tom cruise and ben stiller funny interview

• Entertainment

Trending videos, tweets and news from the UK's biggest humour site.

• Copyright Notice

This old Ben Stiller impression of Tom Cruise has just gone viral and it’s a most welcome 16 seconds escape

Poke Staff . Updated August 24th, 2022

For reasons that aren’t entirely clear or important, this old clip of Ben Stiller doing a hilarious impression of Tom Cruise – in front of Tom Cruise – has just gone wildly viral.

And not only is it a very welcome escape from everything else that is going on right now, it’s also very, very good.

Not for nothing did it go viral in the subReddit called r/contagiouslaughter.

‘Spot on.’ HuffnDobak ‘Which one is Tom Cruise again?’ OffbeatBat ‘And thus the friendship that would become Tropic Thunder began.’ GearJunkie82 ‘It started when Ben Stiller did “The Hustler of Money.” ‘They were supposed to do a Hardy Boys movie together called “Hardy Men” but it never happened, and we got Tropic Thunder instead.’ canteen_boy ‘F-ckk I want that movie.’ TMA_01 ‘These shorts during the MTV movie awards were amazing. “Now I’m just thinking crazy here, what if, just spit balling, what if right before Tom Cruise crashes into that guy mid air… time freezes, we zoom in on Tom..He turns to the camera, and says “this mission just got a hell of a lot more impossibler” SeedyRedwood

And the clip in full …

WANT MORE POKE?

Get the best of the day’s posts delivered direct to you by joining The Poke+ on Facebook

Source Reddit u/Tomato__Potato

©2024 The Poke.   |   T&C's   |   Cookie Policy   |   Privacy Policy   |   Consent Settings   |   About Us   |   Copyright Notice

• Celebrities
• Science & Tech
• Fashion & Beauty
• Food & Drink
• Home & Garden
• Sports & Fitness
• Travel & Outdoors
• Science & tech
• Conversations

Ben Stiller's incredible impression of Tom Cruise has just gone viral 22 years on

An old clip has resurfaced of Ben Stiller doing an impression of Tom Cruise and it's truly the most joyful thing you'll see today.

Stiller parodied Cruise in Mission Impossible while at the MTV Movie Awards in 2000 and the Top Gun actor was genuinely caught off-guard.

The pair sat down for an interview as Stiller, who was dressed in a matching outfit, joked they'd worked together so long they could 'finish each other's sentences', before mimicking Cruise's every move.

Outstanding.

Click here to sign up for our newsletters.

