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Vanilla Sky (2001) | The Definitive Explanation

Welcome to our Colossus Movie Guide for Vanilla Sky . This guide contains everything you need to understand the film. Dive into our detailed library of content, covering key aspects of the movie. We encourage your comments to help us create the best possible guide. Thank you!

Last updated: July 2023

What is Vanilla Sky about?

For those who want a quick answer— Vanilla Sky is pretty straightforward. Everything that Tech Support says in the final scene is true. Tom Cruise is having a lucid dream. He did die (sort of) and was saved by Life Extension. He didn’t kill Sofia. He does have a choice of waking up or continuing the dream. And David chooses to wake up about 150 years in the future. 

What’s less straightforward is this: how much of what we saw was from real life and how much was the lucid dream? Of course, even if the ending is straightforward, that doesn’t mean Vanilla Sky is without depth, themes, or deeper meanings. Through visuals like the empty streets of Times Square and the vivid glow of the heavens that frame David, the film has a lot to say about self-esteem, perception, therapy, and the relationship between mind and body. As well as technology and mortality. 

Movie Guide table of contents

• Why is the movie called Vanilla Sky?

The themes and meaning of Vanilla Sky

The ending of vanilla sky explained, important motifs in vanilla sky.

• Questions and answers about Vanilla Sky
• David Aames – Tom Cruise
• Julie Gianni – Cameron Diaz
• Brian Shelby – Jason Lee
• Sofía Serrano – Penélope Cruz
• Thomas Tipp – Timothy Spall
• Dr. Curtis McCabe – Kurt Russell
• Edmund Ventura (Tech Support)  – Noah Taylor 
• Rebecca Dearborn – Tilda Swinton
• Aaron (the guard) – Michael Shannon
• Steven Spielberg – himself
• Based on – Abre Los Ojos ( Open Your Eyes )
• Written by – Cameron Crowe
• Directed by – Cameron Crow

Why is the movie called Vanilla Sky ?

Vanilla Sky is a remake of the 1997 Spanish film Abre los ojos , or Open Your Eyes , made by Alejandro Amenábar, also starring Penelope Cruz as Sofia. The plot is almost verbatim. Handsome guy. Crazy ex. Sofia. Car crash. Disfigurement. Prosthetic mask. In jail and talking to a psychiatrist. Mystery. Thrills. Murder. Life Extension revelation. Jumps to wake up. It’s all there.

So why change the title from Open Your Eyes to Vanilla Sky ? 

The original title is a generic term for waking up or coming to your senses or facing reality. If a friend was being catfished, you might say to them, “Open your eyes. That person isn’t real!” Or, “I thought I could become a famous juggler. But I’ve opened my eyes to the fact that I don’t actually like juggling.” 

It’s a fitting title, because in both movies, the hero, David/César, chooses to close his eyes to the real world in order to escape the negative emotions that plague him after the car accident. Only to reach a point where he’d rather open his eyes than continue to live in the lovely state of denial that L.E created for him. 

Vanilla Sky accomplishes a similar goal in a less direct, more poetic way. At his birthday party, David shows Sofia the painting The Seine at Argenteuil , by Claude Monet. “That is the real thing. His paintbrush painted the vanilla sky.” At the very end of the movie, when David is at the version of Life Extension in his mind, Rebecca Dearborn shows him the presentation about what Life Extension offers. Pay attention to the words that have to do with painting. 

Narrator: Portrait of a modern human life. American. Male. Birth and death. Imagine that you are suffering from a terminal illness. You’d like to be cryonized but you’d rather be resurrected to continue your own life as you know it now. L.E. offers you the answer. Upon resurrection, you will continue in an ageless state, preserved but living in th represent with a future of your choosing. Your death will be wiped from your memory. Your life will continue as a realistic work of art, painted by you , minute to minute, and you’ll live it with the romantic abandon of a summer day, with the feeling of a great movie, or a pop song you always loved, with no memory of how it all occurred, save for the knowledge that everything simply improved. And in any instance of discontent, you’ll be visited by technical support. It’s all just around the corner. The day after tomorrow. Another chapter begins seamlessly. A living dream. Life Extension’s promise to you. Life, part two.

This is why Cameron Crowe went with the title Vanilla Sky . Because it captures the larger idea of the cinematic denial that David has escaped into. It represents the idealization. That summer day. That great movie. That pop song that we wish our lives could be. Monet’s painting is at once beautiful and artificial. It’s the same for dreams. These amazing things can happen but they still aren’t real, no matter how much they might seem like it. 

The new title extends beyond David, to the viewer, as the movie takes on philosophical questions about the way in which we use media and entertainment as a means of escapism. 

Paul McCartney’s song

Paul wrote the song “Vanilla Sky” specifically for the film. Cameron Crowe approached McCartney, showed him about half an hour of the film, then Paul went to work. So even though they share a title, the song probably doesn’t provide a window into the title or movie in the way one may think, hope, or expect. You can watch the interview Paul did with ET in 2002 . 

Reality vs dream 

Vanilla Sky opens with a bit of a joke. David drives around New York City, right into the heart of Times Square, with zero traffic. He’s alone in one of the most popular, populated places in the entire world. Being able to easily get around NYC is a dream come true. Except David isn’t thrilled. He’s terrified. What happened to the people? They should be there. Even if that means traffic and annoyances. It’s what should be. 

That gets at the central tension between dreams and real life. As amazing as a dream can be, it always has that degree of artificiality to it. You can’t shake the fake. Nor can you escape your subconscious and the things that plague you. Which is why a dream can easily glitch into a nightmare. That’s how Sofia becomes Julianna. David’s subconscious, even after 150 years, hasn’t fully processed what happened with Julie and how it impacted any chance he had with Sofia. He carries this guilt, shame, and blame that causes his lucid dream to literally put him in prison. Peace is only found “out there”, in the world, through hard work. That’s how you repair yourself. 

Entertainment and escapism

Art is a subtle throughline throughout Vanilla Sky . Diegetically, it’s there in the references to famous works, like The Seine at Argenteuil , or Joni Mitchell, or the Jules and Jim poster on David’s bedroom wall, the quick look at Sabrina on the TV in the opening scene, the talk show interview about Benny the Dog, the Bob Dylan album cover. Non-diegetically, we have the barrage of pop music that Crowe fills the score with. From “Everything In Its Right Place” by Radiohead to “Last Goodbye” by Jeff Buckley to Paul McCartney’s “Vanilla Sky”. 

It isn’t until the end that we get more about the relevance and importance of this theme. Specifically, the way in which Life Extension sells people on the opportunity to make their life into entertainment. McCabe makes the joke about it being cryo-tainment. 

All of this adds up to a commentary on the increasing use of technology and entertainment as means of escapism. In some ways, Vanilla Sky is the same movie as The Matrix , as both explore the allure of escape into technology and artificiality in order to avoid the ugly aspects of life. In The Matrix , that’s the post-war world in which intelligent machines bested humanity, with the remnants of humanity living in a very bleak, underground city. In different ways, both films ask questions about the pros and cons of each world. It comes back to the texture of the dream state versus that of real life. It never quite feels right. Even when it’s seemingly perfect, like David’s life could have been. 

This was already a topic in the late 90s and early 00s. Now, in the 2020s, with the rise of social media and the interconnectivity the Internet offers, those films seem prescient. Not only can you use movies and music to escape, you can supplement it with online tribes that will gladly engage on the topic 24 hours a day. In 2022, the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health published a paper called “ Escapism and Excessive Online Behaviors: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study in Finland during the COVID-19 Pandemic ” that looked into a link between “excessive online behaviors” and if escapism links to other excessive behaviors and how this highlights “ a need to focus prevention efforts on healthy coping methods”

In an interview with Vulture that came out in 2020, during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Crowe said: “It feels like we’re right on the cusp of being able to do some of that stuff now, for better or worse. Everybody living in their own virtual reality — in some ways, it’s just a half-step away from what’s in the movie. It’s odd. The ripple effect of that movie is really interesting.”

We like to think that a life like a movie or a song would be better than what we deal with. But what if the movie is Schindler’s List ? What if the song is Johnny Cash’s version of “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails? From that same Vulture interview, Crowe: … the idea that pop culture can be so ingrained in what your vision of the perfect relationship, or the perfect life, or the perfect Bob Dylan song playing at the perfect time can change your life choices, change who you are.

Obviously, entertainment isn’t inherently a bad thing. People have wonderful, healthy, empowering relationships with movies, novels, poetry, art, TV, music, etc. It’s just that, as with most things, there’s a line between healthy and unhealthy. A line that can completely vanish in the wake of trauma.

Trauma, self-esteem, and perception 

There’s that famous saying that the eyes are the window to the soul. Typically, we think of that as looking into the eyes of someone else and perceiving their emotions and thoughts. Whether there’s worry, joy, boredom, anticipation, passion, fear, etc. But there’s something about applying that phrase to our own eyes. You know, the things through which we perceive the world around us. 

If our soul is in a good place, how does that affect how we perceive the world around us? Likewise, if our soul is in a bad place, doesn’t that change everything? Two different people, looking at the same object, can see very different things, all because of what’s going on inside of them. What we’ve experienced, what we’re feeling, all of its shapes our perception. 

David before the accident is confident, care-free, charming, and quick to laugh. He has money. He has power. He has an easy, breezy, happy life. Sure, there’s pressure from the board about his father’s company. But the Seven Dwarfs, as he calls them, are minor inconveniences. He doesn’t seem to have many close friends, aside from best friend Brian. But that’s okay. Because everyone treats him well. So his self-esteem is through the roof. 

Then the accident happens. The car crash. Once Julie drives off that bridge, nothing is ever the same. David found validation and pride in his looks. Now those are gone. One of his eyes is messed up. Partially closed. Because his soul’s in anguish, he now sees the world differently, and behaves differently. It’s no longer the wonderful place it was before. David isolates himself, disconnects from people. When he does interact, he’s rude, bitter, and awkward. 

This establishes a paradox between the inner and outer worlds, akin to the age-old question of what came first, the chicken or the egg. If his outer appearance were perfect again, would he be happy again? Or is his outer world a mess because he’s been unable to process his trauma? 

It ends up being a bit of both. The damage to his appearance causes a doom spiral that ultimately leads him to Life Extension. But even in the lucid dream, after the splice, when he has all of his looks back, when the outer world has seemingly returned to the great place it once was—he can’t find happiness. What Julie did to him continues to manifest. Which leads to his inability to accept dream Sofia and the murder that puts him in dream jail, talking to a dream psychologist. It’s all a manifestation of his continued inner turmoil. 

In short, we could all probably use a little bit of therapy in our lives. 

David and McCabe go to the headquarters of Life Extension, escorted by a police officer. There, they encounter Rebecca Dearborn. She reminds David that he is a client of Life Extension and chose the Lucid Dream package. Overwhelmed by this revelation, David escapes from the office and cries out for tech support. Edmund Ventura, aka Tech Support, appears, introducing himself as someone from “Oasis Project, formerly Life Extension—L.E.”. 

On a journey to the skyscraper’s roof, Tech Support explains that he and David first met 150 years ago. Then refreshes David’s memory on what happened. 

