The follow-up to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning sees Cruise's Ethan Hunt diving into the wreckage of the Sevastopol submarine. Something goes wrong during the mission, putting the hero in an impossible, life-threatening situation.

This subaquatic sequence, shot in an 8.5 million litre water tank on a rotating gimbal, is set to be one of the most impressive stunts in the movie. It required Cruise to wear a special suit and mask that he could only be in for 10 minutes at a time before suffering damaging consequences.

"I'm breathing in my own carbon dioxide. It builds up in the body and affects the muscles," the actor told Empire about the dangers behind the stunt, which could have led to him to suffer from an absence of oxygen in body tissue, a condition known as hypoxia.

"You have to overcome all of that while you're doing it, and be present," he added.

The film's director Christopher McQuarrie reflected on filming the sequence, saying it was "so challenging and so terrifying" for the team, but especially "really physically punishing" for Tom Cruise.

"He's in a rotating structure filled with debris, and you had to find a way to make that environment look as chaotic and unhinged as humanly possible, but in a way that you could repeat, and that Tom could navigate, and survive," McQuarrie explained.

As seen in the first trailers of the movie, the new Mission: Impossible movie is packed with death-defying stunts, which see Ethan Hunt hanging from a biplane and engaging in plenty of intense fights.

If this is his goodbye from the franchise, Tom Cruise is giving his all.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning hits cinemas on May 23, 2025. For more, check out our movie release dates calendar, and don't miss our ranking of the best Mission: Impossible movies.

Everything you were, everything you've done, has come to this. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. See you at the movies May 23, 2025. pic.twitter.com/KDt7LbOdTCFebruary 9, 2025

The new trailer for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is here and, forget the Super Bowl, the real action can be found in what's shaping up to be Ethan Hunt's final Mission.

In the brief trailer, which can be viewed above, Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt embarks on what appears to be his final mission - complete with explosions, underwater stunts, and a scene where Cruise does that famous drop-down move from the first movie. "Everything you are, everything you've done, has come to this," the voice-over says. We also see Cruise very impressively hang off a biplane that's speeding through the air. Needless to say, the stakes are high and the stunts are more dangerous than ever.

Even the air of finality surrounding The Final Reckoning hasn't slowed the action franchise or Cruise down, however.

"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," director Christopher McQuarrie told Empire of an unnamed sequence.

Meanwhile, the Final Reckoning's callback to Mission: Impossible 3 might elicit shock of a very different kind, one that could majorly hint at how the curtain-closer acts as a love letter to the series' past. In the first Final Reckoning trailer, a canister that appears to contain the Rabbit's Foot MacGuffin from the J.J. Abrams-directed threequel can be glimpsed.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, stars Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Esai Morales, Vanessa Kirby, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, and Pom Klementieff. It's set to hit cinemas on May 23, 2025.

For more, check out the upcoming movies headed your way very soon. Then your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to dive into our ranking of the best Mission: Impossible movies.

"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," McQuarrie told Empire of the unnamed sequence.

If you've already seen the first trailer for The Final Reckoning, you might be able to narrow it down to a handful of death-defying stunts. They include, but aren't limited to, Ethan Hunt hanging from a biplane, several high-octane fights, and an underwater section that even saw Cruise himself prepare with a degree of nervousness in a recent behind-the-scenes clip.

The Final Reckoning title and ties to its franchise past in the shape of Mission: Impossible 3's Rabbit's Foot all indicates that this is going to act as a farewell to Ethan Hunt – but nothing has been confirmed as of yet. Besides, the audience has to survive this one first.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, starring Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Esai Morales, Vanessa Kirby, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, and Pom Klementieff, hits cinemas on May 23, 2025.

For more, check out our movie release dates calendar. Then your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to head on over to our ranking of the best Mission: Impossible movies.

According to AMC's director of food and beverage strategy Rob Bennett in a piece by TIME, Cruise "helped to guide the design" of an upcoming bucket, which will release in line with The Final Reckoning. The only tease? Bennett saying his team "nailed it".

Those of us who are terminally online – myself included – will fondly reminisce about Cruise's "I love my popcorn. Movies… popcorn" video in the lead-up to 2023's Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (which has since dropped the 'Part One' from its title). Now, we can act out our own Cruise-style popcorn poetry.

For so long cinema's ultimate trendsetter, Cruise, is following a path laid down by Dune earlier this year with its sandworm-shaped popcorn bucket – which became the subject of social media conversation and memes for weeks after release. That, in turn, led to several imitators, from Venom, Deadpool and Wolverine, and even Gladiator 2.

