Tom Cruise Interrupted ‘Star Wars: Starfighter’ Filming with Surprise Helicopter Landing

Tom Cruise surprised the cast and crew of “Star Wars: Starfighter” in a way only he could. According to Ryan Gosling, the actor actually interrupted filming by landing a helicopter прямо on set.

Gosling shared the story during a recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. He explained that the crew was in the middle of shooting when everything suddenly stopped.

“Tom Cruise flew his helicopter onto set. And they were just shooting and they heard a helicopter, they had to cut… and it was Tom Cruise,” Gosling said. The moment only got more unexpected from there.

“He lands in the middle of set, he takes a camera and just starts shooting an action scene,” he added. Gosling wasn’t even there to witness it himself, which made the whole thing even more frustrating for him. He said it happened on the one day he had off.

“I wasn’t there .. [my] one day off. Shawn sends me a picture of him and Tom Cruise … there’s like a shot of him in the mud shooting Flynn … I don’t know why he waited until the one day I wasn’t there. I hope that was an accident,” Gosling joked.

This isn’t the only story about Cruise showing up on the set. Director Shawn Levy had already talked about a similar moment in an interview with The New York Times. He said Cruise visited the production back in November and ended up getting involved in filming a lightsaber scene.

As described by the publication, Cruise was fully committed, even standing in muddy water while working with a camera. Levy himself seemed surprised by the situation. “Last week Steven Spielberg was here,” Levy said. “And now Tom Cruise is wielding a camera, ruining his very nice shoes.”

At first, Cruise only planned to watch. But Levy jokingly suggested he could grab a camera during a scene that involved a lightsaber fight in water. Cruise took it seriously and stepped right in.

Levy later confirmed that some of the footage in the movie will actually be shot by Cruise. “Now when you see the movie, you’ll know that part of it was shot by Tom,” he said. “I mean, how cool is that?”

“Star Wars: Starfighter” is a new film in the Star Wars universe. It is directed by Shawn Levy and written by Jonathan Tropper. The movie takes place five years after the events of “The Rise of Skywalker” from 2019.

The film stars Ryan Gosling along with a large cast that includes Flynn Gray, Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Simon Bird, Jamael Westman, Daniel Ings, and Amy Adams.

Work on the project started back in 2022 when Levy entered talks to direct. The process slowed down because of the 2023 writers’ strike, but things picked up again later. Filming began in 2025 in the United Kingdom and also took place in Sardinia, Italy before wrapping in December.

The movie is currently set to be released in the United States on May 28, 2027. Have something to add? Let us know in the comments!