Tech Support: That night, after Sofia left you and you fell asleep on the pavement, that was the moment you chose for the splice… The end of your real life and the beginning of L.E.’s Lucid Dream. A splice of many, many years, which passed while you were frozen and dreaming. From the moment you woke up on that street, nothing was real in a traditional sense. Your Lucid Dream is monitored by Life Extension and a panel of experts who are following your every thought, even at this moment. … 

We erased what really happened from your memory. Replaced by a better life. Under these beautiful, Monet-like skies. A better life, because you had Sofia. You sculpted your Lucid Dream out of the iconography of your youth. An album cover that once moved you. A movie you saw once late at night that showed you what a father could be like. Or what love could be like. This was a kind woman. An individual. More than your equal. You barely knew her in your real life, but in your Lucid Dream, she was your savior. 

David then asks what happened in his real life. What did Life Extension erase? 

Tech Support: The Morning after the Nightclub, you woke up on that street, hungover and alone. You got up, and you walked away. You never saw Sofia again. You battled your board, the Seven Dwarfs, for control of the company. In the end, it was Thomas Tipp, your father’s friend, the man whose job you saved, who wrenched the company back into your control. You longed for Sofia. You shut yourself away from months. You were alone. You couldn’t stand the pain anymore, the headaches. You could barely function. 

At this point, we see a quick montage of David as he discovers Life Extensions, signs a contract, then takes enough pills to end his life.  

Tech Support: And on a day in late December, you gave yourself to us. You’re now in a suspended state. Your friend Brian Shelby threw a three-day memorial in your old home. He was a true friend. You were missed, David. [We see Sofia show up to the funeral, look overwhelmed, then leave] . It was Sofia who never fully recovered. It was she who somehow knew you best. And like you, she never forgot that one night where true love seemed possible. Consequences, David. It’s the little things. 

To which David responds: The little things. There’s nothing bigger, is there?

This leads to David having a choice. Because of his unsettled subconscious, the lucid dream became a nightmare. But Tech Support states the glitch has been fixed. He can return to the dream world. Return to Sofia. To a fixed face. Everything. Or. He can wake up. 150 years in the future. With dwindling finances. But the technology to fix his face and bring him back to full health, just like Benny the Dog. 

Ultimately, David decides to wake up, jumping off the building, despite his fear of heights, as a demonstration of his conviction to return. His childhood flashes in his mind. Then, a woman’s voice says, “Relax, David, open your eyes.” And we see his eye open. 

The end. 

Explanation

In the 2020 interview with Vulture , Cameron Crowe confirmed that not everything Tech Support said is true. 

Crowe: The clues are all there, and some of the stuff that’s “explained” toward the end is not fully — Noah Tayor is not fully a responsible “host” at that point. Not everything he says can be trusted. It’s a fun game to play with the movie and I’m glad that people have come back to it.

The Wikipedia page for Vanilla Sky has an Interpretations section that mentions five different possible endings. The source it has for these is the Vulture interview that only links to the Wikipedia page. Maybe something was there previously?

The 5 interpretations are:

• “Tech Support” is telling the truth
• The entire film is a dream
• The events after the crash are a dream Aames has while comatose
• The entire film is the plot of the book that Brian is writing
• The entire film after the crash is a hallucination caused by drugs administered during Aames’s reconstructive surgery

Points 3 and 5 feel very similar and very silly and anti-climactic. 

Crowe himself said that he really likes the idea that everything is from Brian’s book. Quote: “ I’m probably saying too much, but sometimes I watch it and I think, This is all his novel.” That definitely adds an entirely different layer to Vanilla Sky . But it does beg the question if the movie does enough to earn such a reading? Or at least validate it as a possibility aside from Brian saying he’s working on a novel. It would be like if Matthew Reeves came out and said The Batman was actually a metaphor for World War II. That’s a nice idea. But does anything in The Batman justify reading it that way aside from Reeves saying it?

That’s something that writers often encounter early on. They’ll write something, have a loved one read it, then say something like, “Did you pick up that the red sweater represented her childhood trauma because her grandma always had tomato juice in the refrigerator?” The answer is always: no. Why? Because how could anyone connect those two things? 

That’s why Crowe seems to be saying it’s more of a personal reading of Vanilla Sky rather than him saying it was what he intended. There’s a big difference there. 

That leaves, then, interpretations 1 and 2. Tech Support could be telling the truth. But it all feels a bit too neat. Especially with David defeating the board and Sofia continuing to long for him. Even without Crowe’s hints, Tech Support’s story has the same faux-quality of the Lucid Dream’s sky. It’s too perfect. Given that the entire movie has leaned into the idea that we should question the nature of David’s reality, it makes sense that we shouldn’t take everything Tech Support says as truth. He could just be giving David a happier version of events as part of the Lucid Dream package. Or he’s been slightly “corrupted” by being part of David’s subconscious for so long and thus prone to tell David some things that David wants to hear. 

So that leaves interpretation 2. That it’s all a dream.

It was all a dream

“But couldn’t it also not be a dream?” No. That was semi-plausible up until the point McCabe can’t remember the name of his daughters. He’s clearly a mental construct of David’s Lucid Dream. If the whole thing was an elaborate ruse by the Seven Dwarfs to take control of the company, then, narratively speaking, they would be the main villains and incredibly underdeveloped. Normally, a story wouldn’t completely disregard the primary antagonists like that. But you don’t develop them if all they ever were was a red herring. Also, all the other characters just appear on the rooftop, out of nowhere. Either that’s because David has totally lost his mind or…Lucid Dream. That, and David waking up as the final shot. 

If it was theory two, that David has just been in a coma, then 150 years wouldn’t have passed. Which means Sofia’s still alive and he would still have a chance with her. He’d only have dreamed of the failed date at the club and the fallout. If that was the case, then you would expect to see that as the ultimate twist. He would wake up, look around, and expect it to be 150 years in the future, just like Tech Support said, only for it to have been a month, or a year. You either end there with all that that implies or continue on for another 20 or 30 minutes and see how David behaves now that he’s home. Imagine if Wizard of Oz just ended with Dorothy clicking her heels but we never saw her back in Kansas or got the line, “There’s no place like home.” You could forgo it, but it’s weird. And lacking. 

That leaves the dream. Crowe had mentioned there being clues. One that stands out would be the registration sticker on David’s Mustang. Not in the first dream where Times Square is empty. In the “real world” when he’s “awake”. The registration date reads 02/30/01. February 30th doesn’t exist. February has 28 days unless it’s Leap Year, then it’s 29. So the only way he could have a registration sticker with the date of 02/30 is if it’s a joke, which would be a stupid thing to have on such a nice car, or it’s not “real”. It’s one of those things a storyteller adds specifically as a hint to the viewer. And we have Crowe confirming he did just that. 

Other clues? It’s Sofia who first says “Open your eyes” at the very beginning. Why would we hear her voice that early if David hadn’t met her yet? Also, preceding that, we have aerial shots of the camera drifting over New York City, almost as if flying. Adding to the sense of flying, we hear the wind, as if it’s rushing past us. What’s commonly associated with lucid dreaming? Flying. It would be one thing to just have the camera giving us establishing shots of New York City. That’s a very common film practice. But to have the sound of the wind? That’s not common. It implies we’re in the perspective of someone who is flying. 

Also, if everything prior to the splice point had been real, it wouldn’t make sense for us to see David talking to McCabe before that. We know that in real life David never murdered Sofia. Which means that in real life, David would have never been talking with McCabe. All of those early, pre-splice scenes are in the context of David’s conversation with McCabe. Which means, naturally, that they’re the memories he has while in Life Extension’s Lucid Dream. That makes them unreliable. 

Remember, Life Extension said that customers will have “no memory of how it all occurred, save for the knowledge that everything simply…improved.”

What we see of David’s life in the “real” portion of the film is ridiculously perfect. The banter. How much everyone loves him. His success. It’s to the point where everyone seems kind of crazy. To the point where it’s out of a Hallmark movie. Could those scenes, those memories, have been “slightly improved”? Were David and Brian friends? Sure. Did he and Sofia hit it off? Yes. But was the dialogue verbatim what happened in real life? We’re seeing David’s memory processed through the Lucid Dream’s romanticizing, so that everything had the feeling of a “great movie” or a “pop song”. Even the car crash could be ripped from the movie Jules and Jim rather than something that actually happened. 

Based on all of this, you have to wonder if we ever actually met the real David or the real Sofia or the real Brian, Julie, etc. Everyone could be a heightened version of themselves, either made perfect by the Lucid Dream or made into a monster by the glitch. 

So what was the point?

Ultimately, Vanilla Sky is a coming of age story. Despite being 33 years old, David still acts like an adolescent. He is pretty naive about the world. Takes without thought. Mistreats Brian, Julie, and even Sofia. He’s irresponsible at work. He is not a very serious person. The car crash is the consequence of his actions. If he had been a better friend to Brian, does Brian tell Julie what David said? If he had been more upfront with Julie, does she go crazy or move on? If he had turned down getting in the car that morning because he knew he was starting something with Sofia, would he have been okay? Probably. 

His time with the mask and the nightmare is essentially his Christmas Carol period of seeing the ghosts of his past, present, and future. By experiencing everything he experiences, he reaches a new level of self-knowledge and acceptance. The immature thing to do would be to stay in the dream. That would be the act of someone still in denial and acting out of fear. But because David’s matured, he understands that the ups and downs of reality are better than a hollow dream, no matter how good the dream is. 

This extends to the earlier point about the relationships people form with entertainment and other forms of media. As fun as it is to achieve something in a video game, that can’t replace real life. As satisfying as it is to build an audience on TikTok or Instagram, that can’t replace real loved ones. As great as a great movie can be, is it better than the happiest moments of your life? As long as we maintain a healthy relationship with the things that make us happy, that’s awesome. But the moment we start escaping into them because we’re scared—that’s a glitch. And it can send us spiraling. 

When David wakes up, it’s to a whole new world, with limited resources. That’s terrifying. But that doesn’t mean it’s going to be bad. The same applies to real life. That’s why David, in his final conversation with dream Sofia, says, “Do you remember what you told me once? That every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around.” 

With that in mind, it doesn’t necessarily matter what was real in David’s past. All that’s important is to know he went on a journey from being scared and running from reality to confident, appreciative, and ready to do the hard work. It’s the story of someone confronting their heartache, working through it, and arriving at some sort of catharsis. When David finally understands, he asks Tech Support, “And I chose this scenario, didn’t I?” Tech Support responds with, “Yes, to face your last remaining fear of heights.” 

Vanilla Sky supports the concept that to heal and move forward we need time, introspection, and self-confrontation. It’s not always pretty. It’s not always fun. But it’s the way through the sh*ttiness. If you avoid these things, then you waste time. Everything can’t always be sweet. You need the sour, too. It’s the only way we learn and grow. Vanilla Sky reminds us to do our best to be honest with ourselves. 

