Tom Cruise breaks silence on the ‘soap opera effect’ and we couldn’t be happier

Hollywood chimed in Tuesday on something it actually knows a thing or two about: film and video technology. And you should be glad it did.”

In a short video attached the home video release of Mission Impossible: Fallout, ageless star Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie explain, plainly and directly (from the set of Top Gun: Maverick no less) about the modern scourge of TV technology: video interpolation, better known as the “soap opera effect.”

You know it. The effect happens when you’re watching a movie and for some reason the motion onscreen looks too smoo… ah, I’ll just let Cruise explain:

The unfortunate side effect is that it makes most films look like they were shot on high-speed video rather than film.

Yes. Video interpolation is often turned on by default in many TVs, so it’s already engaged when you unbox the TV and turn it on for the first time. It’s mainly intended to reduce motion blur in sports and live events, and Americans certainly like to watch those, so there is some justification for the setting.

Still, one might argue that because sports look just fine without it, and the setting has the effect of making most films and TV shows look like they were shot on your iPhone, it should be kept off – at least as a default. 

And now it looks like that might actually happen. In addition to being an extremely needed and useful PSA, the video includes a hint of hope for the future. Cruise and McQuarrie mention that Hollywood is in talks with TV manufacturers to get them to rethink how video interpolation is accessed, hopefully leading to more viewers seeing films and TV shows as they were intended to be seen.

We can hope. In the meantime, your mission is clear: Google how to turn off the motion smoothing or interpolation on your TV and turn it off before you watch any more films on it. Listen to the movie people on this — they know of what they speak.