Tom Cruise Wants To Become The First Civilian To Perform A Spacewalk For His Next Movie
Are you ready for a space cruise? Unfortunately, we're not talking about the kind you can see in "Avenue 5," "The Fifth Element," or the memorable 2007 "Doctor Who" Christmas special starring David Tennant and Kylie Minogue (for better or for worse). While it seems like anyone can go to space now (if you have enough money), it was announced back in 2020 that Tom Cruise would be filming a movie in space. This upcoming action-adventure from filmmaker Doug Liman, Elon Musk's SpaceX, and NASA will be partially shot on the International Space Station, which will make the project the first narrative Hollywood feature film shot in outer space.
But, likely looking to top the Russian filmmakers who beat him to the punch, Cruise is on track to raise the bar yet again. According to Universal Pictures Chairman Donna Langley, the veteran actor from such classic films as "Risky Business," "Top Gun," and "Mission: Impossible" is aiming to be the first civilian to perform a spacewalk for this movie.
Sunday in space with Tom
During a recent interview with BBC News, Langley revealed that Cruise will "hopefully" participate in a spacewalk outside of the International Space Station while shooting his currently untitled space movie. Touting a budget around $200 million, Universal is investing a lot into this unprecedented motion picture. With such a high price tag, the studio is looking to get the most bang for their buck by pulling off something that the world of cinema has never seen before. The executive explains:
"Tom Cruise is taking us to space. He's taking the world to space. That's the plan. We have a great project in development with Tom, that does contemplate him doing just that. Taking a rocket up to the space station and shooting and hopefully being the first civilian to do a spacewalk outside of the space station."
The key word, though, is "hopefully." This is probably dependent on whether or not Cruise can complete a rigorous training regiment in order to prepare him to participate safely. The last thing anyone related to this project would want is a real-life "Gravity" situation where they unintentionally lose one of the biggest names in show business in the void of space.
Langley also revealed the first details about the movie, which "actually takes place [mostly] on Earth." In the film, Cruise's character is "a down-on-his-luck guy who finds himself in the position of being the only person who could save Earth." Hopefully that means that he's some kind of scientist and not just a regular Joe who walks into NASA off the street with a plan to save the world. Unless it's that kind of movie. At this point, we don't know, but more details are sure to emerge as the project moves closer towards production.