Cloud Atlas Facts Fans Will Love

Perhaps "Cloud Atlas" was always destined to be a cult classic. After all, this directorial effort from Tom Tykwer and the Wachowski Sisters is an expansive piece of cinema that spans multiple centuries, with actors inhabiting multiple characters across varying eras and spouting dialogue punctuated with odd turns of phrase. Adapted from a novel of the same name by David Mitchell, "Cloud Atlas" is a deeply idiosyncratic work that won't be to everyone's taste. But for those who can get on its wavelength (and can stomach some glaring flaws in its handling of race), "Cloud Atlas" has proven to be something truly special, a slice of epic cinema bursting with imagination.

All of that imagination reflects the hard work that went into crafting "Cloud Atlas," with many of its most intriguing behind-the-scenes elements informing a large portion of this movie's legacy. Even with all the discussion this bold piece of filmmaking has inspired, there's plenty about "Cloud Atlas" that's far from common knowledge, including which actors were originally rumored for the cast, when Hugh Grant joined the production, and how Tom Hanks feels about this movie after so many years. "Cloud Atlas" delivers so much bang for your buck in its lengthy runtime, it should come as no surprise that its behind-the-scenes stories are similarly expansive and jam-packed with intricate details.

The original cast of "Cloud Atlas" was already stacked with so much talent, including Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, and Hugo Weaving, that it might seem like overkill to toss somebody else into its expansive roster of performers at the last minute. However, the producers of "Cloud Atlas" did just that by not only adding Hugh Grant to the movie's cast but getting him to sign on the day before principal photography commenced (via Film Stories). Though he was a last-minute addition to the sprawling ensemble, Grant has had nothing but positive things to say in his reflections on this unorthodox motion picture.

Speaking to Collider in 2016, Grant noted that his initial response to the offer to be in "Cloud Atlas" was uncertainty over whether or not the offer was even real. Once he dug into the nitty-gritty of what the movie entailed, Grant learned that he was only being offered five separate roles, in contrast to the other main actors inhabiting six characters each. After requesting and getting a sixth role to play, Grant proceeded to be enthralled by the set of "Cloud Atlas" and especially by the passion the Wachowskis had for cinema. The actor also explained that the project holds a special heart as one of the last movies he appeared in that was shot on 35mm film. Even though he wasn't always intended to be a part of its cast, Hugh Grant found himself entirely enamored with the world of "Cloud Atlas."

It never hurts to have Tom Hanks in your movie. One of the most beloved actors in Hollywood, Hanks has never wavered as somebody audiences love to see in movies. On a purely business level, getting Hanks for "Cloud Atlas" was a major coup, a sizeable victory that could reassure the potentially frazzled nerves of the movie's financiers. However, Hanks became much more important to "Cloud Atlas" than just serving as a recognizable name on its poster. The very existence of the movie was often saved by how committed Hanks was to this project.

In talking about the movie to The A.V. Club, Lana and Lilly Wachowski recalled how often the cast's agents tried to talk their clients out of being in "Cloud Atlas." Whenever these performers or financiers began to waver in their commitment to "Cloud Atlas," Hanks was always somebody who would say that he was 100% onboard for the project, which inspired others to also firm up their loyalty. There was always going to be risk and trepidation involved in making a movie like this, but having Tom Hanks be so loyal to the vision of Tykwer and the Wachowskis helped a lot in inspiring confidence in "Cloud Atlas."

Juggling six different storylines told across six radically different time periods was already going to make "Cloud Atlas" an enormous undertaking for all involved. In talking to Viva Press, Halle Berry noted that the original plan for "Cloud Atlas" was shooting the movie in chronological order, or at least in a manner evoking it. Given that the final product cuts across different eras of history, this planned shooting style presumably involved filming "Cloud Atlas" on a timeline that followed when events happened in history, rather than when they'd happen in the movie. This would've entailed the sequences set in 1849 being shot first, followed by the 1936 storyline, and so on.

However, Berry noted that all of this was thrown out the window when she broke her foot only two days before principal photography began on "Cloud Atlas." Initially, Berry was petrified that she would be replaced on "Cloud Atlas," but instead, everyone involved in the movie restructured the shoot to accommodate her injuries. Sequences depicting one of Berry's characters climbing up a mountain were delayed deep into the shoot, while the production moved frequently between Majorca and Germany. This ensured that Berry could still be a part of "Cloud Atlas," even if it also thwarted another ambitious facet of the movie's production.

Tom Tykwer was so committed to this ambitious project that he didn't just serve as a co-director on "Cloud Atlas" — he also functioned as one of its composers. This is not an unprecedented role for Tykwer to play on a movie, as he composed the score for his earlier directorial efforts like "Run Lola Run" and "The International." For "Cloud Atlas," Tykwer worked on the score with Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil, crafting a properly expansive score for this enormous film that took years to put together.

Per Entertainment Weekly, the trio's efforts on the score took such a long process that they began working on the music before the cameras started rolling on "Cloud Atlas," a highly unusual practice in mainstream filmmaking. While these artists were committed to exploring varying musical sounds for the different eras and atmospheres explored across the film's storylines, Tykwer emphasized the importance of creating a musical motif that could be carried through the eras in the narrative. No matter how expansive the scope of the movie, "Cloud Atlas" always had some form of musical consistency linking its disparate characters together, thanks to the efforts of its directors and composers.

One of the six segments in "Cloud Atlas" takes viewers to the world of Neo Seoul, 2144. It's a land, as its name would suggest, that's populated by people of Korean descent. At the center of this storyline is Doona Bae as Sonmi-451, but the majority of the other characters in this segment are white actors (including Hugo Weaving and Jim Sturgess) in yellowface playing Korean characters. This is meant to keep in with the story's concept of the same people getting reincarnated into different bodies across different centuries. 

Unfortunately, the approach in this segment employs a makeup technique associated with the erasure and caricaturing of Asian people in cinema. Going this route inspired lots of controversy for "Cloud Atlas," with many expressing disappointment that a movie about unity and love for humanity would employ such unavoidably racist tactics (via The Huffington Post). Detractors like Guy Aoki, founding president of the Media Action Network for Asian–Americans, pointed out further problems in this approach, including how the poor quality of the yellowface makeup was a major distraction from the movie's serious tone (per The Guardian). "Cloud Atlas" is full of ambitious and unprecedented swings, but its use of yellowface was a disturbing step backward into familiar dehumanizing patterns against Asian performers in the film industry.

"Cloud Atlas" was divisive among critics upon its initial release, and its box office total cemented it as a financial misfire. All those events could've led to "Cloud Atlas" landing in obscurity once it left movie theaters. But in the years since its release, appreciation for it has only grown and grown. Video essays from the likes of FilmBuffGrabiec and retrospectives on websites like MovieWeb have become increasingly common over the years, with the feature's ambitious nature and weighty themes garnering an ever greater measure of appreciation.

Perhaps the most positive looks back on "Cloud Atlas," though, have come from its actors. Most notably, Tom Hanks, while making an appearance on "The Bill Simmons Podcast" in November 2021, declared "Cloud Atlas" one of his favorite movies to shoot, alongside "A League of Their Own" and "Cast Away."

"We shot ['Cloud Atlas'] on a hope and a dream and nothing but a circle of love," Hanks recalled. "We were part of this big, massive ensemble of fantastic people who were just trying to do the hardest, best work on a deep throw ... that whole movie was such a deep throw that making it was magical." While "Cloud Atlas" may not have immediately taken off as a beloved feature, many have come to echo Tom Hanks in appreciating everything the movie has to offer.