Matt Smith still in physio for House of the Dragon injury

Sign language interpreter performs 'fix you' at coldplay concert, jessie ware shares how slow-mo effects are created in music videos, elton john surprises diners with teaser of britney collaboration, rick astley recreates iconic 'never gonna give you up' music video, anne heche said who should play her in biopic just months before death, machine gun kelly gets fined almost $300,000 for over-running concert, johnny depp set to direct his first film in 25 years, these actors played best friends but 'hated' each other in real life, ben stiller says he accidentally became 'a total swiftie', new james bond ‘has to be aged under 40 and taller than 5ft 10ins', moment kit harington found out the ending of game of thrones, fans remember olivia newton-john and john travolta's best moments, ozzy osbourne shouts 'birmingham forever' at the commonwealth games, iconic grease makeover moment shows olivia newton-john at her best, brad pitt has list of stars he won't work with, lizzie cundy compares rebekah vardy interview to prince andrew's, jamie campbell bower performs lizzo song as stranger things' vecna, rebekah vardy 'deeply ashamed' of peter andre 'chipolata' comment, "starbucks hunting" on house of the dragon after game of thrones error, hair stylist pulls hilarious big comb prank on her customers, mother and daughter left in stitches after huge post-colonoscopy fart, sean paul fans baffled to learn he's not saying his own name in songs, awkward moment laura ingraham has to fact check trump during interview, ryan gosling's critics choice win has become an instant meme, viral property sales music video has people rushing to 'put in offers', utah woman discovers she 'married her cousin' while pregnant, prankster changes labels in sainsbury's to hilarious descriptions, cat learns how to use ring video doorbell to get let in by his owner, onlyfans star elle brooke says she once sold her spit for £200, someone turned their tesla horn into topher from tiktok, woman throws gender reveal party - forgetting partner is colourblind, 'boy' and 'girl' wrestle for chance to be born in gender reveal, magpie found in garden absolutely 'hammered' off fermented apples, twitch streamer captures the live moment he gets hit by car, tiktoker who predicted 2022's events reveals what's in store for 2023, 'doggy daycare bus' is going viral on tiktok for the right reasons, mr t threatening racist landlords on tv is gold, woman catches neighbour's dog spying through perfectly-shaped hole, tiktoker reveals major signs that give away if someone is gen-z, nasa reveals real reason behind 'creepy' boeing spacecraft noises, liam gallagher shares what caused rift with brother noel, pilot shares how singapore airlines encountered such severe turbulence, youtuber reveals how marcus rashford crashed his £700k rolls royce, jimmy kimmel points out trump supporters hypocrisy, remarkable moment alexei navalny discovers how he was poisoned, marjorie taylor greene slammed by democrats after wild vaccine claims, hillary clinton nails tucker carlson over putin interview, shocking moment senator asks tiktok ceo if he's a communist, trump tells sick people: "if you vote then pass away, it's worth it", basketball player claims he is '10ft alien' spotted hiking in brazil, taylor swift fans are being 'scammed' by deepfake le creuset ad, julia hartley-brewer yells at palestinian mp during interview, pub owner enjoys pint in waist-high flood water following storm henk, news reporter makes savage remark about teen who beat tetris, radio listener's nsfw comment about storm henk read out live on air, news presenter accidentally asks viewers 'how big' their 'hole' is, defendant launches himself at judge during sentencing in court, ultimate world cruise floods three weeks into nine month voyage, fox news psychic predicts a 'sense of loss' for trump in 2024, angela rayner and victoria starmer can't stop wearing this brand, moment reporter dragged out of rishi sunak campaign rally, trump confuses biden and obama again as crowd goes silent, 80-year-old voter rips apart 'a**hole' donald trump in viral rant, trump asks crowd if it 'wants the black president or white president', trump says 'israel' is the capital of israel in another alarming speech, people think marjorie taylor greene auditioned for american idol, black people will vote for trump 'because they love sneakers', says fox guest, fox commentator claims trump's cognitive concerns are just typos, tory minister slammed as 'deluded' over sunak praise, senator says 'i love you' to trump in cringe on stage moment, trump utter's incoherent sentence about us not solving 'sollest smallest problem', ron desantis's quote about 'kissing trump's ring' has aged terribly, thérèse coffey tried to slam labour over rwanda – but it backfired, trump speaks about kane and the undertaker on his campaign trail, red bull's tom bridge joined surfers to ride huge severn bore tidal wave, f1 insider says one star would win 'hands down' if they all raced in the same cars, host gives scathing speech on 'sad’ men complaining about taylor swift, frank lampard addresses legendary meme in best way possible, eric dier's accent after his first game for bayern munich raises eyebrows, stone cold steve austin has found something colder than he is, ishowspeed breaks streaming set up trying to replicate man utd goal, ronaldo left speechless by ishowspeed interview question, luke littler reveals what he's spending his £200,000 darts winnings on, luke littler celebrated the darts final in the most luke littler way, video perfectly sums up how it feels watching luke littler play darts, beautiful moment young manchester united fan given gift by garnacho, harry redknapp stars in bizarre government ad promoting 'deadline day', arsenal's william saliba mistakenly thought sean dyche played for the gunners, logan paul admits that he almost killed rey mysterio during wwe match, aaron ramsdale fans claim goalkeeper was ousted because of this clip, reporter tries to get dirt out of raheem sterling's eye mid-interview, jurgen klopp fumes as press conference held next to abusive fans, korean streamer rages after manchester united concedes to copenhagen, beyoncé quizzed on foot and mouth disease outbreak in resurfaced clip, jenna ortega and martin freeman scene in miller's girl branded 'gross', grammys viewers notice 'sweet moment' during tracy chapman's performance, paramount's star studded commercial has already won the super bowl, conor mcgregor beats up jake gyllenhaal in first look at road house remake, christina applegate breaks down as emmys give her standing ovation, this emmys tribute to matthew perry is simply heartbreaking, emmys 2024 viewers spot terrifying 'green goblin' lurking on stage, prime video is being branded 'sick' for its new saltburn merch, amy winehouse fans get first trailer for controversial biopic, jodie comer 'ordered to stop soothing babies' while filming new movie, taylor swift was not happy at a joke about her at the golden globes, every time golden globes host jo koy's jokes completely flopped, the mickey mouse horror film trailer is all kinds of wrong, green day change 'american idiot' lyrics to take aim at trump, nigel farage's attack on itv's boss is pure alan partridge, jason momoa under fire for 'rude' behaviour during interview, 'here comes honey boo boo' star's death announced following cancer, nigel farage addresses huge i'm a celeb pay check, one member of royal family received huge boos at diana: the musical.

The Best Thing Mission: Impossible 2 Gave Us Was Ben Stiller As Tom Cruise's Stunt Double

A champion of the theatrical experience and one of the most daring stunt performers of all time,  Tom Cruise is a movie star from another stratosphere. Before some of his sillier roles in films like "Tropic Thunder" and "Rock of Ages," Cruise was mainly known for his intense drama and action movies. He rarely poked fun at himself or his reputation. That's why his "Mission Impossible 2" sketch with Ben Stiller from the 2003 MTV Movie Awards is such a gem.

In "Mission: Improbable," Ben Stiller plays Tom Crooze, a devoted but dim-witted stuntman who follows Tom Cruise around like a lost puppy. He believes they are BFFs and tries to emulate him in every single way — from his floppy hair, sleek sunglasses, and aggressive nodding. The juxtaposition between Crooze's obsessive dedication and Tom Cruise's apathetic acceptance of him is what makes this short so hilarious. Crooze takes his job super seriously, wanting to "become one with Tom" by overanalyzing every move he makes or anticipating everything he's going to say. Crooze never lets himself contradict Cruise, often changing what he says to agree with him. 

