Tom loses his Cruise control and it adds to his humanity

THE Mission Impossible films are action packed but even so reports from the set of MI7 suggest that there is more drama taking place on set than for the cameras.

After an apparent second meltdown from Tom Cruise, it appears that five crew members have packed their bags and quit, swearing never to work with the star again.

Things must be tense indeed given that film sets are often hotbeds of stress and rancour with demanding directors pushing cast and crew to the limit.

Add the strain of the pandemic into the mix and you have an explosive recipe.

Cruise has poured his own money into chartering a ship to isolate the crew and he had to stop filming in Venice when seven crew members caught Covid-19.

In audio tapes of him effing and blinding at those who breached Covid guidelines, he sounds like an exasperated schoolteacher or a parent who has been driven round the bend by their unruly charges.

He rants about how livelihoods are at stake, that the future of Hollywood and the studios hang on the shoot continuing and threatens to sack the next person who ignores social distancing.

Cruise’s commitment to finishing the movie while keeping his coworkers safe smashes his ultracontrolled, zombie persona to smithereens and humanises him. As for those who walked off in disgust at his raising his voice? Well, laid-back Johnny Depp’s next directorial outing might suit their style more than a consummate professional like Cruise.