All language subtitles for Icons.Unearthed.S10E05.The.Stuntman.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BTN_track4_[eng]

By the mid-nineties,
Tom Cruise

had worked with everybody,

that was somebody.

He was literally working with,
every major auteur.

Even a few nobodies.

They did their job.

He radiated charisma.

In the process,
turning some of those nobodies
into stars,

and some of those stars
into Oscar winners.

Thank you very much.

Pretty impressive, huh?

But if there was one person

the Academy
wouldn't recognize,
it was Tom.

You are not a loser.

So it was time
to take matters
into its own hands.

I wouldn't have it
any other way.

He and Paula Wagner, his agent,
go on to form
a production company together.

And their first sale,
would be to a young new exec
at Paramount Pictures.

Studios are
all about relationships.

So armed with a good script
and a handful of top actors...

You really think
we can do this?

...Cruise/Wagner
Productions set out
to produce their first film.

We're going to do it.

And the experience
would test him,

in ways he had
never been tested before.

He did most of his own stunts.

And they're saying,
"Tom, you don't have to
do this." But he did it.

To this day,
I don't know
how We got insurance.

But even Tom
would have to learn

there were limits
to what one man could do.

I said, "Brian, so now
you've got a picture.

Now, Tom is the star
and the producer.

What if he wants to come
to the cutting room?"

I've never seen
anyone like this.

He's fearless.

By the mid-nineties,
Tom Cruise's filmography
was vast.

But for the next chapter
in his career,

we need to talk about
the Tom Cruise
behind the camera.

He wants to to make
the creative decisions.

Kind of controlling
the situation.

He wants to drive the train.

And that meant
becoming a producer.

But he'd need the backing
of a major studio.

He was very close
with Paramount.

Obviously, he had made
Top Gun there, which catapulted
him to superstardom.

At Paramount,
Tom met a kindred spirit.

Hi, my name is Sherry Lansing,

and I was the chairman
and CEO of Paramount Pictures.

But before that,
Sherry was the first
female production head

at a major studio,
when she joined Fox
way back in 1980.

I actually first met Tom Cruise

when I was the president
of production at Fox,
I read a script called Taps,

and one of the thrills
of my lifetime
was going on the set.

And there was Tom Cruise.

It is beautiful, man. Beautiful.

He had the greatest work ethic.

Always the first person
on the set, inquisitive,

trying to soak up everything,
asking questions,

to go the extra mile.

But this young
president of production at Fox
had a little secret.

I actually think I was in
a little bit over my head,

because they never actually
made a movie.

So I did that job
for three years,
and then I became a producer.

Producing hits
that were sometimes "indecent."

One million dollars
for one night with your wife.

And even "fatal."

I'm not
going to be ignored, Dan.

Because I'd actually
produced several movies,

when I got that job,
chairman and CEO of Paramount,
I knew how to make a movie.

But in 1992,
Sherry's studio didn't have
much to make a movie with.

When I started at Paramount,
there really was
very little product.

But as fate would have it,
Sherry would find Tom Cruise

right underneath her nose.

We did have a film in production
called The Firm,
and Tom Cruise was in that

directed by Sydney Pollack.

Come on in.
And we'll place you
in protective custody.

Somehow, you don't
make me feel protected.

He was exactly the same person

that I met over 25 years ago.

He still had
the greatest work ethic
of anyone I've ever seen.

So, one of the first things
that I did
was to make an overall deal

with Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner
for their production company.

We weren't guaranteed
any movies with Tom
as a star.

These were movies
he was going to produce.

And one of
the first things that Tom did
was ask Sherry a question.

He said,
"Do you still own the rights
to Mission: Impossible?"

That is the 1960s
spy television series.

A big cultural phenomenon

watched by
tens of millions of people.

[Sherry Lansing] And I said yes.

He said,
"Are they available?"

And I said, "Yes."

He said,
"Well, I'd like to do that."

This tape will self-destruct
in five seconds.

Good luck, Jim.

The issue for Sherry was...

[Lansing] It's an ensemble piece.

I'm gonna have
an ensemble piece with
the biggest star in the world.

I'm a little disappointed.

But, a little of Tom Cruise
is better than nothing at all.

But why was the star
who never even looked
at television as an actor

suddenly keen to adapt
a celebrated, if tired,
1960s television series?

It's this incredible
boom of movies being made
from '60s TV shows,

whether it's The Addams Familyor Beverly Hillbillies.

But Cruise wasn't interested
in a mere fad for nostalgia.

He sees the opportunity
to basically reinvent himself
as an action star.

And Tom made
an unexpected choice
of director

to help him
with his reinvention.

He got Sydney Pollack
to come on.

And even though
he wasn't known
for action films...

Cruise and Sydney Pollack
had worked together recently
on The Firm.

Go over and sit next
to the man on the bench.

And Sydney Pollack
was reluctant at first,

because I think, "Oh,
this is an action movie thing,

and I don't know
if I can do that."
And Tom Cruise reassured him.

