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American Made

American Made

  • The story of Barry Seal, an American pilot who became a drug-runner for the CIA in the 1980s in a clandestine operation that would be exposed as the Iran-Contra Affair.
  • Barry Seal was just an ordinary pilot who worked for TWA before he was recruited by the CIA in 1978. His work in South America eventually caught the eye of the Medellín Cartel, associated with Pablo Escobar, who needed a man with his skill set. Barry became a drug trafficker, gun smuggler and money launderer. Soon acquiring the title, 'The gringo that always delivers'. — Viir khubchandani
  • In 1978, the skilled and ambitious TWA pilot Barry Seal smuggles Cuban cigars to increase his income. Out of the blue, he is contacted by the CIA agent Monty Schafer, who asks him to work for the CIA photographing facilities over Central America using a state-of-art small plane. Soon Barry contacts General Noriega as a courier for the CIA and is contacted by the Medellin Cartel that wants him to transport drugs to the USA. Then Schafer asks Barry to carry weapons for the Contras in Nicaragua. Barry invites pilots that are his friends and plots routes to smuggle drugs for the cartel. The CIA closes eyes to the scheme and Barry becomes richer and richer. He uses the Arkansas town Mena to launder his money. But the DEA and the FBI are tracking him down. When the CIA shuts down the scheme, Barry is left alone and arrested by the agencies. What will happen to his family and him? — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • 1978. Barry Seal, an airline pilot, is recruited by the CIA to fly special transport missions in Central America. Initially it is a matter of information-for-supplies but ultimately he ends up being a drug transporter for Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel and supplying anti-Communist groups, including the Nicaraguan Contras, with weapons. — grantss
  • Knowing that he smuggles Cuban cigars into the United States as a profitable side hustle, CIA agent, Monty Schafer, recruits the daredevil TWA pilot, Barry Seal, to take aerial photographs of Sandinista bases in 1978. Before long, with Barry acting as a liaison, delivering money to General Manuel Noriega in exchange for information, Pablo Escobar 's infamous Medellín Cartel enters the picture, with its co-founders, Jorge Ochoa and Carlos Lehder, wanting to have a piece of the action. Now, Seal finds himself leading a peril-laden, cocaine-dusted triple life, and Schafer, as greedy as ever, keeps assigning increasingly dangerous tasks to his thrill-seeking go-getter, including flying guns to the Nicaraguan Contras, leading to the late 1980s Iran/Contra scandal, during the second term of the Ronald Reagan Administration. — Nick Riganas
  • Set in the year 1978, Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) works as a pilot for Trans World Airlines. He is married to Lucy (Sarah Wright) and has two children with her, with a third on the way. While at a bar one night, Barry is found by a man saying his name is Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson). He is familiar with Barry's work as a pilot, but Schafer offers him a chance to make better money by taking on reconnaissance missions for the CIA in a smaller plane with cameras just south of the border. Schafer convinces Barry that he would be working for the good guys, but it would have to be kept completely secret, even from his own family. He then lets Barry take the plane out for a ride. As he begins his new job, Barry starts making tapes documenting his travels and exploits. He flies over countries like Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. Schafer is so impressed with the photos that Barry brings back to him, that he assigns Barry a new task of being a bag man between the CIA and General Manuel Noriega (Alberto Ospino) in Panama. On his mission, Barry meets the Medellin Cartel - Jorge Ochoa (Alejandro Edda), Carlos Lehder (Fredy Yate Escobar), and Pablo Escobar (Mauricio Mejia). They want to get their drugs into the United States, but the runway for the planes is too risky for most pilots. Barry takes his plane for a ride and almost crashes into the trees but manages to pull up and continue his flight with ease and get back to the U.S. without getting in trouble. Barry now has the trust of the cartel. However, the DEA raid one of their compounds, and Barry is arrested. Schafer finds him in his cell and tells him that his house will get raided, and Lucy will most likely be brought in for questioning and be kept overnight. When Barry gets out, he goes home and urges Lucy and the kids to pack up their things so they can move. Despite Lucy's questioning, Barry insists he cannot tell her a thing, leading her to lose trust in him. The Seals move to Mena, AR. Barry is then given the assignment to move guns for the Contras, even being allowed to own his own airport and planes for the job. His first flight to meet with the Contras ends with them robbing his stuff instead of taking his guns. Barry calls Schafer to let him know that the Contras aren't interested in the guns. On his second trip, he meets with a cartel leader to negotiate sending the guns to the cartel instead. Barry brings guns to the cartel and ships their drugs to the U.S. and the Contras while trying his hardest to avoid being detected by the law. Barry gets four other men to help him on his trips when he realizes the workload is too much for one guy to pull off. They fly separate planes on their missions. Schafer then asks Barry to bring back some of the Contras to the U.S. for the CIA's newly-established training base. Upon arrival, however, some of the men run away. As Barry's business grows, he starts to contribute to the community and provide even more for his family while also shamelessly indulging in his wealth and setting up fronts to hide all the money. Eventually, the Seals are visited by Lucy's freeloading brother JB (Caleb Landry Jones), whom Barry is not fond of. When Lucy tells JB to get a job, Barry sets him up working at the airport. JB ends up taking some money that Barry was hiding in the hangar, using it to buy himself a new car and to pick up an underage girl. The DEA starts to go after the pilots. On one mission, Barry crash-lands and loses a significant portion of the drugs. Meanwhile, the cartel runs into trouble when Escobar declares war on the government, and the cartel gets kicked out of Colombia. Barry must meet with them to sort out the issues. At the same time, JB gets arrested by the sheriff after he is caught carrying a suitcase full of money. After bailing JB out, Barry drives him to a separate car so that he can leave and never return. JB curses Barry and drives away, only to be blown up by a car bomb. Barry gets rid of the car by dumping it in the woods. Barry and Schafer meet to discuss what's been going on. Schafer says the Contras left since they just weren't fighting. The CIA then starts to get rid of anything involving Barry. Barry attempts to move the stash of products out of the airport, but he is found by FBI, DEA, and other law enforcement agents, and he is arrested. Barry meets with a prosecutor, Dana Sibota (Jayma Mays), who is hellbent on getting Barry locked up. As he waits outside while she speaks to a lawyer on the phone, Barry tries to bribe the agents with caddies while also insisting he will walk away scot-free. Sibota comes out and confirms that Barry is free to go. Barry is given a task under Ronald Reagan's administration to gather dirt on the Sandinistas, all of whom are believed to be drug traffickers. They set up cameras in a plane for Barry to get photos as proof. Barry returns to meet with Ochoa and the rest of the Medellin Cartel. As he still has their trust, Barry engages in business with them, moving products into the plane where the photos are taken. The White House later releases the photos as propaganda, and Barry is seen in the photos. He is told that they were not supposed to be released to the public until after the cartel members were caught. The DEA go through Barry's house looking for evidence. Lucy takes the kids to Baton Rouge. Barry is convicted and is sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service. He moves from hotel to hotel each night. On one such night, he is approached in his car by hit-men sent by Escobar, and he is subsequently murdered. The final text states that "Schafer" got promoted after suggesting they get the Iranians to arm the Contras. One of Barry's guys went on to become a pastor in Alabama after he was set free. The rest of the pilots weren't seen after that. The CIA continued to use Barry's plane to arm the Contras until one of the planes was shot down over Nicaragua. The ensuing scandal was known as the Iran-Contra Affair. Lucy returned to Louisiana with the kids. The last thing we see is her working as a cashier at a coffee shop, still wearing a bracelet that Barry gave her.

