With critics also proving thrilled by it, Twisters has found a new fan in Tom Cruise. The upcoming disaster thriller serves as a standalone to the Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt-led 1996 movie, revolving around a scientist teaming up with a group of social media-savvy storm chasers to test her new tornado tracking system amidst one of Oklahoma’s worst systems in years. The Twisters cast is led by Glen Powell, fresh off of his Top Gun: Maverick success, and Daisy Edgar-Jones, who star alongside Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea and Sasha Lane.

During a recent interview with PEOPLE at the premiere event for the movie, Ramos reveals that Cruise was in attendance of the Twisters screening in support of his Top Gun: Maverick co-star. Ramos goes on to reveal that during the showing, Cruise was “losing his mind” in excitement for the disaster movie sequel, frequently patting Ramos on the back in reacting to the movie’s various set pieces. See what Ramos shared below:

Glen was sitting behind me, my brother was next to me, and Tom was behind my brother. Tom just kept hitting me the whole entire movie. After the third time, I turned back around, like, “Yo, Tom Cruise is bugging out right now!” He keeps hitting me. He keeps hitting me because he’s excited about different moments, and he’s laughing. He’s just laughing out loud the whole entire film. He wasn’t afraid to express himself. I was super grateful about that. We hugged it out [after the movie]. He’s like, “Yo, bro, good man, good stuff.” So shout out to Tom Cruise, man. It was really cool.

Cruise Isn’t The Only One Loving Twisters

The sequel is currently getting far better reviews than its predecessor.

With how busy the actor generally is, Cruise’s opinion on major new releases is rarely heard, with the few major exceptions of late being the viral Barbenheimer release, which Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning had to compete with, and Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. Interestingly, though, Powell recently revealed that Cruise had a major influence on his performance in Twisters, with his Top Gun: Maverick lead explaining that the key to making a global hit is to capture “the human instinct” in the midst of any story, be it one about naval pilot training or storm chasers.

While it remains to be seen whether Powell’s approach proves as effective for viewers as it did for Cruise in the hit Top Gun sequel, it certainly looks to be working for critics. Following its London and Los Angeles premieres, Twisters‘ early reviews have secured the movie an early 79% approval rating from critics based on 38 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, including an average rating of 7.1/10. Much like Top Gun: Maverick before it, this establishes the movie as being far better received than its predecessor, which holds a narrowly Fresh 63% from critics, who gave it an average rating of 6.2/10, and Rotten 58% from viewers on the review aggregate.

Though there may have been some initial reservations about the movie’s development and lack of major connections to the original, the early positive reviews combined with Cruise’s enthusiasm are sure to create further anticipation for the upcoming Twisters release. The sequel is already projected to gross $45-50 million domestically in its debut weekend, roughly $10 million above its predecessor’s $41 million opening. Given the 1996 Twister went on to become the second-highest-grossing movie of its year with over $495 million, this kind of opening could definitely see the sequel soar beyond the original the same way Top Gun: Maverick did.

Source: PEOPLE