And so Sydney Pollack came on.

Meanwhile,
the script was in development
with a proven duo.

The screenwriting team, who didIndiana Jones
and the Temple of Doom

Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck.

Chilled monkey brains.

They wrote a draft
of the script.

[Lansing] Tom and Paula
were great producers,

and they didn't
bother the studio
with drafts that didn't work.

But just as they were
getting somewhere...

Sydney Pollack ended up
having to leave,

I think, for personal reasons.

However, perhaps,
it was a blessing in disguise.

Cruise was having dinner
at Steven Spielberg's house,

and Brian De Palma
was there as well.

After this dinner, he went home
and he re-watched all of
Brian De Palma's movies.

If I ever, I mean, if I ever
see you here again,

you die just like that.

And he was like,
"Oh, my God,
I think this is the guy."

De Palma
was a Hollywood legend.

One of
our great American auteurs.

Because,
he too was a...

Maverick?
And, uh... To say the least.

But Paramount knew
De Palma was no sure shot.

He would have
these huge successes, like,Dressed to Kill.

And then follow it up

with something like,
Body Double, which was
just absolutely torn apart

by the critical establishment.

But our other
"maverick", she knew
that was actually a good sign.

I always believed that
you should judge a director
on their best work.

Not in their failures.

Because if you are
a great director,
you're going to take risks,

and if you take risks,
you're going to
fail sometimes.

But those failures
don't mean that you're not
as good as you were before.

And one thing
Brian De Palma
was especially good at

was being a master of suspense.

De Palma could do incredible
sustained suspense sequences.

I mean, you watch like
the prom sequence in Carrie

and the way he sets up
so methodically,

the bucket of blood
up on top of the stage.

I'm a huge fan
of Brian De Palma's,
always was,

and when his name was suggested,
and when I was told that

he wanted to do it,
it seemed like
the easiest yes in the world.

But that's about where
the easiness ended.

De Palma was not taken with
the Mission: Impossible script

that came in
from Huyck and Katz.

The director felt
the story needed to have
its horizons widened.

It was very domestic.
It was all in America.

It was kind of mostly set
in the Midwest,

and he felt like it needed to be
an international spy thriller.

They should be going
all over the world
with Mission: Impossible.

Oh, we missed you in Kiev, Jim.

I missed you too, Ethan.

De Palma turned to
a trusted old hand

screenwriter Steven Zaillian.

[Charles hood] Who had written
Schindler's List.

The two of them
holed up together,
in a hotel room.

They were just
smoking cigarettes
and eating peanuts for weeks,

and they came up with the bones of the story
for the first Mission: Impossible movie.

But figuring out the blueprint

for Mission: Impossible,was mission enough
for writer Steven Zaillian.

And after they had figured out

the, kind of, framework
for the story, Steven Zaillian
said, "Good luck.

I don't want to write this.

God bless you all."

And then, uh,
David Koepp was brought in.

David had
many feathers in his cap,

when it came to hats,
in particular...

[Hood] Yeah, David Koepp
had just done Jurassic Park.

But your scientists
were so preoccupied

over whether or not they could,
they didn't stop to think
if they should.

So, he's obviously a huge name.

At the time,
everybody wanted to hire him,

and Koepp wrote some drafts.

Months later,
Sherry Lansing
received the phone call

she had been waiting for.

I got a call from Tom
and he said,
"I'm going to send you

the draft ofMission: Impossible."

I was extremely excited.

But the mission
Tom had put together

proposed something so crazy
it was as bold as it was risky.

And in the first 20 minutes...

This is Ethan Hunt.

They're dead.

The entire team ofMission: Impossible
gets killed.

Jim's dead, they're dead,
they're all dead.

And the whole movie becomes
Tom Cruise

trying to find out
why they were killed
and redeem his reputation.

And I laughed and I just went,

"He's so smart."

And he knew exactly
what he was going to do.

And so I got this dream package
and had the pleasure
of greenlighting the movie.

But despite
Sherry's joy, Tom wasn't
happy with the script,

now fully embracing his role
as a producer.

And so he wanted to
bring on Robert Towne.

At the time, he was kind of
Cruise's, like, dude.

He was, sort of, like,
a legendary script doctor

for many years as well.
And he wrote Days of Thunder.

He wrote The Firm.

So, he was a natural choice
to be a part of this project.

But De Palma and Towne

couldn't agree on possibly
the most important thing.

The ending.

Whether it should end
with an action sequence

or just, kind of,
a verbal confrontation
inside the train car.

It's over, Jim.

[Hood] And so De Palma felt
there should be

a big climactic action sequence
on top of this bullet train.

Cruise at the time
was pro train car.

De Palma was like, "Oh, so okay,
so we won't do
the big action sequence.

We'll just have people
talking on a train car
at the climax.

Mm. Okay, sure."

Paramount had a bigger problem.

The size of the budget
required to get to the ending,

whatever it was.

I think the initial budget
was about $100 million.

