FILM 2017: THE MUMMY

FILM 2017: THE MUMMY

TRIVIA: This film is intended to be the first installment in a possible Universal Monsters shared universe, also known as "Dark Universe."

The film's tagline, "Welcome to a new world of gods and monsters," is a quote from Bride of Frankenstein (1935), which was also produced by Universal and will be the next installment in the Dark Universe franchise.

The zero gravity scene took sixty-four takes and was shot for two days in a falling plane. Reportedly, a lot of the crew got nauseous during the scene and vomited, except for the main stars, Tom Cruise and Annabelle Wallis, who were really proud of the stunt.

When Jake Johnson was offered his part in the movie, he loved the idea and the opportunity to work with Tom Cruise, knowing that Cruise does most of his own stunts. He signed on immediately, but when he read the full script and learned what kind of dangerous actions were expected of him, he admitted to getting cold feet. However, Cruise allowed Johnson access to his private facilities for a rigorous 4.5 month training course, making him well prepared for all the stunts he was required to do.

Director Alex Kurtzman stated that there is no post credits scene because "That's Marvel's domain."

Due to the film's lukewarm reception and box office, Universal's proposed Dark Universe franchise was shelved indefinitely.

The Mummy had a relatively disappointing box office run, grossing just over $400m worldwide. Studio sources have said that Tom Cruise exerted too much control on the set, and that his input into editing and marketing greatly changed the pace and style of the movie.

When Ahmanet is mummified and is put the sarcophagus, the lid was too close to Sofia Boutella's face. And it hit her right in the nose, and all the bandages around her head were soaked with blood. After the bloody bandages were removed, a second take was done, only this time, the lid was further away from her face.

FILM 1886: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT

FILM 1886: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT 

TRIVIA: Tom Cruise trained for an entire year to perform the HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) stunt in this film.

The H.A.L.O skydiving sequence (distance of 7 km / 25000 feet, traveling speed of 265 - 320 km/h) was the last sequence filmed during production, but it was the first stunt designed and required a full year of planning out. The crew had only a limited time window of three minutes a day during sunset to film a jump. Because of strict air aviation regulations in France, it could only be shot in the Emirates. It took Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, the skydiving camera operator Craig O'Brien (who was instructed to keep a distance of three feet from Cruise while filming) and others involved a total of 106 jumps to get three possible takes. However, to rehearse the sequence, the crew built a custom oxygen helmet with RAF assistance that can be lit up to see a face, and then also built one of the world's largest wind tunnels for practice. The practice doesn't end there - Cruise and the other persons involved did five skydives a day with one in the morning, three in the afternoon, and one at dusk. Some of the other cast members turned up to visit, with Simon Pegg saying that he and his co-stars thought multiple times that Cruise was seriously about to die: "It is a daily stress going to work with him, because you don't know if you are going to see him tomorrow." 

White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) is introduced as she delivers a tribute speech to her late mother, is referred to only as "Max." and as a lover of paradoxes. While never clarified onscreen, this is likely reference to the first film in the series, which features a female British arms dealer also known only as Max (Vanessa Redgrave).

In August 2017, Tom Cruise suffered an injury while filming a stunt jumping from one building to another. He was able to grab onto the other building thanks to a harness strapped onto him and his history of performing his own stunts for action films, but his ankle fractured upon the impact of the jump. Cruise then got up and attempted to run it off, which was what the scene called for, before he and the crew decided to stop filming. Shooting was delayed for eight weeks following the injury, but the footage of the stunt used in the film and its trailers just so happened to be the actual injury.

Solomon Lane is the first villain in the franchise to appear in two films.

