The mummy
Cruise reanimates the monster movie
“I took it to the next level”
Universal is reviving i ts classic horror characters, starting with The Mumm y– an action- packed, modern- day reboot that’s confounding expectations by casting Tom Cruise, gender- flipping the monster and starting a whole new cinematic universe. Total Film meets Cruise and co to unearth the story behind this new world of gods and monsters.
Total Film is on a top-secret mission at Leavesden Studios. It’s a cloudless day in March 2017 and, having been smuggled through security and into a production office, we’re waiting to chat with Tom Cruise in his only UK print interview for The Mummy. Never one to do things by halves, Cruise has already had something of a busy morning. “We’re full on with preproduction [ with Mission: Impossible 6],” he explains of the location for our meeting, emitting that megawatt grin. “My office is upstairs… I have my gym over there, so we’re training, and we have the whole stunt [ team] worked out. The whole production’s here… So I came in, did my training, and then into production meetings.” He pauses, remarkably casual about the whole thing. “And then I have an editing bay here – so I’m going through the edit of The Mummy as we’re going along. It’s been really fun.” It’s enough to make TF feel decidedly idle – all we’ve done so far today is eat lunch – as it quickly becomes apparent how his superhuman work ethic drives every production he’s a part of. Dressed in a crisp navy shirt, black jeans and boots, and with a few loose strands straying from his swept-back hair, Cruise is a magnetic, oscillating combination of intensity and nonchalance, frequently furrowing his brow as he dives deep into talking about an aspect of the production, only to pull himself out with a trademark cackle. Remembering his first meeting with director Alex Kurtzman and the Universal bods, Cruise recalls flying in one Saturday morning with frequent collaborator Christopher McQuarrie to hammer out the concept. “We were pitching story ideas back and forth, and looking at the production design, kinda going: ‘OK, what is a modern monster movie? What’s a monster movie to us? What is going to translate to a modern audience?’” Cruise’s enthusiasm is infectious. “For me, I’m always the audience,” he says, reclining into the sofa, stretching out his hands to make a viewfinder. “I’m always that kid, watching movies.”
Whatever modern audiences might expect from a Mummy movie, having Tom Cruise head up the action is the first of many intentional curveballs (“I think it’s unexpected that I do stuff like this,” considers Cruise). As you’ll know by now, this is the first spin on Universal’s 1932 classic to feature a female Mummy, and if it’s a success, it’ll be the first in a new, expanded universe of reimagined Universal monster movies, so imagine Iron Man trading superpowers for the supernatural. This isn’t Boris Karloff’s Mummy, nor is it Stephen Sommers’ swashbuckling, ’20s-set incarnation. It’s an up-to-date take on a timeless terror. “We knew we wanted to forge very new ground in this movie, while not betraying what audiences were going to expect when they bought their tickets to see a movie called The Mummy,” explains Kurtzman, who classifies this new incarnation as a horror-actionromance. “As unexpected as it was to make the Mummy a woman, it would be even more unexpected to say, ‘Oh, and The Mummy’s going to star Tom Cruise.’” In short, expect the unexpected. In a landscape frequently littered with boilerplate blockbusters, The Mummy is dusting off
‘it’s unexpect ed that I do things like this’ Tom Cruise
a familiar franchise and, hopefully, giving it entirely new life. Kurtzman grew up obsessed with Universal’s monsters, a sentiment he shared with cinephile Cruise. Having worked with Cruise in a screenwriting capacity on
M:I3, Kurtzman didn’t think he could bag the star at first. He explains: “I paused, then I thought: ‘Tom is, in his heart of hearts, a deep lover of film history.’ I knew that he had an affinity for the Universal monsters.”
There’s no doubting Cruise’s admiration of the genre, something he has previous form with. “I’m inspired by these monsters, and I love monster movies,” he muses, whipping out his iPad mid-interview to show TF an (unfinished, TC-watermarked) version of the new trailer, to demonstrate its intensity. “I made Interview With The
Vampire at that time when people weren’t making those kinds of movies.” There’s no doubting that when you hire Cruise, you get a power producer and a stunt man as well as your leading actor. Kurtzman says that you inherit “three decades’ worth of film understanding and experience” working with Cruise, who he describes as “a master-builder in terms of storytelling”.
