Mission: Impossible was once a popular television series, and it was first brought to the big screen by Tom Cruise. The actor not only saw the potential of a franchise, but he always made sure to bring the best talent possible to it, both creative teams and actors. While other franchises slowly lost their pace to weaker narratives or just pure spectacle, Mission: Impossible has become one of Hollywood’s best.
When Cruise formed Cruise/Wagner Productions, he started to look for viable franchises. That’s when he pitched the first Mission: Impossible to Paramount, at a time when movie adaptations of TV series weren’t really a thing, and action-packed blockbusters were usually high on testosterone and low on brains. Directed by Brian De Palma and sharing the screen with Kristin Scott Thomas, Jon Voight and Ving Rhames, Cruise played Ethan Hunt and turned the original series mainstay Jim Phelps into the film’s villain.
Plus, Cruise hired a stuntman to help him map the dangers of the film stunts but not replace him on camera. From then on, the selling point of the sequels became his stunts. Mission: Impossible 2 was directed by John Woo and lost a bit of the first film’s charm to blunt spectacle and visuals. Following a small interlude of six years, Cruise hired rising director J.J. Abrams, who was revolutionizing TV with Alias and Lost. Mission: Impossible III was a competent sequel and featured Simon Pegg, who became a franchise regular alongside Rhames.
It was from there that the franchise really picked up the pace. Ghost Protocol introduced Jeremy Renner's William Brandt, and Rogue Nation introduced Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust and Sean Harris as Solomon Lane. Fallout is the latest chapter in what has become a continuous story featuring familiar faces. And it was also the third film in a row that was critically acclaimed, a rare thing for the action genre. The franchise saw most of the team reprising their roles under the direction of Christopher McQuarrie, who directed Cruise in Jack Reacher.
Now, 26 years after the first film, the world patiently awaits the next two chapters, Dead Reckoning - Part One in 2023 and Part Two in 2024, both directed by McQuarrie. The first teaser features familiar faces and reveals the globe-trotting experience of filming what is rumored to be one of the most expensive Hollywood productions ever, going over a reported $290M budget. Filming has stopped and started at least seven times since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which means keeping the payments to the talent involved, rescheduling elaborate action sequences and a lot of expensive filming material.
Tom Cruise has been against films going directly to streaming platforms and is adamant about a lengthy theater run. Top Gun: Maverick was shelved for almost two years to make sure its opening could be as big as possible, as it’s meant to be seen on the big screen and cheered for collectively. Maverick proved Tom Cruise right -- it was his best openings ever, which is quite a feat. Cruise is a movie star, and his devotion to cinema is unparalleled; when he broke his ankle leaping across buildings, he kept that footage in the final cut of Fallout. Dead Reckoning - Part One and Part Two will be worth the wait, most likely because of Cruise’s infinite dedication, but also because after so many installments and success, it might be impossible to go wrong.