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Jumping in to explain a little bit more of the psychological aspects of this situation which barely seem to be taken into account here.

I am not a cult expert, but I am a psychologist specialized in trauma and abuse, I won't censor the words and this discussion might have triggers, so proceed with caution.

The first important thing is that Tom's past history made him prime target of a cult. Firstly, he was an young adult when he met Mimi and was indoctrinated by the cult. Not only was he extremely young, he also had been left by his abusive father.

The first fact is victims of abuse are likely to find themselves in new abusive relationships. The other facts are both his age and the fact that Mimi was a part of the cult. Research done with former cult members suggests that most cult members are more likely to join when young, ages varying from 15 to 30 years old - meaning their formative years - and when they know someone inside of it. Like they said, Mimi was already a part of the cult.

The other fact is the coercive control and abuse methods used by Miscaviege to reign Tom in. I think is barely acknowledged that what was done to him was psychological warfare and torture.

He literally had him under extreme surveillance, he had people close to Tom providing him with information about him, he had him followed, at one point there were bugs in Tom's house.

Tom tried to distance himself from it twice and both times got sucked back in because of coercive control. I understand people assume he had freedom because he was out and about, but is not as simple as that.

To use surveillance to monitor someone, to make them so afraid that they have no where else to run to, to humiliate them, berate them, call them weak and to isolate them from everyone they know is literally what abusers to do their victims.

And there's literally everything else we don't know about what happened behind close doors.

People want to think he profits of it this and that, that he is some high ranking member but they fail to grasp not even high ranking members of Scientology can escape and I don't even believe he was one.

Is easy for people to say that celebrities that are in Scientology are all bad, but I don't think they understand or care that is akin to victims of Jim Jones or David Koresh, the years and years of brainwashing and abuse are so extreme that cult leaders can literally talk people into killing or dying for them.

This isn't some mild level of psychological warfare and studies done in that area are barely done as it is. Si he became the person to blame for what was done to him like most victims.

"tom cruise is a cult leader" so close! he was actually abused by a cult leader and has been blackmailed and basically been held against his will by the cult for decades, but it's so much easier to just blame him for everything, right??

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Anyone that is following me because I posted about The Pitt, I suggest you guys stop lmao. I might not post about it again so you might as well lol

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Not McQ talking about how he told Tom he was going to do a small indie movie (Broadsword) in between Missions (presumably with another actor) and Tom winced when he heard him.

I - excuse me what?

And not only that, Chris decided to not do the movie with this mysterious actor and is now going to do it with Tom.

Again, excuse me?!

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Tom Cruise promoting Mission Impossible movies in the most "Mission Impossible" way possible.

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McQ: (about the submarine stunt) "The two most stressful things for me are A) your safety and B) time"

Instant, immediate priorities are being set here. I love it. Green flag.

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I am not sure why Tom thinks he put it in there, it doesn't seem he thought that much about it besides probably just thinking it was just a different type of cameo. It does look like it because of how he phrases it but McQ quite literally says it wasn't what he meant when he put it there.

I do think is a huge level of miscommunication and Tom downplaying it, being oblivious or unwilling to see what he meant.

"And of course, the St Christopher medal. Thank you McQ! St Christopher you are a saint, you are a patron saint

And McQ says:

"That's not what I meant when I put it in", and Tom says "But that's what I feel"

Oh Jesus Christ, Tom. How much more obvious do you need Chris to be?

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To me the use of the medallion has no way of being a coincidence.

There are just way too many saints to pick from and Chris went with that one. He was too intentional with everything else in the movie to suddenly decide not to be when it comes to that.

If you look at ths movie you can tell is not just about Ethan, there is a lot of it that circles back to Tom so we have to ask ourselves why.

Why would he give a character Heather's maiden name and proceed to make her give e medallion with a Saint that shares his name to Tom?