Mission: Impossible, meanwhile, is gearing up for what appears to be the closing chapter in Ethan Hunt's cinematic career. The first Final Reckoning trailer made good on that air of finality, while also hiding a surprise Mission: Impossible 3 callback that had fans' minds – and their theories – racing.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, starring Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Esai Morales, Vanessa Kirby, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, and Pom Klementieff, hits cinemas on May 23, 2025. Discover more of what's headed your way with our guides to upcoming movies. Then your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to dive into our ranking of the best Mission: Impossible movies.

As reported by Deadline, the seventh movie in the franchise will zipline right onto the Paramount streaming service on Thursday, January 25 in the US and Canada. The movie will later be available in additional countries from February 2024.

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, the action flick stars Tom Cruise as our beloved secret agent Ethan Hunt, who embarks on his most dangerous mission yet: to track down a terrifying new AI entity before it ends up in the wrong hands. The cast also includes Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, and Vanessa Kirby.

The reason for the title change is unknown but is seemingly due to Paramount deciding to scrub the title of its upcoming sequel Mission: Impossible– Dead Reckoning Part Two. This came after the studio announced Part Two’s delay in release from June 28, 2024, to May 23, 2025. At this point Mission: Impossible 8 does not have an official title. 

Originally, Mission: Impossible 7 and 8 were supposed to act as two parts to one story, as McQuarrie explained in an interview with GamesRadar+ and Total Film, "Instead of fighting the running time, I said let’s just cut the movie in half and give ourselves the breathing room to tell that story – not anticipating, then, that Part One would expand to the size that it did, the epic scale that it did." 

However, with the title scrub and Mission: Impossible 7 suffering a franchise-worst slump at the 2023 box office, we wonder if the eighth movie in the saga will still serve as a direct sequel or if the studio will make any further changes. Until then we will just have to hang tight and wait for our next mission.

For more check out our list of upcoming movies heading your way in 2024 and beyond, or stay on this spy wave with our guide on how to watch the Mission: Impossible movies in order. 

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount has also opted to scrub the 'Dead Reckoning Part Two' part of the movie's title, with a new title expected to be announced at a later date. The reason for the title change is unclear, but it might be relevant to note that Mission Impossible 7, titled Dead Reckoning Part One, failed to perform at the box office this year. It's been estimated by Variety that the movie failed to turn a profit in ticket sales. 

As for the delay, it likely can be attributed at least in part to the SAG-AFTRA strike which recently surpassed 100 days.

As is usually the case with big-budget movie release date changes, this isn't an isolated delay. The horror spinoff A Quiet Place: Day One was moved from March 8, 2024 to Dead Reckoning's old release date of June 28, 2024. The fantasy comedy IF, starring Ryan Reynolds and John Krasinski, moved up just a week to May 17, 2024, and an untitled Spongebob Squarepants movie was delayed from May 23, 2025 to December 19, 2025.

Mission Impossible 8 will yet again star Tom Cruise as IMF agent Ethan Hunt. Other cast members expected to return for the sequel include Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, and Vanessa Kirby.

For more, here's a list of upcoming movies we can't wait to see, and since it's spooky season after all, here are the best horror movies to get in the spirit with.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, Dead Reckoning only brought in $19.5 million in the US in its second weekend, a drop of 64% from its $56.2 million opening. That’s the worst week-on-week drop for the Mission: Impossible series. The previous low, Mission: Impossible 2, fell 53% upon its release in 2000.

It’s slightly better news for Dead Reckoning Part One globally. It’s passed $250 million worldwide after picking up over $55 million across 72 territories and markets this weekend. A $600m total box office isn’t out of the question, then – should audiences choose to accept it.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’s slump, though, should be seen in the wider context of one of the wildest weekends in Hollywood history. Barbie and Oppenheimer opened to $155 million and $80.5 million respectively, the first time two movies have ever opened at over $80 million on the same weekend. It’s also one of the biggest combined weekends for a box office ever, even if Mission: Impossible didn’t get the lion’s share of attention.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two is set for release on June 28, 2024. For more on Part One, check out our coverage on:

• How Mission: Impossible's Hayley Atwell brought her "scrappy" Dead Reckoning newcomer to life
• Chris McQuarrie opens up on Dead Reckoning: "I’m more frightened now than I was on my first Mission: Impossible"
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’s surprise ending choice kept Tom Cruise up at night

Well, we now know that originally that Orient Express section was going to be a whole lot longer. Speaking to Variety, the film’s editor Eddie Hamilton has said the whole sequence "was about an hour-and-a-half long in our first iteration. We got it down to like 50 minutes in the finished movie."

