A whirlwind of excitement hit London on Monday night as Lee Isaac Chung's disaster epic, "Twisters," made its European debut at Cineworld Leicester Square.
Before any tornadoes appeared on screen, the audience was treated to an early thrill with a surprise guest in the crowd: Tom Cruise.
The Hollywood icon attended the screening to support his Top Gun: Maverick co-stars, including Glen Powell, who appears in the Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. film alongside Daisy Edgar-Jones, Harry Hadden-Paton, and Anthony Ramos.
There's another Top Gun link: Joseph Kosinski, the director of that film, is credited with the story for Twisters, written by Mark L. Smith and based on characters created by Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin.
Additionally, Cruise has had a long-standing relationship with Steven Spielberg, who served as executive producer for both the new Twisters and the original 1996 movie.
Cruise, who skipped the red carpet, posted a candid photo from inside the theater with the caption, "Fun night with friends, watching a movie!!" The official Top Gun Instagram account commented, "Our Maverick and Hangman."
Tom Cruise and Glen Powell’s friendship history
In a recent cover story in The Hollywood Reporter, Powell discussed his bond with Cruise, whom he regards as 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 about Top Gun: Maverick. The movie significantly boosted the box office and exhibition industry during the pandemic, grossing an impressive $1.495 billion.
According to Lacey Rose, Powell maintains an "icon wisdom" journal that he's been updating throughout his career, with Cruise providing the most inspiration and entries.
“First of all, there will never be another Tom Cruise,” Powell shared. “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 mentioned that Cruise gave him advice on handling fame and increased attention following the success of Top Gun.
“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.'”
"Twisters" hits theaters on July 17.
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