The Vanilla Sky

It’s been mentioned throughout the article, but the Vanilla Sky of the Lucid Dream is a callback to the sky in Monet’s painting The Seine at Argenteuil . The Lucid Dream embodies the way in which art becomes a means of escape and the tension of art being beautiful but also a representation of life rather than life itself. You can admire the sky in The Seine at Argenteuil but it can’t replace the real sky. Just like Dream Sofia,while wonderful, can’t replace having a relationship with an actual person. Art can’t be life. It can add to someone’s life. But it can’t replace the real things. 

The Jules and Jim poster

Jules and Jim is a classic film major movie. Part of the French New Wave revolution of the 50s and 60s, it’s this dreamy story of two friends, Jules and Jim, and the woman, Catherine, that they’re both in love with. She marries Jules and time passes. Jim visits and begins a romance with Catherine, one that Jules agrees to because it turns out Catherine kind of hates him and Jules believes this is the only way he can keep her in his life. Eventually, Jim leaves, goes back to his old girlfriend, and prepares to marry her. Catherine wants Jim, he wants nothing to do with her, she threatens him with a gun, he escapes. Later, all three hang out. Everything seems fine. Until Catherine asks Jim to get into her car. She then drives them off—this may sound familiar—a bridge. Neither survives and it’s up to Brian—er, Jules—to scatter their ashes. 

If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the foundation of the first portion of Vanilla Sky . The same way Cameron Crowe incorporated the Bob Dylan cover and the Monet sky, he has the plot of Vanilla Sky literally recreate Jules and Jim . The poster in David’s bedroom is a very important clue that eventually gains context when we learn about Life Extension and what goes into creating the Lucid Dream. 

Empty Times Square

On the one hand, the scene in an empty Times Square doesn’t need to mean anything more than just being a great visual. On the other hand, it does serve as a nice contrast to the very end of the film. 

Compare the Times Square scene to the final conversation on the rooftop of Life Extension headquarters. In the former, Cruise is on the ground, completely alone. Even though his life seems perfect, it’s empty. By the end, he’s high up on a roof and has with him some very important people—Sofia, Brian, McCabe, and Tech Support. Those are to him what the Tin Man, Scarecrow, Lion, and Glinda were to Dorothy in Wizard of Oz . These manifestations of heart, intelligence, courage, and guidance.  

You can argue that the roof is symbolic of the perspective David has gained over the course of the film, a visual contrast to the confusion and loneliness he felt at the beginning. 

Questions & answers about Vanilla Sky

Was it sofia or julie that david smothered.

Even though he thinks it was Julie, David sees the mole that he knew Sofia had. Which is why he thinks he killed Sofia. There’s a scene earlier in the movie where he makes a big deal about that mole. That’s there specifically to set up the later “reveal”. 

Was Julie actually Sofia? Did Sofia ever exist?

There’s a whole argument to be made that no one in the dream ever existed in David’s life and his real life was completely different from whatever we see in the dream. But if we accept some of the facts that the movie gave us in the first 30 minutes, then Julie and Sofia really were separate people. 

Why did David think Julie was Sofia or that Sofia was Julie?

The simple answer is it was just the glitch causing the dream to become a nightmare. That’s it. 

The deeper, thematic answer is that it’s a byproduct of David’s subconscious and relates to a guilt he feels about what happened with Sofia and Julie. If he hadn’t gotten into the car with the one, then he could have had a life with the other. He “chose” Julie. So her becoming Sofia in the dream is just a hyperbolic embodiment of David’s guilt and remorse. That momentary choice had a profound ripple effect on his life and ultimately led to the “death” of him and Sofia. 

Is Vanilla Sky like Inception ?

Somewhat! Cobb and David go on similar journeys of working through their baggage in dream worlds. Both have glitches. David’s is a best more conceptual but takes the form of Julie becoming Sofia. While in Inception , Cobb’s guilt over his wife’s death manifests as his wife invading the various dreams Cobb’s in and sabotaging whatever mission he’s on. Both movies end with escaping the dream and returning to real life, having found a sense of closure. 

Is it Sophia or Sofia?

Sofia. 

Now it’s your turn

Have more unanswered questions about Vanilla Sky ? Are there themes or motifs we missed? Is there more to explain about the ending? Please post your questions and thoughts in the comments section! We’ll do our best to address every one of them. If we like what you have to say, you could become part of our movie guide!

Chris Lambert is co-founder of Colossus. He writes about complex movie endings, narrative construction, and how movies connect to the psychology of our day to day lives.

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Tom Cruise Movies List

1. Endless Love

3. The Outsiders

4. Losin' It

5. All the Right Moves

6. Risky Business

9. The Color of Money

10. Cocktail

11. Rain Man

12. Born on the Fourth of July

13. Days of Thunder

14. A Few Good Men

15. The Firm

16. Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles

17. Mission: Impossible

18. Jerry Maguire

19. Eyes Wide Shut

20. Magnolia

21. Mission: Impossible II

22. Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures

23. Vanilla Sky

24. Space Station 3D

25. Minority Report

26. Austin Powers in Goldmember

27. The Last Samurai

28. Collateral

29. War of the Worlds

30. Mission: Impossible III

31. Lions for Lambs

32. Valkyrie

33. Tropic Thunder

34. Knight and Day

36. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

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Why Does Tom Cruise Have the Same Facial Cuts in Every Movie?

Paramount Pictures

This article originally appeared in Vulture .

The trailer for this week’s Jack Reacher: Never Go Back begins in the aftermath of what looks like a particularly bloody brawl. Reacher, played once again by Tom Cruise, sits handcuffed in a diner, spouting tough-guy dialogue at the (presumably corrupt) cops who’ve come to arrest him. But don’t pay attention to his words. Pay attention to his controversial face . If you’re a longtime Cruise fan, you may notice something familiar: In the scene, the actor sports a slim horizontal cut on the bridge of his nose, as well as a bloody patch on his right cheekbone—the same exact facial injuries Cruise’s characters have been sporting for years .

The trend was first pointed out to me by my friend Blake , and it’s one of those things that, once you see it, you notice it everywhere. Here’s Cruise and his facial cuts menacing Jamie Foxx on the subway in Collateral :

Here’s Cruise and his facial cuts giving their best puppy-dog eyes in Mission Impossible III :

Here’s Cruise and his facial cuts strapping in for a sci-fi adventure in Oblivion :

Universal Pictures

And here’s Cruise and his facial cuts rescuing Rebecca Ferguson in Mission Impossible—Rogue Nation :

David James/Paramount Pictures

(A similar facial-cut pattern also shows up about two hours into Mission Impossible 2 , but there’s no good still.)

Clearly, this is more than mere coincidence. Something is going on, but what is it? Here are the only explanations that I’ve been able to come up with:

It’s vanity.

Stars depend on their faces for their livelihood, and so it’s only natural that some of them are extremely obsessive about the way their faces are shown. Ariana Grande only wants to be shot from the side of her face that she considers more attractive. Did Cruise similarly discover that his face looked extremely fetching with one particular set of wounds and demand that makeup artists give him the same set for every film thereafter?

He was dipped in the River Styx as a child.

In Greek mythology, the legendary hero Achilles got a ceremonial dunk in the River Styx after his birth, which left him essentially arrow-proof—except for his heel, which is where his mother held onto him. Did Cruise receive a similar boon from his own mom, who perhaps dipped him in feet first, making his nose and cheekbones the only part of his body that could show harm? It’s unlikely, yes, but how else do you explain Cruise’s seemingly magical aging process?

The cuts are actually ancient runes, sending secret messages out into the universe for some dark eldritch purpose.

You never know.

In all likelihood, this is a mystery that will probably never be solved. But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn anything, for in their own special way, these facial cuts disprove the odd notion that great acting is about range. These barely bleeding wounds can only do one thing—give Cruise’s characters an aesthetically pleasing vulnerability—but they do it quite well.

See also:  It’s Time to Start Liking Tom Cruise Again

Den of Geek

In defence of Vanilla Sky

Cameron Crowe and Tom Cruise reteamed, following Jerry Maguire, on Vanilla Sky. It's a film with far fewer fans...

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This article comes from Den of Geek UK .

This article contains spoilers for Vanilla Sky.

Memorable moments – it seemed to be what Cameron Crowe had a knack for creating. Lloyd Dobler stood with a ghetto blaster held aloft in Say Anything , the ‘Show me the money’ or ‘You had me at hello’ scenes from Jerry Maguire , the singalong of Tiny Dancer or the imminent plane crash in Almost Famous . It also seemed Cameron Crowe could do no wrong on the wave of the success of those films, but then there came a film which, instead of creating memorable moments, everybody seemed to want to forget all about.

In 2001, Cameron Crowe made the much maligned Vanilla Sky .

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It seemed to really rub people up the wrong way upon release. Was this because it wasn’t what they were expecting from a Crowe and Cruise team up (this was very different from Jerry Maguire )? This is Cameron Crowe’s first non-original film; his previous film, Almost Famous , was semi-autobiographical, regarding his days working as a reporter for Rolling Stone in his youth. Vanilla Sky is a remake of the Spanish film Abre Los Ojos ( Open Your Eyes ) by Alejandro Amenbar.

It’s not a straightforward remake, it adds layers upon layers to the original, which is a great film in its own right. They are both so different it’s redundant to undergo a comparison. But Alejandro Amenbar says “Cameron has all my respect and admiration. Respect, for having plumbed the deepest meaning of the work. Admiration, for having sought new viewpoints and a fresh approach to the mise-en-scene, giving the film his own unmistakable touch. Vanilla Sky is as true the original spirit as it is irreverent towards its form, and that makes it a courageous, innovative work. I think I can say that, for me, the projects are like two very special brothers. They have the same concerns, but their personalities are quite different.”

One of the main elements it shares is the casting of Penelope Cruz, who reprises her role from the original film. But before we get to the central romance of Vanilla Sky , the most Cameron Crowe aspect of the film, we get to begin the film with something opposite. The film opens within a nightmare.

The first images are bird’s eye shots of Manhattan, looking down upon the skyscrapers and Central Park. Cinematographer John Toll makes these distinctive and large scale whilst informing the plot and referencing lead character David Aames’ fear of heights. From these aerial shots, we head towards the Dakota building, the famous home of John Lennon, and the building he was shot outside of in 1981 by Mark Chapman. This forms a bookend for the film, as the end credits open with Paul McCartney performing his self penned song inspired by the film’s title. There are plenty of moments of synchronicity that run through Vanilla Sky , and sometimes you can be unsure if they were intended or happy accidents. This not a criticism, it’s an aspect of there being so many elements that are stuffed with meaning.

The first line of dialogue heard is the original title, “abre los ojos”, from the voice of Penelope Cruz, which then changes to Cameron Diaz’s voice saying the words “open your eyes”. Everything In Its Right Place by Radiohead plays on the soundtrack, and everything does seem to be normal. We’re in a Tom Cruise movie where he has a charmed life in an ultra stylish apartment, he drives out into New York in his stunning car. But, there is something wrong. As he approaches Times Square, there is not a person in sight. It’s deserted.

