It has been a terrific summer for Pom Klementieff. Though it seems like a long time ago at this point, she helped to kick off Summer 2023 with the Marvel Studios sequel Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which will be available with a Disney+ subscription beginning on August 2. And she joined the Mission: Impossible franchise with the new installment Dead Reckoning, Part One, where she plays the nearly silent assassin, Paris. In the process, Klementieff joined the cadre of incredibly badass actresses to contribute to the action in the Mission: Impossible series, which includes Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, and in this chapter, Hayley Atwell behind the wheel of a yellow Fiat. Klementieff did her own driving through the streets of Rome in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One, but the sequence I’ll remember from this movie is Klementieff’s fight with Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt in an alleyway.
A lot gets made about the spectacular stunts that Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie stage on behalf of the Mission: Impossible franchise, with this sequel involving a fight on a moving train, and that memorable sequence involving a motorcycle jump off of a cliff. What gets overlooked, however, are the well-choreographed fight sequences, such as one between Ethan Hunt and Paris in an alley that’s so tight, people can barely turn around.
During our interview with Pom Klementieff while she was in Rome doing press on behalf of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One, we brought up the alley fight, and the actress perked up, telling us:
Oh my God, it was very hard to find the right position for the camera to show the movements, (and) all the hits. So we had to… it was hard for the lighting, too! Because it’s a very unlit area. It’s in the dark, in the night. And so we had to use different kinds of positions, and we felt like we could use on top of it, and the full, like, the length of the (alley for) the fight. And also, we used high kicks, climbing, and all of these things. We had to come up with some tricks. But it still was all about serving the character, and serving the story. That’s what I love about the Mission: Impossible movies. It’s not just the choreography. It’s all about character, and the impact that you have on the audience.
It does seem like Tom Cruise gets the lion’s share of attention when it comes to Mission: Impossible, and rightfully so. But there’s remarkable physical work being done by his co-stars, and Pom Klementieff and Hayley Atwell, specifically, raise their game for this sequel. Here’s everything that we know already about Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part Two, though we have to wait for June 28, 2024 to see how this story resolves.
