CRUISE TO IMMORTALITY

At 62, with the eighth Mission: Impossible under his belt—and a Guinness World Record set mid-flight— Tom Cruise is the leap-of-faith ethos incarnate.

- WORDS INDRAN PARAMASIVAM PHOTOS VARIOUS

“WE DON'T THINK THAT someone who effectuates creative suicide and costs the company revenue should be on the lot.” That's then-chair of Viacom Sumner Redstone speaking to the Wall Street Journal in 2006 about its subsidiary Paramount's decision to axe Tom Cruise from the Mission: Impossible (MI) franchise after the disappointing box office earnings of its third edition. At that time, the film had made US$400 million globally. In Redstone's mind, the leading man’s unhinged behaviour on the talk-show circuit, canonised in popular consciousness by the couch-jump on Oprah and his delirious endorsement of Scientology had cost the studio US$150 million in unbought tickets. Ultimately, the studio decided against showing Cruise the door.

That decision paved the way to the fourth MI instalment