Tom Cruise took a stand against real-world AI as his Ethan Hunt character did in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Cruise took part in a Zoom call with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers as part of a negotiation hearing with SAG-AFTRA last month. As the Mission: Impossible superstar tried to express the guild’s concerns with matters such as recognizing stunt performers and film promotion during the actors’ strike, Cruise was in lock-step with the guild’s standing on putting guardrails around the growing AI craze that has begun to impact Hollywood. Despite Cruise’s best efforts, the actors’ guild and AMPTP failed to agree to a deal by the July 12th deadline.
Cruise’s stance against AI mirrors the premise of the latest Mission: Impossible installment where the veteran IMF agent and his team must locate two parts of a key that unlock the power source of a dangerous AI program called “the Entity.” Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie chose AI as the villain for a change in pace from past M:I movies filled with world-ending threats. “We’ve done nuclear threats, we’ve done chemical threats, biological threats, you did the Rabbit’s Foot, and God knows what threat that was,” McQuarrie said. “In trying to keep it fresh, we were looking outward, and the big conversation I had with Tom [Cruise] very early on was about technology, information technology, and what, now, everyone is talking about is AI.”
In addition to Cruise, Hollywood legends such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Harrison Ford have expressed trepidation about AI’s fast evolution for the film industry and society at large. One significant Hollywood talent in Oppenheimer‘s director Christopher Nolan sees the issue differently. Nolan believes there can be a future for filmmakers using AI as a tool for storytelling. “There will be wonderful things that will come out, longer term in terms of environments, in terms of building a doorway or a window, in terms of pooling the massive data of what things look like, and how light reacts to materials,” Nolan said. “Those things are going to be enormously powerful tools.”
As for how Cruise’s Ethan Hunt will stop AI on the big screen, moviegoers will have to be patient. Due to the ongoing actors’ and writers’ strike, Cruise’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two has paused production until the strike gets resolved. As of this writing, there is no word as to whether or not the strike will affect the next installment’s release date of June 2024.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is now playing in theaters.
Source: THR