Tom Cruise left fans shocked by his ‘uncanny’ face at this year’s Super Bowl LIX.
The Top Gun star, 62, was among the celebrities that made a surprise appearance on our screens as the Philadelphia Eagles secured a 40-22 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.
As well as witnessing a jaw-dropping performance from Kendrick Lamar during the halftime show and Taylor Swift taking a stadium full of people booing her in her stride, many fans and those watching at home were left talking about Cruise’s appearance.
During the game at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Cruise appeared in a special teaser trailer for the upcoming Mission Impossible 8.
Ahead of the drop, a clip played showing Cruise dressed all in black walking through a dark room while videos of previous Super Bowl moments played.
Speaking to the camera, he teased: ‘Tonight in New Orleans, we encounter a mission that doesn’t come along very often.’
He amped up the drama, saying a ‘long, winding road here has all led to this’ and there are ‘always new heights waiting to be reached.’
The video cut to show several high profile Super Bowl players, including Travis Kelce and a clip of his kiss with girlfriend Swift at last year’s Super Bowl.
Despite his emotional ode to the Super Bowl and the pressure facing the players, many viewers were more focused on Cruise’s unusually smooth face, drawing speculation that he had undergone plastic surgery before shooting the video.
‘Tom Cruise looks like someone who is wearing a mask of his own face,’ Lfccxt wrote on X.
Chelsaya joked: ‘Tom Cruise looks like a chuck e cheese animatronic got one wish and it was to be human for a day.’
Others pointed out he ‘didn”t look like Tom Cruise anymore’ while some said he looked like ‘AI.’
Users compared his face to his character David in 2001 film Vanilla Sky, who wears a mask to hide scarring sustained in a car crash.
TheMikeSause posted: ‘Tom Cruise’s face seems to reside in the Uncanny Valley.’
ManJoseph added: ‘Tom Cruise looks like he got in a car crash and has a new face.’
‘Watching the Super Bowl and the first promo by Tom Cruise and my God someone had serious plastic surgery or it’s AI. I have read many times he’s a fan of Botox, but this is more than that,’ Dgm2 speculated.
A teaser for the eighth film in the Mission Impossible franchise, The Final Reckoning, aired during the game teasing some of the death-defying stunts Cruise pulled off during filming.
The trailer shows Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt running across a field, submerged underwater, and hanging from the side of a biplane.
‘Everything you were, everything you’ve done, has come to this,’ an unseen character says over clips of the action, teasing what fans speculate could be the final film in the franchise.
In a new interview, the Jack Reacher actor revealed how he actually ‘passed out’ while filming a stunt holding onto a 1930s biplane.
‘When you stick your face out, going over 120 to 130 miles an hour, you’re not getting oxygen,’ he explained to Empire.
‘So I had to train myself how to breathe. There were times I would pass out physically; I was unable to get back into the cockpit.’
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning is released in cinemas on May 23, 2025.
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