Now today,
that doesn't sound like a lot.

We had never made a movie
for $100 million.

And I said to Tom,
"We have to make cuts.
This is just too much."

And so the question was,
could Tom Cruise, the producer,

still make Mission: Impossible,

possible?

Tom Cruise and
Sherry Lansing were facing
a potential stalemate

over
Mission: Impossible's budget.

We have to make cuts.
But Tom actually understood

the pressures
of a studio executive.

And he was the only producer
I have ever worked with

who understood
the problems of the studio.

But as a producer,
no way was he going to
let his budget get cut.

You know, more money
doesn't make a better movie.

Instead, he would take
the cut as an actor.

[Lansing] He said,
"Okay, I'll give up my fee
and I'll work

for a fee
that rewards me in success."

And so the budget went
from $100 million
to $80 million.

And then he turned to
Brian De Palma and said,
"So what are you going to do?"

And they cut it even further
without hurting
the movie at all.

When it came
to casting, cuts were
already built into the script.

All of Ethan's team
gets killed off
in the first act.

But that only meant
they needed actors

who could establish a bond
with the audience quickly.

Let's just get the money
and get out of here.

But some would survive.

Like French actress
Emmanuelle Beart.

Just looking into
those giant eyes,

you would do anything
that she asked you to do,

even if it was to kill off
several members of your own

IMF team.

Frenchman Jean Reno,
brought the pedigree of
Luc Besson's action films.

- Yeah, this was one of his first
big American projects.
-

Fresh in the mind from
Four Weddings and a Funeral,

as an English actress
on the rise.

Kristin Scott Thomas
and Emilio Estevez.

Hasta lasagna.
Don't get any on you.

It seemed that
Tom was returning the favor.

As Emilio had cast Tom
in his movie Young Guns

years earlier in a blink
and you'll miss it performance.

When it came to casting
the team leader,
Tom thought of a dark horse.

I almost wonder if they were,
kind of, casting him

because you wouldn't
think of him
as the villain at the time.

And Jon Voight,
had been to some dark places.

Deliverance, right?

He got a real pretty mouth,
ain't he?

That's the truth.

Amongst the carnage
of Phelps' traitorous

friendly fire killing spree,

only one character
won a stay of execution.

Ving Rhames is cast as Luther,
and in the script, Luther dies,

just like
every other team member
that Ethan has in the movie.

Until, that is,
Ving Rhames showed Tom
an angle he had considered.

[Drew Taylor] And he told Tom,
"Are you really

going to kill off
the only brother?"
Or something along those lines.

Which got David Koepp
second guessing.

Koepp was like,
"Yeah, you're right."

And Brian De Palma was like,
"Yeah, he's... he's right."

That's how
Luther survives the movie.

Cheers!

It was a rare case
of a casting decision,

changing not just the script
but a whole franchise.

I think
this is what you're looking for.

He lived to to see
not only the end of the movie,
but seven more movies.

And when it came to
casting a henchman, sometimes,
it's simply who you know.

I was friends with
Brian De Palma's girlfriend,
something like that.

So I don't know
whether that did it,
but it might have.

Andreas Wisniewski
did have
a henchman pedigree, though,

from his role as Tony
in Die Hard...

...to that infamous murdering
milkman in James Bond's
The Living Daylights.

He was being called up
for another role as...

Sort of a silent
henchman/sidekick of Max.

So with casting locked,
Cruise and De Palma

were still duking it out
over the film's ending.

But everyone was really high
on Towne's draft,
which ended in the train car.

Just pulling off masks.

But a great unmasking
was not going to be enough
for De Palma.

De Palma was able
to convince Cruise to do
the action sequence, instead.

[Taylor] The excitement and energy

of that train climax
finally won out.

[Hood] And then Koepp had
to come back the weekend
before the shoot started,

and was asked to piece together

the best of his drafts,
and the best of the Towne draft.

And had to do
a Herculean task of making sure
all of this stuff made sense.

So while David Koepp
was sorting out the script,
Tom and his crew were going

to one of
Europe's great capitals.

We were shooting in Prague.

But shooting
in this great
Eastern European capital,

would present
an unexpected challenge
for Tom.

Even in the early days
of Eastern Europe opening up,

he was already so famous
that he just
couldn't go anywhere.

I mean, when he exited his car,
it took 30 seconds,

and he was surrounded
by a hundred teenagers.

If he could
just get around the hordes,

Tom had a location
unlike any other.

[Greg Powell] It was nice working there.
Everyone was nice,

and it's nice
going to places like that
for the first time.

It was one of
the only European cities

that survived World War II
without major bombing.

So all that
original architecture
was still there,

and I think
tapped in beautifully,

to this kind of Gothic tone
of the first act
of Mission: Impossible.

But it was
not in Prague
that Tom would throw down

the first big challenge
to his crew.

We did
the exterior part in Prague.

But for the interior,

it would be
in an English studio.

The explosion that
the wall collapsed and done,
that was on the back lot

at Pinewood Studios.