Interestingly, Hamilton gave some insight into what they cut in order to get it down in the final version too. He explained that the moment when the carriages begin to topple over into the ravine was much longer before they screened it for test audiences. "It was originally a bit longer and we lifted a few sections out because they were saying it was too much," he added.

While the film is already a pretty hefty length at two hours and 43 minutes long, we must admit we’re quite intrigued to see what a longer version of that incredible sequence would have looked like. Maybe we can petition for the Christopher McQuarrie cut?

For more, check out our rankings of the best Mission: Impossible movies as well as our latest coverage:

• How Mission: Impossible's Hayley Atwell brought her "scrappy" Dead Reckoning newcomer to life
• Chris McQuarrie opens up on Dead Reckoning: "I’m more frightened now than I was on my first Mission: Impossible"
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’s surprise ending choice kept Tom Cruise up at night

The computer whizz has appeared in every single Mission: Impossible movie to date and is, inexplicably, still one of its most underappreciated characters. Alongside Benji (Simon Pegg), he is the glue that holds the IMF together, a level-headed presence that reins Ethan in when required but, conversely, fires him up when the going gets tough. 

Yes, Cruise’s daredevil antics may have propelled the franchise into the upper echelons of action cinema but, make no mistake, we wouldn’t care as much if his bromance with Luther didn’t operate as the emotional connective tissue across Mission’s past, present, and future.

Luther is also the series’ Swiss Army Knife, proving equally adept at comedy – his dynamic with Billy Baird in Mission: Impossible 2 elevates some of its driest scenes – or tragedy. Luther peeling back Ethan’s history with Julia in the incredible "I should’ve been there" conversation with Ilsa in Mission: Impossible – Fallout arguably does more for Ethan’s character than Cruise himself. That’s no mean feat.

But it could all have been very different – if Mission: Impossible made its worst mistake. As confirmed in an interview with Buzzfeed, Rhames revealed that Luther was initially meant to be killed off in the first instalment back in 1996.

"I remember saying to [director Brian De Palma], 'Look, why is it that the Black man dies 15 pages into the [script]?’ I said that kind of jokingly, but it was the truth in many films," Rhames said. "So then they changed the script, and I lived."

De Palma relented, turning Luther from a bit-part footnote in Mission: Impossible’s history to one of its leading lights – joining the likes of Breaking Bad’s Jesse and Stranger Things’ Steve in being granted a stay of execution.

Ethan's eyes

You only have to look to Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol to see how important Luther (and Rhames) is to the series. In what felt like a heavy-handed attempt to move the new generation to the forefront of the franchise, the fourth movie relegated Luther to a mere cameo as Ethan and his team debriefed in Seattle. 

In his stead, the likes of Jeremy Renner’s Brandt and Paula Patton’s Jane Carter took centre stage for the bulk of the movie. While they certainly excelled, a rewatch reveals a similar response to the one I had years ago, being unable to shake the feeling that the gang isn’t all there until Luther (and his hat) steps into frame once more. 

For big Mission-heads like myself, Luther’s brief appearance here is the IMF equivalent of Bob Odenkirk walking in during Little Women: warm, cathartic – and gives you a stark reminder of that intangible, ungraspable thing you realize has been missing all along.

And then, yes, there are the hats. Despite Mission: Impossible occasionally stepping into Bond’s turf, its sartorial influence – Cruise’s ill-fated 2000s fits still linger – hasn’t really carried over. Thankfully, Luther picks up the pieces, delivering a much-needed suave factor across most of its seven films with his many, many pork pie hats. Walter White, eat your heart out.

Which brings us to today. There’s a discourse currently raging about a certain death in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. Don’t worry, it’s not Luther. In fact, it never could be. Director Christopher McQuarrie clearly recognizes that Ving Rhames’ techie is essentially untouchable; he is weaved into the fabric of the franchise and is only second to Ethan in terms of importance. You lose Luther, you lose Mission: Impossible. It’s that simple. 

So here’s to Luther, Ethan’s BFF through thick and thin. Ving Rhames may not capture the headlines but, like his hacker character, he effortlessly works in the shadows to keep everything ticking along. We don’t know where Mission: Impossible would be without him.

Light the fuse with our ranking of the best Mission: Impossible movies.