I’m surprised these scenes aren’t more iconic. It’s a tremendous achievement to pull off, and looks stunning and incredibly eerie. It should be remembered as one of the most iconic images committed to screen. Tom Cruise running is an iconic image of modern American cinema, but combine that with a deserted Times Square, and the overwhelming influx of culture that surrounds him and you have a perfect distillation of the times. Is this a man drowning in the culture of the modern world? A man absolutely terrified to be on his own? Whatever the fears that fuel this nightmare, it is a memorable opening, and the troubles for this character are backed up by excerpts of what we believe to be a therapy session.

Cameron Crowe has called Vanilla Sky “A movie of clues and signposts, like the cover of Sgt. Pepper , every time you look at it you see something different.” Some of these clues can be seen during the Times Square sequence and early on in the movie. A film showing in David Aames’ apartment is Sabrina with Audrey Hepburn, which plays a big part in Sofia’s character in the film, as does the French New Wave depiction of romance that is seen in the latter half of the movie, referenced in the posters for Jules Et Jim and Breathless on the walls. The production designer responsible for these was Catherine Hardwicke, who went on to direct Thirteen and Twilight ; this was her penultimate film as a production designer.

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The central image on one of the video screens behind Tom Cruise plays a Twilight Zone episode, Shadowplay – an episode from series 2 of the original 1960’s TV anthology show, which concerns a man accused of committing a murder who is adamant that the world around them is his recurring nightmare. He tries to convince those about to execute him that this is the case. This is probably the first hint, or clue, as to which direction Vanilla Sky will go in. Otherwise the opening of the film seems pretty typical for a Cameron Crowe film.

He’s re-teaming with Tom Cruise, who plays charm and money really well; he has all the right friends, as referenced in the R.E.M song which plays on the soundtrack – even Steven Spielberg turns up in a cameo at his birthday party. (Cameron Crowe later returned the favour appearing as a commuter reading a paper in Minority Report .) There’s banter with Cameron Diaz, and his best friend (Jason Lee) and then he meets the girl that makes everything stop. It’s instant love – as bright and magical as a great pop song. There’s typical Cameron Crowe dialogue about life being a mix of the sweet and the sour. This time though, the film plays out this mix in a heightened state, with more focus upon the sour.

It only takes ten fast paced minutes for the first rug to be pulled from under the audience. The conversation that sounded like it could have been a therapy session is in fact taking place in a cell where Kurt Russell is interviewing Tom Cruise, who is now sporting a blank faced mask and is charged with murder.

It’s that mask which plays a big role in setting the tone for the movie as a whole. After the 40 minute mark, it plays a prominent role. Forty minutes into the movie a Nancy Wilson penned track that was performed by Cameron Diaz, and credited to her character Julie Gianni, plays. The track was titled I Fall Apart , and from this moment the film comes off the conventional tracks and explodes into another direction, just as the car that Diaz is driving with Cruise as a passenger veers off a bridge and straight into a wall. It’s a haunting static shot, at a distance which allows you time to wonder about the horrific aftermath of that accident.

David Aames survives, but is disfigured and hides behind the mask which we have seen in the flash forwards. During a scene that takes place in a club, its haunting quality is brought to the fore. He wanders the club, all expression removed, almost like a ghost. In fact the barman refuses to see him at first, looking away as he takes his order. I think this really works because of Tom Cruise’s involvement, audiences are so used to his face, his big smile, here that is all removed. Even when he removes the mask, that face is disfigured. These are the first steps for Vanilla Sky entering the territory of a horror film.

The club scene is a precursor for the biggest rug pull of the entire film, which may not be perceptible on first viewing. After the club scene Sofia runs off, leaving David to collapse onto the sidewalk, defeated. There is another lyrical clue on the soundtrack as the R.E.M tune Sweetness Follows blasts out. As morning comes and David wakes up on the street, there are lots of subtle clues that something isn’t right.

A record scratch, the sound of the needle touching the vinyl, as we fade in from black. A burbling of strange sound, and an odd colour palette. The main clue is the sky, almost psychedelic. On subsequent viewings you realise this is the moment that David Aames chose to start his lucid dream. A product from a company that offer Life Extension, a program that lets you dream whilst being cryogenically frozen. From this moment on the film takes place inside David Aames head, and we’re drawn back into another of his nightmares.

Even knowing where this is heading on subsequent viewings, the second half of the film is quite a ride. Dialogue hints to what is occurring with characters saying things like “We created our own world together.” There are sex scenes edited in the style of the French New Wave with freeze frames and jump cuts, highlighting David’s love for those films seen on his posters. But when the mysteries start to evolve they become increasingly head scratching. Sofia and Julie change roles, you hear ones voice coming out of the other’s mouth, or one character starts impersonating the other one. The timelines start to cross over at this point as well, reaching peak head scratching, ‘what is going on’ levels.

This culminates in a murder scene that is a triumph of editing on all levels. Specifically sound editing – the mix here is phenomenal. Songs that have featured on the soundtrack fade in and out over glitches, radio noise from spy radio, specifically from the Conet project, numbers are read out in a way reminiscent of The Beatles’ Revolution Number 9 . These numbers are actually David Aames’ patient number.

As the film reaches its climax it becomes difficult to discuss Vanilla Sky . The plot all clicks into place to the tune of Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys, which works as a great counterpoint to the moment, but also somehow makes one of the most upbeat of pop songs into something really sinister. What makes it difficult to discuss is that Vanilla Sky is constructed in such a way that it can mean multiple things to different people. Cameron Crowe even states on the audio commentary that there are four main interpretations of the films ending. One of these is fuelled by a tax disc which has a nonsensical date upon it – 30th February 2001 – which led people to read the film in its entirety as being David Aames’ dream.

Vanilla Sky can have very personal meanings to people. I loved how it uses our own personal relationship to pop culture to make up the scenes of our life, and the aspects that seep into our dreams and end up defining us. The iconography of your youth end up framing how you see the world, and most importantly for a Cameron Crowe film, how you fall in love. One of the big questions he mentions that he wanted the film to explore was “What is love in a world fuelled by pop culture?”

Underneath the strangeness, this is still a romantic Cameron Crowe film, albeit one about someone who died over a hundred years ago and someone who is frozen. My favourite line in the film sums up a lot of my feelings towards it – whilst ascending in the lift to confront his final fear, David Aames says “The little things. There’s nothing bigger is there?” And in the final montage that defines David Aames’ life all those little things flash by – important album covers, home videos and more. It’s a sequence to go through frame by frame if you want to go deeper with the film and extract the maximum meaning from it, because it’s a film full of little things, clues and moments, and there’s nothing bigger.

Cameron Crowe, in summing up the film, alludes to the enormity of its focus, saying that he sees the film as “part folk song, part fable, part poem, and partly a committed late night conversation where big ideas flow freely”. Not many Hollywood films have this scale of ambition, combined with a very personal feeling to them. For that alone, Vanilla Sky should be applauded. But it’s got so much more going for it, and I hope you’ll want to follow all its little clues and dive deep into the film.

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The Nine Wildest Mission: Impossible Stunts, Ranked By the Danger They Posed to Tom Cruise

By William Goodman

Over the last 27 years, the Mission: Impossible franchise has continued to establish itself from other movies in the spy genre by being synonymous with two things: Tom Cruise and insane stunts. With the subsequent release of each Ethan Hunt adventure comes another behind-the-scenes featurette about how far out there—read: how close to actual death—Cruise went to entertain and enthrall the audience, whether it’s learning how to hold his breath underwater for six minutes, or scaling the exterior of the world’s largest building.

With the release of the seventh installment in the series, Dead Reckoning Part One , Hunt states to a character that their life “will always be more important to me than my own,” which feels like a declaration of Cruise’s guiding philosophy for stunt work. To wit: Matt Damon recently recalled a conversation he had with Cruise about a stunt in Ghost Protocol —which started with Cruise deadpanning that he fired the film's first safety coordinator who deemed the stunt too dangerous.

Cruise fulfills his mission statement in the latest film by driving a motorcycle off a cliff and then parachuting down a ravine—establishing a new landmark in Hollywood stunt work. As the franchise reaches this new height, we’re looking at some of the most dangerous stunts from the Mission series and ranking by degree of danger, from least to most.

Danger Level: Mild

An exploding fish tank feels like small potatoes in the larger scope of the Mission series, but Cruise has said the stunt was indeed “very crazy.” Talking to Graham Norton in 2018, Cruise recalled that he and the stunt coordinator couldn’t get on the same page about the timing of the explosion, resulting in a Who’s On First -like back and forth about whether the go was on the count of three or the count of one. Considering the sequence involved a detonation, glass, and plenty of water, the potential for danger was high, but hardly life-threatening. miscommunication is enough for someone to get seriously injured if it wasn’t timed correctly.

Danger Level: Unnecessarily High

Cruise’s wholehearted approach to dangerous stunt work began in earnest with John Woo’s Mission: Impossible 2 . The actor put Alex Honnold to shame with an extensive free solo climbing stunt in the film’s opening . "I was really mad that he wanted to do it, but I tried to stop him and I couldn't," Woo told Entertainment Weekly back in 2000 . "I was so scared I was sweating. I couldn't even watch the monitor when we shot it." Woo’s nervousness stemmed from the fact Cruise was insistent on not only doing the climb himself but only wearing a thin safety wire through the staggering seven different takes it took to get the shot as he climbed over the constructed cliff face. His dedication comes through in the final product and is easily the highlight of an otherwise lackluster installment in the franchise ( despite my editor’s attempts to convince me otherwise ).

Danger Level: Probable Death

By Jack King

By Jesse Hassenger

By Kate Sloan

After Ghost Protocol —more on that later—the Mission franchise shifted into featuring a signature, outrageous stunt for each of its installments. For his first Mission , Christopher McQuarrie conjured up the idea of Cruise strapped to an A400 cargo plane—an image so memorable it became the central focus of the movie’s marketing. McQuarrie recently stated the fear around A400 stunt wasn’t so much about Cruise falling off (he was strapped into the door through a rigged vest) but external factors beyond their control, like a rock on the runway or a bird strike while the plane was taking off. With so little protection, the timing had to be perfect.

Danger Level: Technically Low, made higher by insane repetitions

While still extremely dangerous, the challenges around the HALO (high altitude, low opening) jump in Fallout were mostly logistical. McQuarrie and crew had to create a new style helmet for the sequence that not only provided oxygen for Cruise (who is the first ever actor to perform the jump typically reserved for military operations) but also had lighting in the interior so audiences could see his face. The timing of the natural lighting made it so the jump could only occur in a three-minute window, so the jump required over 100 attempts to get it right. The real risk came from ensuring Henry Cavill, Cruise, and the cameraman all hit their marks so they wouldn’t collide in midair while falling at 200 miles per hour. In any other movie, this would be the showstopper. And yet, in Fallout , it’s just the aperitif.

Danger Level: Navy Seal levels of difficulty

Much of the pre-release marketing of Mission films in the last decade typically includes Cruise discussing his training to execute on a stunt accordingly. Rogue Nation leaned into the fact he learned how to hold his breath underwater for a staggering six minutes to shoot the underwater vault heist sequence as practically as possible—and all in one long take despite the fact the finished sequence is intertwined with multiple cuts. Legend has it that safety and compliance teams on set were extraordinarily nervous about the whole thing, and it wasn’t until Cruise convinced them otherwise that it was safe and that he could handle it accordingly.

