Tom Cruise opens CinemaCon speech with moment of silence for Val Kilmer
[April 04, 2025]
By KRYSTA FAURIA
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Tom Cruise opened his highly anticipated CinemaCon
appearance on Thursday with a moving tribute to his “Top Gun” co-star,
Val Kilmer, who died Tuesday in Los Angeles.
“He loved movies and he gave a lot to all of us with his performances
and his films,” Cruise said to a room full of movie theater owners. “I
really can’t tell you how much I admired his work, how much I thought of
him as a human being, and how grateful and honored I was when he joined
‘Top Gun’ and then came back for ‘Top Gun: Maverick.’”
Cruise called for a moment of silence, which stood in stark contrast to
the otherwise action-packed presentation of Paramount Pictures’ upcoming
movies.
“Thank you, Val. I wish you well on your next journey,” he said to the
silent room.
Cruise was there to hype “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,”
the eighth installment of the franchise set to hit theaters May 23.
Given that the 62-year-old is one of the rare stars who is still a
near-guarantee for box office success, Cruise is an unsurprising darling
of the annual convention and trade show in Las Vegas, where studios hype
up cinemas and seek to convince theater owners they can lure audiences
out of the house.
Cruise’s tribute to McQ
Most celebrity appearances throughout the convention comprise a few
minutes onstage. But Cruise gave a thoughtful, off-the-prompter tribute
to Christopher McQuarrie — or as Cruise calls him, McQ — who was honored
as CinemaCon’s director of the year.
The speech, followed by a long list of thank-yous to colleagues and the
audience, lasted nearly 20 minutes before a new trailer was introduced.
Cruise talked at length about following the filmmaker’s career after
McQuarrie, at 26, won the Oscar for original screenplay for “The Usual
Suspects.”
“Most people are still finding their voices at that age, but McQ had
already written a film that changed the cinematic landscape,” Cruise
said.
The pair first worked together on the 2008 World War II drama, “Valkyrie,”
which McQuarrie co-wrote. “We met in LA in my screening room and we
spent hours together talking about movies. And from that meeting, I knew
that he was an artist that I was going to work with for the rest of my
life. I absolutely knew that he was a creative brother who shares the
same love and passion for cinema,” Cruise said.
McQuarrie began directing the “Mission Impossible” franchise with its
fifth installment, “Rogue Nation.” Cruise recounted the challenges
they’ve faced with the most recent two films, including pandemic
lockdowns and Hollywood strikes, and credited McQuarrie with making the
films happen.
“He didn’t do it for personal glory, not just to make a film, but truly
in recognition of the responsibility that we have for others, for our
industry,” Cruise said.
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Tom Cruise, star of the upcoming film "Mission: Impossible - The
Final Reckoning," leads a moment of silence for late actor Val
Kilmer during the Paramount Pictures presentation at CinemaCon at
Caesars Palace on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP
Photo/Chris Pizzello)
 The upcoming film was the highlight
of Paramount’s slate. To kick off the presentation, four
motorcyclists flew off ramps as smoke shot from the ground, before
descending from the stage and weaving around through aisles as the
iconic theme song played.
“It’s been an honor and a privilege to work with you, to learn from
you, and to place you in harm’s way for other people’s
entertainment,” McQuarrie joked to Cruise while accepting the award.
Taking big cinematic swings
Though Paramount's other projects aren't expected to rival “Mission
Impossible” at the box office, the studio boasted a handful of
movies clearly meant to be seen on a big screen.
The first film they teased was Edgar Wright’s upcoming “The Running
Man,” a dystopian game show thriller based on the Stephen King novel
of the same name. To tease the first footage from the film, actors
Glen Powell, who is also being honored as CinemaCon's star of the
year, Colman Domingo and Josh Brolin hyped the film alongside
Wright.
“Now, more than ever, we need movies in the movie theaters that
bring people from all different backgrounds and ideologies together,
for one simple reason: to be entertained,” Powell said before
elaborating on the lengths to which he would go to entertain
audiences. “I’ve fallen from buildings, I’ve jumped through
explosions, I had my body thrashed and smashed. This is probably
what I get for asking Tom Cruise advice on using a stunt double.”
The studio also showed new footage from its upcoming reboot of “The
Naked Gun,” which stars Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson. Channing
Tatum, another CinemaCon honoree for distinguished decade of
achievement in film, also came out on stage to introduce footage for
“Roofman,” a based-on-a-true-story crime thriller about a man who
escaped prison after being convicted of several robberies.
The docket was also filled with animated franchises, like “Smurfs,”
which stars Rihanna, and “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for
SquarePants,” which hits theaters in December.
“I actually did an episode of SpongeBob in the fifth season and I
did such a good job, they asked me back 18 years later,” said Mark
Hamill, who stars in the latter as The Flying Dutchman.
Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins painted a rosy picture of the
studio, but acknowledged the company’s merger last year with
Skydance.
“I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished at Paramount
Pictures in the midst of all the noise going on at our parent
company,” Robbins said.
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