We go back to playing
with studios in London
and they built that set.

Where a stunt was planned
that would prove Tom's mission

to turn himself
into an action star...

It's just this
massive fish tank.

...really did mean action.

It was really important
in the lineage
of the Tom Cruise story

in being one of the first
big stunts that he did himself.

But not so fast.

Let's be clear about one thing.

Tom Cruise is not
the first actor that ever
wanted to do his own stunts.

But there's some actors
that would love to do more,

and some producers say,
"No, no, no, no, no."

But there's a good reason
actors don't do stunts.

If they go down,
the whole production goes down.

So it's just
not the smartest thing.

It's the same reason
the industry

depends on guys like Keith,
and for Keith Campbell,
it really wasn't

what he was expecting
when he was offered the job,
thanks to this woman.

I was Val Kilmer's stunt double
for Batman Forever.

Long story short,
Tom's wife at the time,
the leading lady.

Hot entrance.

Tom comes to visit the set
and sees me, and he said,
"Keith, hello."

That's because
Tom remembered Keith
from this stunt on The Firm.

More than a minute later,
he goes, "You know, I know

when you guys are
done with this, you want to doMission: Impossible with me?"

And I couldn't believe it.

But for Keith,
that meant dealing
with a star and a producer

who also wanted to do
his own stunts.

And the first opportunity
for that to happen was
the now iconic aquarium scene.

Endless gallons of water
dropping all around him.

De Palma, he would be thinking,
"God, I can't hurt my...
my actor."

But Tom's position
as a producer granted him,
well, certain rights.

Well, I guess if you're
executive producer, you can do
anything you want.

And no one's
telling Tom Cruise "no."

As difficult stunts loomed,

unsurprisingly,
Tom had complete faith in Tom.

He's an actor who, you know,
you've got confidence in.

If he says he can do it,
you know he can do it.

And it was Keith's job
to help Tom prove he was right.

I had to rehearse it.

A lot.

And I had to explain
in detail, detail, detail

what to expect.

This particular job
was probably one of the most
I've ever rehearsed.

1... 2... Come on!

Keith and Tom
both took a run at it.

I did a take.

Tom did a take.

[Powell] I remember
Tom doing it once with water
coming down, and he said,

"How did that look?"
I said, "Tom, it was fantastic."

It was natural
the way you done it.

But he was slightly unhappy
with it to start with.

But this stunt was
very much a team effort.

They put
Tom's face on the double.
It was called Face Replace.

It was a big wide shot
when he finally
jumps out of the restaurant.

But there were
other tighter angles,
and that was all him.

As an actor,
Tom wanted perfection.

And he didn't have
a big ego about it.

But as a producer...

He goes, "You know what?

Whatever looks best
is going to make the movie."

And Tom had seemed
to pull it off unscathed.

But that wasn't the case
for one unlucky stuntman.

Well, he gets a piece of glass
that was probably

three to four inches long
that rolled up
right as his butt went down.

And it went all the way
to his bone and put like
a four inch gash in it.

It was quite a gash, even Tom
came up to the caravan

and he couldn't believe
the size of it.

I mean, medical attention
is secondary to showing Tom
"look at this."

But it was
the cut of the film that was
on Tom and Brian's mind.

So De Palma
reached out to one of his
old time collaborators,

editor of De Palma's Blowout,
Carrie, and at least
one Space opera.

I got a call from Brian De Palma
and he said, "Listen,

the studio has decided
they want to bring the picture
out for Christmas.

We're gonna need
more than just one editor.

How would you like to be
the second editor
on the picture with Jerry?"

That's lead editor
Jerry Greenberg.

And I said, "Sure."

And it wasn't long
before Brian would need
Paul's help.

Brian he called me,
he said, "We have a problem."

He said, "I want you to come
look at what
Jerry's been doing."

When Paul viewed this scene
cut by the lead editor,

Jerry Greenberg,
it looked like
classic De Palma.

It was really well cut,
and then all of a sudden,

it started to repeat,
with slight variations.

And then
it jumped somewhere else. And...

This wasn't a technical glitch
with the editing software.

[Paul Hirsch] Brian was not happy with this.

It was human error.

Individually, moments were great
but apparently,
Jerry had lost his place.

Jerry Greenberg,
long-time film editor,
was struggling to master

the still new
digital editing system.

The totality of it was a mess.

And it was proving
mission impossible for him
to learn in time.

Brian said to me, "I want you
to take over the picture.

I'm letting Jerry go."

Now. Paul was thrown
into the deep end, too.

While the stunt team
was moving on
to its next challenge.

The thing about this movie
that's so iconic
is the Langley sequence.

This time,
the challenge was not water,

but air.

[Powell] The thing which
is shown most out of all
the stuff that he's done,

is the scene where he comes
down from the ceiling.

I thought
it was a fabulous design.

Because Cruise is wearing
a black outfit.

And he's in a white room,
so he's as exposed
as a spider in a bathtub.