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American Made

2017, Comedy/Drama, 1h 55m

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Critics Consensus

American Made 's fast-and-loose attitude with its real-life story mirrors the cavalier -- and delightfully watchable -- energy Tom Cruise gives off in the leading role. Read critic reviews

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American made videos, american made   photos.

Barry Seal, a TWA pilot, is recruited by the CIA to provide reconnaissance on the burgeoning communist threat in Central America and soon finds himself in charge of one of the biggest covert CIA operations in the history of the United States. The operation spawns the birth of the Medellin cartel and almost brings down the Reagan White House.

Rating: R (Some Sexuality/Nudity|Language Throughout)

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Adventure

Original Language: English

Director: Doug Liman

Producer: Brian Grazer , Brian Oliver , Doug Davison , Kim Roth , Ray Angelic , Tyler Thompson

Writer: Gary Spinelli

Release Date (Theaters): Sep 29, 2017  wide

Release Date (Streaming): Dec 19, 2017

Box Office (Gross USA): $51.3M

Runtime: 1h 55m

Distributor: Universal Pictures

Production Co: Quadrant Pictures, Brian Grazer, Hercules Film Fund, Vendian Entertainment

Sound Mix: Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital

Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

Cast & Crew

Domhnall Gleeson

Monty "Schafer"

Sarah Wright

Jesse Plemons

Sheriff Downing

Caleb Landry Jones

Dana Sibota

Judy Downing

E. Roger Mitchell

Agent Craig McCall

Alejandro Edda

Jorge Ochoa

Benito Martinez

James Rangel

Louis Finkle

Gary Spinelli

Screenwriter

Brian Grazer

Brian Oliver

Doug Davison

Ray Angelic

Tyler Thompson

Paris Kassidokostas-Latsis

Executive Producer

Terry Dougas

Brandt Andersen

Eric Greenfeld

Michael Finley

Michael Bassick

César Charlone

Cinematographer

Andrew Mondshein

Film Editing

Dylan Tichenor

Christophe Beck

Original Music

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Critic Reviews for American Made

Audience reviews for american made.

The combo of director Doug Liman, writer Gary Spinelli and actor Tom Cruise all deliver huge in a film that serves as entertainment and a peek inside the corruption factory of the Reagan presidency.

america tom cruise

American Made is a fascinating biopic about Barry Seal, a commercial pilot who worked with the CIA to run drugs and guns in South America. Set in the early 1980s, to combat the spread of communism the CIA recruits Pan Am pilot Barry Seal to fly recon missions in South America and eventually to run guns to the Contras; but things soon start to spiral out of the control. Tom Cruise gives a pretty strong performance, and director Doug Liman does a good job at giving the film a unique style; blending a political thriller with a crime drama, with some lighthearted comedy mixed in. Also, the sets, costumes, and soundtrack are all well-done, giving an authentic early '80s look and feel. Entertaining and fun, American Made is an interesting look at a little known chapter of the Cold War.

It's a pretty poor imitation of Scorsese, mostly because of the overly frantic editing and the fact that we just don't get a good sense of who Barry Seal is.

Say what you will of Tom Cruise as I'm fully aware that some don't take to him at all but, personally, I've always been a fan. That said, it's been some years since I've fully embraced a film of his as nothing has really showcased his abilities. As good as they were, I turned a little cold on the Mission: Impossible series where Cruise seemingly focused on being an action star for a while. American Made, however, sees him return to what he does best. This is a tailor made role for the likes of Cruise's cocksure mannerisms and shit-kicking grin. In fact, the film thrives on him in the lead which makes this very enjoyable entertainment. Plot: In 1978, skilled airline pilot Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) is contacted by CIA agent Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleason), who employs him to photograph communist facilities over Central America. Barry accepts but it's not long before he's contacted by the Medellin Cartel to transport drugs back to the USA. Before he knows it, Barry is making millions in drug and gun-running which involves everyone from the FBI, the ATF, the CIA and the the Contras in Nicaragua. The longer it goes on, however, the harder it becomes for Barry to get out. I've now lost count of the amount of films that portray a character that spirals out of control once involved in some drug running or criminal activity. Tv's Breaking Bad became a critically acclaimed phenomenon for a start but the ones that spring to mind, when comparing American Made to anything, are the 70's set Johnny Depp film Blow and, in terms of its style and vibrancy, Scorsese's Goodfellas. Now, I wouldn't put this in the same class as Scorsese's masterpiece but it's equally as good as (if not better than) the aforementioned Ted Demme film. There's a lot of style and pizazz to Doug Liman's portrayal of this very interesting time in American history. He gleefully exposes the political machinations behind the events and doesn't pull punches in indicting President Ronald Reagan, Governor Bill Clinton and the CIA in there involvement with such a huge drug running cartel and their intentions to quash a South American uprising from the Sandinistas. Put simply, everyone had their fingers in a lot of pies at this time in America and Barry Seal happened to be "the gringo that always delivered". It's serious stuff but what makes it so enjoyable is because Cruise injects such a tongue-in-cheek zaniness to the whole affair while Liman confidently handles the material with a great eye for the 70's and 80's period detail and intercuts the film with news footage of the events as and when they came to public knowledge. It's a good case of truth being stranger than fiction and that's what grabs your attention as you roll with the ridiculously over-the-top scenarios. Cruise is hugely appealing here. His southern accent adds another dimension and character to his resumé that's refreshing to see. He can play these characters in his sleep but it's been a while since we've seen it. It feels like old school Cruise and it's a pleasure to have him return. Mark Walker