Simon Pegg got in such good shape while training in the gym for his action scenes that he got eight-pack abs for the first time in 25 years even though it wasn't required for his role at all. The actor is not an action star or known for his body and was teased on set by co-stars Tom Cruise and Henry Cavill, who actually are action stars and regularly show their eight-pack abs in films. They nick-named Pegg 'Eight-Pack Peggles' due to his new found abs. Cruise said, "Six-Pack Peggles I call him! He had an amazing eight-pack going on. He's almost like Eight-Pack Peggles." Pegg responded to the good-natured teasing saying, "To be fair it was a six-pack, it wasn't quite an eight-pack. I think one morning, after training, my abs made an appearance for the first time since I was 23. You have to be in shape to do these movies and I put my mind to it. It's nice to know that I can still show out if I need to. My wife appreciates it!"

A clause stipulated in Henry Cavill's contract forbade him from shaving his beard required for the role. During production, the producers received a phone call from Justice League producer Charles Roven requesting Cavill back for some reshoots for his role as Superman. Co-producer Jake Myers suggested letting Cavill shave his beard, shutting down production while he does his reshoots and then getting Warner Bros to pay $3 million for additional visual effects (digital moustache) on shots of Cavill after completing his Superman reshoots. Paramount got wind of the idea and shot it down immediately through the clause.

During the Empire Podcast, director Christopher McQuarrie revealed that he provides the authoritative voice in the initial mission briefing.

Rescuing another person in free fall while sky diving is very difficult. Hewitt says that "it takes Accelerated Free Fall instructors over 1,000 jumps to get it right and something like 70% of the people who try to qualify at the instructor level fail. Tom had just 100 jumps to perfect this."

The Paris chase scenes involved stuntmen in 70 cars driving to avoid Cruise who was riding his motorcycle against traffic without a helmet at extremely high speeds.

The musical composer on "Fallout" is Lorne Balfe, but the iconic "Mission: Impossible" theme was written by Lalo Schifrin. He wrote it in just 3 minutes. When asked why he wrote it in the unusual time signature of 5/4, he joked at a press conference in Vienna, "Everybody knows that there have been beams from outer space coming because of interplanetary flights. The people in outer space have five legs and couldn't dance to our music, so I wrote this for them."

FILM 1866: JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK

FILM 1866: JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK

TRIVIA: Cobie Smulders performed all of her own stunts in this movie.

The film is based on the eighteenth "Jack Reacher" series novel by source novelist Lee Child. "One Shot," the basis of the first film Jack Reacher (2012), is the ninth book, which means this movie is not necessarily a direct sequel in terms of the book series.

CAMEO: Lee Child: source novelist plays a TSA agent who is seemingly ambivalent to the fact that Jack (Tom Cruise) does not really match the stolen ID he is using to board the plane. This is a nod to Child's support of the "controversial" casting of the diminutive 5'7" tall Cruise as Child's 6'5 tall," 250lb weighing, and 50-inch wide-chested character of Jack Reacher. Despite a lot of fan backlash at the casting of Cruise, Lee responded: "Obviously, Cruise doesn't match the physical description of Reacher in the books, but the movie is not going to match the book anyway."

FILM 1865: WAR OF THE WORLDS

FILM 1865: WAR OF THE WORLDS

TRIVIA: During the filming of the underwater scenes (where the ferry capsizes), director Steven Spielberg played a prank on Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning by playing the dramatic music from Jaws (1975) (also one of Spielberg's films) through the massive underwater speakers on the sound stage.

The tripod design for the alien machines is based on H.G. Wells' original description from his book, including the heat rays at the ends of arms. The "red weed" is also from the novel, as is the alien "need" for humans.

When the aliens are investigating the junk in the basement, one of them plays with a bicycle wheel. This is a reference to the original book; the main character observes that, with all the advanced technology the aliens possess, they do not use any wheels, and wonders if the alien life form had skipped the invention of the wheel.

Due to Steven Spielberg's last minute post-production work, he had to drop out of a scheduled appearance with Tom Cruise to promote the film on The Oprah Winfrey Show(1986). This was the episode of Cruise's highly publicized "couch jumping" incident.

An actual out-of-use Boeing 747 was bought to be used as the crashed plane.

