producer and the star that he is,

he had the heft

to prevent that from coming out

and just going straight to streaming.

Cruise knows that his particular kind of entertainment

that he offers plays better on the big screen.

The Burj Khalifa scene in "Ghost Protocol",

that's not going to play the same on your TV at home.

At a time that cinema is endangered,

when the streamers have

eaten away so significantly

into global cinema box office,

Cruise's insistence on keeping "Top Gun"

and not releasing it until there was

an opportune moment, it was sort of a case

of Cruise to the rescue.

And Cruise's instincts were right.

Having held back for two years,

when "Top Gun: Maverick" was released

exclusively to cinemas in May, 2022,

it went ballistic.

I was absolutely blown away by it

as a theatrical experience.

It's spectacular.

Visually, it's spectacular.

It's also a very good movie.

It made perfect financial sense.

It made perfect artistic sense.

It made perfect showmanship sense

to hold off on the release of that film

until you knew people could go into theaters safely.

"Maverick" is a really slick legacy sequel

that's trading on people's affection for an old movie,

but it's doing it with this kind of romantic sincerity

that a lot of them don't have.

It's a very canny piece of nostalgia.

When you see him first in the beginning of the movie,

this really rousing main theme that comes up

and whips off that tarp and the old motorcycle is there

and he's zipping around, and it got to me.

He took the IP and the nostalgia as a challenge

to say, "Okay, we already have this.

Can we still make a good movie?"

And for the first time in his career,

Cruise's return to the role of Maverick

in his late 50s would specifically focus on his age.

We're definitely getting a more mature Cruise.

In "Maverick", he's gone

from being the cocky upstart character to being the mentor.

What the enemy doesn't know

is your limits.

I intend to find them,

test them, push beyond.

Today, we'll start

with what you only think you know.

Show me what you're made of.

One of the things that it does with Tom Cruise,

it acknowledges that he's an older man

than he was in the '80s,

while at the same time defying that.

- Break right! - Breaking right!

Rooster just saved your life, fellas,

but it's going to cost him.

Not this time, old man.

"Top Gun: Maverick", everybody knew was going to do well.

Everybody figured would probably get fairly good reviews,

but it exceeded all expectations.

Now, here's this guy. First of all, he looks--

people see him and go, "Jesus Christ.

How does he look like that?"

We believe him on the motorcycle.

We believe him in the cockpit.

Even though we had already known

that this guy is a huge movie star,

it's like, "Wait a minute, he's not just a big star still.

He's the biggest star."

And that was confirmed

when "Maverick" pulled in

a staggering $1.5 billion worldwide,

becoming one of the highest grossing films of all time.

At 59 years old,

Cruise had achieved his biggest hit to date,

but the shockwaves of the film's success

sent ripples across the entire industry itself.

The figure who had stood through COVID

as an ambassador for the cinematic experience

now stood at the forefront of its revival.

While other franchises appeared to be running on empty,

Cruise's relentless work ethic was the driving force

behind his film's remarkable popularity.

One of the reasons I think the Marvel movies have,

the more recent ones, have been a little bit less successful

is that they've operated under the assumption

that they don't need to be as good,

that people will show up no matter what they are,

and that's kind of the anti-Tom Cruise perspective.

Cruise is, whatever you think of him,

Cruise is very much like

"We have to give 110% to everything."

The whole, "I have to be up there in the jet,"

I think, is an extension of that idea,

is that truly entertaining people is about

giving all that you have to give to them.

And as the industry tried to process

just how "Maverick" had managed to become such a phenomenon,

Cruise himself was reevaluated.

Having been written off by many only a decade beforehand,

he had won back his audience and risen to new heights.

Headlines and articles were emphatic,

declaring that not only had Tom Cruise saved cinema,

but that he was also the last movie star.

And as he embarked on completing

the next two "Mission: Impossible" films,

it was announced that, afterwards,

he would be retiring from the role of Ethan Hunt.

It'll bring his historic involvement

in the franchise to a close,

the longest consecutive run

that any actor has played a single character on screen,

and complete another stage of his remarkable career.

And whatever Cruise does next, despite his age,

he is certain to bring the same dedication and daring

that has made him the most distinctive movie star

in the world.

Part of me thinks that Cruise won't stop.

He does not seem like a person who is capable

of turning this off.

A part of his appeal as a star is a mania about him.

It's why I've always said that the Tom Cruise

jumping on the couch,

that Tom Cruise is not that different

than the Tom Cruise we see

in the "Mission: Impossible" films.

That level of enthusiasm and that mania

exists in his performances too.

He's been going for five decades,

but what's remarkable is the level of success

that he's had during that time.

There's been a lot of talk through the years,

like, who's the last movie star?

I think, with Tom Cruise, it's a much more apt label,

because of the way the business has changed.

Even though there are tons of great young actors

and actresses in their 20s and 30s,

there's almost no way they're going to have the career

Tom Cruise has had.

There's so much emphasis on these huge franchise movies

that there's not that much room for the star system.

So in a lot of ways, Tom Cruise probably

is the last movie star.

I don't think Tom Cruise is the last movie star,

but I do think that Tom Cruise is the last of his kind.

And I think a lot of the big stars that came in his wake,

like Matt Damon and DiCaprio,

followed the Tom Cruise playbook

of being an actor first and a movie star second.

And I think, once he retires,

I don't think we're ever going to see another like him.

He's such a unique and singular figure

in the industry that I don't think he's replaceable.