"Not remotely. I honestly know very little about that world," McQuarrie replied on Threads to a fan asking if he has played or was influenced by the PlayStation classic for Dead Reckoning’s final act.

The sequence in question involves Ethan (Tom Cruise) and Grace (Hayley Atwell) going off the rails on the Orient Express in pursuit of a key to shut down The Entity – complete with Cruise hanging from a carriage in a manner close to that of Nathan Drake in Uncharted 2’s snow-covered opening.

McQuarrie, for his part, used the word ‘uncharted’ in an old interview – and addressed speculation about the coincidence. 

"I used the word in the literal sense in a post years ago and have been hearing that ever since. Games are just something I know nothing about," he wrote. He later added: "The only [game] I ever played was Unreal Tournament."

Light-hearted accusations flew all over social media, with Uncharted 2 co-director Bruce Straley said "...the sincerest form of flattery."

In our own interview with McQuarrie, the director confirmed he approached Dead Reckoning with very few frames of references. 

"Invariably, no matter what you do it’ll feel like a nod to something," McQuarrie said. "I’ve never made a movie with fewer conscious nods to other movies than this one."

For more, check out our Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning coverage:

• How Mission: Impossible's Hayley Atwell brought her "scrappy" Dead Reckoning newcomer to life
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’s surprise ending choice kept Tom Cruise up at night
• The Mission: Impossible movies, ranked from best to worst

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One features more death-defying moments than you can count, from Simon Pegg's Benji trying to defuse a bomb, seconds before it detonates to Tom Cruise's Ethan yeeting himself off a cliff face. It's hardly surprising; the franchise has always been chock-full of characters' close shaves – but unfortunately, this time around, not everyone makes it to the credits alive.

In the movie, after reuniting with his IMF pals, Ethan and Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson) infiltrate a party being held by arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis (Vanessa Kirby) in Venice. There, they hope to identify who Grace, Hayley Atwell's wily pickpocket, is selling The Entity-controlling key to, so that they can follow them to whatever it unlocks and destroy it. Things goes sideways, though, when Gabriel (Esai Morales) interrupts the shin-dig and orders Alanna, at the behest of all-knowing AI villain The Entity, to either kill Grace or Ilsa. 

The characters scatter, which ultimately leads to a confrontation between Ilsa and Gabriel, and the former being fatally stabbed by the film's corporeal baddie. It's a moment that is supposed to hit especially hard, as earlier on, we learned that Ethan joined the IMF all those years ago after Gabriel murdered a woman he was once close to. In reality, though, Ilsa's death is just frustrating. So much so that several fans have convinced themselves that she's actually still alive and will appear in Dead Reckoning Part Two, and I really hope they're right.

Before we get into why, check out some reactions to the shock twist below...

One Ilsa enthuasist has even knocked up a compelling thread as to how the disavowed MI6 agent could still show up in Part Two. Their arguments include the word "dead" literally being in the film's title, and how Paris, Pom Klementieff's henchman, suffered a similar injury at the hands of Gabriel, a significantly less skilled fighter than Ilsa, and lived.

Considering how the film opens, Ilsa faking her own death could make sense. Having been hiding out for days in the Arabian Desert, Ilsa finds herself ambushed by bounty hunters, and when Ethan arrives to help her, he finds his pal lying face down on the ground pretending to be dead. That last part is revealed in a flashback later on – before that, director Christopher McQuarrie lets us believe she really has bitten the dust for a little while. In the flashback, Ethan helps a wounded Ilsa onto a horse and shouts, "You're dead, stay dead." Hmm, foreshadowing, much?

"There's not a lot of going into detail about what happened. You do not talk about it," Ferguson told Indiewire, when asked about the process of receiving her Mission-related scripts. "There's always reasons why arcs go a certain way. I control my own destiny [as Ilsa], there are reasons why things happen." It's entirely possible, then, that Ferguson's schedule – she's been busy fronting Apple TV Plus series Silo and Denis Villeneuve's two-part Dune adaptation recently – just didn't allow her to have a bigger role in Dead Reckoning Part One. Not that that really helps take the sting out.

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation was the first Mission: Impossible movie I ever saw, so Ilsa Faust is an important character to me, given that that's the one she was introduced in. (Don't worry, I caught up with the series after and quickly became a fan). I loved that she was Ethan's equal, as opposed to the likeable but more damsel-like female characters who have crossed his path before. 

