Tom Cruise reprised his role as IMF agent Ethan Hunt for “Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning,” which hit theaters last week.
Leading up to the film’s theatrical release on May 23, the Syracuse native garnered significant internet attention for the way he ate his popcorn during a screening.
In a video shared on X on May 19, Cruise is seen standing in a theater while grabbing small fistfuls of popcorn and quickly flinging them into his mouth, noticeably spilling some on the floor.
To add onto the Tom/popcorn lore: I need y’all to realize THIS is how he eats popcorn pic.twitter.com/TZ9UT3xcxb
— Seif 🇵🇸 (@seifwtf) May 19, 2025
At the time the video was filmed, a speaker is heard announcing that Cruise would be receiving the British Film Institute’s BFI Fellowship award the following evening. While Cruise cracked a small smile to the audience applauding him, he continued to catapult the salty snack into his mouth.
“Ushers must love this,” quipped one user in response to the video, which has been viewed nearly five million times. Another said: “He looks like he’s miming the process of eating popcorn in an exaggerated manner.”
A third wrote: “This is literally how every old dude/uncle/dad eats popcorn. My dad eats popcorn exactly like that.”
During an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on May 21, Cruise was asked by Darius Butler about the now-viral moment.
“I’ve never seen anyone eat popcorn this like,” Butler said. “Are you actually eating popcorn or are you full of s--- right here, TC? I’ve got to know.”
“Man, I’m eating popcorn,” Cruise said as he laughed. “They know when I’m going to these movies that I’m watching, I’m eating popcorn.”
He continued: “I love going to a movie and getting popcorn. For me it’s just like comfort, you know? I love the comfort of a movie theater.”
Cruise does indeed take movie theater popcorn very seriously.
Podcaster Rachel Leishman wrote about an exchange she had with Cruise at a recent screening on X.
“I’ll use this time to talk about the absolutely insane information Tom Cruise gave in his pre-screening speech,” she wrote. “First, he asked us all not once but twice if we had popcorn (I showed him my bucket to confirm) and then he goes ‘I normally eat two big buckets myself during a movie.’”
