Tom Cruise Wants to Follow in Harrison Ford’s Footsteps as 80-Year-Old Star
By Movieguide® Contributor
Tom Cruise hopes his Mission Impossible movies will mirror the lifespan of Indiana Jones, allowing him to continue as an action movie star even into his 80s.
“Harrison Ford is a legend; I hope to be still going. I’ve got 20 years to catch up with him,” Cruise told The Sydney Morning Herald. “I hope to keep making Mission Impossible films until I’m his age.”
Christian audiences can get excited about that because, although his movies may contain strong language, they most often promote strong morals and biblical values. Cruise’s upcoming movie, for example, runs with a strong Christian allegory. A portion of Movieguide®’s review of MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: DEAD RECKONING PART ONE reads:
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – DEAD RECKONING PART ONE tells a gripping story of good versus evil. It’s a superlative, high stakes spy thriller with explosive action, gripping suspense and great characters. DEAD RECKONING PART ONE has a strong allegorical Christian worldview, with the theme that, “The Cross of Christ holds the key to destroy evil.” However, the movie has lots of strong action violence and some foul language, including four strong profanities. MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for teenagers and adults.
Ford has continued to act because he loves doing so. Even as he approaches his 81st birthday on July 13th, he has no plans for retirement.
“The idea of not working doesn’t make much sense to me,” Ford said on the Today Show. “It’s really where I feel most alive.”
Cruise seems to have a similar outlook, as his movies allow him to do the things he loves.
“As an actor and just in my life, I’ve always trained just to make movies,” Cruise told Fandango. “I train in many things – singing, dancing, motorcycles, cars – and also in my personal life, I like skydiving and speed-flying and all these things. And I like to then go learn these things and then apply it to the movies.”
While he doesn’t want the action in his movies to change as he gets older, Cruise does admit that age does make it harder to shoot the scenes; especially when he has to reshoot sequences.
“It is a real trick, and I have gone through to figure out, ‘How do I train? How do I maintain? How do you hit pack right at the moment? Because also when I’m doing a sprinting scene, I don’t just run once. Sometimes I’ve done 50 Sprints in one day,” he explained.
“So I have to think about what the recovery time is, what scenes I’m shooting before and acter, and I’ve gotten better at really structuring things within the film and sitting down and going, ‘Here’s where I have to prepare for the jump off the motorcycle.’ So, there are certain things in you using your body a different way or if I’m doing gymnastics or a fighting scene.”
“You don’t want to do a fight right when I’m going to sprint. And how do I prepare? How do I recover?” he added.
Movieguide® previously reported on Cruise:
“Hey everyone, here we are over sunny South Africa,” Cruise said while riding in the helicopter. “And we’re filming MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE — DEAD RECKONING parts one and two.”
He continued, “I didn’t want the year to end without thanking you all for coming out to the theaters, and thank you for supporting TOP GUN: MAVERICK.”
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE’s director Christopher McQuarrie then told Cruise to get on with the stunt. Cruise jokingly asked if McQuarrie would be joining him in the jump, to which the director replied, “Not on your life.”
Cruise then jumped out of the plane, continuing to address the camera as he fell.
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