Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning director, Christopher McQuarrie, has claimed that an audience member “almost had a heart attack” during a screening of the new Tom Cruise film.
The film is set to be the next and possible final installment in the long-running Mission: Impossible franchise. The movie series, which is based on a 1966 TV spy show, began in 1996.
This latest film was originally billed as “Part Two” to 2023’s Mission: Impossible –Dead Reckoning.
The new film is set to be released in May 2025 and early previews suggest that fans could be in for quite the thrill ride and some potential health scares thanks to one particular stunt.
According to GamesRadar, McQuarrie recently told Empire: “We had a small screening, and someone said, ‘I was suffocating throughout the entire sequence. I almost had a heart attack.’ And I thought, ‘I guess we did something right.”
The trailer for the new blockbuster does feature Cruise’s character, Ethan Hunt, being put through another series of jaw-dropping stunts while he fights enemies on planes and underwater. It’s not been revealed which scene in the film caused the audience member to feel faint.
Despite the finality implied by the title, Cruise has previously said he hopes to continue making Mission: Impossible films for decades.
In the previous film, Dead Reckoning, Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt finds himself as the only man on Earth capable of defeating a seemingly sentient, AI-powered virus that possesses the ability to infiltrate any top-secret infrastructure it sets its sights on, like, say, the CIA or the World Bank.Last year the action star compared the franchise to Indiana Jones and told The Sydney Morning Herald: “Harrison Ford is a legend. I hope to still be going. I’ve got 20 years to catch up with him.”
He continued: “I hope to keep making Mission: Impossible films until I’m his age.”
Cruise was 34 when he first played super spy Ethan Hunt in 1996’s Mission: Impossible. The character was two years younger than the actor. He is now 62.
Mission: Impossible –The Final Reckoning is set to be released on May 23, 2025.
