Mission: Adorable.

It’s often the case that Hollywood movies arrive in Japan later than elsewhere, but Mission: Impossible–The Final Reckoning is scheduled to open in theaters here on May 23, the same day as it premiers in the U.S. As a matter of fact, advance screenings of the follow-up to 2023’s Mission: Impossible–Dead Reckoning Part One start in Japan on May 17, and so Tom Cruise himself came out to Japan to drum up excitement for the movie…but his Japan itinerary has also included taking a moment to salute some other well-known films.

This week the official Japanese Mission Impossible Twitter account posted a photo of cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie posing for a snapshot with none other than Totoro! And no, this wasn’t a case of the starstruck anime icon coming out to see the Hollywood A-lister, but vice-versa, as Cruise and McQuarrie paid a visit to the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo’s Mitaka neighborhood.

Cruise is on his 25th trip to Japan, but this appears to be the first time he’s been to the museum dedicated to the anime works of Studio Ghibli, or at least the first photograph of it, and along with several commenters saying how boyishly “kawaii” he looks, online reactions have included:

“Even Totoro looks surprised to see him.”
“My Neighbor Tom Cruise.”
“♪To-to-to To-m♪”
“I haven’t heard him talk about Ghibli that often, so I didn’t expect him to be that interested in it.”
“Please come to Nagoya too!”
“I’d like to see McQuarrie direct a short movie in which Tom hangs on the outside of the Catbus as it flies off into the sky.”

As intriguing as that last idea sounds, the Ghibli Museum’s Catbus is famously only for kids, with no adults allows in or on it, so if Cruise and McQuarrie want to make that happen, they’ll need to wait for another Ghibli exhibition with an all-ages Catbus.

Source: Twitter/@MImovie_jp via Ghibli no Sekai
Top image: Studio Ghibli (edited by SoraNews24)
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