It’s hard to believe, but Tom Cruise turned 60 on Sunday, and yet he’s still doing things people half his age wouldn’t dare. The actor, producer, and movie theater enthusiast currently has the biggest hit of his career, which is still Hoovering up cash money. His next two films are both action extravaganzas, in which he repeatedly puts his life at risk, just to entertain. Speaking of, the director of the last two — and the next two — Mission: Impossible entries rang in the occasion by sharing a bonkers on-set photo.
Happy 60th Birthday, Tom. pic.twitter.com/IfWUguhM7c
— Christopher McQuarrie (@chrismcquarrie) July 3, 2022
Christopher McQuarrie took over Cruise’s long-running franchise starting with 2015’s Rogue Nation. Before that, the series always changed directors with each film. (Brian De Palma directed the first, John Woo the second, etc.) But Cruise has stuck with McQuarrie ever since. For Cruise’s big 6-0, McQuarrie dropped a photo of yet another death-defying stunt: Cruise (presumably!) hanging onto a plane mid-air as it flips on its side, miles above the planet’s surface.
The first Mission: Impossible film came out 26 years ago, when Bill Clinton hadn’t yet won a second term. It was the first full-on action movie Cruise had ever done. (Top Gun 1 and Days of Thunder saw him mostly sitting in moving vehicles.) He was 34 years old, and some 15 years into his film career. Anyway, now he’s older than Wilford Brimley in Hard Target and Sean Connery in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Happy belated birthday, Tom!
(Via Deadline)