Tom Cruise is always the best. He’s been the best fighter pilot, the best NASCAR driver, the best spy. Even when he was a weirdo jumping on Oprah’s couch, he was the best weirdo jumping on Oprah’s couch. Last night, he faced one of his biggest challenges yet: going up against Jimmy Fallon in a lip sync battle. And he crushed it.
Cruise started off with The Weeknd’s Can’t Feel My Face.
“It’s the song of the summer,” Cruise said.
Backlit, the 53-year-old actor went for full drama, including a jaunty twirl.
Fallon countered with a Mick Jagger impression during the Rolling Stones’ Undercover of the Night.
Then, when the opening of Bob Seger’s Old Time Rock and Roll began to play and Cruise slid to the mic like he was pantsless and it was 1983, the crowd went bananas.
“That wouldn’t be fair, would it?” he asked Fallon.
“Please do not do that,” the host said, a look on his face like he knew it would bring the house down.
But no. What really brought the house down was The Righteous Brothers’s You've Lost that Lovin’ Feelin’, dedicated to “Goose,” a woman in the audience, whom Fallon and Cruise sang to together. Her trembling smile said this was the greatest moment in her life. Because obviously it was.
Did Cruise win the battle? Sure, why not.
But there’s one thing Cruise can’t beat Fallon at: creating jubilantly infectious awesomeness. The Tonight Show host is a genius at generating viral content.
It helps that he’s so musically gifted.
He can beat box.
He’s got an endearingly silly mashup sensibility.
Plus, the man does a mean Neil Young.