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  • The True Story Behind the Movie <em>American Made</em>

The True Story Behind the Movie American Made

American Made , the new Tom Cruise crime drama out Sept. 29, has all the makings of a romp: drug running and arms smuggling. An FBI sting. Enough cold, hard cash to make the phenomenon of raining money a plausible ecological scenario. And a sex scene in the cockpit of a plane. That’s flying through the air. With one participant being the pilot. Did we mention it’s Tom Cruise?

If it sounds like an exercise in screenwriting excess, it’s not entirely — the film takes as its inspiration the true story of Adler Berriman “Barry” Seal, a TWA pilot who became a drug smuggler for the Medellín Cartel and, later, an informant for the DEA. It’s an ideal vehicle for Cruise, a.k.a. Maverick , whose mischievous swagger is accented here (literally) with a Louisiana drawl.

The movie hardly purports to be a documentary — director Doug Liman, who reteams with Cruise after Edge of Tomorrow , has referred to it as “a fun lie based on a true story.” And perhaps its looseness with the facts is for the best, as conflicting accounts make it difficult to get a clear picture on certain aspects of Seal’s seemingly made-for-the-movies life. It’s a thorny story that takes place against the backdrop of the Reagan-era War on Drugs and the notorious Iran-Contra affair , with Seal never hesitating to do business with opposing sides, so long as the payout was prodigious.

Here’s what we know about Seal — and what’s still up for debate.

MORE: Review: American Made Lets a Smug Tom Cruise Just Be Tom Cruise

Fact: Seal was an unusually talented young pilot.

According to Smuggler’s End: The Life and Death of Barry Seal — written by retired FBI agent Del Hahn, who worked on the task force that went after Seal in the ’80s — Seal obtained his student pilot license at 15 and became fully licensed at 16. His instructor was so impressed by his natural talent that he allowed him to fly solo after only eight hours of training. After serving in the National Guard and Army Reserve, he became a pilot with TWA, among the youngest command pilots to operate a Boeing 707.

Fact: He had a colorful personality.

As Cruise plays him, Seal was a blend of balls and braggadocio, fond of stunts and rarely registering the possibilities of danger or failure. According to Hahn, Seal’s high school yearbook photo was accompanied by the inscription, “Full of fun, full of folly.” His flight instructor described him as wild and fearless and generally unconcerned with the consequences of his actions. In an interview with Vice , Hahn says Seal was personable but “not as smart and clever as he thought he was.”

Partly Fiction: He was married to a woman named Lucy and they had three kids.

Sarah Wright plays Seal’s delightfully foul-mouthed wife in the movie, alternately exasperated by his schemes and enthralled by the riches they bring. In reality, Seal was married three times and had five children. He had a son and daughter with first wife Barbara Bottoms, whom he married in 1963 and subsequently divorced. He then married Linda McGarrh Ross in 1971, divorcing a year later, before marrying Deborah Ann DuBois, with whom he would go on to have three children, in 1974.

Fiction: The government first took notice of his smuggling when he was transporting Cuban cigars.

While the film depicts Seal’s foray into smuggling as beginning with Cuban cigars, his first documented run-in with the law for a smuggling offense took place in 1972 when he was one of eight people arrested for a plot to smuggle explosives out of the U.S. Though he wasn’t convicted, he lost his job with TWA. By 1976, according to Hahn, he had moved onto marijuana, and within a couple of years graduated to cocaine, which was less bulky, less sniffable by dogs and generally more profitable.

Fact: He smuggled drugs in through the Louisiana coast.

Seal and the pilots he recruited — including one he met in jail and his first wife’s brother — trafficked drugs over the border of his home state. As in the movie, he sometimes delivered them by pushing packed duffel bags out of his plane and into the Atchafalaya basin, to be retrieved by partners on the ground.

Mostly Fiction: Seal was chummy with the leaders of Colombia’s Medellín Cartel, including Pablo Escobar and the Ochoa brothers.

In the movie, Seal meets the cartel big wigs early on. In reality, Hahn writes, he did not deal with them directly, and they referred to him only as “El Gordo,” or “The Fat Man.” He finally met with them in April 1984 when he was working with the DEA on a sting operation intended to lead to their capture. (That operation would go awry when Seal’s status as an informant was revealed in a Washington Times cover story months later.)

Fact: Seal offered to cooperate with the DEA to stay out of prison.

The DEA was onto Seal for a long time before securing an indictment against him in March 1983 on several counts, including conspiracy to distribute methaqualone and possession with intent to distribute Quaaludes. As the movie suggests, there was some confusion among government agencies intent on taking him down.

His initial attempt to make a deal with a U.S. attorney, offering information on the Ochoa family, was rejected. But in March 1984, he traveled to Washington to the office of the Vice President’s Drug Task Force and cut a deal on the strength of his intel on and connections to the cartel.

Contested: He worked for many years alongside the CIA.

The film has Seal’s involvement with the CIA beginning in the late 1970s, relatively early on in his smuggling career. Under the handling of an agent played by Domhnall Gleeson, Cruise’s Seal gathers intelligence by flying low over Guatemala and Nicaragua and snapping photos from his plane. Later, the CIA turns a blind eye to his drug smuggling in exchange for his delivery of arms to the Contras in Nicaragua, who the U.S. government was attempting to mobilize against the leftist Sandinistas, who controlled the government. The movie even suggests that the CIA helped set Seal up with his very own airport in the small town of Mena, Ark.