Before David Koepp was hired, Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise asked J.J. Abrams to write the script. But, he had to turn it down, as he was working on the pilot for Lost(2004) at the time.

In 2005, the plane crash set was featured in Universal Studios Hollywood's public Studio Tour. The wreckage was located only a few feet from the infamous Psycho (1960) house and Bates Motel sets.

The opening voiceover monologue paraphrases and updates the first paragraph from H.G. Wells' novel. For example, "nineteenth century" is changed to "twenty-first century".

Tom Cruise's sixth consecutive film to break the 100 million dollar barrier domestically since 2000, and his thirteenth movie to break that barrier in total.

After her actions in the film, Dakota Fanning's character was voted 'most useless thing to have in an apocalypse' by MTV

Ray drives a rare 1966 Shelby Mustang GT-350H, black with gold stripes. 1,001 were produced in total, with around 800 being produced in the black and gold color scheme. Also known as the "Rent-A-Racer", it was available for rent at Hertz for seventeen dollars per day, and seventeen cents per mile. An original example sold at auction in 2006 for 180,900 dollars, and since a crane driver would be unlikely to own such a valuable car, it's probably one of the many replicas which have subsequently been made, worth a fraction of that.

DIRECTOR TRADEMARK: Steven Spielberg: [fathers] The main character is a divorced father whose children are angry at him, mirroring Spielberg's experience with his absentee father.

FILM 1797: JACK REACHER

FILM 1797: JACK REACHER

TRIVIA: Coincidentally, the source novel, "One Shot" by Lee Child, specifically references (though not by name) the film A Few Good Men (1992), which starred Tom Cruise. In the novel, Reacher reflects upon a line of dialogue spoken by Jack Nicholson's character.

Rosamund Pike was pregnant with son Solo during the shooting for this film.

Robert Duvall's character is seen using empty .38 special cartridge cases as ear plugs. This goes back to the 1950s. Since he was an old timer, he would have done this.

Jai Courtney and Josh Helman had so much trouble with the American accent required for their roles, that several planned scenes were scrapped, and many of Courtney's lines were dropped from the sides.

Brad Pitt, Hugh Jackman, Vince Vaughn, Jamie Foxx, and Will Smith were considered for the role of Jack Reacher before Tom Cruise was cast.

Reacher asks Helen "Drop me at the auto parts store". When she says "Which one?" he explains that he wants the one that "stands out in your mind as *the* auto part store". In the next sequence, the actual auto part store sign is visible: it is called "DeFault Auto Parts".

CAMEO: Lee Child: The film's source novelist as a Police Desk Sergeant, and the cop that gives Jack Reacher his personal belongings back when he leaves jail.

FILM 1790: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION

FILM 1790: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION

TRIVIA:Tom Cruise stated in an interview that it was his intention to do the stunt hanging onto the Airbus A400M in a way to outdo himself after the Burj Khalifa climb stunt in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011). However, his idea raised objections by the crew due to safety. Being a certified pilot himself, he wanted to get the feel of being out on the wing or on the side of the airplane. A major obstacle to filming would be bird strikes and wind resistance on the runway. To capture the action, a wind-resistant custom frame for the camera was built and mounted onto the left wing of the plane. The other major problem would be keeping Cruise's eyes open in the presence of fast wind and runway particles, so his eye specialist designed a special lens that can cover the entire eyeball. Eight takes of the stunt were filmed. Christopher McQuarrie was very concerned that the actor might panic suddenly, but was assured by Cruise to not stop filming until the stunt had been finished.

Ethan receives his new mission on a vinyl long-playing record. This was one of the first ways of receiving new missions from the Mission: Impossible (1966) television

A brief scene in which Ilsa pauses in the middle of an action sequence to remove her high-heeled shoes was singled out in reviews for its realism, especially in light of the just-released Jurassic World (2015), which was criticized as Bryce Dallas Howard spends much of her action movie literally running in heels from dinosaurs. There was even the idea to highlight the scene in promotional trailers and television spots, but Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie refused, saying that "it wasn't about twisting the knife."

