Image via Paramount
Unsurprisingly, hanging onto a bi-plane in Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning carried major risks for Tom Cruise.
Entertainment Weekly released an exclusive first look at the directors’ commentary on Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning on digital, in which Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie break down their signature set piece and the injuries its lead suffered while in midair, even nearly breaking his back. «The level of coordination and you directing from a helicopter… and it’s so punishing on this wing that I’d be on it for maybe five minutes,» Cruise remarked, pointing out the especially «brutal nature of gripping the plane’s belt while it spirals upside down. Pulling off that stunt, McQuarrie added, ended up separating «the joints in Tom’s fingers from the force,» resulting in swollen hands once filming concluded. They also revealed some ideas Cruise added to the scene, such as improvising his reaction when IMF agent Ethan Hunt slams into the plane’s side and wing once it turns right-side up.
Cruise and McQuarrie have been Mission: Impossible collaborators since the franchise’s fifth cinematic entry, Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation, though their relationship dates back further to McQuarrie writing the script for 2008’s Valkyrie. This latest stunt continues Mission: Impossible‘s tradition of Cruise performing increasingly elaborate action movie stunts across Hunt’s missions, from climbing the Burj Khalifa in Ghost Protocol to Fallout‘s HALO jump sequence. Basing the scene — in which Hunt chases after terrorist Gabriel in order to contain the Entity AI — off old wing-walking videos, Cruise previously revealed the massive amount of food he consumed in order to match the atmospheric conditions where those plane scenes were filmed. «I’ll eat, like, sausage and almost a dozen eggs and bacon and toast and coffee and fluids. Oh, I’m eating! Picture: It’s cold up there. We’re at high altitude. My body is burning a lot,» he said.
Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning Helped Tie Several Franchise Entries Together
As the titular final entry in the Mission: Impossible series, The Final Reckoning saw Hunt and his team race against the clock to stop the Entity before it gains control of and launches the world’s nuclear missiles. In addition to bringing back allies and former adversaries, the film directly tied its events to past storylines, even bringing back CIA analyst William Donloe (Rolf Saxon) from the first Mission: Impossible‘s iconic Langley heist sequence. The Final Reckoning received largely positive reviews from critics, though despite grossing over its $400 million budget, it didn’t make enough in theaters to break even.
When asked whether the franchise should continue post-Cruise, McQuarrie acknowledged the inherent risks of making a Mission: Impossible spinoff that removes the IMF team dynamic from its story. Cruise, meanwhile, is set to work with director Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman) on a brand-new film scheduled to release next year.
Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning releases on digital on Aug. 19.