According to Hahn’s book, rumors of Seal’s involvement with the CIA anytime before 1984 were just that — rumors. The only confirmed connection between Seal and the CIA turned up by Hahn’s research was in 1984, after Seal had begun working as an informant for the DEA. The CIA placed a hidden camera in a cargo plane Seal flew to pick up a cocaine shipment in Colombia. He and his copilot were able to obtain photographs that proved a link between the Sandinistas and the cartel, key intelligence for the Reagan administration in its plans to help overthrow the Sandinistas’ regime. But the final piece of the operation — a celebration of the successful cocaine transport, at which the Ochoas and Escobar were to be arrested all at once — never happened because of the revelation of Seal’s status as an informant.

Fact: Seal was assassinated in 1986.

Jorge Ochoa reportedly ordered a hit on Seal early in 1986. At the time, Seal was living in a Baton Rouge Salvation Army facility. Charges against him had not been fully erased as a result of his cooperation with the government, and he was sentenced to probation and six months residing at the treatment center. On the evening of Feb. 19, just after he parked his Cadillac, he was killed by two Colombian hitmen armed with machine guns.

Thanks in part to several witnesses, both men and four additional men who conspired in the killing were arrested within two days. Seal would go down as a legendary criminal, one of the most important witnesses in DEA history and — in Hollywood’s estimation, at least — a classic American story fit for only our most American onscreen hero.

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The makers of the based-on-a-true-story black comedy "American Made" fail to satisfactorily answer one pressing question: why is CIA operative and Colombia drug-runner Barry Seal's story being told as a movie and not a book? What's being shown in this film that couldn't also be expressed in prose? 

In telling the true story of American airplane pilot Barry Seal ( Tom Cruise ), writer Gary Spinelli and director Doug Liman ("Edge of  Tomorrow ," " Jumper ") choose to overstimulate viewers rather than challenge them. They emphasize Barry's charm, the exotic nature of his South American trade routes, and the rapid escalation of events that ultimately led to his downfall. Cruise's smile is, in this context, deployed like a weapon in Liman and Spinelli's overwhelming charm offensive. You don't get a lot of psychological insight into Barry's character, or learn why he was so determined to make more money than he could spend, despite conflicting pressures from Pablo Escobar's drug cartel and the American government to either quit or collude.

But you do get a lot of shots of Cruise grinning from behind aviator glasses in extreme close-ups, many of which are lensed with hand-held digital cameras that show you the wilds of Nicaragua and Colombia through an Instagram-cheap green/yellow filter. "American Made" may be superficially a condemnation of the hypocritical American impulse to take drug suppliers' money with one hand and chastise users with the other. But it's mostly a sensational, sub-"Wolf of Wall Street"-style true crime story that attempts to seduce you, then abandon you.

The alarming pace of Barry's narrative, designed to put Cruise’s charisma front and center, keeps viewers disoriented. It's often hard to understand Barry's motives beyond caricature-broad assumptions about his (lack of) character. In 1977, Barry agrees to fly over South American countries and take photos of suspected communist groups using a spy plane provided by shadowy CIA pencil-pusher Schafer ( Domhnall Gleeson ). Barry is impulsive, or so we're meant to think based on an incident where he wakes up a sleeping co-pilot by abruptly sending a commercial airliner into a nosedive. This scene may explain why Barry grins like a lunatic as he explains to his wife Lucy ( Sarah Wright ) that he'll figure out a way to pay out of pocket for his family's health insurance once he opens an independent shipping company called "IAC" (Get it? IAC - CIA?).

Barry's impetuousness does not, however, explain why he flies so low to land when he takes his photographs. Or why he doesn't immediately reach out to Schafer when he's kidnapped and forced by Escobar (Mauricio Mejia) and his Cartel associates to deliver hundreds of pounds of cocaine to the United States. Or why Barry thinks so little of his wife and kids that he packs their Louisiana house up one night without explanation, and moves them to a safe-house in Arkansas. There's character-defining insanity, and then there's "this barely makes sense in the moment when it is happening" crazy. Barry often appears to be the latter kind of nutbar.

There are two types of people in "American Made": the kind that work and the kind that get worked over. It's easy to tell the two apart based on how much screen-time Spinelli and Liman devote to each character. Schafer, for example, is defined by the taunts he suffers from a fellow cubicle drone and his own tendency to over-promise. Schafer doesn't do real work—not in the filmmakers' eyes. The same is true of Escobar and his fellow dealers, who are treated as lawless salesmen of an unsavory product. And don't get me started on JB ( Caleb Landry Jones ), Lucy's lazy, Gremlin-driving, under-age-girl-dating, Confederate-flag-waving redneck brother.

But what about Lucy? She keeps Barry's family together, but her feelings are often taken for granted, even when she calls Barry out for abandoning her suddenly in order to meet up with Schafer. Barry responds by throwing bundles of cash at his wife's feet. The argument, and the scene end just like that, like a smug joke whose punchline might as well be,  There's no problem that a ton of cash can't solve .

"American Made" sells a toxic, shallow, anti-American Dream bill of goods for anybody looking to shake their head about exceptionalism without seriously considering what conditions enable that mentality. Spinelli and Liman don't say anything except,  Look at how far a determined charmer can go if he's greedy and determined enough . They respect Barry too much to be thoughtfully critical of him. And they barely disguise their fascination with broad jokes that tease Barry's team of hard-working good ol' boys and put down everyone else.

Sure, it's important to note that Barry ultimately meets a just end, one that's been prescribed to thousands of other would-be movie gangsters. But you can easily shrug off a little finger-wagging at the end of a movie that treats you to two hours of Tom Cruise charming representatives of every imaginable US institution (they don't call in the Girl Scouts, the Golden Girls or the Hulk-busters, but I'm sure they're in a director's cut). If there is a reason, good or bad, that "American Made" is a movie, it's that you can't be seduced by the star of " Top Gun " in a book. 

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams is a native New Yorker and freelance film critic whose work has been featured in  The New York Times ,  Vanity Fair ,  The Village Voice,  and elsewhere.

