In December 2020, Tom Cruise was recorded on the Mission: Impossible 7 set in London yelling at two crew members for not following COVID-19 safety protocols. The leaked rant drew mixed reactions from the public, but Jake Johnson, who performed alongside Cruise in 2017’s The Mummy, wasn’t surprised by what he heard. That’s because he saw firsthand just how intense the man who’s played Ethan Hunt for two and a half decades can be.
Jake Johnson played Chris Vail opposite Tom Cruise’s Nick Morton in The Mummy, the movie that was intended to kick off Universal Pictures’ Dark Universe franchise. In an interview with The Daily Beast, Johnson noted he was “hesitant” on The Mummy because he considered Cruise to be an “intimidating figure,” particularly when it came to doing action sequences. The New Girl actor recognized that same kind of passion when he heard the Mission: Impossible 7 audio. In Johnson’s words:
He’s an intense guy. He is there to entertain an audience and he’s willing to really put himself in harm’s way to do it. And if you’re not all about that, you’re going to get knocked off the bronco.
Tom Cruise’s tirade on the Mission: Impossible 7 set reportedly stemmed from seeing the two crew members standing within two meters of one another, thus violating the social distancing rules put in place. Supposedly 50 people were nearby for the outburst, and while some people working on Mission: Impossible 7 anonymously came to Cruise’s defense, other crew members reportedly quit following another “eruption” after the first one. Back in May, Cruise admitted he was emotional about the situation, as he didn’t want to see production on Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8 (the two movies are shooting back-to-back) shut down because people weren’t following the rules.
Shortly after Tom Cruise’s outburst was leaked, it was decided to shut down Mission: Impossible 7’s production early for the holidays, with filming resuming in January. Then in June, production had to be halted for two weeks after a crew member tested positive for COVID-19. As for Jake Johnson, he also recalled the moment on The Mummy when he realized that Cruise wasn’t “faking it” when it came to putting himself in harm’s way:
We jumped over buildings together that exploded. We were on a three-story building that collapsed and I landed on my back and told him that something went wrong because I got hurt. And he said, ‘Injured or hurt?’ I said, ‘What’s the difference?’ And he goes, ‘Can you go again or is something broken?’ And I was like, ‘No, I mean, I can go again.’ Then he goes, ‘So you’re hurt. Of course you’re hurt. You fell off a three-story building.’
Following The Mummy’s underwhelming critical and commercial performance in summer 2017, the Dark Universe plans were scrapped and Universal refocused on delivering standalone features based on the Universal Monsteres property, starting with The Invisible Man in 2020 and continuing in the coming years with projects like Bride of Frankenstein, the Ryan Gosling-led Wolf Man reboot and the Nicholas Hoult-starring Renfield. While Cruise is still keeping busy with the next two Mission: Impossible movies, Jake Johnson currently stars in Ride the Eagle, has lent his voice to the upcoming Netflix animated series Lost Ollie, and expects to be back as Peter B. Parker for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2.
That animated web-slinging movie is slated to arrive on October 7, 2022, but before that, we’ll see Tom Cruise back in action as Ethan Hunt for Mission: Impossible 7 on May 27, 2022. Scan through our 2022 release schedule to discover what other movies are coming out next year.