Is like we say, once is random, two times is a coincidence, three times is a pattern. He could have chosen St. Michael or Peter or John or George or literally any other saint, and if what he means isn't that "he is a saint and has patience" or was just a self insert he definitely means something else/something more.

@allforreading-fandomthings by the way taking the moment to add you to the discussion lmao. I don't think Chris is the one being oblivious here, he knows Tom appreciates the fact he has a lot of patience and entertains Tom crazy thoughts but Chris is the one that says is not what he meant.

Tom then just says is how he feels. I think he thought Chris was being self deprecating but the facf that Tom's interpration has stopped at that tells me he genuinely believes that.

"And of course, the St Christopher medal. Thank you McQ! St Christopher you are a saint, you are a patron saint

And McQ says:

"That's not what I meant when I put it in", and Tom says "But that's what I feel"

Oh Jesus Christ, Tom. How much more obvious do you need Chris to be?

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Yeah he clearly meant it in a different way, it wasn't about the Catholic interpration which I figured as much tbh.

There were way too many coincidences for me to assume it would be as simple as that. Firstly because Chris was the one that wrote it and he could have chosen literally any Saint in the very vast repertoire we have, but he went with the saints that shares his name and that is the patron saint of Travelers + the one known for carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders..

One layer of interpration is the one of Catholicism, however if we go deeper we notice there is an awful lot of subtext in the movie from Doomsday Cult that is eerily similar to you know what, to the medallion that represents trust and protection that you have rightfully mentioned was given to Ethan's character by someone with Heather's maiden name.

I do think Tom is oblivious, and I do think Chris meant a whole hell more with that medallion than we will likely ever know.

"And of course, the St Christopher medal. Thank you McQ! St Christopher you are a saint, you are a patron saint

And McQ says:

"That's not what I meant when I put it in", and Tom says "But that's what I feel"

Oh Jesus Christ, Tom. How much more obvious do you need Chris to be?

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real quote from the commentary

"And of course, the St Christopher medal. Thank you McQ! St Christopher you are a saint, you are a patron saint

And McQ says:

"That's not what I meant when I put it in", and Tom says "But that's what I feel"

Oh Jesus Christ, Tom. How much more obvious do you need Chris to be?

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Considering Tom is an oblivious af man someone should write a fic about the St. Christopher medallion

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"And of course, the St Christopher medal. Thank you McQ! St Christopher you are a saint, you are a patron saint

And McQ says:

"That's not what I meant when I put it in", and Tom says "But that's what I feel"

Oh Jesus Christ, Tom. How much more obvious do you need Chris to be?

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Can I just say thank you Kingdon for bringing back the fun shipping. The shipping in which no fucks are given about anyone's civil status and if they're single, married or dating. The shipping in which we support cheating and emotional infidelity in the year of our lord 2025

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@fuddlewuddle sent me some BTS fics and this was the first thing I thought of

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Mcqruise fic ideas for anyone interested:

Tom ends up doing a movie with another director (insert famous director name here) and gets hurt (seriously enough that he has to go to the hospital) and McQ flips out when he finds out about it.

Unrequited love fic because I like pain and suffering ✨️ I personally like when McQ is the one with the feelings that are unrequited, just an FYI.

Something about the time Chris dropped everything to help Tom with a script and went to Dubai.

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It was in the Empire Spoilers podcast!

Quick question for a fic: Does anyone know from the top of their head where McQ said he'd rather be up there with Tom than receive the bad news?

I know I've heard him say it myself but I've been listening to him so much lately that I don't remember when/where he actually said that particular bit..

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was somebody going to tell me that in the empire spoilers podcast McQ literally says that if something were to happen to TC on one of their stunts he would rather die with him than be left to get the news afterwards, or was I just supposed to find that out myself two hours into this interview that's already made me cry twice?

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Who decided to already open ticket sales for The Odyssey when the movie only comes out next year and people are already resaling?!

Who thought this would be a good idea?!