Danger Level: Low, but it’s always the one you least expect

For all the dangerous stunts in Mission movies, it’s odd that something as simple as a broken ankle is the only major injury to befall Cruise. While jumping from one building to another, Cruise sustained that injury and knew immediately he’d messed something up, as the take in which he broke it is the one McQuarrie used in the final cut. Filming on Fallout was subsequently delayed while he recovered, but Cruise seemed to take it in stride; a behind-the-scenes clip shows him shrugging it off like he forgot to grab something at the grocery store.

Danger Level: Extremely High

There are approximately three different “holy shit” moments throughout Fallout ’s third-act helicopter setpiece: Cruise jumping onto the rope as the helicopter takes off, free-falling off the helicopter, and then piloting the chopper himself while performing a 365-degree corkscrew dive. The scariest bit of all included the drop—Rebecca Ferguson declared that she thought Cruise actually fell from the helicopter. If you remember, Cruise falls and hits the accompanying load dangling at the bottom so hard that it knocks the wind out of him each of the several times he performed it. Not to mention, the corkscrew dive was so dangerous that “most pilots wouldn’t attempt it,” per stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood .

Danger Level: Technically Very High…(but less blatantly flirtatious with death than the movies that followed?)

In other movies, a stunt involving scaling the side of the Burj Khalifa would have taken place on a set with a replica or with CGI. Not in the world of Mission . For Ghost Protocol , Cruise climbed the world’s tallest building with only a single safety rope. A single misstep and everything could go south very quickly. The stunt set the tone for everything else that’s followed, as dedicating himself to the reality of it all makes it one of the defining stunts of the Mission franchise.

Danger Level: Trolling death at this point

In comedy, there’s the concept of putting “a hat on a hat,” which means that layering one joke on top of another different joke leads to the whole thing falling flat. In less-skilled hands, the now legendary cliff bike jump in Dead Reckoning could feel like a hat on a hat. It combines elements of previous Mission stunts, notably the HALO jump and the Paris bike chase from Fallout , but it’s accomplished and shot in such a way that it feels breathtaking at every single stage. The fact that Cruise performed the stunt several different times, despite its high risk, is stunt work at its very best.

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Inside Tom Cruise’s Shocking Transformation: ‘His Face Is Collapsing and Sagging’

Tom Cruise has been looking noticeably different lately — and sources say he’s desperate for more nip/tucks to shore up his falling face.

“Tom’s had all these surgeries and other beauty rituals that have taken a toll on his looks to the point where his face is collapsing and sagging in weird places,” an insider exclusively tells In Touch .

“People are begging him to stop trying to look younger and telling him to accept it and age gracefully. But that’s not his style!”

The 61-year-old screen superspy’s deflated face was on full display in London during a recent shoot for Mission: Impossible 8 .

“A couple of years ago, he was so puffy that people were comparing him to a chipmunk,” a source says. “But now it’s the opposite — all the extra volume is gone, so his skin is drooping and unfortunately it doesn’t just look like normal aging, it looks really unnatural!”

Sources previously claimed the Top Gun star had undergone multiple procedures — including a 2019 facelift — to preserve his boyish good looks.

“Tom may never admit it, but the truth is written all over his face,” a source adds.

“He’s convinced that with the right procedure he can turn back the clock again. He’s researching the latest rejuvenation techniques and putting a lot of hope on things like stem cells and lasers."

“But the fear is he could wind up permanently scarred. He always seems to go overboard and ends up looking pillow-faced — he doesn’t look like himself anymore!”

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A Familiar Magic Trick Executed to Perfection

One of the most enchanting aspects of 2018’s Mission: Impossible — Fallout , the last Mission: Impossible film, was the cavalier attitude with which it treated plot exposition. Its opening scenes breezed through a cavalcade of names and organizations and motivations that practically dared you to understand what was going on. This was, honestly, liberating. Don’t worry about why anything is happening, writer-director Christopher McQuarrie seemed to be telling us. Just enjoy the spectacle. This is the movie in which Tom Cruise hangs off a helicopter.

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One , as suggested by that ominous “part one,” seems to care a bit more about its plot, and it’s not hard to see why. This time, Cruise’s Ethan Hunt isn’t fighting nihilistic terrorists or vaporous international-espionage networks but an all-powerful artificial intelligence known as “the Entity” that has instant access to any and all online networks and can effectively dupe the world’s tech-reliant militaries into fighting one another. It’s a variation on the man-versus-machine theme that Cruise and McQuarrie pursued in last year’s Top Gun: Maverick and a rather compelling metaphor for their well-publicized dedication to old-school action film–making and real-life stunt work. It also happens to resonate with our current moment: You can easily imagine the Entity standing in for any number of modern society’s (and modern cinema’s) high-tech bogeymen, from dead-eyed disrupters to algorithm-obsessed visionaries .

But if Dead Reckoning spends a bit too much time slowly (and repeatedly) spelling out what the Entity is and what it can do and why that’s capital-B Bad, it can be forgiven, because all that exposition serves as a kind of spiritual justification for the bravado on display. It could even be a justification for the entire Mission: Impossible series , as this new entry is largely built out of sequences that evoke previous movies, only cranked up to 11 — from a fight atop a speeding train to a sandstorm to a car chase through narrow European streets. It has even brought back Henry Czerny’s charmingly officious Eugene Kittridge, who was the head of the IMF (Impossible Mission Force) in the first movie but has now, five pictures later, become the head of the CIA.

There’s an Easter-eggy quality to much of Dead Reckoning , but McQuarrie & Co. escalate matters effectively. Alec Baldwin’s Alan Hunley once memorably called Ethan Hunt “the living manifestation of destiny”; this time, Shea Whigham’s Jasper Briggs, (yet) an(other) intelligence agent tasked with bringing Hunt in, describes him as “a mind-reading, shape-shifting incarnation of chaos.” Everybody is set in their usual roles. Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust is once again a cross between love interest and mysterious outsider, a rogue spy who has to save Ethan and be saved by him at key moments. Vanessa Kirby returns as the White Widow, an arms dealer who plays all sides. Among the latest additions to the main cast, Esai Morales brings an impressively chilly hauteur to Gabriel, a death-obsessed terrorist working for the Entity. Hayley Atwell’s Grace, a professional thief who winds up entangled in the attempt to retrieve two halves of a mysterious key that everybody’s after, makes for an energetic audience surrogate, and she and Cruise have excellent chemistry. It’s also hard at times to tell if Grace was just in the wrong place at the wrong time or if there’s more to her. A number of these characters seem like they’ll get their true moment in the sun in part two.

It’s fascinating to consider the fact that the Mission: Impossible films have come to be seen as an artful rebuke to the cookie-cutter sameness of Hollywood action pictures since the M:I formula might be the oldest and most ironclad of them all. The formula extends even beyond the movies to the marketing — right down to the ritual of advance press about Cruise’s centerpiece stunt for each new movie. Which is why, for the past year and a half, we’ve been treated to endless clips of the star’s death-defying motorcycle-parachute jump over — or rather into — an immense Norwegian canyon. It’s certainly sensational onscreen, though one could argue that the nine-minute promotional featurette Paramount created explaining how that particular (insane) stunt was accomplished is even more impressive.

Within the context of the film, the stunt (and our awareness of its approach) also works as a clever bit of distraction. So much time is spent setting up the motorcycle jump that we might start to think that’s going to be the climax of the movie. But what comes afterward — an extended train sequence that culminates in what might be the most hair-raising derailment ever put to film, full of seesawing train cars and dangling movie stars — is even more unforgettable. That is, in many ways, the enduring charm of all these films: They feel like magic tricks, built as they are on anticipation, familiarity, misdirection, and spectacle. Whenever it gets down to the business of making Tom Cruise run and jump and drive and fly in and out of things, Dead Reckoning manages to astonish.

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Tom Cruise Has One of Hollywood’s Most Famous Smiles! The Story Behind His ‘Middle Tooth’

When it comes to smiles, Tom Cruise ‘ s teeth might take the cake. More than three decades into his career, the action star — who has starred in some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters , including Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Top Gun   — is still one of the hottest stars, and it’s all thanks to his impeccable acting chops and winning good looks.

But no matter how phenomenal he is as an actor, fans can’t help but notice that Tom’s 100-watt grin has one tooth that’s just a bit out of place. In fact, you can see from photos that his teeth aren’t exactly symmetrical with the center of his face. Many have noticed that Tom’s right front tooth is just a tad askew and has been widely referred to as his “middle tooth” for quite a while now.

Tom has certainly put in the time and effort to achieve the smile he has today. Just after his split from Nicole Kidman in 2001, the Hollywood veteran got braces to address an overbite and misalignment problems. He proudly showed them off while walking the red carpet at the 2002 premiere of Minority Report .

The  Jerry Maguire actor has never been shy about flaunting his less-than-perfect smile. When he played Steve Randle in 1983’s The Outsiders , a young Tom voluntarily removed the cap from a front tooth that had been chipped by a flying puck in a hockey match.

Despite his dental imperfection, Tom has never lacked confidence. In 1985, only a couple of years after his career took off, the genetically blessed star explained why he decided to embrace his newfound sex symbol status. “It doesn’t bother me at all,” he told Entertainment Tonight at the time. “I mean, I don’t, like, resent it. I’m not tortured at night by it. You know, I’m actually very happy that people, you know, think enough of my work to feel that way.”

Fans have never seemed to mind his unique grin. Since he was thrust into the spotlight in the early ‘80s, Tom has remained one of Hollywood’s hunkiest actors. He stepped back into his role of Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in the 2022 film Top Gun: Maverick . The action movie was a huge hit at the box office, becoming the New York native’s first film to gross $1 billion worldwide, per People . 

Fans could not help but notice Tom’s timeless look in the film, sparking major social media attention along with his costars Miles Teller and Glen Powell . He promoted the sequel on red carpets all over the world with his dashing looks, proving that he is ageless. Of course, he rocked his best accessory — his smile!

Scroll through the gallery below to see Tom Cruise’s teeth in more detail!

Adam Scull/Shutterstock

Although it doesn’t seem like it, the Edge of Tomorrow actor — who was just 20 years old at the time — actually started off his career with a set of chompers that were very discolored and extremely unaligned. According to Heightline , Tom initially fixed this issue with teeth whitening and alignment procedures.

Andrew Murray/Shutterstock

Considering Tom has one of the most famous smiles in the world, the actor didn’t want to draw attention to his face while trying to improve his teeth around 2001. Luckily, he was able to opt for invisible braces with ceramic brackets.

It wasn’t long before Tom was out and about smiling like normal!

Jim Smeal/BEI/Shutterstock

At the Jerry Bruckheimer Hand and Footprint Ceremony, Tom sported a set of beautifully shaped, white chompers. He attended the Hollywood event in 2010, 25 years after his role in The Outsiders , and we couldn’t be more impressed with the transformation his teeth went under.

Broadimage/Shutterstock

At the Rock of Ages premiere in 2012, the Hollywood veteran showed off a new haircut and his well-known grin. The cupid’s bow of his lip gives a good indication of the asymmetry in his smile. Tom has never stopped gracing the silver screen and landing iconic roles since his career launched at 19.