Thandiwe Newton's Nyah in Mission: Impossible 2 came close, but much like Mission: Impossible 7's Grace, she was a highly skilled thief who got swept up in the world of espionage, not a bonafide secret agent like Ilsa. It's extra galling, then, that Ilsa winds up facing Gabriel in an attempt to save Grace, literally dying so that Grace can go on to replace her as the IMF gang's only woman operative. God forbid Ethan Hunt have two capable women on his team. (In the name of good faith, I had better point out here that it's pretty clear Paris will be some sort of ally to him going forward).

Deciding on Ilsa's demise was "really tough," McQuarrie said in an interview with USA Today. But it was one we knew we had to make for the movie to have stakes and for the movie to remain Mission. Mission is primarily Ethan's journey (and) there is this continuum that the people closest to him, he tends to lose them. It was a really tricky conversation for us to have, and we knew that there would be some reactions to that, but we also knew this is the reality of the world that's been created over seven movies."

Talk about fridging! Was Ilsa the only character getting in the way of Ethan's journey? He's known Luther and Benji longer than he's known her, so if McQuarrie really wanted to up the stakes heading into the eighth chapter, wouldn't it have worked better to kill either of those two off? That said, how well you know someone doesn't really seem to matter when it comes to the IMF. 

In the scene immediately after Ilsa's death, Luther, Benji, and Ethan give Grace "the choice" to join the task force. Given her lack of experience in the field, and the fact that she's just had a pretty scary, life-threatening few days, Grace is initially reluctant. She proposes that she help them out this one time, then she goes back to her life, to which Luther replies, "What life?" and reminds her that she's in grave danger now... She's also wanted by the police for art theft, fraud, and various other crimes. 

Grace breaks down talking about Ilsa and says she's "the reason she's dead". Luther interjects with a firm no, and adds, "She's the reason you're alive." It's a subtle line, but it could mean that the team know more than they're letting on.

Grace then questions whether the IMF boys will protect her, which prompts Ethan to admit that they can't promise to because, as proven a few hours before, things can go terribly, terribly wrong. He does vow, however, that if she joins them, her "life will mean more to [him] than [his] own." 

"You don't even know me," Grace claps back, to which Ethan replies: "What difference does that make?"

On the surface, it's a sweet sentiment but read a little deeper into it, and it's a truly bizarre and sour note to hit following a main character's death. It inadvertently suggests that a stranger on the street is just as important to him as his nearest and dearest and, more crucially, that his years knowing Ilsa essentially counted for nothing in the end. My personal love of the character (and Ferguson) aside, I really hope Part Two sees her return to trick The Entity, kill some guys with her thighs, save the day, and prove that's not the case.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One is in cinemas now, while Part Two is set for release on June 28, 2024. For more on our Mission: Impossible coverage, check out:

• How Mission: Impossible's Hayley Atwell brought her "scrappy" Dead Reckoning newcomer to life
• Chris McQuarrie opens up on Dead Reckoning: "I’m more frightened now than I was on my first Mission: Impossible"
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’s surprise ending choice kept Tom Cruise up at night

Spoilers for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning follow.

Partway through Dead Reckoning, AI villain The Entity dictates that one of Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson) or Grace (Hayley Atwell) – both Ethan’s allies – will have to die. After intervening in the fight between Grace and Gabriel (Esai Morales), Ilsa is apparently killed at the hands of the AI’s messenger. 

For his part, McQuarrie called the story beat a "really tough decision" in an interview with USA Today. "But it was one we knew we had to make for the movie to have stakes and for the movie to remain Mission."

McQuarrie continued, "Mission is primarily Ethan's journey [and] there is this continuum that the people closest to him, he tends to lose them. It was a really tricky conversation for us to have, and we knew that there would be some reactions to that, but we also knew this is the reality of the world that's been created over seven movies."

Understandably, given the pretty swift (off-screen) nature of her death and the popularity of both Ferguson and her character, the moment has elicited an emotional response online – with many believing it to be a fake-out. We'll find out whether it's the real deal or not when Dead Reckoning Part Two hits cinemas on June 28, 2024.

For more, dive into our rankings of the best Mission: Impossible movies then check out our latest coverage:

• How Mission: Impossible's Hayley Atwell brought her "scrappy" Dead Reckoning newcomer to life
• Chris McQuarrie opens up on Dead Reckoning: "I’m more frightened now than I was on my first Mission: Impossible"
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’s surprise ending choice kept Tom Cruise up at night

Unlike Fast X and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning doesn’t leave things on a cliffhanger for its Part One. All told, it’s a relatively complete tale – Ethan has one-upped Gabriel and has The Entity’s key, after all – with a further end goal in mind buried deep in the Arctic Sea.