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Film credits.

American Made movie poster

American Made (2017)

Rated R for language throughout and some sexuality/nudity.

115 minutes

Tom Cruise as Barry Seal

Domhnall Gleeson as Monty 'Schafer'

Sarah Wright as Lucy Seal

Jesse Plemons as Sheriff Downing

Caleb Landry Jones as JB

Lola Kirke as Judy Downing

Jayma Mays as Dana Sibota

  • Gary Spinelli

Cinematographer

  • César Charlone
  • Andrew Mondshein
  • Christophe Beck

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Review: ‘American Made’ Has Tom Cruise. And Lies, Spies and Coke.

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By Manohla Dargis

  • Sept. 28, 2017

The tagline for “American Made,” a breezily, at times woozily rollicking Tom Cruise vehicle, announces that it is “based on a true lie” — though the movie also asserts that it is based on a true story. But who’s quibbling? This is, after all, a Hollywood fantasy starring Mr. Cruise as Barry Seal, a real-life smuggler. An enigma with multiple chins, Mr. Seal was apparently known as El Gordo (the Fat Man), a name he may have picked up while working for a drug cartel, the C.I.A. or the Drug Enforcement Administration.

It can be hard to keep tabs on the movie’s Barry, a pilot who racks up lots of miles while serving different masters. When the story opens, he is flying for T.W.A. and bored out of his evidently simple, rather dangerously restless mind. On the job, he amuses himself by flipping a few switches, jerking the controls and abruptly awakening sleeping passengers. His life takes a wild turn when a shady C.I.A. smiler, Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson), makes Barry an offer to help his country or something. Before long, Barry is cozying up to Pablo Escobar and smuggling cocaine and AK-47s across the Americas. Every so often, he drops into Panama to swap packages with that country’s strongman, Manuel Noriega.

This kind of secret world is familiar terrain for the director Doug Liman, who kick-started the “Bourne” spy franchise and directed “ Fair Game ,” a fictional take on some real-world intrigue involving Valerie Plame Wilson , a former C.I.A. officer, and her husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, a onetime diplomat. “American Made,” in its self-amused tone and skittering rhythms, though, is closer to the thriller “ Edge of Tomorrow ,” Mr. Liman and Mr. Cruise’s movie about a man — a wrong-guy, wrong-place type — who dies to live another day only to die (repeat). Mr. Liman likes playing with Mr. Cruise’s persona, say, by messing up that famous smile, and he clearly likes letting his star strut and glide.

Mr. Liman also likes stories about people with secret selves. Maybe it’s an interest he picked up from his father, Arthur L. Liman , who was the chief counsel to the Senate committee during its 1987 Iran-contra investigation. The real Mr. Seal may have played a jaw-droppingly outlandish role in that notorious affair, which, among many other byzantine turns, involved the National Security Council funneling aid to the Nicaraguan contras. The scandal encompassed a vast cast of characters that included President Ronald Reagan and Lieut. Col. Oliver L. North. A few show up in “American Made” either as fictionalized supporting characters or as themselves, smiling and slinking in archival images.

Written by Gary Spinelli, “American Made” goes down easily, especially if you don’t let the historical record with its real-world stakes bother you. Mr. Cruise’s brisk, ingratiating performance — all smiles, hard-charging physicality and beads of sweat — does a lot to soften the edges. But Mr. Liman doesn’t press Mr. Cruise to dig into the character, and the actor mostly hurdles forward in a movie that never gets around to asking what makes Barry run and why. So Barry just runs and he flies and he flies some more, delivering coke and accumulating suitcases of cash that he buries and stashes in closets. (It’s hard not to think that Mr. Cruise signed on to the movie so he could do all his own flying.)

There’s a lot going for “American Made,” which spins like a top and has the visually beguiling, somewhat jaundiced look of a faded old Polaroid. So it’s too bad that Mr. Liman himself didn’t burrow in here as a filmmaker. The real Mr. Seal has been both the main and side attraction in many articles, books, documentaries and hard-core propaganda flicks, including some hinged on the Conspiratorial Industrial Complex which emerged during the Clinton presidency. Mr. Seal was also the subject of “Doublecrossed,” a 1991 HBO docudrama starring Dennis Hopper (which is vaguely amusing if only because Mr. Hopper played a very different coke smuggler in “ Easy Rider ”).

“American Made” encourages and earns your laughter, although it also provokes skepticism, particularly in its attempt to portray Barry as a picaresque hero, one of those rogues tumbling and swaggering from adventure to adventure in a world that’s more corrupt than they are. After all, it asks, how bad can Barry really be, especially given the company he keeps? He doesn’t kill anyone, not exactly, and he’s nice to his wife, Lucy (Sarah Wright Olsen), and their kids. A slightly downscale version of Margot Robbie’s character in “The Wolf of Wall Street,” Lucy has a few tangy moments, but she and the kids mostly enhance the visual design, much like the period cars and costumes.

There are moments when it feels as if Mr. Liman’s breakneck pacing is partly an attempt to distract us, to keep us from looking or thinking too hard about the grotesquely corrupt circus parading onscreen. Mr. Cruise’s performance often seems similarly calculated. Barry likes to leap before he thinks: “All this is legal?” he asks, scarcely pausing before plunging into the fray — and Mr. Cruise regularly widens his eyes in what seems to be an effort to convey Barry’s incredulity. It’s dissembling that is about as convincing as the Wolf leering in granny’s nightie. In truth, this Barry is just another ugly American, a happy hustler with a what-me-worry smile and a foot planted on another man’s throat.

American Made Rated R for very bad behavior. Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes.

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The Awful Accident That Happened While Filming Tom Cruise’s ‘American Made’

Death, severe injury, and charges of negligence loomed over the Hollywood star's 2017 film.

The Big Picture

  • Tom Cruise's performance in American Made deserves praise, as he portrayed real-life pilot Barry Seal in a daring role.
  • The tragic plane crash during the film's production resulted in two deaths and severe injuries to the surviving pilot.
  • Lawsuits were filed by the families of the deceased pilots, alleging negligence on the part of the film's production and questioning safety measures.