And they had real trouble
getting him to balance.

There were two guys
lowering him down

on a weight cage,
so it's easier for them.

They keep dropping him,
and he keeps falling
and hitting the ground.

And hitting his head
on the floor, meaning he would
just be tilting a little

and have to put his hand down.

Tom told me
that Brian would push him.

He said, he'll say,
"Come on, Cruise,
you can do this."

And we always found,

no matter how much we adjusted
the wires on the side,
he was always front heavy.

Sometimes,
a difficult shot just needs
more money thrown at it.

And in this case,
it was small change.

[Powell] We got coins.

We were
putting them in his shoes.

To balance himself so that
he would be perfectly parallel
with the floor.

Yeah, it was Tom's idea,
but it was my money.

He never had no money.
It was my money he used.

I don't know if he ever
gave it back to me either.

And when he finally got it,
De Palma just held it.
He didn't say, "Cut."

So Cruise is
just dangling there.

Cruise is thinking,
"I'm not gonna
let myself hit the ground.

"I'm gonna hold this
for as long
as humanly possible."

You milk it as much as you can.

And so Paul,
the Editor/milkman,
and Brian De Palma,

did milk the tension.

But the idea of this was
not going to have any music.

There was just
going to be sounds.

From here on in
absolute silence.

Now, everybody thinks
that music adds tension,

but in fact,
silence creates tension.

You just torture the audience
for as long as humanly possible.

It was nine minutes
of basically silence.

And so,
while the music
was all out of one of

Mission: Impossible's

most iconic scenes,
when it came to
the movie's finale,

Tom was all in,

despite having been
one of the most argued about
scenes in Mission: Impossible.

The whole train finale,
it's impossible to...

emphasize how much care
went into making this sequence.

The discussion
this time was not
how it should end,

but how Tom could pull it off.

How we can achieve it?
How are we gonna...
How am I going to do it?

And have how much to Tom do?

They wanted to create
that danger, and he wanted
the field of speed.

And yet for
the set piece finale involving
a train and a helicopter

going into a tunnel...

There was no helicopter.

The train didn't move at all.

There was no tunnel.

Visual effects
in post-production would
manifest De Palma's vision.

You had to sort of
project in your mind
what this was going to be.

But for Tom,
the action
would be very physical.

They brought in, like,
jet engine fans.

And it was
a powerful wind machine,
I must say

Tom Cruise wanted
the actual ripple on his face
to really be seen by the camera.

The wind machine definitely
created that speed for sure.

To move his audience,

Tom would need a little help
moving himself.

He wanted to be pulled
towards Jon Voight, and he said,

"I want you
to really pull me hard."

I said, okay. "No", he said,
"I really want you
to pull me hard."

Anyway, The wind started
three, two, one action.

And I really give him a yank,

and he flew across there.
He started to move to me.

He started going like, "What?"
"Whoa, Tom, you said
pull as hard as I can."

That's what I've done.

If I didn't pull as hard
as I can you could have
told me off.

And he was like,
"Yeah. Okay, fine."

Cruise was like
a freight train out of control.

Such was his burning desire
to do every stunt
he possibly could.

Right when he climbs up
onto the top of the train,

there's this really cool shot
of him flipping over,
and rehearsing that

I was thinking to myself,
"This really hurts."
Because it's all metal stuff.

And we couldn't really
pad up there because he knew
it would just blow off.

But, he wanted to do it.

And I said, "Tom this one's
going to hurt." And he'd go,
"That's okay."

And he does it.

[Keith Campbell] "Tom this one'e going to hurt."

In doing his own stunts,

Tom Cruise was offering up
a smorgasbord of material,

ensuring editor Paul Hirsch
didn't go hungry
in the edit suite.

I liken making movies to...

To cooking a meal.

The screenplay is the recipe,
and shooting
is gathering together

all the ingredients
and cutting it

is cooking the meal.

But for this dish,
not all the cooks
were allowed in the kitchen.

Not even the head chef.

[Hirsch] Brian had this rule
that... that he'd never allow

his actors
into the editing room.

And he'd never allow producers
into the editing room.

I said,
"Brian, so now
you've got a picture,

now, Tom is the star
and the producer,

what if he wants to come
to the cutting room?"

And he said, "I will screen
the picture for him as many
times as he wants,

but he's not coming
into the cutting room."

Brian De Palma
may have managed to keep
Tom Cruise out of the room,

but there was no keeping
his producer from
playing a hand in the cut.

Offhandedly, he said to me,
"I noticed you kept a lot of
the entrances and exits."

And, uh, I knew that
the idea is to not have
a lot of excess stuff,

but I had
never heard it expressed
in terms of entrances and exits.

I thought, yeah, you can
just cut... You don't have to
have somebody

coming into the shot,
you can just cut them... cut to
them already in the shot.

So, um, that was helpful.

Cruise was proving
himself adept in all manners
of the filmmaking process.

But he wasn't
the only creative mind
to critique Paul's work.

