People feel 'second-hand embarrassment' after watching wild 'insult' Tom Cruise gave fan at Mission Impossible premiere

Tom Cruise has become an unexpected meme this week after his interaction with a fan at the premiere of Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning went viral.

Cruise has now starred in eight Mission: Impossible films spanning almost 30 years, and has returned for the latest flick alongside Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Hayley Atwell, Esai Morales, Angela Bassett, and Pom Klementieff.

The likes of Hannah Waddingham, Tramell Tillman, Nick Offerman, Holt McCallany, Shea Whigham, Greg Tarzan Davis, and Janet McTeer are also part of the star-stacked cast.

Ahead of the release of the highly anticipated movie this week, Cruise and his fellow cast members attended the premiere, where members of the press and fans were offered the unique opportunity to speak with the cast and watch the film early.

But an interaction Cruise had with a fan as he entered the screening has gone viral, leaving some suffering from a bout of 'second-hand embarrassment'.

The clip, which was filmed from behind the famed actor, sees Cruise walking on stage but not before unexpectedly calling out the fan.

"You've ate all your popcorn already," the 62-year-old said to a man sat on the front row.

"I feel both seen and second-hand embarrassment," one person commented on Reddit after watching the viral clip.

While a second person on Twitter wrote: "Tom Cruise calling out fan for finishing their popcorn before the movie starts lol."

Journalist Rachel Leishman, who attended the premiere, took to Twitter to detail what happened at the event and it turns out popcorn was a common theme.

Leishman penned: "I'll use this time to talk about the absolutely insane information Tom Cruise gave in his pre-screening speech. First, he asked us all not once but twice if we had popcorn (I showed him my bucket to confirm) and then he goes 'I normally eat two big buckets myself during a movie'.

"For comparison: I had like maybe an eighth of the popcorn in my bucket and Tom Cruise is only like 2 inches taller than me. So where does the popcorn go, TOM!?"

Meanwhile, a clip that went viral in 2023 saw Cruise sitting and enjoying a large bucket of popcorn as he said: "I love my popcorn. movies. popcorn."

Fans are concerned the latest Mission: Impossible film may be the last, and Cruise was tight-lipped when asked by Variety about the future of the franchise at Cannes Film Festival.

Cruise said when asked about the Final Reckoning being the last in the series: “I’d rather just people see it and enjoy, and we’ve had an amazing time doing it and it’s been a lot of fun and I just want you all to enjoy it.

“Enjoy this and know everything is the culmination, [the series] has come to this moment right now.”