Tom Cruisehas been makingMission: Impossiblemovies for nearly 30 years. The franchise has been a lot of different things in that time, but for the past decade – from whenChristopher McQuarrie stepped into the director’s chairand ended an unofficial tradition of each entry being handed to a new filmmaker – it’s meant something specific to the action movie landscape.
If the marketing aroundMission: Impossible – The Final Reckoningis to be believed,that run may have come to an end this year.In Hollywood’s IP era, there’s reason to be suspicious of that, but I happen to believe it.
I doubtMissionas an enterprise is over. But, with ballooning costs, diminishing returns, andFinal Reckoning’s dramatic escalation of the stakes, the days of seeingthisversion ofMissionon your local IMAX screen are probably behind us.
That might feel like the end of an era in action movies. But it isn’t; not really. What’s made the last 10 years ofMission: Impossiblemoviesfeel distinct isn’t anything intrinsic to the franchise, but the specific approach to filmmaking that went into them. And the creative partnership that fueled it remains alive and well.
Tom Cruise Will Keep Working With Christopher McQuarrie After Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
Even If It’s Not In This Franchise
Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie have been working together since the 2000s. McQuarrie’s directed Cruise five times – 2012’sJack Reacherand their fourMissionmovies – and has officially written or produced another five. Their collaboration has defined this stretch of both of their careers. Watch them together on a press tour, and they’re practically joined at the hip.
McQuarrie was also brought in by Cruise to do uncredited rewrites onMission: Impossible–Ghost Protocolmid-production.
These two clearly want the same things from their movies, and they’ve refined a process based on chasing each other’s interests.TheMission: Impossiblefilms have been their greatest vehiclefor this, and at its best, it has produced some of the greatest action spectacle of the 21st Century. That’s hard for fans like me to say goodbye to.
It might even be good for the Cruise-McQuarrie era to leaveMission: Impossiblebehind.
But that franchise doesn’t have to be their only outlet, and they show no signs of slowing down. Their names have been attached to multiple projects in development, butMcQuarrie himself confirmed he plans to direct Cruise next inBroadsword, rumored to be a WW2 action movie about an American pilot behind enemy lines.
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Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
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Whatever the story,it will be very light on dialogue; McQuarrie revealed toHappy Sad Confusedthat Cruise has “fewer than 500 lines in the whole movie.“The Final Recknoningmay have been heavy on exposition, too heavy for some, but it also featured two long, showstopping action sequences with hardly any dialogue at all. Clearly, this is something they want to explore further.
It might even be good for the Cruise-McQuarrie era to leaveMission: Impossiblebehind.This last movie was weighed down by the franchise’s history at times, but when it could leave all that behind to focus on Cruise’s next death-defying stunt, it soared. It’s fun to imagine what they might make now, free of Ethan Hunt’s baggage.
So,Missionfans, do not despair. That caliber of action filmmaking we’ve come to expect isn’t going away entirely. The next one might just come wrapped in different packaging.