In our recent interview with Christopher McQuarrie, the director explained the decision to send audiences home satisfied – and why the surprise creative choice was something that kept star Tom Cruise up at night.

"Where we ended the movie was always where we were going to end it," McQuarrie says of the Orient Express set piece. "How we ended the movie was a big, big mystery for us. It kept Tom awake at night throughout production. He would come in all the time and say, 'This can’t be a cliffhanger, it’s got to be satisfying.' The audience has to feel a sense of completion."

McQuarrie continues, "Tom kept looking at that scene and he had all this anxiety about whether or not it would be a satisfying conclusion or whether it would feel open-ended. We constantly revisited it, constantly refined it."

To emphasize the to-and-fro nature of Cruise and McQuarrie’s dilemma, the fond farewell between Ethan Hunt and Hayley Atwell’s Grace before Hunt departs the train was filmed two years after cameras initially rolled on production. "Tom has his hair from Part Two and he’s in a wig!" McQuarrie jokes.

Then, McQuarrie outlines his Mission: Impossible mission statement on why everything feels a little cleaner than we may have anticipated: "If you leave it with a cliffhanger, it feels a little bit like we’re expecting you to come back," the director says of the ending. "We didn’t want that feeling. The feeling we were reaching for – and we hope you feel – is we dare you not to come back. We want to leave you thinking, 'Oh, I can’t wait to see what happens next.'"

In case you were wondering, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two is out in cinemas on June 28, 2024. For more on our Mission: Impossible coverage, check out:

• How Mission: Impossible's Hayley Atwell brought her "scrappy" Dead Reckoning newcomer to life
• Chris McQuarrie opens up on Dead Reckoning: "I’m more frightened now than I was on my first Mission: Impossible"
• The Mission: Impossible movies, ranked from best to worst

"Originally, there had been a whole sequence at the beginning of the movie that was going to take place in 1989,” director Chris McQuarrie tells GamesRadar+ and Total Film. "We talked about it as a cold open, we talked about it as flashbacks in the movie, we looked at de-aging."

It was the de-aging process, though, that proved to be the sticking point for a franchise that so often preaches believability over any sort of digital shortcuts.

"One of the big things about [the de-aging] I was looking at while researching, I kept saying, 'Boy, this de-aging is really good' or 'This de-aging is not so good.' Never did I find myself actually following the story," McQuarrie says of the work put into the scrapped sequence.

On Cruise’s look in the scene, he reveals, "I was so distracted by an actor that I had known for however long was now suddenly this young person."

McQuarrie adds, however, that – despite the reservations – he may have found a way to introduce de-aging in his future movies.

"In researching that, I cracked the code – I think – on how best to approach it," McQuarrie explains. "By then, we had kind of moved away from it. We may still play with it. We never say never."

Cruise, now 61, is doing just fine: Dead Reckoning Part Two is out in cinemas next year, while a movie in outer space with director Doug Liman is still on the celestial cards.

For more on Mission: Impossible, check out our coverage on:

• How Mission: Impossible's Hayley Atwell brought her "scrappy" Dead Reckoning newcomer to life
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’s Hayley Atwell spent 100 days on set before recording dialogue
• Mission: Impossible director on why Dead Reckoning is split into two parts
• Chris McQuarrie opens up on Dead Reckoning: "I’m more frightened now than I was on my first Mission: Impossible"
• The best Mission: Impossible movies, ranked

Across 27 (!) years and seven installments, Tom Cruise has set the gold standard for action movies. But which Mission: Impossible movie is the best of the best? With Dead Reckoning Part One now in cinemas, it’s time to rank every movie through a 2023 lens – factoring in the ingenuity of the series’ iconic action set-pieces, Cruise’s death-defying stunts, and how each movie has stood the test of time.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to join us as we rank all Mission: Impossible movies. First up, a widely panned 2000s sequel…

7. Mission: Impossible 2

Mission: Impossible 2 is an odd duck. All dodgy haircuts and scene-killing slow-mo, the John Woo-directed follow-up to the 1996 original throws out the tense, calculating tone of the first movie for a sun-kissed dose of melodrama and overblown action.

Ethan Hunt is dragged back from some long-overdue vacation time to chase down Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott), a rogue IMF agent who has got his hands on a potentially world-ending Chimera virus. To do so, he enlists the help of Ambrose’s former partner Nyah (Thandiwe Newton, in fine form throughout) to snare the snarling Scot. 

