Last month, Nicole Kidman’s AMC Theatres’ ad turned one year old. As the pandemic cooled, the movie theater chain paid a fortune for the Oscar-winning actress to woo audiences back to multiplexes. It’s proven so popular that they’re even doing a sequel. And when SNL returned for its 48th season, you better believe they sent it up.
Chloe Fineman does her best Australian accent as Kidman, mostly sticking to the script. One difference? Unlike in the ad, she’s not alone. First, Kenan Thompson joins her, sitting a few seats away until he’s creeped out by her loud monologuing. Soon others — including new cast members Molly Kearney and Michael Longfellow — join her.
Kidman’s AMC ad has been known to inspire Rocky Horror-style participation; sometimes audience members even recite the lines. SNL’s sketch runs with this idea. When Kidman gets to perhaps the most famous line — “Somehow heartbreak feels good in a place like this” — people start standing up and saluting the screen. Once people start chanting it over and over, Kidman gains supernatural powers, levitating above the seats as lightning shoots from her eyes.
As it happens, SNL’s first host of the season was in the biggest blockbuster of the summer: Top Gun: Maverick’s Miles Teller. He kicked off the show by doing a scarily spot-on impersonation of Peyton Manning.
You can watch the sketch in the video above.