There’s a story making the rounds that sounds too good to be true. Here’s the gist of it: Tom Cruise apparently brought a pair of terrifying robots to the set of Mission: Impossible 7 to guard against COVID-19. Now, I know what you’re saying: “That’s fucking amazing.” But you’re also probably saying, “Hey, that sounds made up!” And I agree! But let’s be honest: if there’s a story about Tommy Cruise bringing some scary robots to his movie set, we’re not not going to cover it.

But we can tell you right now that it’s not accurate.

As you probably recall, Tom Cruise made headlines recently when he angrily berated certain crew members on the Mission: Impossible 7 set who were ignoring COVID safety protocols. Now, there’s an addendum to that, insinuating that Cruise is so determined to make sure no one else messes up again that he shelled out a ton of money for some COVID-19 robots. The robots are said to be “an intimidating reminder to obey the Covid safety rules when filming resumes.” But on top of that, the alleged Cruise-Bots can also “administer on-the-spot tests to staff.”

The rumor about Tom Cruise’s fear-inducing COVID-bots comes from The Sun (via Yahoo), and The Sun is, of course, a tabloid. Which means they’re prone to sensationalism and exaggeration sometimes. The Sun even quotes a source as saying: “Tom is so serious about making sure the shoot isn’t shut down that he’s splashed out on these robots as he can’t be everywhere to ensure people are behaving themselves. The robots are really sophisticated and rather intimidating. It’s like the Terminator only not as violent.”

The story sounded too wild to believe, so before we just went ahead and wrote up the tale of Tom Cruise’s maniacal machines, we reached out to a source close to the production to get the truth. That source has told us the story is inaccurate and confirmed that there are no robots on set. To be fair, there are robots that administer COVID-19 tests. Here’s a video of one. It’s terrifying.

And here’s another, which is slightly less scary, but still kind of weird.

As Euronews reports, “China’s newest medical worker beckoned residents in the Chinese city of Shenyang forward before taking a COVID-19 throat swab, with its robotic arm…The droid, built to collect samples quickly while lowering the risk of cross-infection between people, has been deployed in the northern city amid a mass testing campaign to stamp out an outbreak in surrounding Liaoning province.”

Now, is there a chance someone like Tom Cruise could purchase robots like this for the Mission: Impossible 7 set? Yes, absolutely. But again: we’ve confirmed with a trusted source that it’s simply not true.

Unless that’s exactly what the robots want us to think…

The post No, Tom Cruise Did Not Bring Scary COVID-19 Robots to the Set of ‘Mission: Impossible 7’ appeared first on /Film.