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Tom Cruise pleasantly surprised the entire film industry in the summer of 2023 when he promoted Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, the latter’s magnum opus that would derail Cruise’s own Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One the very next weekend. This rivalry extended to reserving all the premium IMAX screens for Nolan’s film, a move some might equate with the life-threatening stunts the Ethan Hunt actor is famous for. However, assuming the persona of a true movie star, the Top Gun actor has long been an advocate for films beyond his own, predating his endorsement of the Cillian Murphy–Robert Downey Jr. starrer.
The incident ties back to Cruise’s consistent efforts to fill theater seats and save the cinema industry post-COVID-19, a dedication publicly acknowledged by Jurassic Park director Steven Spielberg, who credited Cruise for “saving the theatrical distribution system” with Top Gun: Maverick. Cruise’s support wasn’t limited to the Oppenheimer; he also wished success to Margot Robbie’s Barbie and Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Many cite these actions as instrumental in sparking the “Barbenheimer” double-feature phenomenon that dominated pop-culture conversations and social media memes.
Interestingly, Cruise’s advocacy for theatrical releases dates back at least to the peak of the pandemic in the summer of 2020. Assuming a mask, Cruise wandered around in the streets of London for his first theater visit in months, and the movie happened to be Nolan’s sci-fi actioner Tenet, starring John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, and Kenneth Branagh. While the actor did not refer to the mind-bending film directly, in the clip posted on social media, the big screen and part of the credits can be seen as Cruise professes his admiration, quoting, “I loved it.”
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