While you have to admire how silly Mission: Impossible 2 is, the series undoubtedly works better as a sincere slice of spycraft. Motorcycle jousting and Woo’s trademark white doves can only get you so far. Easily the most skippable Mission: Impossible movie – even though we still think you should watch it. 

6. Mission: Impossible 3

Early Mission: Impossibles were often reflective of their director. De Palma dined out on paranoia while Woo favored style over substance. J.J. Abrams’ entry, as is sometimes his wont, is guilty of playing it a little too safe and sterile in places – complete with a heel turn from Billy Crudup that you’ll see coming from space.

Chances are, if you think of Mission: Impossible 3 then your mind immediately wanders not to that direction, but to Phillip Seymour Hoffman's incredible performance.

While M:I 3 still thrills elsewhere – the Shanghai sequence was probably the series’ best up until that point – Ethan being dragged out of retirement by a wickedly dangerous villain in Hoffman’s arms dealer Davian is the sort of clash of the titans that Cruise rarely embarks on anymore. It’s not often that Ethan gets overshadowed in any of these Missions, but Hoffman comes close to running off with the movie – particularly in the threequel’s memorable Hoffman vs. Hoffman set-piece in a men’s bathroom.

5. Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation

Christopher McQuarrie’s debut as Mission: Impossible director gives us a taste of further brilliance down the line – and is a solid, competent affair in its own right.

This time around, Ethan and his IMF squad have been scattered to the winds but must reunite when threatened by the impending threat of The Syndicate, a shadowy organization consisting of rogue government agents.

Rogue Nation is bolstered by two moments of movie magic: the opera sequence, involving Hunt tracking down Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), and Cruise continuing his scarcely believable stunt hot streak by hanging on to the edge of an Airbus for real as it takes off. But in the wider context of Mission: Impossible’s dazzling oeuvre, this is a case of revolution, not evolution.

4. Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning – Part One

There’s no stronger argument for Mission: Impossible’s place on action cinema’s Mount Rushmore than Dead Reckoning – Part One not even cracking the series’ top three.

The most recent entry on this list, Dead Reckoning sees Ethan Hunt wrestling with his past – whilst also trying to outrace a faceless enemy and an uncertain future. The AI ‘villain’ The Entity may not set the pulses racing, but it’s offset by a scarily good performance from Esai Morales’ emissary Gabriel. Fellow newcomer Hayley Atwell also delivers an assured turn, fitting in seamlessly as thief Grace. Hunt and his IMF crew's race against time across multiple continents to shut down The Entity is a similarly confident piece of moviemaking magic.

Dead Reckoning is only let down by its structure. It's lacking a killer set piece – the much-lauded motorcycle leap can only wow so much with how much it’s been overexposed – and its status as the first of a two-parter means it inevitably runs out of juice right when other, better Missions are hitting their stride. All the pieces are in place for Part Two to be an all-time classic, however.

3. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

Outside of Tom Cruise’s wire drop in the original Mission: Impossible, the series’ most defining image is probably that of the Ethan Hunt actor scaling the 2500-foot Burj Khalifa. It’s Ghost Protocol in miniature: a daring, spectacular event – and one that kickstarted Cruise’s latter-day reinvention as Hollywood’s greatest daredevil.

Ghost Protocol sees the team aiming to avert all-out war between the United States and Russia after being disavowed. Thanks to the cut-all-ties narrative twist, the nerve-jangling trip to the Kremlin and a super-slick handover in Dubai are injected with enough peril to boost what could have been a series flagging by its fourth entry.

Brad Bird’s storied history with animated classics like The Simpsons and The Iron Giant also gifts Ghost Protocol with the sort of precise, clockwork-like machination that helps ramp up the tension and wring every last dramatic drop outside of an ensemble cast – which includes Jeremy Renner and Lea Seydoux. While it rarely has time to breathe, the lightning-fast rhythm of relentless set-pieces means this is a high-octane adventure that has rarely been bettered before or since.

2. Mission: Impossible

There aren’t many instances of a long-running franchise nailing all aspects right out of the gate, but Mission: Impossible is as close as it gets to a perfect first attempt. 

Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt, an IMF agent who is framed for the murders of his entire team in Prague. What follows is a pressure-cooker of a spy thriller as Hunt rages against the machine to infiltrate the CIA in one of cinema’s greatest escapades.

Watching it today, it’s abundantly clear that the 1996 original is more of a slow-burn than future entries – and is all the better for it. Cruise revels in the suffocating atmosphere, while the twists, turns, and double crosses turns a simple plot into a simply great one. 

