Tom Cruise Had to Ignore Stench in Zero-Gravity Vomit Comet Filming ‘The Mummy’
Actor Tom Cruise once had to ignore the horrendous stench during a stunt in The Mummy. However, he managed to keep his cool and not get sick after riding in the zero-gravity vomit comet. It wasn’t particularly enjoyable at the time, although the wild stuntwork in The Mummy pleased Cruise. He especially directed his praise toward one of his co-stars.
‘The Mummy’ actor Tom Cruise starred in the first The Dark Universe installment
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon once interviewed Cruise to talk about The Mummy. He explained the beginning of Universal Pictures’ Dark Universe, which started with his adventure flick. Cruise was especially excited to be a part of a classic franchise that roots back to movies he enjoyed over the course of his childhood.
“There’s a whole universe at Universal, the Dark Universe, these films I remember seeing as a little kid in black-and-white on television,” Cruise said. “They’re films from the 30s and it’s these monsters that establish Universal as a viable film company. These are blockbusters of their time. Mummy, Frankenstein, Dracula.”
Cruise continued: “So, they had this idea to create a universe of their monsters for a modern audience and they came to me and asked me to be part of it. This is an origin story and, really, the first step into The Dark Universe, to put its toe in the water. You’ll see it’s got just big, large scale action, adventure, comedy, and scares.”
Tom Cruise had to ignore the horrible stench in ‘The Mummy’ zero-gravity vomit comet
Host Jimmy Fallon pointed to one of the main scenes from The Mummy that showed Cruise spiraling out of control in an airplane. The actor is known for doing many of his own stunts and the host wanted to know more about how he pulled that off. Cruise referred to this stunt location from The Mummy as the vomit comet and explained how he avoided the stench.
“I had this idea for a scene with Annabelle Wallis and that I wanted to do the plane crash for real,” Cruise said. “So, we went to Bordeaux, France, we built this set inside this airplane. A lot of engineering went into this, a lot of research and development, actually. We spent two days on the vomit comet. They call it the vomit comet because it does a parabolic arc and usually people get sick.”
Fallon asked if people threw up inside of the vomit comet and Cruise responded that they did. As a result, the host wanted to know how bad it smelled and Cruise made it obvious that it didn’t smell very good. However, they pushed through and managed to get the footage captured.
“We were like, ‘Don’t even think about it,'” Cruise said with a smile. “Just focus on the work, you know? Focus on the work, focus on the shot. In between the takes, you go into zero Gs for about 35 seconds, and then in between takes, we’re getting ready to do the next thing, the guys pull out their bags and they’re going for it. Luckily, I didn’t get sick and Annabelle didn’t get sick.”
Cruise continued: “You’re in zero gravity. We start at the top front of the airplane to the back and we couldn’t really rehearse this stunt. You have to just go on and do it. Annabelle, who’s never done anything like this before ever, she was a real champ. You see in the sequence, we’re just spiraling out of control. It was wild and it needed to be wild.”
The Dark Universe ultimately met an early demise
Universal Pictures hyped up The Dark Universe for years, bringing Cruise in The Mummy out into the forefront. However, critics and audiences negatively reviewed the movie. Additionally, it performed poorly at the box office, so the studio ultimately shelved the remainder of the projects.
Other adaptations of the original movie monsters are continuing to hit the silver screen, such as 2020’s The Invisible Man. However, they don’t exist within The Dark Universe in the same way. Only time will tell if they ultimately find a new, innovative way of bringing the original movie monsters back in a way that audiences want.
