The color palette of a movie is quite honestly an uncredited character. When used intentionally, it can perfectly set the tone for every frame. Movie LUTs, a popular site on social media, not only helps filmmakers design and grade their colors but also offers games where people can guess a movie based solely on its color profile.
Celebrities have joined in on the guessing games, and some fare better than others. Robert De Niro, for example, got a few right but seemed uneasy with his answers. But Tom Cruise had so much confidence, it appeared he wasn’t even guessing. He knew these palettes.
Tom Cruise was ready to play
In an online clip, Cruise appeared with Alejandro G. Iñárritu (who recently wrote and directed Digger, which Cruise co-produced and starred in). They were both eager to begin the game, which was presented to them in five “levels,” similar to the leveling-up system on the Hot Ones YouTube show.
The clip first showed a series of colors with deep blues, tans, browns, and creams. The two were given three film choices: Top Gun, the 1986 original; Top Gun: Maverick, the 2022 sequel; or Edge of Tomorrow. All three were films Cruise had starred in, so he was ready to go.
Without blinking an eye, Cruise said, “That’s Top Gun: Maverick. Easily. Yeah, definitely.” He continued, “I just know the color palette and that it goes…I know the difference in the color palette of that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, the blues go through it.” The option lit up in green, meaning that Cruise got it right.
Then it was Iñárritu’s turn. The color profile given to him had even more blues and browns. The host showed him three of his films, including Amores Perros, The Revenant, and Babel. He and Cruise both felt certain the answer was The Revenant, which was correct.
The purples of ‘Eyes Wide Shut’
Next, Cruise was given a color palette with more purples. His choices again were films he had starred in: Minority Report, Magnolia, and Eyes Wide Shut. He was perfectly confident choosing Eyes Wide Shut, noting, “The purple, definitely.” The host noted, “These are too easy for you guys.” Cruise laughed and responded, “We spend a lot of time…timing and looking at our films.”
On the next level, Iñárritu got his own film wrong, choosing 21 Grams over Birdman. They were all shocked, so much so that Cruise stood up and moved closer to the screen. “But look at that, hang on, hang on. You see this? Yep.”
At level five, the colors were brown, blue, and a lot of white sprinkled in between. Cruise, yet again, was assured. “That’s Mission Impossible,” he said without a single doubt. The host asked, “The original?” “Yeah,” Cruise said confidently. “At the time I could see that. That’s it. That’s the one, you can see that, that sequence.” He then went on to add, “I remember when De Palma came to me and was like, ‘We’re gonna do this sequence, you know, in the CIA. We’re trying to figure out how…how do we get out?’ That’s when he came up with…he called me and was like, ‘With the firemen going in the CIA. That’s how we quickly get out of the scene.’”
Always a perfectionist
In typical perfectionist Cruise style, he said at the end, “I can’t believe we didn’t get Birdman!” Iñárritu explained, “Birdman, there’s a lot of corridors that he walks. And his dressing room is kind of more in the ‘red’ kind of thing. He continued, “And 21 Grams basically is a lot of yellow and green. And that’s why I thought, ‘Okay, this is a very Benicio del Toro story.’”
Cruise returned to his knees, looking at the color palette like a puzzle. He joked, “Don’t make excuses. I got all mine, and you didn’t get Birdman.” They both laughed and took it in stride.
There are over a thousand comments on this clip alone. One Instagrammer shared, “I love how passionate Tom was the entire time. And how—sometimes—these innocent ‘guessing games’ (if you can call it that) naturally segue to personal insights to specific scenes in movies that maybe a common interview question might not have.”
Dedicated to his craft
Another user pointed out Cruise’s commitment to filmmaking. “This is how you know Tom is a guy who spends a lot of time producing and in the editing room. So familiar with the films in the larger scale.”
Lastly, the former user concluded, “Tom Cruise is always impressive in terms of how dedicated he is to his craft.”
