Tom Cruise opened his highly anticipated CinemaCon appearance on Thursday with a moving tribute to his “Top Gun” co-star, Val Kilmer, who died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. “He loved movies and he gave a lot to all of us with his performances and his films,” Cruise said to a room full of movie theatre owners. “I really can’t tell you how much I admired his work, how much I thought of him as a human being, and how grateful and honoured I was when he joined “Top Gun” and then came back for “Top Gun: Maverick.’” Cruise called for a moment of silence, which stood in stark contrast to the otherwise action-packed presentation of Paramount Pictures’ upcoming movies. “Thank you, Val. I wish you well on your next journey,” he said to the silent room.

Cruise was there to hype “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” the eighth installment of the franchise set to hit theatres on May 23. Given that the 62-year-old is one of the rare stars who is still a near-guarantee for box office success, Cruise is an unsurprising darling of the annual convention and trade show in Las Vegas, where studios hype up cinemas and seek to convince theatre owners they can lure audiences out of the house. Most celebrity appearances throughout the convention comprise a few minutes onstage. But Cruise gave a thoughtful, off-the-prompter tribute to Christopher McQuarrie — or as Cruise calls him, McQ — who was honoured as CinemaCon’s director of the year.

The speech, followed by a long list of thank-yous to colleagues and the audience, lasted nearly 20 minutes before a new trailer was introduced. Cruise talked at length about following the filmmaker’s career after McQuarrie, at 26, won the Oscar for original screenplay for “The Usual Suspects.” “Most people are still finding their voices at that age, but McQ had already written a film that changed the cinematic landscape,” Cruise said.

The pair first worked together on the 2008 World War II drama, “Valkyrie,” which McQuarrie co-wrote. “We met in LA in my screening room and we spent hours together talking about movies. And from that meeting, I knew that he was an artist that I was going to work with for the rest of my life. I absolutely knew that he was a creative brother who shares the same love and passion for cinema,” Cruise said. McQuarrie began directing the “Mission Impossible” franchise with its fifth installment, “Rogue Nation.” Cruise recounted the challenges they’ve faced with the most recent two films, including pandemic lockdowns and Hollywood strikes, and credited McQuarrie with making the films happen. “He didn’t do it for personal glory, not just to make a film, but truly in recognition of the responsibility that we have for others, for our industry,” Cruise said.

The upcoming film was the highlight of Paramount’s slate. To kick off the presentation, four motorcyclists flew off ramps as smoke shot from the ground, before descending from the stage and weaving around through aisles as the iconic theme song played. “It’s been an honor and a privilege to work with you, to learn from you, and to place you in harm’s way for other people’s entertainment,” McQuarrie joked to Cruise while accepting the award.

Though Paramount’s other projects aren’t expected to rival “Mission Impossible” at the box office, the studio boasted a handful of movies clearly meant to be seen on a big screen. The first film they teased was Edgar Wright’s upcoming “The Running Man,” a dystopian game show thriller based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. To tease the first footage from the film, actors Glen Powell, who is also being honored as CinemaCon’s star of the year, Colman Domingo and Josh Brolin hyped the film alongside Wright.

“Now, more than ever, we need movies in the movie theaters that bring people from all different backgrounds and ideologies together, for one simple reason: to be entertained,” Powell said before elaborating on the lengths to which he would go to entertain audiences. “I’ve fallen from buildings, I’ve jumped through explosions, I had my body thrashed and smashed. This is probably what I get for asking Tom Cruise advice on using a stunt double.”