We also learn that Crooze was even Tom Cruise's stunt double for non-action scenes, like the sales pitch in "Magnolia," the famous "Risky Business" dance, or mixing the drinks in "Cocktail." It's funny because it's so ridiculous; Cruise is famous for doing his own stunts and they get riskier as the years go on. In the upcoming "Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part One,"  he literally drives his bike off a cliff . The parody culminates in the best way when Stiller perfectly matches Cruise's trademark laugh — boisterous and energetic, maybe a bit too much — and finishes his sentences. Ben Stiller's overall impression of Tom Cruise is eerily on point. 

The blueprint for Tropic Thunder

According to MTV Movie Awards producer Joel Gallen , this entertaining sketch almost never happened due to scheduling conflicts. Ben Stiller was on his honeymoon with Christine Taylor during the only time Tom Cruise was available. However, Cruise refused to do the short film with anyone else. After a pleading email from Joel Gallen, Ben Stiller agreed to cut his honeymoon short, boarded a 15-hour flight, and returned to shoot what would become one of the funniest MTV Movie Award skits ever. 

Looking back at it now, "Mission: Improbable" feels like the blueprint for  Ben Stiller's Hollywood satire "Tropic Thunder,"  released five years later. Both mock self-important performers who take their craft too seriously. Stiller plays Tugg Speedman, a dumbed-down, Tom Cruise-esque action star looking for a comeback as a serious actor in his own version of "Born on the Fourth of July," a Vietnam War drama based on a bestselling memoir. As Speedman, Stiller brings the same over-the-top cluelessness and macho posturing as he did playing Tom Crooze.  

The real Tom Cruise was actually up for the role of Tugg Speedman. While it would have been really interesting to see Tom Cruise parody himself, his unexpected turn as Les Grossman is even better. Cruise completely transforms himself into a sleazy, bald Hollywood producer who dances to Flo Rida's "Low" and is willing to let Speedman die for a huge insurance payout. We rarely, if ever, see Cruise in such a repulsive role. According to an oral history of the character , Tom Cruise came up with Grossman himself. "Mission: Improbable" laid the groundwork for Tom Cruise and Ben Stiller as a dynamic comedy duo.

Screen Rant

Mission: impossible 2's mtv parody cast ben stiller as stuntman tom crooze.

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Star Wars Has Made One Dark Times Hero More Important Than Any Jedi - Even A Skywalker

"sick to my stomach": how johnny depp's appearance as infamous crime boss triggered former irish mobster, what does "darth" mean, & who was the first sith lord to use the title.

It's been over 20 years since MTV cast Ben Stiller in a parody skit about Mission: Impossible 2 , but here's why it nearly didn't happen. The parody aired as part of the 2000 MTV Movie Awards, the same year the sequel premiered. Stiller, who is arguably best known for his roles in the Zoolander  and  Night at the Museum franchises, starred in the skit alongside M: I lead  Tom Cruise  himself.

In Mission: Impossible 2 , Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is tasked by the Impossible Missions Force to track down the Chimera. This genetically modified virus was hijacked by rogue agent Sean Ambrose, and Hunt enlists the help of Ambrose's ex-girlfriend and professional thief Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandiwe Newton) to put a stop to his evil schemes. Four more films have followed since and another two are the works, with  Mission: Impossible 7  set for release in 2022.

Related: Why Ben Stiller Wanted to Cut Tom Cruise's Tropic Thunder Dance

In MTV's " Mission: Improbable " spoof, Stiller plays an eccentric stunt double who changed his name to Tom Crooze. He's got a similar look to his superstar counterpart, but certainly not the smarts. The parody follows Crooze - who is ever so loyal to the real Cruise - in a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Mission: Impossible 2 's stunts . The skit also includes moments when Crooze acts as a double in brief scenes from movies like  Risky Business -  clearly exaggerating the need for a stuntman in some decidedly non-action movies. What makes the parody so funny is Crooze's over-the-top dedication to his job, though a straight-faced Cruise declares he's harmless.

As memorable as the sketch is, it almost didn't happen. According to MTV , Joel Gallen, who produced the MTV Movie Awards at the time, had an idea to create something based on  Mission: Impossible 2.  He wanted Cruise to take part but found out the actor had to attend a premiere overseas. The idea came to do a short instead, based around Cruise's limited availability, and air it during the ceremony. Once the idea was put into action, MTV wanted to get Stiller on board too. Cruise, who famously does many of his own stunts , approved, saying he wouldn't do it with anyone else. But there was a problem; Stiller was on his honeymoon with then-wife Christine Taylor and wasn't available to shoot during the timeframe Cruise was free.

Gallen sent Stiller an email asking if there was any chance he could leave his honeymoon early to shoot the parody. He thought it was a long shot, but it turned out Stiller was really interested in doing the project. Stiller and Taylor then cut their honeymoon short and flew fifteen hours back to the United States for "Mission: Improbable." The best part of filming came when Stiller finally got the chance to meet the man he had been parodying. He was glad to see Cruise laughing from behind the monitor, and their on-screen laughter during the moment where they're talking about finishing each other's sentences is genuine. Indeed, that moment between Ben Stiller and Cruise ended up being one of the most memorable moments in the award show's history.

