Culture news This $178 million sci-fi film available on Canal+ revived Tom Cruise’s career: he died hundreds of times for it
Tom Cruise’s star status is indisputable in 2024. The actor-stuntman is the Hollywood “king of the hill” capable of single-handedly financing projects and stealing the box office. However, he was not always in the odor of sanctity among his peers and moviegoers. Fortunately for him, an ambitious science fiction film will put him back on track.
A declining star
After the cinema successes of Vanilla Sky, Minority Report and The Last Samurai, Tom Cruise returned to work with Steven Spielberg on the film The War of the Worlds adapted from the novel of the same name written by HG Wells in 1898. Despite a certain critical success (76% on RottenTomatoes) and especially financial (+600 million US$ for a budget of +130 million), Tom Cruise does not come out any better. On the contrary, the actor ruins the promotional campaign for the film not without first making filming impossible. The fault lies with its close ties to the Church of Scientology and its proselytizing throughout the production.
Following this sci-fi film, Steven Spielberg promises never to collaborate with Tom Cruise again. 19 years later, the director and the actor have still not worked together again. Between 2005 and the release of the film that interests us today, the man who plays Ethan Hunt in the Mission Impossible saga continued with projects without really regaining his star aura. Things changed for him in 2014 with the release in theaters of the adaptation of the manga All You Need is Kill directed by Doug Liman and written by Christopher McQuarrie.
A return to grace
Following the release in 2013 of the SF fable Oblivion directed by Joseph Kosinski, Tom Cruise continued his comeback in Hollywood the following year with Edge of Tomorrow. Adapted from the manga written by Hiroshi Sakurazaka and illustrated by Yoshitoshi Abe, this science fiction film confronts the Tom Cruise – Emily Blunt duo with a planetary war pitting humanity against a warlike extraterrestrial race. Screened in cinemas from June 2014, Edge of Tomorrow appeals to critics (91% on RottenTomatoes) and the general public (90%), which is reflected at the box office.
With a budget of 178 million US dollars, this feature film earned 370.5 million at the end of the run and marked the great return of Tom Cruise to cinemas. From, the actor focuses on his two flagship sagas in which he is the main character, Mission Impossible of course and more recently Top Gun with its sequel Maverick. Among other things, it allowed Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise to mend their ways. The director said in 2023: “You saved Hollywood’s ass. And you may have even saved the entire cast in theaters.” All’s well That ends well.
The synopsis of Edge of Tomorrow: In this futuristic sci-fi thriller, Tom Cruise plays a soldier who keeps reliving the day he was killed fighting alien forces. (Max)
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