When training for the underwater scene, Tom Cruise was able to hold his breath underwater for six minutes.

Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames are the only actors to appear in all six films.

Argentinian composer Lalo Schifrin, who wrote the Mission: Impossible (1966) theme, also created the orchestral arrangements for the "Three Tenors" concerts that made "Nessun Dorma" (featured in this film) an international pop culture phenomenon.

The idea of synchronizing a gun shot with a particular moment in a music score during a live performance is taken out of Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956).

FILM 1789: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL

FILM 1789: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL

TRIVIA: During production, Tom Cruise did the majority of his own stunts including the skyscraper sequence(s), to show the audience it was actually him. This would allow Director Brad Bird to have more capabilities with camera angles, and not having to hide the fact that it is a stuntman doing the stunts.

The windows removed from Burj Khalifa were carefully chipped away by two workers with hammers, working from a window washing platform outside the building.

Brad Bird's live-action directorial debut.

FRANCHISE TRADEMARK (jump and hang): Jeremy Renner does the signature jump-and-hang-in-air stunt that Tom Cruise did in Mission: Impossible (1996).

According to Tom Cruise, he was happy to hear that they were using a subtitle in the film's heading instead of a number like the prior two films did. Cruise has never been a fan of a number at the end of the film's sequel titles as he's always considered each film as a stand alone feature in the Mission: Impossible film franchise.

Dermot Mulroney plays cello in the scoring orchestra for this movie. Mulroney, who is better-known as an actor (Longtime Companion (1989), My Best Friend's Wedding(1997), About Schmidt (2002), etc.) is also a classical cellist who occasionally plays in recording sessions for soundtracks.

The Burj Khalifa Hotel mentioned in the movie is the Armani Hotel Dubai, the first hotel designed and developed by Giorgio Armani.

This is the first film to use the 100th Anniversary Paramount Pictures logo. Each movie in the Mission: Impossible series has used a different Paramount logo.

FILM 1787: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III

FILM 1787: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III

TRIVIA: As the production could do nothing about inquisitive crowds watching them while they were filming in Rome, they actually set up a phony second unit a little further away, hired several girls in bikinis and several older women dressed as nuns and pretended to be filming takes for the film, while the main unit got on with their business largely undisturbed.

After the success of Shaun of the Dead (2004), Simon Pegg was asked whether he was going to be pursuing a career in Hollywood, to which he laughed and replied "It's not like I'm going to be in Mission: Impossible III".

With a budget of one hundred fifty million dollars, this is the most expensive movie ever undertaken by a first-time feature film director.

J.J. Abrams' directorial debut on a feature film.

Special Effects Technician Steven Scott Wheatley sued Paramount Pictures, and Tom Cruise's production company for gross negligence, after the pyrotechnics in a stunt in which he was involved, went wrong, and he was engulfed in a ball of flame. Wheatley suffered third-degree burns over sixty percent of his body.

Ethan Hunt makes references to Lake Wanaka. Lake Wanaka is a lake in the South Island of New Zealand, which Tom Cruise visited while in New Zealand filming The Last Samurai(2003). He liked the place so much that he included it in this film.

One of the five percussionists in the orchestra which did the film's score was Emil Richards, who thirty years ago played bongos on the original Mission: Impossible (1966) theme.

To promote the film, Paramount rigged 4,500 randomly selected Los Angeles Times vending boxes with digital audio players which would play the theme song when the door was opened. The audio players did not always stay concealed, however, and in many cases came loose and fell on top of the stack of newspapers in plain view, with the result that they were widely mistaken for bombs. Police bomb squads detonated a number of the vending boxes and even temporarily shut down a veterans' hospital in response to the apparent "threat". Despite these problems, Paramount and The Los Angeles Times opted to leave the audio players in the boxes until two days after the movie's opening.