De Palma showed it
to George Lucas,

and he felt like the first act
was missing something.

The team is all together
at the beginning,

but there's
no scene of the team,
talking about what the plan is.

Lucas wasn't asking
for plot exposition.

He had identified a problem
with Tom's plan to wipe out
the Mission: Impossible team

in the first act,
which was, well,
the entire reason

why Sherry Lansing greenlit
the project in the first place.

But Brian agreed with George.

[Hirsch] Brian felt
it was important
to bring the team together

and have them show
the camaraderie and so forth.

And so you're invested in
the team, so, it's more shocking
when they all get killed.

You got to have that scene.

The cast was
hastily re-assembled.

And so, that was a...
a pickup that they shot.

Could we get
a cappuccino machine
in here?

Because I don't know
what you call this.

But, one member
of the team was missing.

- Sarah.
- Kristin Scott Thomas couldn't
make it for the re-shoot.

So, there's a little bit
of a body double.

And then you can see,
Kristin Scott Thomas is separate
from everybody else's coverage.

I have nothing to wear.

Between De Palma and Cruise,
nothing was left to

chance on Mission: Impossible.

Except for one thing.

De Palma had left the score
entirely to his composer,

Alan Silvestri.

Brian trusted him
a hundred percent.

And not once
during those eight weeks
had Alan ever called Brian

and said, "Listen,
I'd like to play you
some of what I'm doing here,

just to make sure
we're on the same page." And...

They never talked.

Alan Silvestri
preferred to let the music
do the talking.

And that was the problem,
when De Palma
finally came to hear it.

Brian turned to someone,
and said, "Sounds like the song
of the vulgar boatman."

Translation,

the score sounded like
a Russian peasant song.

It was like
pulling a thread on a sweater.

It just all came apart
right there.

Tom Cruise's
first picture, as a producer,

was suddenly unraveling
at the last minute.

Cruise was there
and he got involved.

And Mission: Impossible

was just weeks from release.

They put
their heads together and...

and the next thing I knew,
that Alan was out.

Suddenly,
Mission: Impossible

had no composer
and subsequently, no score.

I had used one temp queue
for when they were crawling
through the air duct

that I had taken from a picture
called Dead Presidents

and was written by Danny Elfman.

And then I showed it to Brian
and he said,
"Whoa, that's really cool.

Let's get Danny Elfman."

So Danny came on board.

De Palma sat with Elfman
and worked
very closely with him.

Brian told me
he'd never worked as hard
on any score in his life.

But when audiences think music
and Mission: Impossible,

there's that classic
TV theme song, which the movie
simply couldn't do without.

The minute that music starts,
everyone's up in their seat.

They know they're in
for high octane action.

However, on the film's release,
critics believed,

that the film's "mission"
had failed.

When the movie came out,
critics said
the movie was too confusing.

Ten year-olds could follow
the plot, but the movie critics
were confused.

Also unhappy
were those who felt
the TV show's legacy

had been undermined.

They were pissed. I mean,
the original cast members
were not happy.

They did not like
that... how dark it was.

They didn't like how focused
it was on one character.

However,
audiences had
no such qualms.

This was a film that exploded.

It was a huge hit that made
$457,000,000 worldwide.

Do you ever expect something--

No. I never expect this.

Well, I think what surprised me
is how big this picture was.

It was actually,
from production standpoint,

the biggest picture
I've ever made.

This was a huge success
for... for Paramount
and Tom Cruise.

Tom, who has an actor,
never got to bank a paycheck,

was still laughing
all the way to the bank.

Because he bet on himself,

he probably made way more money
than he would have
if he'd just taken his fee.

Entertainment Weekly
was reporting
that he had made

something like $70 million
on the first movie.

The success
of Mission: Impossible

had made Tom Cruise
not only a bankable star,
but a bankable producer.

But as with all his
previous career choices,

when people thought he'd zig,
he zagged.

[Alice] Fuck!

For his next role,
Tom chose to work

with one of
cinema's greatest minds,

Stanley Kubrick.

How do I look?

Perfect.

Is my hair okay?

It's great.

They made a big deal
about the fact
that they were married,

and they were gonna
have sex on camera.

They even advertised it
in a photo shoot where
he's, like, licking her chin.

And then it was more about like,
"No, he's having
an existential crisis,

and he's going to some
sort of swinger party."

[Masked man] Remove your clothes.

From Stanley Kubrick,
to modern day auteur
Paul Thomas Anderson.

He's incredible in Magnolia.

You will not take my soul, no.

You will not win this game.

Incredible enough
for his third Oscar nomination.

The Oscar goes to...

Michael Caine
in The Cider House Rules.

An Oscar win for Tom
was proving "impossible."

But, what was possible,
was a sequel

to Mission: Impossible.

We were going to
make another one.

I mean, this is every
studio executive's dream.

But it would be
without Brian De Palma.

He said, "I did it
and I'm done, and I don't
need to do it again."

For Tom, De Palma's
departure was an opportunity
for his fledgling franchise.

