Mission suspicious for tom, inaction hero

Nothing beats an action movie that mixes multiple genres in one film. Take the 2021 Zack Snyder-directed zombie heist film, Army of the Dead. It’s put bank robbery, flesh-munching undead and army renegades all in one blender to bring a mug of adrenaline-bubbling cocktail. One man who epitomises the many genres of the action film is Tom Cruise. So, one would have thought that he’d be dope with a heist being mixed with the usual ‘dangerous operative’ trope of the Mission Impossible films in the franchise’s upcoming No. 7. Turns out, he’s not amused. Because the heist took place on the sets of the film — that is, in, what movies call, ‘real life’.

Cruise got skimmed when his car, a BMW, was stolen from outside a hotel in Birmingham, Britain, while the actor was shooting for the film. Along with the vehicle, luggage ‘worth thousands of dollars’ has been knicked. Reportedly, a scanner was used to clone the signal from the BMW X7’s keyless ignition fob. In other words, a large dash of Fast and Furious, that other superhit film series on car thefts, fast driving and furious racing, has also been added to Cruise’s meta-narrative. Incidentally, the fact that this incident took place a few days after the actor ate at Asha’s Birmingham, singer Asha Bhonsle’s signature restaurant in that city, has nothing to do with each other.