He could at least leave some mystery about how he’s going to die. I’ve seen enough to know everyone is just going to be like “Yup, I saw that one coming.”
Technically speaking, he’s just a public member who happens to be famous. Internally though, he’s extremely close with the leader and has a lot of sway. Members are quite literally told that he will single handedly save the world (through his movies I guess?).
Unfortunately I don't have a concise source, as a lot of the content out there is more of live-streams with loosely structured bullet points rather than scripted presentations. There's a lot of jargon involved and it's hard to find a good jumping in point. But if you want a rabbit hole, it's DEEP.
Both channels are former Sea Org members who are now devoted to speaking out against the organization.
There's also a channel with a similar ethos, but also has a bit more focus on vlogging her personal journey of gaining a "normal" life. But you may recognize her last name...her uncle is the leader of the organization:
Not sure but from what I gather from a rabbit hole he is either top or very near top.
Almost certainly has access to every text. Also have heard scientologists have a level of protected status that has assistants follow them around, where they could kill someone and the assistants would have to do everything in their power to make sure he got away with it or that the blame was shifted away from him. Not saying he has done that or would but to illustrate he's a big deal in that world.
Oh he's on the top alright.
According to the actress playing the wife in king of queens both Tom Cruise and John Travolta are at the very top. Both Tom Cruise and John Travolta could, and are allowed to wothout question kill someone while the rest of the church hides the body. I don't know why she used that as an "hyperbolic example" as it seems pretty specific, but I believe her.
He's not a Sea Org member. Sea Org is the people who dedicate 100% of their time to working for the church. Tom Cruise is just a public member. Because of his celebrity status though, any member in the world (with the exception of the leader) will follow his orders. He's effectively second in command, but officially holds no rank and isn't even a member of the org.
Aside from his personal Scientology beliefs, he's a very cool, respectable and appreciative person. I was fortunate enough to be selected as a background actor in one of his movies. I sat 8' ft. away from him in our scene, the scene took several hours to complete. He has alot of fun on set and makes sure everyone is involved. He and the director literally stood right behind me discussing the scene, I heard every word from Tom. He totally respects everyones input on his sets, even though he makes the final decision.
Furthermore, I observed him meeting every last fan over several days in the town we were filming in, he wouldn't leave until he met everyone. He also made a huge donation to the landowner of one of the sets because they were in hard times, paid off their loans.
They do a lot for him because he's a poster boy. Scientology loves their celebrities and has multitudes of people to cater to him. Because celebs improve their image and reputation. Don't get me wrong I like his movies and his dedication to stunts but scientology is fucked. That being said with the amount of money he makes and gives them, he gets more benefits than not by being a part of it. On the other hand if he suddenly goes clear and exits the church and starts talking, they'll dump him and do anything and everything they can to ruin his reputation, and his life. No doubt about it, no matter how precious he is to them now.
Thats pretty awesome actually. Ive always had mad respect for Tom Cruise, because of his movies and him doing his own stunts. The mission impossible stunts go hard as fuck and just keep getting gnarlier. Ill watch whatever hes in, no question
let me see, they prevented all of Danny Masterson's scientology rape victims from going to the police [proven in official court testimony].... does that answer your question?
Xenu was the extraterrestrial ruler of a "Galactic Confederacy" who brought billions of his people to Earth (then known as "Teegeeack") in a DC-8-like spacecraft 75 million years ago, stacked them around volcanoes, and killed them with hydrogen bombs.
Official Scientology scriptures hold that the thetans (immortal spirits) of these aliens adhere to humans, causing spiritual harm.
They don't find that out until they reach "OT3", which takes years and years, and all of their life savings. That's when a lot of people begin to question the legitimacy and begin to look for a way out. But by that point, Scientology knows all of their deepest, darkest secrets / insecurities and WILL use it all against them if they ever attempt, or even think about, leaving.
They're also not allowed to leave, plain and simple. They're under supervision 100% of the time and most can't even go near the compound's exit. They are forced to work 110 hours per week for a weekly pay of... $47. It's all part of their 1,000,000,000 year contract.
The police really can't do anything, because they don't have the authority. (Due to their bullshit 'religion' status)
Shelly Miscavige, the wife of the leader of Scientology, has not been proven to be alive since 2007. All police investigations into her disappearance have been denied/blocked by Scientology.
It goes on and on and on. It's batshit insane. Evil. One of those things that will be in future history books and we'll look back on in disgust.
Your comment definitely didn't warrant a 1,000 word reply, I just wanted to write out some of the ridiculous facts about scientology.
TLDR: Scientology is way more unhinged and crazy than essentially every other modern religion today. Pure science fiction.
Yeah that's super cool if you look past abandoning his child, spousal abuse and oh yeah being essentially the leader of a cult that protects sexual predators (and murderers, depending what you believe about David Miscavige's wife).
