Tom Cruise is ABSURD. Tom Cruise is always, absurdly, Tom Cruise. So what else did we expect a holiday message from him to look like? It is exactly what you would expect – because Tom Cruise is consistently and dependably absurd. Which is why he’s sending us his holiday wishes while perched on the outside of an aircraft above South Africa and then FREE-FALLING out of said aircraft … WHILE STILL TALKING. Because, of course, he had to get the shot. Nothing is more important than the shot. 

 

But only Tom Cruise can get the shot while sharing his gratitude to everyone for seeing Top Gun: Maverick and literally dropping out of the sky. ABSURD.

He got the shot, alright. And it was all in one shot. Please don’t disrespect him by suggesting that this was edited together. There is no way. This is Tom Cruise, he would never allow it. If he did f-ck up a take, he would have had them fly him all the way up there again and he’d go for it as many times as necessary to GET THE SHOT. And nail his lines. The only thing they added was the sound effect when he pushes off after he’s done hitting his talking points and he somersaults through the air. 

 

Take note too that he is so f-cking pro, he adjusted his earpiece midway through his speech. I don’t know how that thing stayed in but that too is part of the movie-making magic. And this is the point, always, of his absurdity. To entertain, to bring people to the movies, to get people in theatres. Which is what he did with Top Gun: Maverick – and it’s the legend that by now we all know. How Tom insisted that the movie be held for theatrical release only. And how that push paid off…because Maverick is the biggest movie of 2022, the movie that saved movies. It’s the movie that will be streaming during the holiday season, just to remind everyone of its achievements, and just as Oscar voters are considering what to nominate.

But just in case you forgot, he’s jumping out of airplanes now to make sure we all remember the lengths he will go to to get the shot, to make the movie, to ENTERTAIN. He’ll go farther than everyone else in the business, and while everyone else is walking red carpets and making the talk show rounds, Tom’s Oscar campaign video is from however many feet above the earth, as he’s hurtling towards the ground.