On the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, California, just down from where they shoot The Pitt, is the studio’s old scenic loft—the dusty industrial space where artisans once painted backdrops. Tom Cruise is standing in the center of the room and he is happy. “When you’re making a movie,” he says, “you remember every single person that it takes to be able to make a film.” This is how he talks: grandly, universally. He looks like he’s conducting a tour of the lot. He looks like Tom Cruise. “I mean, these guys that are painting backgrounds and building the sets and moving the cameras, lighting, every area of making a movie—it’s light, architecture, the design, all of it, to entertain audiences,” he says. (The question was: Do you remember using a painted backdrop in a movie?)