Following the success of Mission: Impossible - Fallout, there was little surprise when it was confirmed that more movies were on the way. What was perhaps a little surprising was that two Mission: Impossible movies were confirmed at the same time, and that they would be two halves of a single story. While splitting a story across more than one film is certainly not entirely unheard of, it’s a rare decision for a number of reasons, and it sounds like Tom Cruise wasn’t always a fan.
Speaking on the official Mission: Impossible podcast Light the Fuse, Tom Cruise explained that the idea of splitting Dead Reckoning in half, which was done in order to literally allow each movie to have less plot so that the visual storytelling could be a greater focus, was the right thing to do. However, writer/director Christopher McQuarrie took issue with Cruise’s positive comments, saying that during filming, the actor wasn’t always quite so positive. McQuarrie said…
You did not say that. And there were days where you looked at me, you went, ‘You wanted this.’
The pair have a good laugh, but the production of Mission: Impossible 7 was an absolute herculean task that took literal years. While a lot of the time that was taken was due to the slow production required by a global pandemic, it’s not surprising that there were times that Cruise might have wished the movie was just bloody done. However, Cruise counters by saying McQuarrie sometimes felt the same way, and the actor would prod his director by pointing out they never had to do all this. Cruise said…
Yes, when he’s looking at me exhausted, he’s like “Oh my gosh.’ And we’re headed to another production meeting, I’m like, ‘This was your idea. We would have been finished with this movie, and we would have been working on our next movie, ok?’ And now we’re shooting 7, going ‘What do we do with 8?’
At this point, it’s not exactly shocking to say that the reason people go to see Mission: Impossible movies are for the impressive visuals, like watching Tom Cruise ride motorcycles off cliffs. But the nature of the franchise, full of spies and subterfuge, always required a significant amount of plot that then needed to be laid out and explained. McQuarrie felt that by splitting Dead Reckoning in half, they could explore everything a bit more deeply. And even though the two-part story isn’t done yet, McQuarrie believes he made the right call, saying…
It proved to be the right idea. It gave us the room to really explore the story and to give every single character in the movie their moment.
With movies like the last two Avengers films and the recent Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, we’re seeing more movies make the decision to cut a story in half. While the jury is still out on how successful the Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning saga will be, I’m sure both Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie hope all their hard work will pay off.
