Why People Think AI Fight Between Tom Cruise & Brad Pitt Was A Scam

On February 10, filmmaker Ruairí Robinson made a bold claim on X. “This was a 2 line prompt in seedance 2. If the hollywood is cooked guys are right maybe the hollywood is cooked guys are cooked too idk,” he wrote. The post was accompanied by a video of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt performing a fight scene together. The clip gained attention for its apparent sophistication; it appeared well-choreographed, competently shot, and appropriately lit, which are all elements that other AI video tools have struggled to convincingly replicate. If Robinson’s claim was true, this was a significant leap forward in AI video technology. The kind of thing AI hype-men have been shilling for years and which has—until, if Robinson is to be believed, right now—turned out to be nothing more than snake oil. There’s just one problem: It’s probably still snake oil.

This was a 2 line prompt in seedance 2. If the hollywood is cooked guys are right maybe the hollywood is cooked guys are cooked too idk. pic.twitter.com/dNTyLUIwAV

— Ruairi Robinson (@RuairiRobinson) February 11, 2026

Aron Peterson, a writer and software developer who has also worked in film production, post-production, and visual effects, posted a blog on his website, Shokunin Studio, questioning Robinson’s story. “The claims being made immediately rubbed me up the wrong way,” Peterson wrote. “Other demos of the Seedance model had the usual errors we have come to expect from AI video generators [but this one didn’t].” In particular, Peterson explained, “AI video generators are really bad at simulating realistic camera moves, especially handheld shaky cam,” but in the Cruise/Pitt video, “we can see the camera movement.”

So Peterson started researching Seedance 2.0, the new AI tool from TikTok developer ByteDance that’s already doing large-scale copyright infringement, which Robinson used to create the video. Peterson “hopped over to Seedance’s website and it only took 10 seconds to find green screen footage of two stuntmen performing the same fight choreography we see in the Cruise vs Pitt scene,” he said. He also posted a comparison of the two videos on YouTube.

“Was the input really just a 2 line prompt or was it actually 2 lines, green screen video footage, and face references too?” Peterson asked. “The evidence appears to show that stuntmen were filmed from several angles, that a clip had to be generated for every angle, and then finally all clips were stitched together for marketing.” Peterson’s evidence implies that the Cruise/Pitt fight scene wasn’t entirely AI generated; instead, it was probably just face replacement and background creation laid on top of footage that already existed. As TV writer David Slack put it on Bluesky, “In other words, like most AI hype — it was a con.”