Richard Young/Shutterstock

December 2012

In 2012, Tom attended a benefit screening of the film he starred in, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back . He came out to Knoxville to support “Variety — The Children’s Charity of Eastern Tennessee” and was smiling big during his red carpet appearance. Some fans also noticed that, aside from his middle tooth, his left incisor appeared to be bigger than his right one.

Invision/AP/Shutterstock

During an interview at The Mummy fan event in New York City, Tom flashed a smile showing off his pearly whites. You can tell from looking up close that his right incisor lines up with his nose. Despite this slight imperfection, his smile has come a long way from his days playing the part of Steve Randle.

Chelsea Lauren/Variety/Shutterstock

While Tom has never come out and stated exactly what he had done, many dentists speculate that, on top of his braces, he received porcelain veneers and most likely had whitening treatments.

Marco Provvisionato/IPA/Shutterstock

In 2021, Tom’s smile looked better than ever!

Yong-ho Lee/Shutterstock

Tom flashed his pearly whites at the premiere of Top Gun: Maverick in Seoul, South Korea.

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• Entertainment

The Most Messed-Up Sci-Fi Movie Moments

Science fiction movies can be a lot of fun. Take the original  Star Wars or The Iron Giant , for example. Sure, these films might have some intense scenes, but for the most part, they're family-friendly and relatively free of nightmare fuel. But in a genre filled with aliens, monsters, and crazy experiments, science fiction has tendency to get really, really dark. One moment, we might be watching an entertaining movie about space explorers and eccentric inventors; the next, we've got torture, terror, and evil extraterrestrials hunting down our heroes. And sometimes, these scenes can really stick with us, leaving us traumatized and wishing for a time machine so we could go back to the past and hit the "stop" button before things get gruesome. From uncanny androids and demented dystopias to unsettling science projects and bizarre body horror, these are the most messed-up sci-fi moments of all time.

Here come the pod people - Invasion of the Body Snatchers

The 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is playing on some really primal fears. We've got body horror, doppelgängers, and people afraid they might die in their sleep. And in a movie filled with screwed-up scenes ( that freaky dog ), maybe the most disturbing moment comes when we finally see the pod people in action.

To set the scene, Dr. Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland) is a San Francisco psychologist who stumbles upon an extraterrestrial conspiracy. Creatures from another world have infiltrated Earth, and they plan on creating emotionless clones of human beings using gigantic vegetable pods. That might sound corny, but it's actually pretty disgusting when we see their methods firsthand, as Matthew takes a nap next to a garden full of alien pods.

As he tries to sleep, one of the pods bursts open, and little tendrils wrap around Matthew's arm, sucking his life force and creating his mirror image. Soon, the pod gives birth to a slimy, silk-covered fetus, one that shakes and groans and drips with goo. In just a matter of seconds, the monstrous clone starts resembling Matthew, but fortunately for our hero, he wakes up in time to find a garden full of gelatinous pod people, all writhing, wriggling, and covered in slime.

Disgusted and horrified, he grabs a gardening hoe and goes to town on his clone. By the time it's all done, even the thought of a salad is enough to make us sick.

Kicking and screaming - Blade Runner

Being a replicant isn't easy. Sure, you've got perfect features, super strength, and a supreme intellect. But you're only going to live for four years, and you'll spend every moment working as a slave. And if you try escaping your off-world colony and coming back to Earth, pistol-packing blade runners are going to fill you full of lead.

So while Pris (Daryl Hannah) might be a creepy murder-bot, we totally understand where she's coming from. She didn't sign up to be a sex worker. She doesn't want to die on her fourth birthday. All she wants is to live a little longer and to have her freedom. And when blade runner Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) shows up, weapon in hand, there's part of us that wants Pris to make it out alive.

For moment there, it seems like Pris might have a fighting chance. Using some crazy gymnastics, she tries crushing Deckard's head between her thighs, but it's hard to beat a bullet. Deckard shoots her in the gut, and that's when things get hard to watch. Pris drops to the floor and begins flopping, flailing, and screaming bloody murder. Maybe the bullet is causing her to malfunction, or perhaps it's the immense pain and the intense rage of having her life cut short. It's so upsetting to watch that even Deckard looks traumatized as he finishes the job, leaving everybody with a sick feeling in their stomach — especially Pris.

Bennings and the beast - The Thing

The Thing might be set in the icy wastelands of Antarctica, but it's a movie that oozes with gore and drips with juice. It's one of the slimiest movies ever made, and things get especially nasty when poor Bennings is assimilated by the Thing. A meteorologist at U.S. Outpost 31, Bennings (Peter Maloney) gets too close to the charred remains of the "Split Face" Thing and finds himself wrapped in a horrible hug, with intestine-like tentacles crawling around his body.

By this point, we're reaching for the barf bag, but that's when things go from disgusting to surreal. Still in the middle of assimilating the scientist, Bennings-Things stumbles into the snow, hoping to hide from the rest of the crew so it can finish its transformation. But MacReady (Kurt Russell) and the rest of the outpost find the monster kneeling in the snow, and when they approach, they see the Bennings-Thing has gigantic deformed hands and cold, soulless eyes. It's a super upsetting image and only gets worse when the Thing lets loose with a demonic dinosaur roar. MacReady, hurry up and set this thing on fire already.

You have 20 seconds to comply - RoboCop

RoboCop is a messed-up movie. A radioactive mutant gets splattered across a windshield like he's a big, fat bug. A cop is tortured to death by a gang of shotgun-toting freaks. And then there's the scene when ED-209 turns a man into marinara sauce through the magic of machine guns.

Set in a dystopian Detroit, RoboCop finds the Motor City in desperate need of a hero. Crime is rampant, and officials have turned to mega-corporation Omni Consumer Products for help. So Senior Vice President Dick Jones (Ronny Cox) designs a massive robo-tank called ED-209. Hoping to prove his creation is ready to clean up the street, Jones asks an unfortunate executive named Mr. Kinney (Kevin Page) to volunteer for a test drive. Kinney picks up a pistol and pretends to be a criminal, and ED-209 orders the executive to lay down his weapon in 20 seconds or suffer the consequences. Kinney quickly tosses the gun aside... but ED keeps on counting.

It seems this robot still has a few bugs, and it's fixing to lay down the law. The frightened executive screams for help and tries to escape, but when ED-209 finishes the countdown, it unloads on Mr. Kinney with two massive machine guns, ripping the man apart and sending him staggering across the room. Really, just one bullet would do the trick, but ED keeps firing and firing, and soon, the bullet-ridden body looks more like the Kool-Aid Man than poor Mr. Kinney. 

Neo is speechless - The Matrix

Released in 1999, The Matrix is just as amazing today as it was when it hit theaters 20 years ago. And you know what also holds up all these years later? That interrogation scene. It's still one of the freakiest things you'll ever see in a sci-fi movie.

Played by Keanu Reeves, Neo is a computer hacker who's been arrested by the Agents, men in black hunting for a freedom fighter named Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne). The Agents offer to clear Neo's record if he'll lead them to Morpheus, but the hacker responds by asking for a phone call and giving them the finger.

That's when Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) asks a bone-chilling question. "What good is a phone call if you're unable to speak?" At first, Neo thinks they're going to sock him in the jaw... but that's when his mouth actually disappears. His lips vanish, skin melts over his teeth, and Neo goes into full-blown panic mode.

Things get worse when the Agents pin Neo to a table and decide to bug him... literally. Smith pulls out a little metal microphone that morphs into an insect, complete with whip-like tentacles and a nasty, wriggling body. The bug lands on Neo and burrows its way into his belly button . Sure it's all a simulation, but that doesn't make it any less disgusting. And what's truly messed-up is that during all this, Neo has no mouth, and he so badly has to scream.

Flashes of hell - Event Horizon

Mash The Shining with Hellraiser , put that on a spaceship, and you've got Event Horizon . The title refers to a mysterious spaceship that entered a portal into Hell — that's right, Hell — and came back out a sentient being. Needless to say, the ship isn't interested in bravely exploring new worlds. Instead, it wants to shuttle new victims back to the bad place, and that's not great news for Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne) and his search-and-rescue crew. They were supposed to look for survivors aboard the ship, and now, their immortal souls are in peril.

On top of the haunted vessel, they've also got to worry about Dr. William Weir (Sam Neill), the man who designed the  Event Horizon . He's been possessed by the ship, and he's all gung-ho about sending Miller and company to the lake of fire so they can experience some good old-fashioned torture. In the big climax, Miller is desperately trying to stop the hellbound ship when a mutilated Weir — looking like Pinhead's cousin — arrives on the scene, eager to show him the wonderful sights in store for his crew. Miller is treated to a lightning-fast montage of horrible tortures. We see maggots and spikes, chains and barbed wire, flayed flesh and a whole lot of blood. It all happens incredibly fast, but that's what makes it so awful. We just get quick little glimpses, our imagination fills in the blanks, and the result is hell to watch.

Sci-fi's scariest surgeon - Minority Report

Directed by Steven Spielberg,  Minority Report finds Captain John Anderton (Tom Cruise) in a tricky situation. Anderton lives in a city where there's no more murder courtesy of PreCrime, a system that predicts murders before they happen. But now the respected police officer is in trouble, as the system says he's going to kill a stranger in 36 hours. Desperate to clear his name and avoid the world's creepiest prison, Anderton goes on the run, but that's easier said than done when you're living in 2054.

In this futuristic world, there are eye scanners everywhere, and if they get a glimpse at your irises, Big Brother will know exactly where you are. In order to avoid detection, Anderton needs eye replacement surgery courtesy of sci-fi's scariest surgeon. Played to pervy perfection by Peter Stormare, this disgusting doctor makes our skin crawl from the moment he appears. He's got snot running down his face. His surgical instruments look like the tools of a serial killer. He sneaks up on Anderton and surreptitiously injects with him anesthesia. And as the cop gets sleepy, the surgeon drops a bombshell.

As it turns out, Anderton busted this guy years ago... for setting his patients on fire. That's not what you want to hear before going under the knife, especially with your eyeballs on the line. From the dingy operating space to the surgeon's demented assistant, everything about this scene just makes us squirm. Surgeons are scary enough in sterilized hospitals, but when you've got a psycho doctor carving out your corneas, well, we'll take our chances with the eye scanners.

A really bad trip - Beyond the Black Rainbow

Beyond the Black Rainbow is a trip, man. We're not going to pretend we 100 percent understand what this movie is about, but its mind-bending imagery certainly makes it worth watching, especially the moment when Dr. Barry Nyle (Michael Rogers) crosses over to the other side and absolutely loses his mind.

In a flashback set in 1966, we watch as Dr. Nyle embarks on a "great journey" by submerging himself in an oily black pool. By slipping into this bizarre realm, he hopes to expand his mind and find transcendence. But after he disappears into the void, he finds himself trapped in the world's worst acid trip. The images flashing onscreen feel like scenes taken from 2001: A Space Odyssey , Under the Skin , and Mandy , all blended together to create a hellish concoction. We see roaring flames, melting skulls, and rolling purple clouds, and when Nyle pulls himself out of the pit, covered in tar, his sanity is gone for good.