Next: Night At The Museum 4 Updates: Will The Ben Stiller Sequel Happen?

• SR Originals
• Mission: Impossible

Mission: Improbable (2000 TV Short)

• User Reviews

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews

• User Ratings
• External Reviews
• Metacritic Reviews
• Full Cast and Crew
• Release Dates
• Official Sites
• Company Credits
• Filming & Production
• Technical Specs
• Plot Summary
• Plot Keywords
• Parents Guide

Did You Know?

• Crazy Credits
• Alternate Versions
• Connections
• Soundtracks

Photo & Video

• Photo Gallery
• Trailers and Videos

Related Items

• External Sites

Related lists from IMDb users

Recently Viewed

• Film and TV

To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories , we're happy to send you some reminders

Click ' OK ' then ' Allow ' to enable notifications

Ben Stiller left his honeymoon early just to make fun of Tom Cruise right in front of him

The night at the museum star wasn't able to resist the opportunity.

Emily Brown

You have to be able to prioritize in life, and for Ben Stiller, that apparently meant abandoning his honeymoon in order to meet up with Tom Cruise and take the p*ss out of him.

It might not be the choice everyone would make, but it at least made for a very funny video.

It all went down back in 2001, after Cruise had returned to the role of Ethan Hunt to star in the 2000 movie Mission: Impossible II.

The film earned nominations for Best Male Performance and Best Action Sequence at the 2001 MTV Movie Awards, and in honor of the ceremony, MTV Movie Awards producer Joel Gallen wanted Cruise to get involved.

Speaking to MTV, he explained: "I very much wanted Tom Cruise to be on the Movie Awards. But then he realized he had already committed to be at the [ Mission: Impossible II ] premiere someplace in Korea, so there was no way he could be at our show that night."

With Cruise out of town, the producers decided to ask him to create a short film which they could air at the ceremony. The movie would also involve Stiller , but there was just one issue - Stiller had just got married to his wife Christine Taylor and the couple were on their honeymoon.

Obviously he wouldn't abandon that to come back and work, would he?

Gallen recalled: "I wrote Ben an e-mail: 'I know it's your honeymoon and everything but what if you came back two days early? What do you think?'"

Stiller had been parodying Cruise for ages, but had never before had the opportunity to do it to his face. As it turned out, the chance to take the p*ss out of Cruise was too good to resist.

"I really do want to do this film," Stiller replied.

He and Taylor packed up and headed back to the US a day early, embarking on a 15-hour flight to get to the shoot in time.

In the short, Stiller starred as Cruise's loyal stuntman, Tom Crooze, even going as far as to dress up as the star.

"I never had the experience of actually doing him to his face, and he was sitting at the monitor and he started cracking up watching and I knew it was OK," Stiller recalled. "The part where we're both laughing is kinda real, because we're both laughing at the absurdity of the moment."

And fans of the short are still loving the parody more than two decades later, with one fan commenting: "The gestures, the laugh, the slap on the back... Ben Stiller is a legendary comedic actor."

Topics:  Tom Cruise , Celebrity , Film and TV , Viral

Emily Brown is UNILAD Editorial Lead at LADbible Group. She first began delivering news when she was just 11 years old - with a paper route - before graduating with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University. Emily joined UNILAD in 2018 to cover breaking news, trending stories and longer form features. She went on to become Community Desk Lead, commissioning and writing human interest stories from across the globe, before moving to the role of Editorial Lead. Emily now works alongside the UNILAD Editor to ensure the page delivers accurate, interesting and high quality content.

• Tom Cruise has an unusual clause in all of his movie contracts
• Tom Cruise has been permanently banned from ever buying a Bugatti
• One of the biggest films on Netflix is forgotten ‘superior sequel’ to Tom Cruise action film
• Hannah Waddingham says she has a 'real problem' with anyone who hates Tom Cruise

Choose your content:

Eva Mendes says she may never return to acting for one specific reason

Eva mendes hasn't starred in a film since 2014 and doesn't look to be rushing back to the film industry any time soon.

Jeff Bezos' fiancée Lauren Sánchez sued by former yoga instructor over shocking claims

Alanna zabel has claimed sánchez has caused her severe emotional harm.

Shaq fans uncover old footage from influencer after PDA photo goes viral

The nba legend has found himself at the center of social media speculation after a pda image went viral.

Mark Zuckerberg reveals brutal advice he gave his daughter when she said she wanted 'to be like Taylor Swift'

Mark zuckerberg made it clear to his daughter he doesn't want her to be like taylor swift.