Any movie fan not living under a rock is well aware of Tom Cruise 's affinity for aviation. Having attained a pilot's license in 1994, the 60-year-old actor has put his skills to jaw-dropping use in several films , most dangerously in the Mission: Impossible films and Top Gun: Maverick . While his role as Pete Mitchell in the latter film and its predecessor remain iconic portrayals of a pilot, his performance as a flying daredevil in another film – American Made – also deserves praise.

In 2017's American Made , Tom Cruise played real-life pilot Barry Seal , a man who would turn to drug smuggling in the 1980s. Featuring many aerial sequences and high-altitude stunts, many of which were performed by the actor himself, the film's production was beset by tragedy on September 11, 2015. Carrying three pilots working on the film, Carlos Berl , Jimmy Lee Garland , and Andrew Purwin , a twin-engine Aerostar 600 crashed while en route through the Colombian Andes . The accident resulted in two deaths and severe lifelong injuries sustained by the sole survivor. But how did such an accident happen? And who would answer to the grieving loved ones filing lawsuits with charges of negligence?

American Made Poster

American Made

The story of Barry Seal, an American pilot who became a drug-runner for the CIA in the 1980s in a clandestine operation that would be exposed as the Iran-Contra Affair.

Who Were Pilots Carlos Berl, Jimmy Lee Garland, & Andrew Purwin?

Having grown up among aviators in Venezuela, Carlos Berl followed in his family's footsteps and became a pilot himself. Eventually relocating to Florida and New York, he amassed a variety of licenses over the years, and in 2015, caught wind of an upcoming Tom Cruise-starring film looking for experienced pilots. Won over by the opportunity, but with a constant eye toward safety, Berl voiced concerns after learning the production wanted him to fly the Aerostar 600, an aircraft with which he had no experience and was infamous among aviators for its involvement in "more than 260 deaths in 191 accidents around the world since 1969."

A native of Georgia, Jimmy Lee Garland had also never worked on a film. But as a pilot and mechanic running his own aviation company and teaching lessons, his knowledge and experience put him on Hollywood's radar. In addition to serving as Tom Cruise's double, Garland also taught the actor how to fly a Cessna 414, noting that his student "liked to participate in the stunts" and was "a very good pilot." The month before the crash, Garland was in Colombia putting his skills to use, racking up many hours in flight and enjoying the good life in the hotels and casinos of Medellín.

Unlike Berl and Garland, however, Andrew Purwin's aviation record was not without controversy. Particularly known in the industry for performing helicopter stunts, and having worked on high-profile films like Pirates of the Caribbean , Tropic Thunder , and Transformers , he'd cultivated a reputation among colleagues as a "dangerous" and risk-taking pilot. Purwin was also well-known to the Federal Aviation Administration, though perhaps not for the most reassuring reasons. In 1996, he crashed a helicopter that resulted in the death of a business partner, and would eventually be prohibited from flying fixed-wing aircraft in certain "weather and regulatory conditions." Purwin was involved in "dozens of incidents" over the years, and according to some in Hollywood's aviation circles, was even a member of the so-called "death pool," a group composed of pilots considered likely to lose their lives in a plane crash.

What Happened on the Set of 'American Made'?

As cameras were rolling on American Made in Colombia, Berl, Garland, and Purwin were tasked with flying the twin-engine Aerostar 600 from Santa Fe de Antioquia to Medellín after a long day of filming. Embarking on what should've been a 35-mile flight lasting just 20 minutes, the trio took off around 5:30 P.M., only moments after Tom Cruise had departed the set in a helicopter. According to initial reports, the Aerostar encountered bad weather and crashed near the village of La Clarita.

Upon discovering the wreckage , local civilians found all three pilots alive, though severely injured. But after summoning help and returning to the downed plane, Carlos Berl and Andrew Purwin had perished. The lone survivor, Jimmy Lee Garland, suffered "a shattered vertebra, collapsed lung, herniated diaphragm, 10 broken teeth, broken ribs, a broken jawbone, and a cracked skull on both sides of a dislodged eye socket." Waking up in a hospital nine days after the crash, Garland would later claim to have no memory of the flight, who was flying, or how the plane went down.

What Happened After the 'American Made' Set Accident?

Many questions were being asked after the tragedy in the Colombian mountains. How could three experienced pilots, each of whom had logged hours over the dramatic terrain of South American jungles and rainforests, end up crashing on a routine flight? What kinds of safety guidelines and industry regulations did the film's production have in place to avoid such an accident? What, if any, external factors may have contributed to what happened? And perhaps the most crucial question of all, who was flying the plane? With survivor Johnny Lee Garland unable to remember anything about the flight and its demise, it appears the question of who was flying the Aerostar will never be answered.

The loved ones of Carlos Berl and Andrew Purwin filed lawsuits, each citing negligence on the part of the film production and making claims regarding shortcuts taken at the expense of overall safety. Filed a year after his death, the suit on Berl's behalf alleged that American Made 's producers, as well as his fellow co-pilots, pressured him into piloting the notorious Aerostar that he'd not been trained to fly. Filed in April 2016, the lawsuit on Purwin's behalf made similar allegations against the film's producers and flight coordinators, claiming that Berl was flying the plane and his inexperience contributed to the crash. For their part, the producers filed a countersuit against Purwin, claiming that his aviation company, Heliblack, supplied the film production with a compromised plane and that the pilot had been dishonest about his qualifications.

Tom Cruise as Barry Seal in American Made

The True Story Behind Tom Cruise’s ‘American Made’

Regarding the events immediately preceding the flight, an anonymous source noted, "Apparently there was an argument about needing to leave immediately, even though they had some information about the weather that they should have stayed behind. I was just told there was intense pressure to get out as soon as possible." Another source, an experienced Colombian pilot, acknowledged, "I fly there regularly, and I would have stayed on the ground that day. You have to have experience to fly in Colombia. You cannot fly here like you fly in Miami, where there’s not a mountain anywhere. If you fly in South America, you have to be very trained in the conditions."

