Last week, Tom Cruise wished everyone a happy holiday in typically jaw-dropping fashion – by jumping out of a helicopter.
Now Cruise getting some friendly competition from his “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Part One” co-star Simon Pegg. The comedic actor responded Thursday on Instagram by re-creating a scene from his beloved “Shaun of the Dead.” Watch it below.
“This week Tom Cruise did a video where he jumped off a helicopter and wished everybody happy holidays. I thought that was really cool and thought what could I do, in keeping with my cinematic oeuvre and wish everybody happy Christmas? But I really couldn’t think of anything,” Pegg began.
Instead, he figured he’d pop across the street for a Cornetto and have a think.
Of course, while he is saying all of this you realize that he is recreating the iconic moment from “Shaun of the Dead,” when Pegg’s character Shaun goes across the street to snag an ice cream novelty, unaware that the world is ending around him. For the new video Pegg even recreated his trip on the sidewalk, one of the more endearing moments from that scene. Unfortunately, the video cuts off right as he’s going in the shop so we don’t get to see Pegg’s expertly choreographed fake slip-on-blood that was another standout from the original sequence.
When “Shaun of the Dead” director Edgar Wright shared the video, he noted that Simon’s mother, Gill, was the one who actually shot the actor recreating the scene. “Shout out to Nelson Road and Weston Park. And the corner shop that has likely sold a LOT of Cornettos since 2004,” Wright also wrote.
“Shaun of the Dead” was Wright’s debut feature; he would go on to direct Pegg in “Hot Fuzz” and “The World’s End” and also make “Baby Driver” and “Last Night in Soho.”
The making of “Shaun of the Dead” was recently chronicled in Clark Collis’ excellent book, “You’ve Got Red On You: How Shaun of the Dead Was Brought to Life.”