Tom said to me,
"I want each director
to be different.

Brian had a certain style.

Now let's go to
someone who has
a completely opposite style."

So John Woo came in.

But one thing
that wouldn't change
was Tom's appetite for danger.

The whole
mountain climbing sequence
that we did in Moab, Utah.

It was awesome.

[Debbie Evans] He got up there,
and they're saying, "Tom,
you don't have to do this."

But he... he did it.

I remember when he called me,

after I had seen
the dailies one day,
and I was apoplectic,

because there he was
hanging from a mountain.

That was a thousand feet
down to the ground.

And he said,
"I'm fine, I'm fine."

Yeah, 'cause at those points
it's not you're gonna get hurt.

It's like, "Ugh,
someone's gonna have
to go retrieve that guy

down at
the bottom of the cliff."
Gonna be in bags, and...

Not fun.

I don't need to get graphic.

But for Cruise
as the producer, the realism
he brought to the film

in doing his own stunts
was worth the risk.

It's the power
of his commitment.

It's the power of his passion.

It's his work ethic.

I definitely wouldn't consider
doing some of those things
that Tom is doing.

I mean,
it's... it's, uh, it's mad.

To this day, I don't know
how we got insurance.

But perhaps
the biggest risk they faced
was if audiences

liked the movie or not.

So, now we're going to test
the John Woo film.

So, we are like
a stealth operation.

Everyone flies in
on separate planes.

We go to this little town,

with a little theater,
and Tom, of course, comes.

But he is supposed to be
in the projection booth
in the back.

All the audience knows is
they're going to see
an action movie.

Tom Cruise walks out
to the front of the audience.

I was paralyzed and he says,
"I hope you like this movie

because we've
really worked hard on it."

Or, something like that
and, "I'm so happy to be here."

And
I remember going back,

you know, afterwards,
into the conference room,

and he said, "I saw the look
on your face, Sherry. I thought
you were going to kill me."

I said, "Actually, I would have
if I could have
gotten away with it."

And he said, "I was
really nervous, and I just
wanted them to like it."

Oh,
they liked it, all right.

In fact, everyone liked it.

MI-2 is a huge success.
Was the number one grossing
movie of the year it came out.

Following the success of MI-2

the chameleon-like Cruise chose
to pursue a variety of roles

in several different genres,
as both a producer
and as an actor.

Oscillate between, uh,
the popcorn movies...

Like Minority Report.

...and the really straight
drama films.

But it wasn't long
before the allure

of playing Ethan Hunt
brought him back to the
Mission: Impossible franchise,

where he would challenge
Sherry Lansing with his choice

for yet another director.

My natural instinct
was to go with somebody

who was more proven,
more seasoned.

But, Tom had
a different instinct.

He said, "You know,
there's someone, I think,
that would be great."

J. J. Abrams.

I barely knew
who J.J. Abrams was.

I have to be honest with you,
I had not seen Lost.

Tom listened to
Sherry's concerns and said...

[Lansing] "No, I'd like to go with J.J."

Well, guess what?
J. J. Abrams was not available
for over a year,

because he was committed
to do the next season of Lost.

But not all was "lost."

Because Tom had a workaround.

And he said, "We'll wait."

I said, "Wait,
we have a go movie."

I need you to trust me.

And, he then, did this thing
which I'll never forget.

He put his hand on my hand
and he said, "Sherry,
you're like a sister to me.

I would never hurt you.
Just trust me."

I want to help you.

I want to help you get
whatever you want.

I had no choice,
but not to have
a July 4th movie is horrendous.

Sherry was left scrambling.

We went everywhere,
just trying to find any movie

that we could release
on July 4th.

And we could find nothing
and there was nothing
I could do.

We didn't have a movie.

Now this is, like,
it's so embarrassing.

No July 4th movie.
They couldn't keep
the movie together.

They can't find a new movie.

And then Sherry's phone rang.

Two months later, I get a call
from Steven Spielberg.

And he says, "I have
a really good script

I'd like you to read,
which, you know, I've been
working on with Tom."

The movie was
War of the Worlds.

[Lansing] I called him back
the next day,
and I said, "This is great.

When do you want to
release it?"

And he said July 4th.

And I said...

I said, "In less than a year?"

And he said,
"In less than a year."
And I started to laugh.

I called Tom
and I said I can't believe it.

I'll never ever doubt you.

I'll never question you again.

And he keeps saying,
"I didn't know,

I didn't know."
And maybe that's the truth.

But I'll always think
that he had
in the back of his mind

when he would say,
"I would never hurt you,
trust me."

But Tom was about to lose
his greatest ally at Paramount.

I started to feel
as if I was repeating myself.

And that the highs
weren't as high
and the lows weren't as low.

I felt like
I was losing my passion.

And I didn't want to be
that kind of executive.

And in 2004,
Sherry stepped down
from Paramount.

The truth is,
I wasn't losing my passion.

It was going someplace else.