• Today's news
• Reviews and deals
• Climate change
• 2024 election
• Newsletters
• Fall allergies
• Health news
• Mental health
• Sexual health
• Family health
• So mini ways
• Unapologetically
• Buying guides

Entertainment

• How to Watch
• My watchlist
• Stock market
• Biden economy
• Personal finance
• Stocks: most active
• Stocks: gainers
• Stocks: losers
• Trending tickers
• World indices
• US Treasury bonds
• Top mutual funds
• Highest open interest
• Highest implied volatility
• Currency converter
• Basic materials
• Communication services
• Consumer cyclical
• Consumer defensive
• Financial services
• Industrials
• Real estate
• Mutual funds
• Credit cards
• Balance transfer cards
• Cash back cards
• Rewards cards
• Travel cards
• Online checking
• High-yield savings
• Money market
• Home equity loan
• Personal loans
• Student loans
• Options pit
• Fantasy football
• Pro Pick 'Em
• College Pick 'Em
• Fantasy baseball
• Fantasy hockey
• Fantasy basketball
• Download the app
• Daily fantasy
• Scores and schedules
• GameChannel
• World Baseball Classic
• Premier League
• CONCACAF League
• Champions League
• Motorsports
• Horse racing

New on Yahoo

• Privacy Dashboard

Ben Stiller Confirms Tom Cruise Invented Tropic Thunder's Les Grossman Entirely on His Own

If you were one of the lucky filmgoers who saw Tropic Thunder on the big screen back in 2008, you left theaters with one image: Tom Cruise, almost unrecognizable, shaking his ass to Ludacris's "Get Back" during the end credits.

Known mostly for taking dramatic parts at the time, the world was surprised to see Cruise don prosthetics and go full-send into spoofdom to become Les Grossman, the evil studio executive pulling the strings behind Tropic Thunder 's film-within-a-film. Now, in a new interview for Esquire's "Explain This" video series Ben Stiller —who directed and starred in Tropic Thunder— opened up about Cruise's antics as Grossman. "Tom Cruise had the idea to play Les Grossman in the movie," Stiller says. "That part did not exist. He said, 'Well, there's no studio executive and that would be really fun to be that guy. And he had this whole idea of what the guy should look like. It was his idea to dance. And I remember when we did a makeup test, someone handed him a Diet Coke and then he just started moving."

Stiller's story matches what Cruise told told BBC Radio 1 back in 2017. "I read the script, and he had all of the characters, but the studio wasn’t there," he said. "There was a structural compression missing down on those characters, you know, that keeps the pressure on these guys that really drives the story. I was like, 'You need the studio.'"

We're still waiting for an update on the reported Les Grossman solo movie , but the image of Tom Cruise tripping out on Diet Coke will tide us over for now. You can watch Stiller's full "Explain This" interview above. Below? We left a little something for you to relive.

You Might Also Like

This Workout Torches Fat in Under 10 Minutes

How to Cool Down After Your Hardest Workouts

What’s the Deal With Intermittent Fasting for Weight Loss?

Recommended Stories

Ryan pepiot throws fourth immaculate inning in rays history.

With only 117 in MLB history, an immaculate inning is rarer than a no-hitter.

Many women are blindsided by perimenopause. 5 facts everyone should know about this time of life.

What to expect during perimenopause, including lesser-known symptoms and how long this phase lasts.

College Football Playoff Picture: Here's what the 12-team bracket looks like after Week 3

Texas jumped Georgia on Sunday, and that means a bracket overhaul.

MLB playoffs 2024: Ranking all the postseason teams' starting rotations, from the Guardians to the Phillies

With October around the corner, the Phillies, Astros and Padres appear locked in, while other teams have questions to answer.

Yankees clinch playoff spot after Julio Rodríguez's baserunning disaster

For the second straight game, the Mariners made a catastrophic baserunning mistake.

Kyle Richards snacks on this low-sugar, high-protein cereal that's just $7 at Amazon

The 'Real Housewives' star has been prioritizing her health, and Three Wishes is high on her list of hunger-curbing treats.

PGA announces LIV players will be eligible to play in PGA Championship, Ryder Cup

Tensions may be thawing between LIV Golf and the rest of the golf establishment.

Kyra Sedgwick, 59, uses this 'cleavage pillow' to ward off chest wrinkles

If you're a side sleeper, this little satin sidekick can help keep you comfy (and smooth!) as you snooze.

Cisco's second layoff of 2024 affects thousands of employees

U.S. tech giant Cisco has let go of thousands of employees following its second layoff of 2024. The technology and networking company announced in August that it would reduce its headcount by 7%, or around 5,600 employees, following an earlier layoff in February, in which the company let go of about 4,000 employees. As TechCrunch previously reported, Cisco employees said that the company refused to say who was affected by the layoffs until September 16.

Intel finally gives Wall Street good news

Intel provided Wall Street with some good news after a slew of negative headlines in recent months.

• Search Please fill out this field.
• Newsletters
• Sweepstakes

Tropic Thunder  rewatched and reconsidered, 10 years later

The summer of 2008 broke history, and rebuilt it. America suffered through a bitter presidential election on the road to a globewrecking financial crisis. In theaters, cinematic generations were rising — and falling. Superheroes, Will Smith, George Lucas, Guillermo del Toro, Emma Stone, Mike Myers, Sisterhood s and Step Brothers , Batman, and ABBA, adaptations of TV shows we still tweet about, new installments of movie franchises studios won't stop rebooting: everything Hollywood was before, alongside everything it still is.

