Twisters whipped up a frenzy in London on Monday night as the Lee Isaac Chung disaster epic touched down at Cineworld Leicester Square for its European premiere. Before any tornadoes hit the screen, audience members got some early thrills courtesy of a very special guest in the crowd: Tom Cruise.
The Hollywood superstar attended the screening in support of his Top Gun: Maverick pals, including Glen Powell, who stars in the Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. release opposite Daisy Edgar-Jones, Harry Hadden-Paton and Anthony Ramos. There’s another Top Gun connection: That film’s director, Joseph Kosinski, is credited with story by credit on Twisters, which was written by Mark L. Smith based on characters created by Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin. Cruise has also long been close to Steven Spielberg, who executive produced the new Twisters as well as the original 1996 film.
Cruise, who did not walk the red carpet, shared a candid snap from inside the theater with the caption, “Fun night with friends, watching a movie!!” Top Gun‘s official Instagram account responded in the comments section with, “Our Maverick and Hangman.”
In a recent cover story in The Hollywood Reporter, Powell opened up on his relationship with Cruise, someone he considers a mentor. “I got to work with the guy I’ve idolized my whole life in a movie that I’ve wanted to be in my whole life,” Powell said of Top Gun: Maverick, which revitalized the box office and exhibition business amid the pandemic thanks to a whopping $1.495 billion tally.
As detailed by Lacey Rose, Powell keeps an “icon wisdom” journal, which he’s been updating his entire career, and Cruise has inspired the most ink in it. “First of all, there will never be another Tom Cruise,” Powell explained. “That is a singular career in a singular moment, but also movie stars of the ’80s, ’90s, early 2000s, those will never be re-created.”
He also has said that Cruise offered some advice about how to navigate fame and increased attention in the wake of the Top Gun success. “I kept coming back to something that Cruise had said, which was, ‘The world’s going to become really loud, and it’s your decision how much you turn up or down the volume, because the world did get really loud, but I didn’t know where those dials were.’ I was like, ‘I know we talked about this, but I don’t know how to work this console.’”
As for their bond, Powell has also said it’s all about the big screen. “The one thing I feel we’re kindred spirits in is he’s obsessed with movies. That was our love language on set. I got to watch a guy who knew every department. He was able to clearly interface with everyone and be so friendly and respectful and be able to communicate that vision.”
Twisters opens July 17. Brandon Perea, Maura Tierney, Sasha Lane, Harry Hadden-Patton, David Corenswet, Daryl McCormack, Tunde Adebimpe, Katy O’Brian, Nik Dodani, Kiernan Shipka and Paul Scheer round out the cast. Edgar-Jones stars as Kate, a former storm chaser who was traumatized by a tornado during her college years. She is lured back to the plains by a friend (Ramos) to test a new tracking system only to eventually cross paths with Tyler (Powell), a reckless social-media superstar who thrives on posting storm-chasing adventures with his crew.
As for Cruise, he’s been filming the eighth Mission: Impossible installment with director Christopher McQuarrie. One of the film’s co-stars, Simon Pegg, recently took to Instagram to share that he’d wrapped his role in the highly anticipated film that follows Dead Reckoning Part One. “What a journey has been. And what a fucking incredible spectacle this next film is going to be, I’m so excited for you to see it. But until then, Benji Dunn signing off.”
