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Tom Cruise – the man who has proven time and again that age is nothing but a number. No one will look at him and say that he is sixty-two! Just look at the stunts he did inTop Gun: Maverickand the recentMission: Impossible. When the conversation is about going all out for stunts and turning the intensity to ‘reckless,’ you just cannot leave the ever-charming superstar out of it.
Sure, there are other actors out there who perform their own stunts, including Keanu Reeves, but there is just something about Tom Cruise that sets him apart from the rest. Michael Mann, who directed the actor inCollateral(2004), will completely agree with the previous statement. In fact, he even compared Tom Cruise’s gunmanship with that of Keanu Reeves and declared the former as the winner.
Michael Mann on Tom Cruise vs. Keanu Reeves
Never would we have ever imagined a blondeTom Cruiseplaying the bad guy in a film and looking so charming while doing it. Well, we probably could have imagined that last bit. As for the rest, directorMichael Mannwas able to pull it off to perfection inCollateral.
A group of filmmakers, actors, and producers sat down withDeadlineto discuss Cruise’s work and the time they shared with the superstar. When it came to talking about the 2004 neo-noir thriller, Mann had nothing but praise for his lead actor.
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Deadline pointed out the shootout scene at the nightclub where Cruise’s Vincent effortlessly killed Reyes-Torrena’s hitmen and compared his moves to that of Keanu Reeves’ in the John Wick films, Mann stated that Reeves didn’t hold a candle to Cruise’s moves. He recalled how Cruise trained with the head of close-quarter combat training for the British SAS to master his techniques.
John Wick’s are not real techniques. What Tom did, those are real techniques and there was a lot of training with my friend Mick Gould, who was the head of close-quarter combat training for the British SAS. The scene in the alley, there’s no cut in that scene… It came down to doing the work. There was nothing he was doing that wasn’t established close-quarter combat moves that came from months of training.
The alley scene in question takes place when Vincent tiesJamie Foxx’s Max, a cab driver, to the steering wheel and goes off. As Max pleads to a group of people passing by for help, one of them takes advantage of him and robs not only his wallet but also Vincent’s briefcase from the back.
Vincent returns and recognizes the bag in the man’s hand and asks a simple question, “Yo homie, that my briefcase?”When the man and his buddy attempt to intimidate Vincent, the assassin wastes no time before shooting them dead. He picks up the briefcase and walks away casually, but not before shooting another bullet into the man’s head. A ruthless assassin indeed.
Michael Mann’s Praise for Tom Cruise Knows No Bounds
Mann compared Cruise to the lateLee Marvin, the staple “tough guy” of Hollywood known for films likePoint BlankandThe Killers.The filmmaker stated that if Cruise is given a role that is so drastically different from what he’s used to or what he himself cannot relate to, he makes it his life’s mission to get to know the character.
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It almost becomes an adventure for theTop Gunactor. Mann believed that Cruise would be perfect to play the sociopathic Vincent given his perfectionism.
Mann said,
In Tom, I saw Lee Marvin. When Tom zeroes into a certain kind of person, if they are far enough away from him so that it’s a turn-on for a man of adventure, to be on some kind of a frontier with a character he can get to know but is very different from him, I could tell that within him it becomes a real adventure.
To play Vincent, this solipsistic sociopath, who has all the f*cking answers and is so methodical and good at what he does, it felt like Tom was a perfect fit. He’s a perfectionist about knowing how to do the things he is supposed to do, which is why he does his own stunts in ‘Mission: Impossible.’
Mann acknowledged the fact that Vincent was a new character for Cruise which is why it impressed him how the actor threw himself into the role. He never doubted Cruise for a second and knew that he’d give the film his hundred percent and then some, which he did.
Collateralis available to watch on Paramount+.
Mishkaat Khan
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2257
A connoisseur of all things horror, fantasy, and the occasional chick flick, Mishkaat has been penning pieces for FandomWire since 2022. She started off as an intern and has worked her way up to a Senior Writer with over 2000 articles to her name.Outside of entertainment, she has also written well-researched medical content as a freelance writer and has experience in social media management.When not writing, you’re able to find her relaxing with a romance novel and a tall glass of iced coffee in her hand or watching re-runs of ‘Supernatural’ and ‘The Office.’
