Tom Cruise has done the impossible: theaters resurrected AND Mind blowing stunts completed.
The certified movie star leads Christopher McQuarrie’s ‘Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part I’, kicking off the two-part finale to the decade-long franchise. Cruise reprises his role as undercover CIA agent Ethan Hunt in the seventh film, soon to be followed by ‘Mission: Impossible 8’ in June 2024. Cruise has played Ethan for almost 30 years since the films began in 1996 with the film by Brian DePalma.
Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson and Vanessa Kirby are back in their respective roles, while new cast members include Hayley Atwell and Pom Klementieff.
“Dead Reckoning” will have an exclusive theatrical release thanks in part to Cruise’s urgings. Production on ‘Dead Reckoning Part I’ was repeatedly halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but finally wrapped in September of 2021 with a budget that has ballooned to over $290 million. Test screenings began in March 2023.
Paramount Global president Bob Bakish called the film “insane” and “a complete thrill ride,” praising protagonist Cruise’s dedication to her death-defying stunts, including a motorcycle sequence.
“I had about six seconds once I got off the ramp to pull the chute and I don’t want to get caught up in the bike,” Cruise explained of the intense stunt work. “If I do, it won’t end well.”
A 70-ton train is also “destroyed” on screen in an action sequence that director McQuarrie called the “biggest challenge” of his career.
“At the beginning of this movie, I said to Tom, ‘What do you want to do?'” shared McQuarrie. “He said, ‘I want to ride a motorcycle off a cliff. What do you want to do?’ And I said, ‘I want to destroy a train.’ We’re big fans of Buster Keaton, John Frankenheimer, David Lean, all these filmmakers who had a fabulous train wreck at one time or another. I thought, “I earned it, I want to destroy one too.” I think the energy that went into developing it, designing it, building it and then making a sequence to justify its existence was probably the biggest challenge of my entire life.
“Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part I” will premiere in theaters on July 12. Check out the trailer below.
