Actor Tom Cruise gets some serious hang time in his next Mission Impossible role, this time with sequences on a two Stearmans. The 62-year-old Cruise is featured in a new trailer for Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning. The stunts were shot in England. But he's not just hanging around the classics. His character Ethan Hunt apparently gets control of an aircraft carrier and some stick time in a fighter in his normal quest to save the world.
āItās a hard thing for me to discuss at the moment, because it really is something that you have to experience.ā. Uhmmm, no, I donāt need to see an eighth version of Tom Cruise saving the planet hanging from a Stearmanāhow much money does one person need? What WOULD be impressive is to see how long he could hang on to the wing of a SuperHornet after being catapulted from the carrier sans helmet. If he hangs on until Mach 1, I will partake.
So what kind of aviation-related movies do you guys watch? āOut of Africaā? āUp in the Airā? āCasablancaā? Aviation verisimilitude, with very few notable exceptions (āSullyā), is and should be, boring. Action movies are not intended to be documentaries; all those stunts are expensive so they need to draw the less-discerning eyeballs. And āa willing suspension of disbeliefā.
You guys probably didnāt think the āAirplane!ā movies were funny, either.
I go to the movies to be entertained and I donāt expect to be enlightened. The Mission Impossible series is just thatā¦ entertainment and nothing more. The genre allows a brief escape from the daily grind. I do envy Mr. Cruise and his airplane collection, thoughā¦
Yes, āAirplaneā was hilarious and I still get a kick out of it. The sequel with Shatner wasnāt quite as good, but still had some laughs.
Bingo. There were great masses of pearl clutching how dare theysā¦ And inevitable āitās beneath meāsā back thenā¦ And there always will beā¦
Playing this month at the theatre: Angry Ol White Guys part deux
What kind of aviation-related movies do I watch? None. Aviation movies are too superficially contrived for dramatic effect for me to be able to watch.
One major exception which is not really an aviation movie but rather a space documentary is Apollo 11. I watch it several times a year and every time I watch Apollo 11 itās as though itās my first viewing. All footage in Apollo 11 was filmed in real time on 70 mm film and is the real thing, most of it never seen by the public till the film was released. For me the most dramatic scene in the entire film is actual footage filmed alternately by cameras on the command module and the ascent module of the ascent module flying back to and docking with the command module. This scene begins with the ascent module as a tiny dot against the backdrop of the moon and ends with the visual and audible clunk as the actual docking takes place. It includes close up shots of each vehicle maneuvering for the final docking and takes my breath away every time I watch it. That is real entertainment. Tom Cruise style antics not so.
Yes, yes, itās about fun, entertainment, have a good time watching. Go wow! Laugh. Wonder how they did that one! Donāt need to take it seriously and let it upset you. All things do not have to be taken seriously. Chill I guess is an appropriate term.
You can denigrate Tom Cruise and the movie but two things, it is entertainment, and if anything like the latest Top Gun movie, in which the filming of the flying scenes were all, I repeat all real flying, no computer generated flying, the only computer work was making an F-18 look like an F-14 because no one was flying F-14s (except Iran) when it was filmed. That Top Gun movieās plot was not realistic* but it made a good story! *No one would fly down into a heavily defended valley to bomb a target, they would use a smart bomb from above the valley. Lighten up, guys, its entertainment!
It seems like the main point of these movies is for TC to do more and more over the top stunts on someone elseās dime.
Supposedly there is the potential for him to go to the ISS to shoot scenes for a movie. Someone else will be paying for that too.
It makes me crazy in movies when I spot obvious aviation related mistakes, usually made by lazy film makers who donāt know the difference between an airspeed indicator and a speedometer. At least in a Cruise movie, the airplane stuff is accurate and fully thought through. I guess knowing that most pilots are watching means getting the details right, AND itās almost all actual flying - he doenāt like CGI.
āAirplane!ā was hilarious because it was about humor, not an airplane. No need for yaāll to get pissy about what people watch or donāt watch just because it has an aircraft in it.
Watching the trailer this time hit me like a parody or SNL skit. If one sees it all as cool, I would never criticize that. Enjoy!
Ah, I remember when I was 62, still had oil pressure, knees that worked, and the illusion I had something to prove. But Cruise, hanging off a Stearman like heās trying to avoid international tariffs? Please.
With the miles heās got, he should be running the hangar BBQ in socks and sandals.
Iām one up on you having consoled myself with a simpler than Cessna 140 Cessna 120 after retiring from the swept wing global scene. Tom Cruise does not entertain me.
