: Half a lifetime ago Tom Cruise had the darndest time finishing a Marathon
: level. Called Bungie and got Matt Soell who walked him through it. Whether
: he ever finished the game is unknown, I believe.
Technically his lackey called me; Tom Cruise has people to do these things for him, you know. I passed the call to Doug Zartman because the lackey was communicating poorly ("He's in a big dark room, there's a corridor going out of it but the door doesn't work, and there's this monster shooting at him, and there's another room he can see but he can't get to...") Ever try to explain to someone how to explain a Marathon Infinity level to someone else? You can imagine the difficulty. I was getting frustrated, as was the lackey, and Doug bravely volunteered to jump on the grenade, so I transferred the call. Moments later, Tom Cruise (who must have been pretty frustrated himself) grabbed the phone and started talking directly to Doug, who quickly helped him figure out whatever was confusing him.
I believe the lackey was still listening in on an extension or something because at one point Doug jokingly asked Mr. Cruise if he wanted to do an ad for the game and the lackey shouted "NO ENDORSEMENTS!"
–Matt