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Taron Egerton is in his action movie era in Carry-On but he’s not going “full Tom Cruise.” The actor didn’t want to emulate the Mission: Impossible star too much in Netflix’s new Christmas thriller. Egerton’s reason why, ahead.
Taron Egerton is a TSA agent trying to prevent a Christmas Eve disaster in ‘Carry-On’
Rejoice, Die Hard fans because Carry-On combines Christmas—it opens with Bruce Springsteen’s “Santa Clause Is Comin’ to Town”—and the excitement of an action movie with the gripping scenes of a thriller.
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (The Shallows), it follows Ethan (Egerton), a 30-year-old TSA agent who has to work on Christmas Eve. But it’s not like any other holiday shift.
Ethan tries to, as the movie’s logline says, “outsmart” Ozark alum Jason Bateman’s villain “who blackmails him into letting a dangerous package slip onto a Christmas Eve flight.” Ethan is told all he has to do is nothing. Simply let a certain carry-on bag with a tiny but festive red ribbon pass through security.
Spoiler: That’s not what he does. Ethan goes to great lengths in an effort to prevent mass casualties. Along the way, there are Christmas lights, festive music, loved ones (Sofia Carson), Santa hats, and other hallmarks of the season—long lines at airport security and stressed-out travelers.
Egerton didn’t want to be ‘too refined’ running like Tom Cruise in ‘Carry-On’
Speaking to ComingSoon, Egerton discussed his “Tom Cruise-style runs” in Carry-On. Spoiler: He does a lot of running through the airport—part of the movie was filmed at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Louisiana—while trying to defeat Bateman’s mysterious character.
“Yeah,” Egerton said with a laugh when asked about his form and prep for the running scenes. “It’s so hard, running is really ingrained in you. I think your style of running, it’s hard to change, you know? It’s not an easy thing to alter.”
The 35-year-old continued, saying he didn’t want his running to look too picture-perfect. Why? Because of his character. Sure, Ethan’s a former high school track star but he’s also an “ordinary guy.”
“I did think about it a little bit. I wanted to not look too ridiculous doing it. But to be honest […] I also didn’t wanna look too refined doing it,” he said. “Because the movie kind of lives and dies on him seeming like he’s not that great at things.”
“You know, he’s an ordinary guy who’s a little bit useless in some respects, kind of rising to the challenge,” the actor explained. “So my vanity meant that I tried to make my run look not look too ridiculous, but my kind of creative hat also said, ‘Hey, you don’t want to go full Tom Cruise.’”
It’s all part of Egerton’s calling card as an actor. “I think I’m the guy you call if you want it to feel like a guy that you believe is real,” he told Variety. “I’m a bit more of an everyman. So I think when I read the script, I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m the right guy to do this.’ I hope that I’m someone that you relate to as an ordinary person.”
Taron Egerton in ‘Carry-On’ | Sam Lothridge/Netflix
Taron Egerton finds the Tom Cruise comparisons ‘very flattering’
Asked if his Carry-On character’s name, Ethan, is an homage to Mission: Impossible, Egerton shared that although he doesn’t know the answer “the same [thing] did occur to” him. “And people have asked me about my running, which has been very flattering. But I don’t know. I think probably a coincidence, but it may well be.”
As for how Cruise might feel about another action movie Ethan, Egerton doesn’t think he’s concerned. “I [have] got a feeling Tom Cruise isn’t going to be quaking in his boots about me playing another Ethan in an action film,” he added. “But I’m happy for you to draw the parallel.”
Carry-On is streaming on Netflix.