Tom Cruise is mirroring his Mission: Impossible escapades by lobbying against AI amid the SAG-AFTRA and writers’ guilds strike.
Earlier this year, the WGA announced its first strike in 15 years in an effort to fight for fairer pay in the streaming era, as well as calling for stricter regulations around the use of artificial intelligence.
Last week, just as the Oppenheimer cast was about to sit down for the premiere, the actors’ guild in the US announced its own strike after negotiations with the likes of Disney, Netflix, and NBCUniversal fell through.
In the words of SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher, they’re being “victimized by a very greedy entity” – so, it only makes sense that Ethan Hunt has been tasked with saving the movie and TV industry.
Tom Cruise lobbied studios on AI and stunt performers amid strikes
Cruise is said to have Zoomed in on a negotiating session in June, asking the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to consider the guilds’ concerns over AI and their positions on stunt professionals. “It’s understood that no other star of his caliber participated in the negotiations in this capacity,” the outlet wrote.
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The actor also reportedly asked the union if it would consider adjusting its rules so actors could still promote their projects during the strike period, as promotion benefits the box office and the actors’ profiles, as per The Hollywood Reporter.
why is this one man constantly at the forefront of saving this entire goddamn industry https://t.co/FkUtSAZ0Kw
— wyatt dunkin (@WyattDuncan) July 17, 2023
The AI point is amusing, given the latest Mission: Impossible movie follows Cruise’s hero on the path of a destructive, world-changing artificial intelligence known as the Entity that’s capable of being anyone and getting into anywhere, everywhere, all of the time.
As one Twitter user put it, “it’s so incredible that the #1 movie in America the day SAG announces that they’re joining the WGA on strike is about Tom Cruise on a mission to quite literally kill AI.”
You can read more about the SAG-AFTRA strike and why actors are protesting on the picket lines here. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 is also now playing in theaters, so check out our other coverage below:
- Mission: Impossible 7 review
- The Entity explained
- Who dies in Dead Reckoning Part 1?
- Dead Reckoning Part 1 cast & characters
- Every movie ranked by impossibility of Tom Cruise’s stunts
- How to watch the Mission: Impossible movies in order
- Does Dead Reckoning Part 1 have a post-credits scene?
- How long is the M:I7 runtime?
- Dead Reckoning Part 2: Everything we know
- Where is Jeremy Renner?
- Who is Gabriel?
- Is Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 streaming?