Watch ‘The Mummy’ Cast Film That Zero-g Sequence in This 11 Minute, 360 Degree Feature
Most cinephiles have heard that old Gene Siskel chestnut about a movie needing to be more interesting than a dinner table conversation between its stars. I would like to add the following qualifier to that adage: any Tom Cruise movie should be more interesting than a behind-the-scenes interview on Cruise performing some of the film’s biggest stunts. Cruise’s attention to detail for action sequences is legendary, and while I may not have enjoyed The Mummy, I’ve honestly had a blast watching Cruise talk about the filmmaking process in every video that Universal Pictures has released.
And today we seem to have hit the motherload of Tom Cruise features, with Universal releasing an 11:10 video — in 4k no less! — with oodles of behind-the-scenes footage and interviews of how The Mummy crew pulled off that Zero-g sequence. To make things even better, Universal has formatted the footage for 360 degrees of interactivity, allowing audiences to scan the plane and watch Cruise and his costars tumble around to their heart’s delight. This isn’t your father’s DVD extra; this is practically an interactive documentary about blockbuster filmmaking, and you’re present to enjoy every Tom Cruise and Annabelle Wallis giggle as they revel in their new work environment.
In the feature, Cruise outlines some of the logistics of the Zero-g shoot. According to actor, they planned to shoot 64 cycles at 22 seconds each, meaning that the cast and crew would be subjected to an environment without gravity a total of 64 times and have 22 seconds per sequence to get the perfect shot. And this is where Cruise’s movie fails my amended Siskel test: this feature is way more fun than The Mummy itself, and does a great job of showing the effort that goes into making even the most mediocre of films. I may have nothing good to say about The Mummy as a whole, but when it comes to this sequence? Well, this is pretty hard not to enjoy.