Things only escalate from here, with Nyle going full vampire on a horrified colleague. And if you aren't grossed out yet, a second scientist decides it's a good idea to dip an adorable little baby in the black pit. It's no wonder Nyle has gone mad, and by the end of this scene, so have we.

Old Seth falls to pieces - Looper

Young Seth (Paul Dano) is just a side character in  Looper , the time travel masterpiece from Rian Johnson, but he might have the most memorable scene in the entire movie, thanks to some poor career choices. Seth is a hitman living in 2044, but his employers are living 30 years in the future. They're sci-fi mobsters, and when they want somebody to disappear, they send them back in time so Seth can blast them away with a blunderbuss.

Unfortunately, working as a time-traveling hitman means you've got to kill your older self one day to "close the loop," and as Seth gets grayer, he realizes he's made a horrible deal. So when he's sent back in time to meet his doom, Old Seth (Frank Brennan) decides to skip the whole suicide-by-homicide thing and go on the run. However, the old guy doesn't get very far before noticing a mysterious address carved into his arm . Then a finger disappears, then his nose, and then Old Seth realizes what's going on. 

Young Seth has been kidnapped by the modern-day mob, and they're amputating his body, one piece at a time. We watch in revulsion as Old Seth vanishes before our eyes — a foot, a hand, a tongue — while he frantically tries reach the address and save himself from living decades without limbs, unable to speak or smell. When he finally arrives at the address, deformed beyond belief, we breathe a sigh of relief as the gangsters finally put us all out of our misery.

Dying like a dog - The Lobster

Dating is hard, especially when you're dealing with pressure from friends, family, and government institutions that will turn you into an animal if you don't settle down. Okay, maybe that last part isn't relatable, unless you're in The Lobster . This dystopian comedy finds newly single David (Colin Farrell) living in a bizarro hotel where he's required to find a new partner in 45 days. If he doesn't, he'll be morphed into the animal of his choosing (the eponymous crustacean).

There are quite a few rules for picking a potential mate. For example, partners must share a similar trait, like a chronic limp. But not everyone can find the perfect soulmate. Take David's brother, for instance, who was morphed into a dog. Our bespectacled hero would rather not spend his life as a shellfish, so he hooks up with the sociopathic "Heartless Woman" (Angeliki Papoulia). She takes pleasure in pain and is exceptionally good at hunting down single people, so David has to pretend he's just as cold-blooded as his bride-to-be.

Suspicious, the Heartless Woman puts him to the test, and when David wakes up one fine morning, he finds her looming over his bed. "I killed your brother," she says in a monotone voice. "I left him to die very slowly.... I was kicking him for ages." She even impersonates the dog's dying whimper. David tries to keep calm, but when he sees his sibling soaked in blood, he breaks down crying, blowing his cover. Sure, your girlfriend might not always get along with your family, but this is taking things to an upsetting new level.

Babies taste best - Snowpiercer

Directed by Bong Joon-ho, Snowpiercer takes place in an icy apocalypse, a world that's covered in snow and subzero temperatures, and the only survivors live aboard the titular train that travels around the globe. Life aboard the locomotive is pretty good... if you live in the front. The folks in the tail section are treated like slaves. They're fed disgusting protein blocks, their children are regularly kidnapped, and anyone who fights back is viciously punished.

Of course, you can only suppress the masses for so long before someone starts a revolution, and that someone's name is Curtis (Chris Evans). The Che Guevara of the caboose, Curtis leads his army through the train, fighting forward one car at a time, in hopes of taking the engine. But as his friends are violently butchered and the revolution peters out, Curtis falls into despair and recounts what life was like in the tail section back in the early days. In short, it was Hannibal Lecter's wildest fantasy.

According to Curtis, in the first months of life aboard, before there were protein blocks for the "scum" to eat, people were on the menu. Worse still, Curtis was one of the cannibals who feasted on human flesh. "You know what I hate about myself?" Curtis asks through tears. "I know what people taste like. I know that babies taste best." On its own, the scene is super disturbing, but what really takes this to the next screwed-up level is this is Captain America admitting to cannibalism.

Max becomes a blood bag - Mad Max: Fury Road

Mad Max: Fury Road is not for the faint of heart. This George Miller movie knows how to disturb, from that unsettling Cesarean to hideously deformed characters. But the most messed-up moment comes early in the film, before the opening title card. After making a mad dash for freedom, Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) is captured by an army of ghoulish War Boys. These painted-up punks aren't going to kill Max, not yet. Out here in the apocalyptic wastelands, the human body is a valuable resource.

Max is dragged back to the citadel of Immortan Joe, and this fortress feels like a labyrinth in the center of hell. The demonic warboys chain Max spread-eagle and reduce him to a living, breathing blood bag. They forcibly shear his head like he's a sheep as a tattoo artist goes to work on his back, writing down pertinent information like "two good eyes," "multiple scars," and most importantly, Max's blood type, O negative, making him a universal donor. And when it comes time to give blood, it won't be consensual. If Max didn't feel like cattle just yet, a War Boy starts moving in with a fiery brand, aimed straight at the Road Warrior's face. And this is all in the first 10 minutes of the film, setting up a movie that won't shy away from the gross and grotesque.

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Inside Tom Cruise’s dramatic face transformation as fans praise his youthful looks at Jubilee after ‘swollen’ pics

• Alison Maloney
• Published : 5:03 ET, May 16 2022
• Updated : 11:31 ET, Aug 31 2023

TOM Cruise fans have been left agog at the star's youthful looks.

The Top Gun 2 actor, who turns 60 in July, was interviewed by Phillip Schofield  and Julie Etchingham during the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Celebration.

Many viewers remarked how good he looked, with one tweeting: "Tom Cruise is stopping me nodding off. He still looks hot."

Another wrote: "Crikey, Tom Cruise looks like Tom Cruise again" - after photos of the star at a baseball game in San Francisco last year showed him sporting a much fuller-face.

At the time fans questioned whether he'd had botched fillers, with one tweeting: "What has Tom Cruise done to his face?"

With his boyish good looks and absence of frown lines, plastic surgery rumours have dogged the actor for years.

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Although he has consistently denied going under the knife, fans have speculated the ever-youthful star has had a nose job, hair transplant and Botox, as well as veneers on his teeth.

Alice Henshaw, owner and practitioner of Harley Street Injectables , previously told The Sun rumours of a hair transplant might be spot on.

"At almost 60, Tom's hairline has remained relatively the same, although slightly thinning, which does suggest he may have had hair transplants."

As the debate is reignited, here we look at how the star's face has changed over the years.

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Tom's signature smile has always been part of his charm but he wasn’t born with a perfect grin.

When he starred in The Outsiders, in 1982, his teeth were visibly yellowed and misaligned, with a pronounced overbite.

He also removed a cap on a chipped front tooth to appear even more menacing.

But when leading man status beckoned, with roles like Maverick in Top Gun, he had his teeth whitened to improve the look.

As his career reached dizzying heights, with the release of Top Gun in 1996, the 24-year-old still had much of his boyish charm and lean face.

His role as young naval aviator Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchell cemented him as a Hollywood heartthrob.

In an unusual look for the clean-cut movie legend, Tom mixed it up in 1996 with some rugged facial hair and long flowing locks.

That year he took on the title role in Jerry Maguire, for which he earned a Golden Globe and his second nomination for an Academy Award.

It wasn’t until 2001, after splitting from Nicole Kidman, that Tom got braces to rectify his overbite, proudly showing them off at the premiere of Minority Report. 

But fans still commented on his asymmetrical teeth, which saw one front tooth aligned with the centre of his face.

At 44, Tom looked less gaunt than he did in his youth, having grown into his face.

His chiselled jaw and killer smile had female fans falling at his feet.

By 2010, Tom's face was beginning to change, occasionally looking chubbier, possibly due to weight flunctuation.

The superfit star pushed himself to the limit whenever he was filming a stunt-filled action role but would also put on a few pounds between movies.

Rumours the star had undergone a nose job began back in 2012 but, asked by Playboy magazine if he had ever had surgery, he replied: “I haven’t and never would.”

But pal Cuba Gooding Jr fanned the flames by insisting Tom had “absolutely” had work done.

Cuba told a US TV show: "I don’t know what he’s had done, but I remember I surprised him at his house one day and he had all of these dots all over his face.

"I was like, 'You all right?' and he goes, 'I didn’t know you were coming' and I was like, 'I can see why.'"

Alice Henshaw explained the dots could indicate many types of surgical or non surgical procedures to make the skin tighter and younger-looking.

She said: "Often dots or markings are drawn on whilst we mark out injection points on the face, but we do this for filler injectables, Profhilo (a collagen stimulator) or even a skin tightening procedure using radio frequency such as Thermage, or a medical grade ultrasound skin tightening like ultraformer."

Tom's appearance at the 2016 BAFTAs had fans commenting on how he looked "inflated" and "puffy" - a common sign of both Botox and fillers.

"Tom looked as if he had undereye filler and filler around his mouth and nasal labial fold in 2016," said Alice.

"But the recent pictures at the baseball match show swelling that doesn't come with fillers."

Dental experts also suggested he had veneers added to make his dazzling smile even whiter.

At the Mission Impossible: Fallout premiere in 2018, Tom looked leaner, with more lines showing on his forehead.

While this could be down to a punishing exercise regime and work schedule for the film, which he also produced, it could also mean he ditched fillers and Botox after the 2016 pictures attracted unwanted attention.

Snaps of the star at a baseball game last year raised eyebrows once again. They came hot on the heels of snaps of Tom at a Birmingham curry house where his face also looked "puffy".

Alice said it could be Tom - like many of us - just put on a few pounds during lockdown.

"It would be hard to say whether it was weight gain without seeing full photo of his body," she added.

However he didn't appear to be carrying excess weight during summer appearances at Wimbledon and Wembley.

Alice said the Mission Impossible star looks "swollen" - potentially after going under the knife.

"Tom definitely looks swollen and puffy, which could be due to filler, post procedure swelling or weight gain," she explained.

"I believe he's had fillers under his eyes and around his mouth and nose in the past, but this time is different.

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"A side profile view of him shows his neck is also quite swollen. Filler would not be placed in this area, which signifies it would not be filler but rather swelling or weight gain.

"Often surgical procedure such as a platysmal plasty, or neck lift, combined with a mid-facelift could create this type of swelling in these areas, and scars are easily disguised."

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Tom Cruise then and now: His face transformation in photos

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Tom Cruise Apparently Fuels Speculation About Plastic Surgery Obsession Due To his Markedly 'Unnatural' Appearance

The obsession of Tom Cruise with plastic surgery has left him looking haggard and the Hollywood star is anxious for more nip/tucks to support his sagging face, a new report claimed.

“Tom’s had all these surgeries and other beauty rituals that have taken a toll on his looks to the point where his face is collapsing and sagging in weird places. People are begging him to stop trying to look younger and telling him to accept it and age gracefully. But that’s not his style,” an unnamed source told The National Enquirer .