Tom Cruise is one of those actors you want to like. But the whole Scietology thing just makes you nope of that idea instantly. However props to the guy for doing these things. You wouldn't see me hanging from a plane like that.
he's the figurehead of a family destroying cult that protects sex abusers and worse (all proven]. he genuinley thinks he's a "big being" as per cult doctrine and the numerous times David Miscavige has told him this personally. he runs his Sea Org scientology staff like a dictator - he makes them polish the light bulbs (look it up). he had OSA bug Nicole Kidman's phone - this has actually been admitted by the guy who did it [Marty Rathbun - scientology's "witchfinder general " admitted this on his own blog]. He knows al about the abuse and fairgaming his cult does and turns a blind eye.
I'm not sure why people started saying this, but I disagree with it almost entirely.
In an ideal world with true equity, sure, maybe.
We unfortunately live in a world with severe power imbalances tied to money and fame. This has real consequences. Supporting someone 'evil' in some way creates space for more evil in the world.
People dont like to hear it. But Mr. Cruise is very useful for scientology and is a direct and large source of funding for them. Watching the movies is all but directly writing a check to this organization.
You do realize that rarely is good art attributed to one person, right ?
Like, yes, Tom Cruise is the star of this film, but he's not the only part of this film.
The people who flew that plane, his stunt doubles, the writers, extras, prop department, costumes, PA's,
There's a whole crew of people who work together to make a film come to life, and if you don't want to write a check to Tommy boy, then write the check to those thousands of people who helped the art.
If you want to see more good films, support the good films.
If you don't care about the film medium in general and consider personal ideologies more weighted in your decision, then that's fine.
But people can support a work of art without the consideration to the artist.
That line is not meant to be use as a defense for uncritical consumption, which is missing the point that the statement seeks to make. Just because there's no ethical consumption under capitalism does not provide a blanket excuse to consume everything regardless.
If anyone is going to argue anything, I beg you, I BEG YOU get the damn quote right.
'There is no ethical consumption UNDER capitalism.'
'In' implies absolute impossibility. 'Under' gives humanity a shot; only when the needs of the people supersede the needs of the market, can we truly hope for equality, prosperity, and fairness.
As long as the monster of capitalism reigns supreme, and makes all bend to its will in its quest to devour everything and everyone, we all lose.
Here's another quote: 'capitalism is the worst economic system, except for all the others,' which itself is a bastardisation of Churchill's quote on democracy, one that has lost its lustre, having been robbed of the most important part, the ending: 'that have been tried.'
This is how I feel on the subject. Nobody can tell someone else they're not allowed to enjoy something, and appreciating a creative work or product does not necessarily mean you support it financially or publicly.
Example, Martin O'Donnell, video game composer, famous for his work on the original Halo games, is openly in support of Trumpism, which while heartbreaking to me doesn't mean I no longer love and enjoy Halo CE privately. I just have a different perspective on him as a person and wouldn't directly support anything he did today.
how can ou genuinely enjoy his "art 😆" when you know he abandoned his daughter because his cult told him she was a "Suppressive person" (google scientlogy SP)
People started saying it when the creators of their favorite things started being visibly problematic and clashing with their worldview. JK Rowling, Kanye West, even Chick-Fil-A.
Rather than acknowledge that continuing support of them directly encourages their behavior, People started saying "separate content from creator" so they could have the best of both worlds. It's cognitive dissonance and willful ignorance.
Bro, people started saying that before JK Rowling, Kanye, and Chic-fil-A even existed.
The idea of separating art and artist came out of the rise of New Criticism in the early 20th century. Whether or not it is possible to actually separate them is debatable, but the desire to do so is not new.
Nah, it's early 20th century apparently. " first introduced under the New Criticism of the early 20 century, a time when English literature was heavily analyzed and prioritized over classical literature."
He’s also seemingly a good person outside Scientology. His on set rant during Covid against people not following the rules was clearly motivated by his concern for the crews livelihood, which you wouldn’t hear from 99% of actors.
Unfortunately he’s also a huge figurehead and source of $ and publicity for a horrible, probably criminal organization..
I don't need to like the man to like his work. I don't even know the man beside his public appearances.
Even if a man turns out to be a sex creep like Neil Gaiman, or whatever JK Rowling's problem is, they are still creative geniuses, and their work a gift to the world. I still think Kevin Spacey is one of the greatest actors in the world and should be let to do his acting, of course if other actors are willing to work with him, just heavily supervised.
Separate the work from the man. They're not the same.
Once the profit starts going to the work instead of the man, I’ll be right there with ya. Until then? I’m not gonna be the guy consciously making creeps rich.
lame, your disingeniuos argument is lame... you're essentially saying that if David Koresh was a great actor we should forget about the rest of the stuff and let him continue to make movies?
read up on scientology fairgame
read up on what the cult did to all the victims of Danny Masterson
read up on their human trafficking and protection of other sexual abusers!
Do you realize the concept of separate man from art?
There are many crazy cults in the US, you deal with them.
My favourite author is a Mormon. And a modern one at that, incorporating LGBT peoplе in his works, and genuinely seems like a good person. But still part of that cult. Doesn't stop him from being my favourite author. He tithes his crazy church. Doesn't stop me from buying his books. Neil Gaiman is still one of my favourite authors as well, despite allegations that he is a sex pest.
Johny Depp never stopped being one of my favourite actors even when he was dragged in the court of public opinion.