In April 2019, more than three years after the accident and a year-and-a-half after American Made hit theaters, the legal battles came to an end. According to Variety , the litigation was resolved in an undisclosed settlement between the plaintiffs and the film's producers . While it may never be known exactly why the Aerostar went down, or who was flying the plane in the first place, the tragedy behind the 2017 film shined a sobering light on the often contentious issues surrounding overall safety, the vetting of individuals, and regulatory processes as they relate to the logistics of film production.

Something Similar Happened on the 'Top Gun' Set

Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer in Top Gun

As tragic as it was, the accident associated with American Made wasn't the first of its kind while filming a movie starring Tom Cruise . Renowned pilot Art Scholl , 53 years old and known for his stunt work in Hollywood and air shows, was flying a Pitts Special biplane to capture footage for Top Gun in 1985. While in an inverted flat spin over the Pacific, Scholl suddenly radioed, "I've got a problem here." Moments later he crashed into the ocean, and though debris was recovered, neither the full wreckage nor Scholl's body was ever found by authorities. Much like the events leading to the deaths on American Made 's production, a level of mystery and speculation will forever shroud the accident involving Scholl , only further confirming the inherent risks and danger that come with efforts to capture thrilling aerial feats on film.

'American Made' Has Seen a Resurgence in Popularity on Streaming Service

american-made tom cruise

Six years after its release, American Made has made waves on streaming platforms , particularly Netflix, in which it held a position in the service's Top 10 Movies for weeks. There is no simple explanation for why a film or TV show from yesteryear sees a resurgence among viewers, but Tom Cruise's reassertion as a cinematic force in recent years is a likely factor. Between Mission: Impossible - Fallout and the unexpectedly massive box office performance of Top Gun: Maverick , the 61-year-old superstar is enjoying a well-deserved career renaissance after a period of lukewarm reception among audiences. American Made is one of Cruise's most breezy and watchable efforts in a forty-year career, balancing its real-life narrative basis with a playful sense of humor and irreverence for its subject and lead character. And, of course, its status as a true-crime film can't hurt as it streams on a service well-known as a haven for such non-fiction fare . Even so, understanding the tragic context surrounding the film's creation remains important and sobering.

American Made is available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.

Watch on Amazon Prime

Is American Made starring Tom Cruise based on a true story?

By stefani munro | oct 15, 2023.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 10: Tom Cruise attends the "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One" premiere at Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center on July 10, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/WireImage)

American Made , the action-packed comedy film from 2017, directed by Doug Liman and featuring Tom Cruise, has landed on Netflix’s extensive roster of movies and shows as of October 6, 2023 . Cruise takes on the role of a former professional pilot who embarks on a wild journey with the CIA, shuttling guns and drugs between the Medellin Cartel and the Contras. While relishing the spoils of a luxurious lifestyle, he finds himself entangled with the law and the treacherous world of drug cartels. As the DEA closes in on the renegade pilots, a series of mishaps and high-stakes adventures ensue, making American Made an exhilarating cinematic experience. The official synopsis, as per IMDb , reads:

"“The story of Barry Seal, an American pilot who became a drug-runner for the CIA in the 1980s in a clandestine operation that would be exposed as the Iran-Contra Affair.”"

If you’re contemplating watching this film or have already done so, you may be wondering whether American Made is grounded in reality or pure fiction. Does the movie draw inspiration from true events, or is it simply a well-crafted work of fiction? Join us as we reveal the answer to this burning question and unravel the backstory behind American Made below!

Let’s clear some things up about the film. The 2017 movie, American Made, starring Tom Cruise, is indeed based on the life of Barry Seal, a TWA pilot who embarked on a high-flying career as a drug smuggler for the notorious Medellín Cartel and later became an informant for the DEA. However, it’s crucial to note that American Made is not a biopic ! This movie takes substantial creative liberties to infuse excitement and drama into the storytelling. Names are altered, and fictional characters are introduced to keep audiences on the edge of their seats.

So, to answer your question, is American Made based on a true story? – the answer is … kind of! The essence of Barry Seal’s story is captured, but it has been given the good old Hollywood razzle-dazzle, to increase the overall wow factor.

Watch Tom Cruise in the official action-packed trailer for the movie below:

If you’re looking for some other movies, that have a similar vibe to American Made , then you’re in luck! As mentioned, Netflix has an extensive collection of movies , so if you want to carry on the real-life inspired adventures train then make sure to check out these movies currently streaming on Netflix:

  • El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
  • Lord of War
  • Catch Me If You Can
Next. Netflix is adding 25 new movies and shows this week (Oct. 15, 2023). dark

Producers Guild Awards honor 'Top Gun' Tom Cruise, give top prize to 'Everything Everywhere All At Once'

america tom cruise

LOS ANGELES – "Top Gun: Maverick" producer and star Tom Cruise was honored Saturday with a career achievement award at the 34th annual Producers Guild of America Awards.

However, the producers awards show bestowed the top prize of the night to  "Everything Everywhere All At Once," widening the sci-fi drama's lead as best picture front-runner.

The PGA is often seen as an Oscar bellwether. Eleven of the past 14 PGA winners have gone on to win best picture – meaning losing  the award  might have crushed the best picture hopes for "Top Gun: Maverick" at the Oscars on March 12.

How 'Top Gun: Maverick' can win best pic: The PGA is crucial

Tom Cruise is 'Top Gun' schmoozer: Academy calls Will Smith response 'inadequate'

Former Paramount CEO Sherry Lansing presented the David O. Selznick Achievement Award to Cruise, 60. Lansing recalled casting the actor for the 1981 drama "Taps."

"He had that magical undefinable quality called charisma.  Equally important, Tom had an incredible work ethic. Even then, he was always the first on the set, always well prepared and respectful to everyone," said Lansing. "Over 42 years later, despite phenomenal success, Tom Cruise is still that very same person."

Tom Cruise on making his dreams come true

Lansing greenlit 1996's "Mission: Impossible," the movie that began Cruise's producing career. As a studio head, Lansing admitted she was initially concerned that Cruise, already one of the biggest stars in the world, wanted to take on a movie version of the classic TV ensemble drama.

But Lansing's fears of diluting Cruise's star power with a movie ensemble disappeared when she read the first draft script Cruise sent over.