In our weekly column Two Thousand Late , we'll explore the big hits and curious flops from a summer that has never really ended. Next week: Summer ends and a new era dawns with The House Bunny . This week: critic at large Leah Greenblatt and TV critic Darren Franich on Tropic Thunder .

DARREN: We've revisited a lot of movies this summer, Leah. But I have to admit, nothing made me more anxious than the prospect of rewatching Tropic Thunder.

For director-star Ben Stiller, this was magnum opus territory: A big-budget comedy about big-budget excess, stuffed with hard-R ultraviolence and offensive-on-purpose material. Stiller was an influential cult-comedy voice in the '90s before he became a full-blown franchise-launching megastar across the 2000s. On Thunder , he assembled an all-star lineup from across the cinematic universe of humor: fellow comedy star Jack Black, Apatow-adjacent Jay Baruchel and Danny McBride, stand-up Brandon T. Jackson, eternal "he's much more popular in Britain" talking point Steve Coogan. And that's not to mention Tom Cruise under heavy makeup, Robert Downey Jr. under heavy makeup, and Matthew McConaughey in the wilderness years.

Tropic Thunder was a phenomenon upon initial release. It was the movie that finally pushed The Dark Knight off the top of the box office, maintaining a No. 1 position in domestic theaters through Labor Day. And thanks to Downey, it became the rare comedy hit to receive Oscar attention, earning the star a Best Supporting Actor nomination. Downey's role-within-a-role might be the big talking point here. As a vaguely Crowevian method actor Kirk Lazarus, Downey spends most of the movie exhibiting "pigmentation alteration" — meta-blackface, basically.

It seems impossible that any actor would play a role like that today, though on some level "wouldn't happen today" is the vibe of the whole movie. Tropic Thunder opens with a comedy assault, fake trailers, fart symphonies, a Brokeback ish Oscar parody, the sight of Stiller's hands exploded into Sarlacc-y stumps. The opening scene openly quotes Platoon and Apocalypse Now , two films which symbolize an earlier era of auteurist overreach.

You're primed for a scathing satire of Hollywood…and then the film never really lives up to that prologue. There are some isolated bits in Tropic Thunder I really enjoy. I forgot just how fully committed and semi-psychopathic Jack Black was in the part of a druggy tabloid star. On some deeply pathological level, I will always think it's hilarious when Tom Cruise says bad words. But there's something a little backpatty in the film's tone, halfway to Entourage. You feel everyone's very proud of everything they're getting away with — and the fact that Stiller ends Tropic Thunder with his character's Oscar victory feels like meta-narcissism falling backwards into light egomania.

What was your experience watching Tropic Thunder this go-round, Leah?

LEAH: Mine was the same honestly, though maybe I enjoyed it just a smedge more than you did? Or the first 45 minutes at least; much like Ben Stiller's biceps, the last hour is the kind of swole that you makes you think, "That is a whole lot of effort, for my mere mild amusement." Especially when you remember that this is the same director who made his debut less than 15 years earlier with Reality Bites , where his character purposefully represented all the smash-cut emptiness of modern pop culture that Winona and her scrappy little band of gas-station bohemians were trying to get away from. The student has become the blaster.

But there are so many moments in Thunder that I still love, too: the loony cameos (don't tell me that Tobey Maguire's performance as the homoerotic priest in the Kirk Lazarus trailer-within-a-trailer doesn't deserve at least a Cable Ace award), Jack Black and his jellybeans; Danny McBride's reverse lightning-bolt mullet; RDJ's "never go full retard" speech. And you're so right, even rewatching that speech scene alone on my laptop, I felt uncomfortable; I don't feel great even typing the words now. But there is real Academy wisdom in that speech too — and his delivery is perfect.

I actually enjoy this Downey performance way more than anything he's done in spandex over the last few years; it's so goofy and free. But to me the biggest revelation in this movie is probably Tom Cruise — not strictly because of the acting, necessarily, or the fat suit, though he works hard for both, but just that this is the last time I remember him distinctly not playing himself. He's a hairy-knuckled bear-daddy Diet Coke-head with a nuclear rage problem, and he looks like he's having so much fun. I don't know that I've enjoyed him this much as a pure actor, and not as a dude playing the dude who is always Tom Cruise™, since Magnolia .

I also just realized, is there a lady in this movie with a line of dialogue besides "Please hold"? Not that every script has to pass the Bechdel test , but man that is a low ratio, when secondhand Maria Menounos on a closed-circuit TV beamed over the hotel breakfast buffet is your main female.

DARREN: You've also got Tyra Banks, Christine Taylor, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Alicia Silverstone in steadily more cameo-ish cameos. Which could be the point! Like the same summer's Step Brothers , the overriding vibe here is dudely self-destruction. Stiller wrote the screenplay with Etan Cohen and (hello!) Justin Theroux, and it almost feels like they aligned their core characters with the Seven Deadly Sins. Stiller's Tugg Speedman envies Lazarus. Lazarus is a white actor prideful enough to think he can play a black man. Black's Jeff Portnoy is a glutton, like a chocoholic, but for heroin. Grossman's greedy. Brandon Soo Hoo's teen guerilla Tran is all wrath. And, um, is that seven yet?

