Shockingly Real Tom Cruise Deepfakes Are Invading TikTok

Three days ago, a TikTok account going by @deeptomcruise began posting video clips of the Hollywood actor Tom Cruise doing everything from golfing, to tripping and telling a joke in what appears to be a men's clothing store in Italy, to performing a magic trick with a coin. In each of the three videos, Cruise delivers his signature maniacal laugh--you know, the one he repeatedly unleashed in that batty Scientology recruitment video years back--before launching into some sort of bit, and in all of them, it looks just like Cruise. There are a few giveaways, of course. Also, his voice is hollow and scratchy, a la that scene in Face/Off where John Travolta-as-Nicolas Cage is trying to adjust his vocals to that Cage-ian timbre. Still, the Cruise TikToks managed to bewilder and horrify a number of people.