Tom Cruise’s Most Ambitious Movie Ever Reportedly Delayed by a US President Trump Dilemma
Tom Cruise has pulled off plenty of impossible stunts, but one project may have been a little too tangled in politics for him to touch. Page Six reports that Cruise’s long-rumored plan to shoot a movie in actual outer space stalled out partly because he didn’t want to ask Donald Trump for a favor.
Back in 2020, Deadline revealed that Cruise and his “Edge of Tomorrow” director Doug Liman were developing a movie that would include scenes shot in space. They were reportedly working with SpaceX and NASA, which made the whole idea sound surprisingly doable.
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Fast forward five years, and insiders say the project hit a major hitch. One source familiar with the effort explained, “From what I understand, they would need NASA coordination to do the movie, and supposedly, Tom Cruise did not want to ask Donald Trump for a favor. You’d need permission from the federal government.” The insider added, “Tom didn’t want to ask for political reasons.”
Cruise has kept politics at arm’s length for most of his career, and it sounds like he wanted to avoid anything that might divide fans. Earlier this year, The Washington Post reported that Cruise declined a 2025 Kennedy Center honor from Trump, blaming “scheduling conflicts.”
When the space movie was first being discussed, Trump-appointed NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine even tweeted his excitement about Cruise filming on the ISS. “NASA is excited to work with @TomCruise on a film aboard the @Space_Station! We need popular media to inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists to make @NASA’s ambitious plans a reality.” The tweet has since vanished, and Bridenstine is now consulting for private space companies.
Despite that early enthusiasm, Page Six reports that there hasn’t been any internal NASA discussion about the Cruise project in years. Universal had shown interest in backing it, though insurance for a production in actual space was always a huge question mark. Cruise is famous for doing wild stunts, but insuring a 63-year-old actor for a spaceflight is a different level of risk.
Rumors also started circling about whether Liman was physically cleared for space travel. Page Six heard chatter that he failed a physical, though another source insisted the director, now 60, is in solid shape.
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SpaceX, run by Elon Musk, never publicly confirmed being involved. Musk went from Trump supporter to critic, and the company still needs FAA approval for every launch.
Liman has stayed upbeat about the idea of filming in space one day. He told Deadline, “I’m more excited about going to space, not less… but our goal is to make something great. A lot of people are trying to do gimmicky things like, ‘Oh, it’s in space.’ I’m not interested in doing something that’s a just promotional gimmick.”
Cruise, meanwhile, released “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” this year and has several movies lined up for 2026.
Trump recently cracked a joke about Cruise’s height at the McDonald’s Impact Summit. Talking about bomber pilots, he said, “They looked like Tom Cruise. They really do… I don’t want to be a wise guy and say ‘But taller.’ I’m not gonna say that. No.”
Fashion Central UK also reported that Trump pushed Larry Ellison to resurrect the “Rush Hour” franchise, while director Brett Ratner has resurfaced in Hollywood by making Melania Trump’s Amazon documentary.
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