In a lot of ways, this movie seems like the apex of a particular moment in comedy, sitting alongside 2005's dirty-joke shockfest The Aristocrats and 2006's Borat feature. Back then, it felt like the point of movie comedy was to push past every possible barrier of good taste. (This was also the era when the horror genre slipped into torture porn, a correlation proving nothing except that the 2000s were a weird, dark time.) It's a kick to see how far Tropic Thunder wants to push itself, no doubt. Along with the "full retard" speech (god help me, I laughed again!), there's that bit when Grossman decides the best business move is to let his lead actor die.

We're halfway to Network territory there — but you feel the kid gloves come on after that, like the movie can't get too sharp in its showbiz satire, like there's this quality of safely laughing with instead of dangerously laughing at . I guess it's a tricky question of our age, Leah. Even when a movie explicitly sets out to deconstruct powerful Hollywood men, will it inevitably wind up celebrating them? It looks fun to be a powerful asshat! It's like that old Francois Truffaut line, how there's no such thing as a truly anti-war film, because war inevitably looks awesome on the big screen. I know, I know, quoting Truffaut now are we? , but that could be some ultimate point of Tropic Thunder , too. These dudes go to the jungle looking to make a sober war epic, lose their movie, lose their minds, and still wind up with awards-y financial success. Huzzah for failing upwards!

Cruise as Grossman is a delight. Also, maybe we're just all the way through the rabbit hole here, but I forgot how much I enjoyed McConaughey as Stiller's agent! I've just seen a lot of his Serious Face stuff post-McConaissance, so it's a kick to watch his anxiously fratty agent face off against magisterial Grossman. Can we reunite these two characters in a spinoff? Written by, like, Tina Fey?

LEAH: Darren, this is in my top-three McConaughey performances for sure; my Mconaugh-three. He's not doing Kate Hudson romance or gaunt Oscar bait, but he is acting out the perfect flipside of his '90s John Grisham types: he has a noble cause and he will fight to the death for it! Except the cause is the Tivo clause in his client's set rider , and he will fight unless the death of that client means he gets his own G5.

It's funny what you say about the movie pivoting from satire to self-congratulation, because as two people who work adjacent to show business (and by "adjacent" I mean, like, the seagulls in the dumpster behind the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion), do you think you and I are more susceptible in general to this kind of inside-baseball shenanigans?

Thunder 's whole plot obviously hinges on some knowledge of Hollywood self-regard, but it's not setting a super high bar: Any steady pop-culture consumer would recognize those tropes (like the opening string of fantastically bad fake trailers); they're like an action-movie amuse-bouche that Stiller and Theroux gave us eight years before Deadpool .

Now that you brought up Tina Fey though, the script does feel like a sort of feature-length cousin to one of her and Amy Poehler's Golden Globes monologues: a big, winky pin in the bloated balloon of industry ego. I think they might be better at it than Justin Theroux — but of course 10 killer minutes onstage is not the same as sustaining a whole movie. (And 10 great minutes is about exactly what Sisters had.)

As far as men being both the only target and, in the end, the only heroes here, Cruise's turn did make me think for a minute about another one of my favorite left-field casting coups: Tilda Swinton's ruthless lad-mag editor in Trainwreck . She's just pure, venal joy with no real redemption arc at all, and I loved that.

I'm not really sure how to end this thing, so I'll give you the one of the seven deadly sins you missed: Sloth! I'm tapping out. But I'm glad this assignment made us rewatch and reconsider a movie I probably wouldn't have gone back to without, say, a long weekend in a log cabin with a very limited DVD collection.

My final takeaway is: Brandon T. Jackson is underrated. Cruise and McConaughey definitely need to get weird more often. And if there's going to be any kind of spin-off, I vote for RDJ and Kate McKinnon just jabbering their crazy Australian accents at each other for two straight hours. Fin.

Complete Summer 2008 Schedule:

May 2: Iron Man and Made of Honor

May 9: Speed Racer

May 16: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

May 22: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull

May 30: Sex and the City

June 6: Kung Fu Panda

June 13: The Happening

June 20: The Love Guru

June 27: WALL-E

July 2: Hancock

July 11: Hellboy II: The Golden Army

July 18: The Dark Knight

July 25: Step Brothers

Aug. 1: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Aug. 13: Tropic Thunder

Aug. 22: The House Bunny

Related Articles

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

How tom cruise’s olympics stunt was inspired by… conan o’brien.

Producer Ben Winston goes deep on that starry Closing Ceremony flag hand-off, reveals where he had to pivot and talks about how it was all slightly informed by a 15-year-old talk show bit.

By Mikey O'Connell

Mikey O'Connell

TV Features Editor

• Share on Facebook
• Share to Flipboard
• Send an Email
• Show additional share options
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Pinterest
• Share on Reddit
• Share on Tumblr
• Share on Whats App
• Print the Article
• Post a Comment

Ben Winston might soon lose count of how many times he’s sent Tom Cruise up in the air.

Related Stories

Peacock hits all-time usage high thanks to summer olympics, flavor flav awards jordan chiles her own bronze clock at 2024 vmas after paris olympics controversy.