ACTION STATIONS
Cruise’s involvement demands that boundaries be pushed. “There are so many great benefits to working with him,” laughs Kurtzman, talking to TF from the mix stage, weeks out from completing the film. “The first is that he just approaches everything from: ‘How do I do this in a way that’s never been done on film before, and in the most amazing way possible?’” The
Mummy is Kurtzman’s second directing gig after 2012 Chris Pine/Elizabeth Banks drama People Like Us, but his blockbuster/world-building experience has been fostered over the years writing and producing the likes of Transformers and Star Trek (Cruise admits to looking for a director “who can walk the walk, not just talk the talk… Not someone who’s just good in a room”). Kurtzman and Cruise both committed to doing as much in-camera as possible, filming much in and around London, and using the Namibian desert as a double for Egypt. It’s where Cruise’s Nick Morton first stumbles across the sarcophagus containing the bandage-wrapped antagonist, who was entombed centuries previously in an effort to quell her bloodthirsty ambitions. “He’s a
funny character,” grins Cruise. “He’s a thief, and he’s a guy who is out there selling – on the black market – these ancient relics.” The commitment to physical special effects extended to building an entire town in Namibia, one that could be destroyed as required.
Kurtzman’s desire to play against expectations led to the casting of Jake Johnson as Nick’s partner in crime, Sgt. Vail; the New Girl actor’s insistence he couldn’t keep up with Tom Cruise only convinced Kurtzman further to throw him in the maelstrom. Johnson explains the character’s background when we meet on the Universal lot in LA. “Vail and Nick are both US military, but they’re no longer fighting a war out there. In their heads, they’re just there to steal antiquities,” says Johnson. After a gunfight in town and a bunch of explosions, a hole is blown open in the ground, and the opportunists see something worth exploring. “And when they go down, they unleash the Mummy,” continues Johnson. “My character gets bit by a spider down there, which is actually the beginning of the Mummy’s curse.”
Heading into the role, Johnson was all too aware of what working on an action film with Cruise would entail. “I was warned by my agents: you don’t do a Tom Cruise movie and think this is going to be a nice, chilled experience,” smiles the laidback Johnson, casual in a grey t-shirt, blue jeans and flip-flops. “But I wanted to do it because I wanted to experience it. What I didn’t understand was that he’s really funny, and he’s a really nice, warm human being.” Prepping for the physical side of the role saw Johnson training four to five times per week with Cruise or his trainers. Vail rides a horse, so Johnson had to have lessons twice a week. “It’s all for, like, a minute on screen,” laughs Johnson in his husky Chicago caw. He similarly put in hours of abseiling training, for 15 seconds of screentime. “He trains you like that, so by the time you do it, you know what you’re doing.”
Admitting that the prospect was mentally intimidating before he started, Johnson soon got swept up with Cruise’s love of old-school moviemaking. “When you’re on his team, it’s an intense ride, but it’s a great ride,” he adds. “But you’ve got to play by the rules. The rules are: ‘We’re doing stunts together, and we’re working out, and we’re pushing.’ I’m used to a generation of more, y’know, apathetic actors, where it’s almost as if we stumble into their movies. So it was really nice to have that old-school ‘we are making a movie, and we are trying our hardest’ attitude. There’s no eye-rolling.” In a departure from the Mummy movies of yore, Cruise’s involvement promises talking-point stunts to go along with the monster scares, with the plan being to go beyond any of the Impossible stunts that have helped define his career thus far. “I want to take everything to the next level,” asserts Cruise. “Every film I make, I don’t know how to do anything halfway – I’m not interested in doing it halfway. It’s not fun if it’s halfway.”
Going all the way this time involved creating “one of the most terrifying plane crashes” ever filmed, using the so-called ‘vomit comet’ [ see p64], plus building that demolition-ready set in the Namibian desert. “If it’s a threestorey building, they just build a three-storey building,” Johnson marvels. “There’s no cheats, and there’s no wires… If you fall off the roof you’re in a lot of trouble. So when I asked the stunt coordinator, he goes: ‘Well, don’t fall off the roof.’” The sequence required three takes, with the building reassembled each time, but there was little that could be done in the way of preparation before ‘Action!’ was called. “You can never practise it, because you just have to shoot it,” adds Johnson, laughing in disbelief. “Being on the roof of a collapsing building, surfing it with Tom Cruise, was an out-of-body experience.”
Another key action sequence sees Cruise flung through a London bus that’s swept through the streets by a Mummy-induced sandstorm. “Almost all of it is in-camera,” confirms Kurtzman of the doubledecker set-piece. Keeping up with Cruise was something of a baptism of fire for co-star Annabelle Wallis ( Peaky
Blinders), in her first major stunt-heavy role. “Just like: ‘Oh yeah, casual day at work,’” she deadpans when we meet on the Universal lot, very much not dressed for action today in a smart white shirt, wide-leg trousers and killer heels. “It was just so crazy. I’m looking back at it all now. I can’t believe we did