--- title: "There’s Something Weirdly Sexual About the Tom Cruise Space Station" description: "A film studio is being built in space — but that’s not the only, erm, titillating aspect to this story. While it may be kind of awesome that the company working with Tom Cruise to produce a movie filmed in space is, per CNBC and other outlets, planning to build a galactic film studio, what’s more […]" date: "2022-01-20" modified: "2022-01-20" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/tom-cruise-space-sexual" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "commercial space flight" - "sex" - "the digest" - "tom cruise" --- # There’s Something Weirdly Sexual About the Tom Cruise Space Station ![]() *\Image: SEE/Futurism\* A film studio is being built in space — but that's not the only, erm, titillating aspect to this story. While it's admittedly kinda cool that the company working with Tom Cruise to produce a movie filmed in space is, [per *CNBC* and other outlets](), planning to build an orbital film studio, what's more eye-catching about this story is company's rendering of what the studio will look like. The "content creation studio," slated to be launched in 2024, is to be built by commercial space station builder Axiom Space and the British company Space Entertainment Enterprises — the same pairing behind [Cruise's allegedly forthcoming space film](). It takes but a glance to notice that part of this X-shaped spacecraft rendering looks a hell of a lot like the Hitachi-made Magic Wand, beloved the world over for its masturbatory purposes and often half-jokingly called "[the Cadillac of vibrators]()." https://twitter.com/FilmUpdates/status/1484059000375230465 For those who have been living under a rock for the past 50 years, here's what the Magic Wand — often just referred to as a "Hitachi" or "Magic Wand" even though [Hitachi dropped its brand name]() from the toy almost a decade ago — looks like: ![Hitachi magic wand]() *Image via Wikimedia Commons.* Admittedly, the "massager" part of this forthcoming space studio is larger and more globular than the head of a Magic Wand, but the resemblance is truly uncanny, right down to the short cylindrical attachment at the end featured on both the wired and [wireless]() models as well as the space studio. Much like Cruise's career, [the Magic Wand has a storied past](). First trademarked by Hitachi in the late 1960s and marketed as a nonsexual massager, the wand became incredibly popular in the 70s and 80s after sex educator Betty Dodson used them in her masturbation workshops — and after one of her acolytes, Dell Williams, became inspired to start her own feminist sex toy shop after dealing with a creepy Macy's salesman when she went to go buy one of her own. Since its explosion into pop culture in the late 20th century, the OG Magic Wand and [its many imitators]() have become almost synonymous with the term "vibrator" due to its outrageous popularity. https://twitter.com/adampknave/status/1484199011166814214 You have to wonder whether the artist who did this rendering of the space studio knew what they were doing — and especially if they would have recognized the irony of this story being attached to Cruise, a devout believer in a religion that's [said to frown on masturbation](). Or maybe the whole thing is just a space-brained marketing strategy. Extrapolations aside, this rendering is either a hilarious oversight or an intentional troll — and either way, we're absolutely here for it. **READ MORE:** [Tom Cruise space movie producers sign deal with Axiom to build studio in orbit]() \[*CNBC*\] **More sexy space:** *[We Need to Talk About Gay Sex in Space]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()