The original plan was for a balaclava-clad stunt person to do most of the heavy lifting, but Cruise would have none of it. “I don’t think there’s anybody like him in the world,” says Winston, who served as creative director and executive producer under the Fulwell 73 Productions banner. “There is no better collaborator.”

Speaking the afternoon after the live Paris jump and the starry beachside concert featuring The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Billie Eilish, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, Winston revealed how he and Cruise kept most of their plan under wraps for as long as they did, what changed in the planning and the unlikely roots of the Olympic flag’s pre-taped journey from France to the U.S.

Are you just a glutton for logistics?

It feels a little bit like having a baby. You’re up all night, it’s all really stressful and you’re changing nappies, and they’re sick on you. Then, when they get to three years old, you’re like, “Oh, they’re so cute and lovely. I think I want another one.” You forget what a nightmare it was. I feel like live television might be that. You forget how much you go through.

Plenty has been revealed and speculated about in the wake of this stunt. How long have you actually been working on this? 

My first meeting was January 2022 when I sat down with Casey Wasserman at LA28. I haven’t been working on it since then, but I had the idea more like 20 months ago when they’d told me there’s this tradition of a 12-minute show that the next nation does in the closing ceremony. Within the first five minutes, I was like, “Well, it would be the coolest thing if we snatched the flag, and we could get Tom Cruise to do it.”

I’ve seen lots of handovers where the country that takes over does something in the stadium, and they’ve been great, but I wanted to do something different. I like to be able to control everything. So I was thinking if we did it in Los Angeles, I’d be able to control all the elements a little bit more. I liked the idea of doing the bulk of it in Los Angeles but with an amazing open in Paris. This is such a weird reference, but remember when Conan O’Brien started on The Tonight Show and moved from New York to Los Angeles? He did a really fun sketch going cross country. That has always stuck with me. So I was like, “How do Tom Cruise and all these incredible athletes take that flag from Paris to L.A.?” It’s a weird inspiration. 

No, I remember that. I can see the through-line.

Yeah. Then, I pitched it to Tom. He was the first pitch I had. If he hadn’t gone with it, I can’t really think who else would work. Who else is synonymous with action and an American hero? When we got Tom, I felt like the whole thing would work — so we went from there. But it’s been over a year and a half to achieve that. 

How’d you pitch it to Tom? This is the third time you’ve put him in a plane after the Late Late Show segments with Corden .

Some things leaked , but you filmed the skydive and the Hollywood sign back in March. How’d you keep it secret for as long as you did? 

When we were filming with Tom , he was never actually holding the Olympic flag. He always was holding a white flag. So, whenever we were photographed with him, the press always said we were filming Mission Impossible . Everyone wonders what was faked and what wasn’t. Interestingly, one of the only things that was faked was the flag. I was disappointed that little things leaked over the last couple of weeks. Suddenly, more and more people need to know what you’re doing when you’re rehearsing in the Stade de France and booking venues.

Such a big deal is made about Tom and the lengths he goes to execute a stunt on his own. I understand who insures him in a movie like Mission Impossible , but what about here, is that your purview? You are putting a very famous man in a risky situation. 

I’m not qualified to answer that. ( Laughs .) There will be a team of lawyers on my production team and his team that would know about that. But you’re right. It was definitely a consideration when we were doing the Top Gun stuff for The Late Late Show . It was like, “Well, who does the liability lie with — the show or Tom?” I still don’t know the answer on this one.

It’s funny because I’ve seen reports about what was live and what wasn’t live. Not everybody’s a 100 percent right on everything, and I don’t want to comment either way. It’s not fair on some artists to say some were live and some weren’t or whatever. But I think there was a lot more live-in there than people think. Will Rogers Beach was the plan a year ago — and, due to something out of my control, that had to change. With four weeks to go, we didn’t have a venue. That was a stressful moment. Ultimately we got there and I was so pleased with the concert element of it.

Did you ever attempt to actually redecorate the Hollywood sign? 

I did look at doing the Hollywood sign for real. We had engineers up there quite a long time, working out how we could do it. I decided against it because I wanted it to be a surprise. In the end, I think we could have done it, but then in March, the whole world would have seen pictures of the Hollywood sign covered in the Olympic rings. So we did it with CGI. The Tom bit is real. He was up there. He climbed up the sign.

You booked Snoop Dogg, a national treasure and someone so synonymous with Los Angeles, a long time ago — yet his stock has risen even more in the last two weeks. Were you psyched watching him become one of the stars of the Olympics? 

Well, I hope you get a bit of a break.

No. ( Laughs .) This week we’re filming Ellen DeGeneres’ stand-up show . Really excited about that. And then it’s on to the Paralympics closing. But I did have like 13 hours of sleep last night. I went to bed at 9 o’clock.

THR Newsletters

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Margo martindale boards jonbenet ramsey series at paramount+, how rhode island’s biggest movie showcase became the “fyre of film festivals”, sean “diddy” combs to remain detained pending trial, harvey weinstein pleads not guilty to new sexual assault charge, kay scarpetta series starring nicole kidman, jamie lee curtis a go at amazon, chelsea handler, connie britton, andy cohen among artists urging biden and harris to bring israeli hostages home.