It was going into
cancer research.

I'd lost my mother to cancer.

And I wanted to be involved
in helping to fund research.

I'll send you a postcard.

All that really matters
is the movies that you made,

and I'm thrilled and proud,

that I was able to be
a teeny part of theMission: Impossible franchise.

Tom was getting
excited about the next phase
in his life, too.

Maybe too excited.

While promoting
War of the Worlds...

Pretend we'reWar of the Worlds.

The world began talking
about anything, but the movie.

We've never seen you
behave this way before.

I know.

Have you ever
felt this way before?

Sure, it's a little,
maybe weird behavior.

It's eccentric.

After divorcing Nicole Kidman,
his wife of over a decade,

Tom was in a new relationship.

I mean, I never understood
why it was such a big deal.

Like, why were people
so weirded out?

And why did it affect his career
in the way that it did?

The fallout from the couch
wasn't his only misstep.

I've never
agreed with psychiatry. Ever.

If anti-depressants
work for Brooke Shields,
why isn't that okay?

I... I disagree with it.

You don't even... You're glib.

You don't even know
what Ritalin is.

[Victoria Bennett] His sister
had become his publicist,

and while
he had been
private before this,

he starts speaking publicly
about Scientology,

and it does not go over well.

It's rumored
that Spielberg and Cruise
had a falling out over this.

Supposedly, Spielberg believed
that because of Cruise's antics,

War the Worlds
didn't do as well, and it
cost the film $30 million.

Be that as it may,
War of the Worldswas not the end of the world.

But, Mission: Impossible 3almost looked like
the end of a franchise.

Three actually was a little bit
of a box office disappointment,
at the time.

It became
the lowest earning
Mission: Impossible film.

Paramount believed the bad PR
hurt Mission: Impossible 3's
box office.

Paramount wanted maybe
to move on
and try something different.

And so the studio did.

So Sumner Redstone
ends Paramount's deal
with Cruise/Wagner.

So, I was gone.

I like to think
it wouldn't have happened
if I'd been there.

And, it affected
his partnership
with Paula, too.

We cannot lose.

So he and Paula Wagner
try to become their own studio,

by taking over
United Artists for MGM.

With this deal,
they only, really,
make two films.

Lions for Lambs
is a box office disaster.

Valkyrie gets delayed
due to bad buzz,

and while
it ultimately does well,
the damage is just done.

Paula gets a lot of flak
for this, so she decides
to leave United Artists.

This is basically
the end of
the Cruise/Wagner partnership.

Tom and Paula were a great team,
they made great movies together.

Mission is not the only one.

Tom's reputation seemed to be
in need of resuscitation.

The one saving grace for Tom,
around this time,

is his character
in Tropic Thunder,

Les Grossman.

Look, fuckstick,
I'm incredibly busy,

so why don't you
get the hell out of here
before I snap your dick off

and jam it into your ass?

That character
was a huge surprise.

Nobody really knew at first
that Tom was in it,
until they went and saw it.

And saw what he was doing,
and thought,
"Tom's really funny."

I will fuck you up!

Give him more comedy, please.

So, what happens now?

Well,
the answer to that was,

with Cruise no longer
under the Paramount umbrella,

plans for
Mission: Impossible 4,

were suddenly
placed in jeopardy.

Can this franchise keep going?

Can I keep going
with Tom Cruise?

Ethan, you are my best man.

Maybe Tom Cruise
should gracefully walk away.

And so, there's a version
of the Ghost Protocol script...

where, well, maybe Jeremy Renner
can take over this franchise.

Why would that work?

It took four years
for Paramount
to agree to make

another "Mission: Impossible" film.

Because,
let's be honest...

This is Tom Cruise's franchise.

And so, finally,
Tom Cruise's
Ethan Hunt was back in

Mission:
Impossible - Ghost Protocol.

And the decision
to continue the franchise
paid off big time.

[Hood] That movie really delivered,
and it was a huge success.

And, sort of,
paved the way for

the later films, now, that have
all been a success, as well.

But, you got to respect
the man's game,

like, it's just the...
the amount
of stunt work he does...

Argh!

...is incredible.

I go to Mission: Impossible
movies just to see
if Tom Cruise is going to die.

However, while
Mission: Impossiblemay have introduced Tom Cruise

to a whole new generation,
it was
a different sort of "gun"

that Cruise was
thinking about now.

I don't think there's a movie
better than Top Gun.

Uh, I really don't.

A long anticipated
return to the character
that turned the star...

I'm Maverick.

It was 32 years
after the movie was filmed.

...into a mega star.

[Eddie Hamilton] Everyone thinks
you're going to screw it up.

Why have you done this?

It can't possibly be
as good as the first movie.

And riding
on this picture was not just
an actor's reputation,

but a legend's legacy.

There's so much at stake.

You know what happens to you
if you go through with this?

But for a risk taker,
it was a risk worth taking

because Tom thought...

"That movie is my legacy,

and I won't do anything
to... to hurt that."