Audiences around the world are in a state of thrumming anticipation as they await the release of Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, the eighth and ultimate installment in the long-running spy thriller franchise. The movie promises to once again raise the bar for death-defying stunts by star Tom Cruise as the indestructible agent Ethan Hunt, which itself feels like an impossible mission. But if anyone can do it, it would have to be the megawatt A-lister who has made his marquee series into an argument for the medium itself, and the excitement of seeing white-knuckle action on the big screen — ideally with a bucket of popcorn in your lap.
That’s not just a suggestion. For Cruise, it seems the popcorn is a necessary part of movie magic, and on this press tour, he hasn’t let anyone forget it. As a result, film fanatics across the internet are talking about the actor’s “popcorn lore” as much as his 30-year run of skydiving, motorcycling, and free solo rock-climbing around the world for our entertainment.
One surprising fact, as revealed by writer and podcaster Rachel Leishman on social platform X this week, is the amount of popcorn Cruise claims to consume in the course of a film. In a pre-screening appearance for an advance showing of The Final Reckoning, she wrote, “First, he asked us all not once but twice if we had popcorn (I showed him my bucket to confirm),” and then informed the crowd: “I normally eat two big buckets myself during a movie.” It’s a staggering admission not only for someone who has remained in peak athletic condition into his sixties, but also mind-boggling to the many of us who get a stomach ache from eating a fraction as much popcorn.
Yet Cruise clearly believes this is the optimum amount of snackage for the blockbuster experience. When he took the stage at one recent screening, he was filmed pointing out that a man in the front row had finished his bucket of popcorn before the movie started. Rather than tease him, as one might expect, Cruise was then heard to say: “You gotta go get some more!” For Mr. Hollywood himself, it’s two buckets or nothing, and if you house the first by the time the trailers are winding down, well, that’s convenient timing for a re-up.
People have also been tickled by how Cruise eats his popcorn, as shown in a clip where he idles in the wings at British Film Institute IMAX (the largest cinema screen in the U.K., naturally) as he is introduced by the CEO of the organization. Here, Cruise cradles more of a medium-sized popcorn container along with his microphone, using his free hand to toss popcorn into his mouth in an exaggerated, chaotic way (the gesture is so vigorous, in fact, that he ends up knocking some kernels out of the carton when his hand returns to it). You get the impression that, well aware of the cameras on him, Cruise is acting his passion for popcorn, or devouring it in character, with an intensity befitting his Mission: Impossible alter ego. “I have got to change the way I eat popcorn,” one amazed X user commented.
Cruise also stopped by the AMC theater in New York’s Lincoln Square, where he seemed magnetically attracted to the tables where employees were dispensing popcorn: he stayed and chatted with them for a good long while, according to bystanders, of course while feasting from a bucket of his own. (Notably, he appeared to be using the more traditional fistful-direct-to-the-mouth method of popcorn inhalation rather than the technique demonstrated in London.) Even while holding a nearly full bucket, he remarked, “I’m gonna grab a couple more buckets of popcorn.” Reacting to the video, a viewer observed that “one of the best parts of a new M:I dropping is Tom emerges from his cryo chamber and interacts with us humans for a couple of days.” Another replied, “he feeds on his body weight in popcorn before going back into stasis.”
While this popcorn fixation may be news to some, committed Cruiseheads have documented it for years. In a 2023 promotional video for the previous Mission: Impossible installment, Cruise enjoyed a substantial tub of it in between media appearances during a multi-city screening tour. “I love my popcorn,” he says before savoring a bite. “Movies. Popcorn,” he concludes, as if nothing could be more profound than this union of mass-market art and junk food.
The following year, Cruise hit the theater to celebrate the release of Twisters, led by his Top Gun: Maverick co-star, Glen Powell. A true professional, he knew just how to hold up his Twisters-branded bag of popcorn for maximum promotional value when the pair posed for photos. Not only that, when he noticed that Powell wasn’t getting his own popcorn into frame, he advised him, “You wanna hold that up?” It’s a pure masterclass in popcorn management.
“Tom Cruise became a movie star just so he can eat free movie theater popcorn for the rest of his life,” at least one person has speculated, and it’s not the craziest theory. His love of the salty, buttery delicacy is such that he will do the unthinkable: leaving the movie theater while munching from a half-full bucket, not even handing it off to a security guard as he signs posters for fans, and presumably enjoying the rest in the car. Ask yourself: have you ever taken theater popcorn to a second location? No, because you are not Tom Cruise, and could never comprehend how it fuels him. For all he has done to “save movies,” it would seem he is equally serious about concessions — which, incidentally, are how cinemas stay in business. Yeah, this is a guy who never stops thinking about the big picture.
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