Anyone remember those strange days, way back in the distant pre-Covid era, when the death of cinema seemed to be imminent and even Tom Cruise couldn't sell out multiplexes? So clouded was the Top Gun star's future in 2010 that it seemed likely he might fade into oblivion while still in his late 40s. There was even talk that Cruise had slipped off the late Paramount chair Sumner Redstone's Christmas Card list due to his weird sofa-jumping antics and continuing advocacy of Scientology.
Fast forward to 2023 and thanks to a combination of the pandemic and the march of streaming, box offices globally might just be in an even worse position than they were when Cruise's now largely forgotten romcom thriller with Cameron Diaz, Knight and Day, proved such a giant turkey. Yet these days he is regarded as the solution rather than the problem.
Ever since the $1bn success of Top Gun: Maverick last year, our toothy-grinned hero has been billed as the savior of cinema. And that means we're probably going to get at least another two decades of Cruise jumping off giant buildings, romancing far-younger women and generally behaving as if he's an immortal, all-powerful being from the galactic federation of Xenu until well into his 80s.
Don't believe me? This week Cruise told the Sydney Morning Herald he is planning to emulate Harrison Ford, who is currently starring as a swashbuckling octogenarian archaeologist in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. "Harrison Ford is a legend, I hope to be still going, I've got 20 years to catch up with him," he said. "I hope to keep making Mission: Impossible films until I'm his age."