Tom Cruise has stunned fans with his changing appearance once again. In early October, the 59-year-old actor looked totally unrecognizable while at a baseball game with son Connor, 26, though his regular features returned when he was spotted at an aviation lesson in England on November 12. But just this week, Tom’s appearance seemed different again when he was pictured filming plane stunt scenes for the eighth Mission Impossible movie in Duxford Aerodrome, Cambridgeshire. In fact, Tom looks an awful lot like his 23-year-old self from the first Top Gun movie (see second photo below) that he filmed back in 1985, as seen in the photo below.
The images show Tom chatting to crew members while preparing to fly a yellow Boeing-Stearman Model 75, according to The Daily Mail. He had on a navy jacket, tan trousers, and a black woollen hat. A mysterious mark was also visible on Tom’s cheek in the photos, though the circumstances of how this mark came to be are unclear. Later on, Tom reportedly changed into his signature khaki green flight suit to practice flying for the upcoming installment of the action-spy film franchise.
Tom’s changing appearance has certainly been confusing for fans. He looked so different with his son at the baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers in San Francisco on October 9. Tom and Connor, whom he adopted with ex-wife Nicole Kidman, were all smiles as they watched the game and conversed with nearby fans. But roughly a month later, Tom looked like his usual self again when he was photographed taking an aviation lesson at Duxford Airfield in England. Like we said, it’s a confusing situation!
Tom is in Europe performing stunt training for the eighth installment of Mission Impossible, scheduled for a July 22, 2023 theatrical release. Filming has not yet officially begun, as Mission Impossible 7 — which arrives in theaters on September 30, 2022 — only wrapped in September. The original plan was to film the seventh and eighth installment back to back, but Tom’s commitment to COVID pandemic-delayed Top Gun: Maverick promotional duties impacted those plans. The Top Gun sequel is currently slated for a May 27, 2022 release.