The 61-year-old film superspy's deflated face was on full view in London during a recent shoot for the imminent "Mission: Impossible 8” movie.

“A couple of years ago he was so puffy that people were comparing him to a chipmunk. But now it’s the opposite — all the extra volume is gone, so his skin is drooping and unfortunately it doesn’t just look like normal aging, it looks really unnatural,” the insider suggested.

As previously reported, informants claimed the “Top Gun” star has undergone numerous surgeries, including a 2019 facelift, to maintain his boyish appearance.

“Tom may never admit it, but the truth is written all over his face. He’s convinced that with the right procedure he can turn back the clock again. He’s researching the latest rejuvenation techniques and putting a lot of hope on things like stem cells and lasers,” the tipster said.

“But the fear is he could wind up permanently scarred. He always seems to go overboard and ends up looking pillow-faced — he doesn’t look like himself anymore,” it went on.

Business Times has reached out to Tom Cruise for comments about his alleged plastic surgery obsession.

Meanwhile, the trades announced a few months back that Tom Cruise had forged a strategic collaboration with Warner Bros. to develop and produce original and franchise theatrical films in which the actor would star. At the moment, it was unclear what Tom intended to develop.

Giant Freakin Robot recently claimed that one of those films will be a remake of Clint Eastwood's 1977 action classic “The Gauntlet.” Tom will allegedly take up the part of drunken Detective Ben Shockley, which Eastwood originally played in the film.

Clint Eastwood helmed the original version of “The Gauntlet.” However, sources told the publication that Christopher McQuarrie will direct the Tom Cruise remake.

Tom will, of course, produce as part of his new arrangement with Warner Bros. Christopher has become the actor's preferred filmmaker throughout the years.

He directed Tom in “Jack Reacher” and three “Mission: Impossible” films. Christopher is allegedly currently working with Tom on “The Gauntlet.”

For starters, “The Gauntlet” is not one of Eastwood's best-known works. It garnered mixed to positive reviews upon its premiere. The film contains several large action scenes, including high-speed chases with helicopters and motorcycles.

There's even a road warrior-inspired chase in a hastily armored bus. It's easy to envision Tom adapting it into one of his stunt-heavy action films, albeit with a grittier twist than we've come to expect from him in the “Mission: Impossible” movies.

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The 9 funniest tv & movie outtakes where actors messed up their lines.

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Ordinarily, when an actor messes up their lines, the camera resets back to where it was and the actor starts again from a few lines earlier. But in less professional instances, one mistake could lead to some fascinating ad-libs and some uncontrollable laughter (allowing fans to see the human side to some movie stars).

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Comedy actors get the most out of fluffing up lines. In fact, that's where they thrive as it gives them more to work with when improvising. But there are also times when dramatic Academy Award-nominated actors screw up and then can't get rid of their giggles. All of these hilarious outtakes are available to watch on YouTube.

Richard Lewis (Curb Your Enthusiasm)

Curb Your Enthusiasm is known for being entirely improvised, as only an outline of each episode is written by Larry David. That means that every actor has to be at the top of their game and prepared for anything. One Curb regular and best friend of Larry David, Richard Lewis, has given fans some of the funniest ad-libs.

But in one scene with Larry and Jon Hamm , Richard was stumped and couldn't think of what to say next when Jon asked what his girlfriend does for a living. Larry found it so funny that, as he was taking a drink of water at the time, he did a spit take all over the set.

Paul Rudd (Anchorman)

Anchorman is full of classic lines, with  Brick often providing the funniest quotes . However, Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) has some great ones of his own too. One of the most memorable lines of the movie is when Brian talks about how he uses the stinking Sex Panther aftershave to pick up women. He says, "60% of the time it works every time," but when Rudd first tried the line, he totally fumbled it.

Yet, it wasn't necessarily Rudd's fault. In the movie, the Sex Panther aftershave rises out of a box on its own, but while shooting it the first time, the mechanism didn't work and the ear even broke off of the bottle. However, it did lead to some brilliant improv that didn't make it into the movie, such as Brian explaining that he can't return it because he got it on the black market.

Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)

Unlike the other movies and TV shows,  Breaking Bad  isn't a comedy, and it's far from it, as it follows a high school teacher who is diagnosed with cancer who becomes a drug kingpin in order to afford his medical bills. But that never stopped Bryan Cranston from goofing around on set. Though Cranston often messed up his lines, more often than not, it was purposeful.

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However, in season 2, when Walter (Cranston) gives his iconic monologue about blowfishes to his partner, he calls Jesse "Jeff." Where Jeff comes from is anyone's guess, and it's especially out of the blue because the two characters had been side-by-side for 18 episodes at this point.

Will Ferrell (Eastbound And Down)

It isn't easy to make Will Ferrell crack, and as he's one of the quickest comedy actors when it comes to improvising, few others can make him laugh more than himself. But it seems like he gets so much joy out of making other people laugh, as he only messes up his lines when somebody else laughs first.

The funniest example of that is in  Eastbound And Down . His character Ashley Schaeffer is telling Kenny (Danny McBride) and Reg (Craig Robinson) a story about how he walked in on his mother and father having sex. But as soon as McBride and Robinson start grinning, Ferrell can't finish his lines no matter how much he tries.

Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids)

Given that she wrote the movie, fans would think it'd be easy for Kristen Wiig to get out her lines in Bridesmaids , but when she's wasn't laughing at other characters' ad-libs, she was saying the wrong names. When Annie (Wiig) is on the phone, the actor accidentally said her own real-life name instead of saying a characters' name.

The 2011 movie is such a unique comedy, and Bridesmaids totally deserves a sequel , and part of the reason why is because the blooper reel will probably be almost as funny as the actual movie.

Jim Carrey (Liar Liar)

When it comes to Liar Liar , there's so much procedural law jargon, so it's no surprise that Jim Carrey fluffs a good number of his lines. The best thing about those '90s Carrey-led comedies is that the outtakes ran alongside the end credits, so viewers can see them all.

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Every slip-up is hilarious, as Carrey, a very vocal and theatrical performer, turns every mistake into an ad-lib. And if he can't think of anything to say, he simply makes stupid noises and pulls funny faces.

Robert De Niro (Analyze This)

Analyze This sees Robert De Niro playing a caricature of all of his previous roles, as Paul Vitti (De Niro) is a parody of all the gangsters the actor has played in the past. It's hard to imagine De Niro ever being so relaxed and joking around on set, as all of his characters are so serious, and even in press junkets, he isn't exactly a joker.

But the outtakes of Analyse This see him improvising and joking around with costar Billy Crystal. And, ironically, in a scene when Paul is attempting to come across as intimidating, De Niro is failing miserably at getting out his monologue, tripping over his words. It just goes to show that even the greatest actors of all time have a bad day at the office.

Tom Cruise (Magnolia)

In Magnolia , Frank Mackey (Tom Cruise) is a pick-up artist, and when trying to convince one woman he's dating that he did everything to try and save her dog, viewers see the rare fun side to Cruise. In the outtake, Cruise screams with laughter midway through the monologue.

The actor couldn't get past the line, "Hey, Pookie's in trouble here!" What makes the outtake even better is that it's fascinating to see that even in the most emotionally exhausting dramas like Magnolia , actors don't always take themselves too seriously.

Robert Downey Jr. (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang)

Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer aren't comedy actors, and far from it, but they could fool any viewer who watches the outtakes of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang . The two of them mess up their lines so much, but just like the best comedians improvising, they style it out so well.

They give the likes of Will Ferrell a run for his money. At one point, Downey Jr. messes up his line, makes a joke, and then starts rambling in Italian. And it just goes to show that he was acting like Tony Stark long before he was cast in Iron Man .

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Marah Eakin

Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Is the Perfect AI Panic Movie

American action movie villains have always acted as a sort of paranoia litmus test, capturing a snapshot of the particular anxieties plaguing the country and its citizens at any given time. During the Cold War, movies like From Russia with Love , Rocky IV , and Red Dawn nodded at the public’s fear of wily Soviets, ostensibly hell-bent on ruining the capitalist way of life. In the 1990s and ’00s, with the Red Menace long forgotten, movies leaned heavily on the awful “bad Arab” trope , pulling their villains from the Middle East. Other recent smash-’em-ups have made bad guys out of rogue spies , shadowy cyber terrorists , and self-interested arms dealers , all common players in the global news landscape.

But for Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One , out this week, writers Erik Jendresen and Christopher McQuarrie (who also directed the movie) made their big bad—known as The Entity—out of a slightly more amorphous fear: that of an all-powerful, all-seeing, sentient AI. It has access to anything with an online network and can use those evil techno powers to manipulate everything from global military superpowers to a grandma with a gun. It’s everywhere and nowhere at once, and although the movie uses Esai Morales’ Gabriel as The Entity’s henchman, he’s a mere mortal—albeit one with access to all the information and decision-making logic the world’s strongest supercomputer has to offer.

While the “man vs. machine” trope is nothing new, the idea of a sentient AI coming to take over humanity feels especially prescient and pressing in 2023, when ChatGPT is writing term papers and companies are tasking AI-imbued bots with everything from listicles to tech support . The looming threat of AI-generated content is a big sticking point for the striking members of the Writers Guild of America too, with many wanting to ensure that any new contract they sign includes provisions for how—or whether—studios can use the technology to create scripts.

Of course, Dead Reckoning was written years ago. Part One was originally scheduled for release in the summer of 2021, before Covid-19 threw a wrench in the movie’s production calendar. McQuarrie and company simply stumbled into great timing with the movie’s current release date, which comes about six months into America’s newfound obsession with generative AI’s perks and perils and just weeks after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a major congressional push toward AI regulation . Fears of AI’s inevitable takeover are hot right now, even if (or because) the vast majority of Americans don’t know the first thing about how it could actually happen.

Perhaps that’s why The Entity works as a villain, even if the way the movie personifies it with swooshing graphics and eye-like optics is a little hokey. Most moviegoers have only had brief dalliances with AI, perhaps through a few minutes spent probing ChatGPT or some backyard BBQ conversation about how Bing’s chatbot went rogue and encouraged a New York Times reporter to leave his wife . There are gaps and technological leaps in how The Entity operates—and a convenient-ish kill switch in a sunken submarine buried under Arctic ice—but none of that really matters if you’re just a schmo looking for something new and mysterious to fear.

What’s more, AI is a fairly innocuous foe. In an era when action movies can’t just craft a villain from some othered nationality, ethnic group, or fringe political organization, a sentient and speciously evil computer will likely only offend the most adamant of AI defenders, a significant portion of whom already concede that the technology could cause humanity’s extinction . Dead Reckoning—Part One has to become a global box office smash to make its $290 million budget back, and having a faceless foe that basically the whole world can spit at is certainly a step in the right direction.

Maybe Mission: Impossible ’s Entity is just the harbinger of the future for action movie baddies. Both Heart of Stone and The Creator —which drop in August and September, respectively—feature AI foes hell-bent on global destruction. Humanity will no doubt prevail and endure in both those and Dead Reckoning —at their core, action movies are feel-good romps, after all—but in the meantime, millions of moviegoers can come together, bonded by their fear of what’s to come.

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