"I have to admit that I was delighted to find that in the very first few pages of the script, the entire 'Mission: Impossible' team is killed, except for Ethan Hunt, which is Tom's character," said Lansing. "And he spends the rest of the movie avenging their murders."

Cruise recalled his early days shooting "Taps" with Timothy Hutton and then-newcomer Sean Penn.

"I was certain this was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life," Cruise said, recalling that he studied the movie-making process. "I was overwhelmed by what I didn’t know."

Tom Cruise thanks movie audience for 'Tom Gun: Maverick'

Cruise thanked Jerry Bruckheimer, his producer of the original 1986 “Top Gun” and his producing partner on the long-awaited sequel "Maverick."

"You opened the door for me," Cruise told Bruckheimer. "You welcomed me in and I will be grateful forever."

Cruise paid tribute to the producers in the ballroom along with mentors like Steven Spielberg and Lansing,

"You’ve all enabled me the adventurous life that I wanted,” he said.

Cruise has been lauded for fighting to keep the theatrical window for "Top Gun: Maverick" despite pandemic theater closures. At the PGA, Cruise gave thanks to movie audiences "for whom I work first and foremost. Thank you for letting me entertain you, and I promise I'll always do everything I can to accomplish that goal."

Other movies (and TV) honored by the PGA:

  •  "Navalny" won for best documentary feature,
  • “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,”  took best animated film.
  • "Till" won the Stanley Kramer Award honoring a production or producer that illuminates and raises public awareness of important social issues.
  • TV's “The Bear” won for best comedy.
  • “The White Lotus” won for best drama.
  • “Lizzo’s Watch Out For The Big Grrrls” won for best reality or competition series.
  •  “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy” won for non-fiction series, “The Dropout” won best limited series and “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” won best TV movie.
  • Mindy Kaling received the Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television for her work producing shows including “The Mindy Project,” “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” “Never Have I Ever,” “Velma” and “The Office.”
  • International edition
  • Australia edition
  • Europe edition

Alejandro González Iñárritu with Tom Cruise at the Baftas in 2016.

Tom Cruise signs up for new film by The Revenant director Alejandro G Iñárritu

The Top Gun star will take a break from action blockbusters to make an English-language film with the multiple Oscar-winning Mexican director

In a dramatic departure from his recent run of large-scale action blockbusters, Tom Cruise has agreed to appear in the new film from Birdman director Alejandro González Iñárritu .

According to Deadline , Cruise has signed on to star in the film, about which little is known other than that it will be in English and has been written by Iñárritu along with Sabina Berman, as well as Birdman co-writers Alexander Dinelaris and Nicolas Giacobone.

The film is due to be produced by Warner Bros under Cruise’s recently announced non-exclusive contract with the studio, which allows for Cruise to work on projects for other Hollywood entities. A third Top Gun film is in the works at Paramount, and Cruise is believed to currently be filming Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two, production of which was delayed by Covid, and which is due for release in May 2025. Cruise is also working “diligently” on a long-gestating project that involves shooting in space.

Alongside his success in action movies, Cruise has a strong record in more dramatic and comedic films. In 1994 he starred alongside Brad Pitt in Interview with the Vampire , and followed it up with the lead role in Jerry Maguire, for which he was Oscar nominated. In 1999, he appeared in Stanley Kubrick’s final film Eyes Wide Shut, and subsequently received a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for his role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia. In 2005 he starred opposite Jamie Foxx in Collateral, and played a movie producer in the 2008 comedy Tropic Thunder.

Iñárritu, the first Mexican to be nominated for the best director Oscar, released Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths in 2022, and last made an English-language film in 2015 with The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. His films have won eight Academy awards, including three for The Revenant (including best director) and a special achievement Academy Award for the virtual-reality short film Flesh and Sand.

  • Alejandro González Iñárritu

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Hollywood Reporter

‘It Happened in Hollywood' Podcast: Why Tom Cruise Photoshopped Himself Into a Picture of David Fincher and Cameron Crowe

Filmmaker Ed Zwick - whose new memoir Hits, Flops and Other Illusions has just come out - joined The Hollywood Reporter ‘s It Happened in Hollywood podcast for the show's season five premiere.

Zwick has directed some of Hollywood's biggest stars in films like 1989's Glory (starring Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman and Matthew Broderick), 1994's Legends of the Fall (with Brad Pitt) and 2006's Blood Diamond (with Leonardo DiCaprio).

But it was in teaming up with Tom Cruise that Zwick felt the full force of what it meant to be making a movie with arguably the most powerful movie star on the planet. No expense was spared for the period epic set in Japan - and as Zwick reveals, Cruise was heavily courted by other A-list directors while he made his film.

"We'd been in Japan for a couple of weeks - we shot at a beautiful monastery for about two weeks," Zwick recalls. "Then, we came back to Warner Brothers, and we built this whole stage. And you know, word gets around when the interesting things are happening. People were going to look at this old Hollywood recreation of the [19th century Tokyo] street.

"And at one point, I happen to turn around. And it's almost like a joke - you know, there's Cameron Crowe. There is Steven Spielberg. There's David Fincher. And I'm sitting in my [director] chair, and they're like, all behind me. It's like, ‘Oh - hey. I didn't want to feel too self-conscious about this. But whoa ," he continues.

The men "had all come to see Tom, for various reasons, because Cameron had made a couple of movies with him. I think Fincher was going to and then didn't, and Spielberg later did - he made War of the Worlds with him [in 2005]," says Zwick.

"The great part of the story is that the unit photographer saw us all together and said, ‘Hey, can I just take your picture?' So there's a picture of all of us - except Tom had been called away to do something. And then he heard about the picture later, and he saw it. And he said, ‘I want to be in that picture!' So we shot Tom, and then photoshopped him into the picture."

Listen to that anecdote and many others on the latest episode of It Happened in Hollywood below - and subscribe today for weekly tales from the Hollywood trenches.

Feb. 15, 11 am PST Updated to note that Steven Spielberg was on set at the time, but did not appear in the photo with Zwick.

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‘It Happened in Hollywood' Podcast: Why Tom Cruise Photoshopped Himself Into a Picture of David Fincher and Cameron Crowe

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