The Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning—this title should have reconsidered the “the”—press tour is underway, with the latest stop in London, where Tom Cruise was honored with the BFI Fellowship. The first award was given to French director Marcel Carné in 1983, and it is given to individuals to recognize “outstanding contributions” to film and television. Certainly, Tom Cruise has made outstanding contributions to cinema. Whatever else you may think of him off screen, on screen there is no arguing that he is a real Movie Star, one the biggest and one of the last. Which is why I’m here to talk about Tramell Tillman.
Tillman is the breakout star of Severance, playing corporate middleman Mr. Milchik. Tillman has an interesting backstory, working in the non-profit sector for more than a decade before landing his first role, in a 2015 episode of Difficult People. It took a few more years to catch on, but by the late 2010s he was working steadily, and he debuted on Broadway in 2019’s The Great Society. But it wasn’t until Severance and his late thirties that Tillman got his big break, which is a reminder that sometimes it takes time to find the thing that becomes your thing.
Now, Tillman is one of several new faces joining the M:I franchise, alongside Nick Offerman, Janet McTeer, Katy O’Brian, Charles Parnell, Hannah Waddingham, and Holt McCallany, plus the sophomore class returning from Dead Reckoning, which includes Greg Tarzan Davis, Shea Whigham, Esai Morales, Mark Gatiss, Hayley Atwell, and Pom Klementieff, and Angela Bassett returning from Fallout. What I’m saying is that Final Reckoning is stuffed with what I think are actors Tom Cruise likes, even tiny parts are played by tremendously charismatic performers, never mind Tom Cruise is one of the biggest cinematic personas working today and STILL…
Tramell Tillman LEAPS off the screen.
Yes, he’s compelling on Severance. But throw him up on a 40-foot screen and acting opposite Tom Cruise and he is SO compelling to watch you’ll be bereft when he’s gone. Where is he? What is he doing? Can we check in? Maybe we should pop over there and just see what’s up. Tramell Tillman has maybe ten minutes of screentime in Final Reckoning and he’s so good every second he’s on screen that I was immediately wishing for him to star in a movie, any movie, just so I can listen to his dulcet line deliveries. The man just does not land on dialogue like you expect, and the effect is transfixing. Put Tramell Tillman in everything. Put him in anything. Just give him roles because hot damn, that man is a STAR.
Here is Tom Cruise, Tramell Tillman, and the Final Reckoning cast at the BFI last night.