Tom Cruise and Phillip Seymour Hoffman previously appeared together in Magnolia(1999).

" Mission Impossible Iii "was Tom Cruise's eighth movie in a row to gross over $100m domestically.

DIRECTOR CAMEO: J.J. Abrams: The director can be seen in the hospital when Ethan is looking for his wife. He is also the voice on the phone talking about a free trip to Mexico.

FILM 1570: KNIGHT AND DAY

TRIVIA: Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz did a majority of the stunts on their own. Both Cruise and Diaz are avid drivers and have experience in doing sharp turns and 180's.

Chris Tucker, Adam Sandler, and Gerard Butler were all considered for the lead role before Tom Cruise signed on.

There is a remake of this movie in Bollywood named "Bang Bang" starring Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif.

While leads Cruise and Diaz were promoting this movie they both appeared on the BBC's Top Gear Top Gear: Episode #15.5 (2010) where they competed in the traditional speed lap in the "reasonably-priced car." Their respective time records were 01m:44.2s and 01m:45.2s.

This is the second movie in which Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz have co-starred. The first being Vanilla Sky.

FILM 1525: EDGE OF TOMORROW 

TRIVIA: Based on the manga and novel "All You Need Is Kill" by Hiroshi Sakurazaka.

It was never stated in the movie, but in the manga, the reason why Rita uses a melee weapon is because during her "resets" she would often run out of ammo, which resulted in her deaths. Keiji (in the manga) also learned about the convenience of a melee weapon and started using one.

While filming the car chase scene which includes a minivan, Emily Blunt was instructed to drive fast and then to take a right hand turn so that the van would shake. However, Blunt missed her mark and she drove the car right into a tree. She later said that it was both hilarious and terrifying, as she almost killed Tom Cruise, who was in the passenger seat, but both of them started laughing after the incident.

Emily Blunt admitted that after putting on the metal suit, she started crying because it was so heavy (it weighed 85 pounds) and that she would be required to perform action scenes in it for five months. She was jokingly told by Tom Cruise to "stop being such a wuss."

When Emily Blunt's character is introduced, she is doing a "planche" hold. Although she needed a wire for help on long takes, she is actually capable of doing that maneuver without assistance. In fact, when discussing the introduction, a cast member said, "Em, show that yoga move," and she casually demonstrated it.

The default language setup for Cage's battle armor is Japanese, a nod to the novel's country of origin.

Operation Downfall, the name the movie gave the planned invasion, was in fact a real planned invasion: the final invasion of the Japanese Home Islands to end World War II. The real Operation Downfall never happened, as the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought about the surrender of Japan.

Rita, for her bravery, was nicknamed by the public "The Angel of Verdun." In real life, Verdun was the site in France of the bloodiest battle of WWI in 1916. It lasted almost a year and an estimated one million men on both sides died, and Mons was the site in Belgium of a battle in 1914 and spawned tales of what many consider an otherworldly miracle. A 1914 newspaper short story about the battle, "The Bowmen," written by horror-story specialist Arthur Machen, told the tale of how during the battle, soldiers on both sides saw "supernatural" medieval archers appearing in the sky and causing the enemy to retreat. Despite Machen's attempts to prevent it, his story, which was entirely fictional, quickly inspired a popular and strongly believed account of "the Angels of Mons." The Battle of Verdun occurred two years later and there was no association with angelic apparitions, but Rita's nickname does seem to be inspired by the "Angels of Mons" story.

The sound design of the jacket is the same gun used in Aliens (1986).

At the beginning of the movie, there is a montage of different newscasters, news footage, and public officials trying to deal with the alien invasion. One of the public officials they showed was Hillary Clinton, implying that she was President of the United States. The movie was released in 2014, two years before the 2016 presidential elections.

While preparing for her role here, Emily Blunt was tutored in the Israeli self-defense system of "Krav Maga".

Doug Liman wanted to do the film because it showed a role that Tom Cruise hadn't done yet; someone very bad at what they do.