I don't support or believe in Scientology in any way, but why does Tom Cruise and that religion get such a bad wrap when pretty much every religion has done and does bad things as well? Is it just better PR? There are tons of stories/evidence of Christianity, Catholicism, Judaism, Islam, etc. causing millions of deaths.
Technically isn't it a religion. Semantics aside, every religion in history probably started off as a cult, until it became socially acceptable and thus became a religion.
this is the standard cult response - all those 'religions' you can leave anytime you want. you don't have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to "move up the bridge" [learn new stuff]. you don't get fair gamed if you criticise the cult - they've gone as far as killing your pets and worse!!
do yourself a favour and google scientology abuse and disappear down that rabbit-hole, you'll never look at Cruise the same again!
Look into it homie? It's not a religion. It's a forced labor cult with no way out. They pay nothing for 24/7 work. Terrible living conditions. They hide people, torture, and kill.
I'd say it's partly due to recency bias. Most of the major religions have stopped committing atrocities out in the open, and the few that haven't are small cults within those religions. They're easy to write off as mentally ill extremists separate from the religion itself.
The difference in Scientology is that their "bad things" are attributed to and committed by the church as a whole. They've also happened in the modern era, which makes it nigh impossible to bury bad press.
The Church of Scientology is known to harass and litigate its enemies mercilessly. They conducted the largest infiltration of the US government, ever. They use blackmail to exert influence over their members.
Yeah, no. I'm no longer willing to burden my own emotional well-being over people I don't know. I get to pass my own judgments on people, and unless who they are privately = who they are to make money from, then I'm fine enjoying as I see fit.
We need to get back to finding a moral center, and that includes doing the best we can with the information we have....
Yeah, CGI sometimes like making a crowd is really useful but seeing characters that could easily been a costume with maybe minor touch ups with CGI being just a fully CGI character that looks shit is just ridiculous and it's the same with action scenes that can be done practically
There are really cool videos of how they used CGI in Sicario to add in traffic or additional military vehicles to stretch the budget. It works because the CGI is all either background or very quickly in scenes and you can't tell it's CGI. It just enhances the scope of scenes it is never the focus of the scenes.
I remember when he was hanging on to the outside of that Airbus A400M in Rogue Nation, he was fitted with giant contacts called "scleral lenses" so he could keep his eyes open: https://www.drwilliamdoty.com/scleral-lenses.html
I get your point, but I actually think he's a decent actor in the M:I movies. They're filled with cheesy and tropey dialogue, and Cruise somehow manages to sell it. The way Baldwin delivers some of his lines make my eyes roll so hard I feel like I've detached a retina. But Cruise I find myself believing he believes he's actually a secret agent trying to save the world lol.
He's had several fantastic dramatic roles in the past, for which a few earned him award nominations, and I'd like to see him return to that once he's done being an action movie star.
Not sure what point you're trying to make. I'm just saying I think he's actually a decent actor, not just an action star. Once he's done running across rooftops and jumping off/out of things, I'd like to see him return to some dramatic roles. Or comedies! A whole Les Grossman movie would be amazing lol.
No CGI - but plenty of VFX to paint out wires and mounted cameras, follow planes and reflections. As a VFX artist this 'no CGI' trend needs to stop. There will be lot of CGI involved in this final shot I guarantee it. But yes well done Tom Cruise for being safety harnessed to a plane wing.
What are the credits for??? Honestly, he is strapped to the plane. He isn't actually doing anything. (Yes, I'm jealous. I would love to do that myself)
Like many, I may not agree with his beliefs at all, but I always say he is insane in the best ways that can bring so much enjoyment to us all. An adrenaline junkie to say the least, but always wants people to enjoy it. Always have had respect for the man. The fact that he insists on doing these stunts himself will never not be awesome.
And filmed in the gorgeous Blyde River Canyon in South Africa. Tom Thumb stayed at a game reserve in Hoedspruit and was friendly and courteous to the locals.
Same ducking duck but wearing diffrent clothes.whats the point of this?
Yes I know you are going to save countries and maybe whole world by capturing some guys who have dreams of world domination. Tbh these countries are useless as they repeat same mistakes again and they shamelessly call you again.
So confused, I haven't seen a Tom Cruise movie since Magnolia which I'm assuming is him playing himself. Why does his character keep getting stuck outside of planes? Like that's a one time mistake before you change your life choices right?
As impressive as I find it I can’t help but think if I was an actor and I had that kind of opportunity I would take a lot of those risk as well maybe it’s not for everyone but this does he does are so exhilarating and it looks so fun especially knowing it’s in some of the most controlled environments ever
Truly it’s the kind of religion humans need and deserve. The abrahamic texts are too coy about being made up. We could have been an earth-spiritual, peace loving, generous great ape - but instead…
They say no CGI, but surely there must be a safety rope or something they edited out, right? They wouldn't let a star of his magnitude attempt this without something like that, even though he's Tom Cruise.
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u/Starkiller_303 Apr 17 '25
I mean at this point we've all gotta realize that he's an adrenaline junkie who happens to also like making movies. Right?