We all know that Tom Cruise is not your normal movie star. His penchant for doing death-defying stunts for real on a movie is the stuff of legend. Which is why I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out for upcoming movie American Made that the 54-year old actor really did become a freelance smuggler of drugs and guns for the CIA, the DEA and even Pablo Escobar to boot.

He wouldn’t be the first to do it though. The manic-looking Doug Liman directed black comedy biopic is actually based on the so-crazy-it-must-true story of Barry Seal, an airline pilot in the 1980s who got recruited by the CIA to help them fly contraband into and out of the country. Ever the hustler though, Seal soon realised that there’s a whole lot more money to be made if he offered the same services to everybody – including murderous criminals with more money and power than governments – all at the same time. That’s on top of becoming an informant for the DEA and helping to coordinate a sting operation on the Medellin Cartel. Busy fellow.

This will be Cruise and Liman’s second collaboration after the fantastic timey-wimey sci-fi thriller Edge of Tomorrow. The two are set to team up again for that film’s upcoming sequel, the title of which I cannot write here because just reading it makes my eye twitch. Just like in Edge of Tomorrow though, Cruise seems to be playing against type here. Instead of his usual almost superhero persona, he mostly appears to be a real rube who is in way over his head and is just frantically flying from one calamity to the next. And it looks entertaining as hell.

The first trailer for American Made seems to indicate that on top of his usual super-cool leading man persona, Cruise will also occasionally be playing against type here just like he did in Edge of Tomorrow. It’s these bits, where he mostly appears to be a real rube who is in way over his head and is just frantically flying from one calamity to the next, which is appealing to me the most as it looks entertaining as hell.

American Made also stars Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright, E. Roger Mitchell, Jesse Plemons, Lola Kirke, Alejandro Edda, Benito Martinez, Caleb Landry Jones and Jayma Mays. It is scheduled for release on September 29.

Last Updated: June 7, 2017

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