Stanley Kubrick died six days after showing his final cut of Eyes Wide Shut to the studio. That’s not a myth. It’s the kind of heavy, eerie trivia that has hung over the movie since 1999. But for most people walking into a theater back then, the draw wasn't a dead director. It was the spectacle of seeing the world’s biggest power couple, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, playing out a psychosexual nightmare on screen. Eyes Wide Shut Tom Cruise wasn't the action hero we knew. He was vulnerable. He looked small. He spent half the movie looking like he was about to throw up from sheer anxiety.
People hated it. Or they loved it. There was almost no middle ground.
Critics at the time were brutal. They expected a steamy, Basic Instinct style thriller. What they got was a 159-minute dream-logic odyssey through a cold, artificial New York City (actually filmed on sets in London). Cruise plays Dr. Bill Harford, a man who realizes he doesn’t know his wife as well as he thought. It’s a movie about the things we don't say. It's about the terrifying realization that your partner has a whole world inside their head that you aren't invited to.
The Longest Shoot in History
Tom Cruise didn't just act in this movie; he lived it for over 400 days.
The Guinness World Record for the longest continuous movie shoot belongs to Eyes Wide Shut. Think about that. Most blockbusters take three or four months. Cruise and Kidman were stuck in Kubrick’s world for fifteen. Production started in late 1996 and didn't wrap until 1998. It was grueling. Kubrick was a notorious perfectionist who would demand 90 takes of a man walking through a door.
Cruise, ever the professional, just did it. He reportedly developed an ulcer during production but didn't tell Kubrick because he didn't want to disrupt the flow. That’s the Tom Cruise we know—the guy who climbs the Burj Khalifa or jumps out of planes—but here, that intensity was turned inward. Instead of physical stunts, he was doing emotional marathons.
Kubrick played mind games. He reportedly forbade Kidman and Cruise from sharing their notes from rehearsals. He wanted to create a genuine sense of isolation and jealousy between the real-life couple. If Bill Harford looked paranoid and exhausted on screen, it's probably because Tom Cruise actually was.
The Mask of Bill Harford
Bill Harford is a fascinating character because he's a "successful" man who is constantly being emasculated. He uses his doctor’s badge like a shield, flashing it whenever he feels threatened or out of place.
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Have you noticed how Cruise walks in this movie? It’s different. It’s not the confident "Top Gun" strut. It’s stiff. He’s a man trying to maintain a mask of composure while his world melts. When Alice (Kidman) confesses her fantasy about a naval officer, Bill's ego shatters.
The rest of the film is essentially Bill trying to "revenge-cheat," but he’s too incompetent to actually go through with it. He wanders into a secret society masked orgy, but even there, he’s an interloper. He’s a tourist in a world of actual power. Cruise captures that "lost" feeling perfectly. He’s the center of the frame, but he has zero control over the narrative.
Behind the Mask: The Secret Society and the Orgy
The centerpiece of the film—the "Somerton" sequence—is where the movie shifts from a domestic drama into something much darker.
A lot of people think this part is based on real-life rumors of the Illuminati or the Rothschild family balls. Kubrick actually based the story on a 1926 novella called Traumnovelle (Dream Story) by Arthur Schnitzler. But he updated it to 1990s high-society New York.
The masks are real. They are based on the masks used in the Venetian Carnival. The music is a backwards recording of a Romanian Orthodox liturgy. It’s designed to make you feel deeply uncomfortable.
- The Costumes: Designed by Marit Allen, the cloaks and masks were meant to dehumanize the participants.
- The Ritual: It wasn't about sex as much as it was about power and exclusion. Bill is caught because he doesn't know the "second" password.
- The Consequences: The death of Mandy, the woman who "redeems" Bill at the orgy, remains one of the most debated plot points. Was she murdered by the elite? Or was it just an overdose, as Victor Ziegler (Sydney Pollack) insists?
Ziegler’s speech at the end of the film is a masterclass in gaslighting. He tells Bill—and the audience—that everything he saw was a charade. "Life goes on," he says. It’s the ultimate "shut up and go home" moment.
Why the Movie Feels "Off"
If you feel like the New York in the movie looks fake, you're right.
Kubrick had a legendary fear of flying. He refused to go to the actual New York City. Instead, he had his crew measure the width of streets and the height of trash cans in Manhattan and then recreated them at Pinewood Studios in England.
He used a technique called rear-projection for the scenes where Cruise is walking down the street. It gives the movie a hazy, ethereal quality. It doesn't feel like a real city; it feels like a memory or a nightmare. This was intentional. The film is a dream. The title itself—Eyes Wide Shut—suggests a state of being awake but refusing to see the truth.
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The Legacy of the Final Performance
Kubrick died shortly after finishing the film. This led to massive speculation. Did he "know too much"? Was the film edited by the studio against his wishes?
Actually, the version we see is very close to what Kubrick intended, though some digital "people" were added to the orgy scene in the US theatrical version to avoid an NC-17 rating. These CGI figures were later removed for the "unrated" home releases.
Tom Cruise has always defended the film. He calls it a masterpiece. In the years following its release, the public’s obsession shifted from the movie’s plot to the real-life breakup of Cruise and Kidman. They announced their separation in 2001. Fans and tabloids immediately pointed to Eyes Wide Shut as the catalyst. While we'll never know the private details, the film serves as a time capsule of their chemistry—raw, tense, and undeniably real.
Honestly, the movie has aged better than almost any other thriller from that era. In 1999, it felt slow. In 2026, it feels prophetic. It talks about the "one percent" before that was a common term. It explores the commodification of women and the hollowness of the male ego.
How to Re-watch Eyes Wide Shut
To truly appreciate what Cruise and Kubrick were doing, you have to stop looking for a traditional plot.
- Watch the Colors: Notice the use of Christmas lights. They are everywhere. They provide a warm, festive glow that contrasts with the cold, blue light of the interiors. It’s a visual representation of the "happy" facade of marriage vs. the cold reality of the individual.
- Listen to the Silence: There is a lot of dead air in this movie. It’s meant to make you lean in.
- The Ending: The final line of the movie, spoken by Kidman, is perhaps the most famous "last word" in cinema history. It’s blunt. It’s a reality check. It’s the moment the dream ends and the hard work of living begins.
If you’re looking to dive deeper into the technical side of the film, look for the work of Larry Smith, the cinematographer. He used "push-processing" on the film stock to allow them to shoot in very low light using only available bulbs and Christmas lights. This gives the film its grainy, intimate texture.
Next Steps for Film Lovers
To get the most out of your next viewing, compare the Somerton orgy sequence with the descriptions in Schnitzler’s Dream Story. You’ll see that Kubrick was surprisingly faithful to the source material, even while modernizing it. Also, check out the documentary Stanley Kubrick's Boxes to see the level of research that went into every single prop and location in the film.
Don't just watch it as a Tom Cruise movie. Watch it as a puzzle. Every time you view it, you’ll notice a different mask, a different painting on the wall, or a different look of terror on Bill Harford’s face. It is a film that demands you keep your eyes wide open, even when it’s uncomfortable.