It may lack the explosive verve of its successors, but more than makes up for it by stealthily laying the groundwork for future Missions – and cementing Cruise as the Swiss Army Knife of visionary, pitch-perfect producer, and Hollywood’s next big action star all in one fell swoop.

1. Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Here it is, the best Mission: Impossible. Fallout continues where Rogue Nation left off featuring Hunt taking down the Apostles and the mysterious John Lark after the capture of Syndicate leader Solomon Lane.

What follows is a modern classic: director Chris McQuarrie achieves his finest work, luxuriating in the bumper 150-minute runtime to deliver a carefully crafted series of epic sequences. They range from the intimate – Henry Cavill’s reloading arms in a bathroom fight has broken the internet a dozen times over – to the jaw-droppingly spectacular. Tom Cruise broke his ankle for real while jumping across London rooftops and it’s not even the second or third most ridiculous act in Fallout.

All told, Fallout is Mission: Impossible operating at its absolute peak and firing on all cylinders. Hunt’s mission is more personal, coaxing out a rarely-seen edge from the M:I lead. There are breathless acts of derring-do throughout, with something as simple as a meeting with an arms dealer bringing out the Houdini in Cruise and McQuarrie as they cinematically wriggle their way out of another narrative corner. 

To top it off, it also includes the series’ all-time best ticking clock countdown, a fine epilogue for Ethan’s ex-wife, paradigm-shifting plot twists, and a finale that delivers on every front. It’s not just the best Mission: Impossible, it’s right up there with one of the best movies of the 21st century. 

Want more? Get your blood pumping with the best action movies on Netflix. Then take a look towards the future with our guide to upcoming movies.

When you leave a review for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One on the app, a message pops up in that classic green computer font that reads: "Mission has been compromised. The secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This review will self-destruct in five seconds." 

Don't worry, your phone doesn't blow up. Instead, the countdown ends and the next message reads, "System Override by Agent: Hunt, Ethan. Self-Destruct Sequence halted."

Dead Reckoning Part One is the seventh installment in the Mission: Impossible film series, starring Cruise as IMF agent Hunt. The cast includes Ving Rhames, Hayley Atwell, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Simon Pegg, Shea Whigham, Indira Varma, Rob Delaney, and Cary Elwes.

Per the official synopsis, M:I 7 sees Ethan Hunt and the IMF team track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity if it falls into the wrong hands. "Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than the mission – not even the lives of those he cares about most," the synopsis reads.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is out now in the UK and set to hit US theaters on July 14, with Part Two arriving on June 28, 2024. For more from our interviews with the cast, check out the newest episode of the Inside Total Film podcast and our latest coverage:

• How Mission: Impossible's Hayley Atwell brought her "scrappy" Dead Reckoning newcomer to life
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’s Hayley Atwell spent 100 days on set before recording dialogue
• Mission: Impossible director on why Dead Reckoning is split into two parts
• Chris McQuarrie opens up on Dead Reckoning: "I’m more frightened now than I was on my first Mission: Impossible"
• Cary Elwes says Dead Reckoning is the biggest action movie of all time

There's also an argument to be made for the 2000 sequel being the most underrated Mission of the bunch. That's not one you'll find here. It deservingly sits near the bottom of most M:I rankings; an odd curio of a film – directed by John Woo, no less – that's a tonal mismatch for Cruise's strengths, bundled with a two-dimensional villain, a stuttering plot, and by far the series' least memorable action sequences. 

So, why do I love it so much? How can you not love a movie that starts with Ethan Hunt being delivered a classified message via rocket propelled sunglasses and ends with two alphas jousting on motorcycles and kicking the shit out of each other on a beach? If I didn't have a word count to fill, I'd leave it there. But the reasons to adore Mission: Impossible 2 are many.

The premise alone is brilliantly restrained compared to what comes after: tasked with hunting down rogue IMF agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott, who spends half the movie scowling in his island compound) and a deadly Chimera virus, Ethan Hunt enlists the help of Ambrose's ex-flame Nyah (Thandiwe Newton) to take him down. No Hunt masterclass, just a honey trap. It all feels like Mission: Doable, a loose getaway sandwiched between a half-dozen action epics. 

In truth, Newton's delicious cat-and-mouse act completely carries the film. Whisper it, but she has more chemistry with Cruise than any of his co-stars before and since (Newton, for her part, described filming as a "nightmare" in a 2020 interview with Vulture). It's electrifying seeing the two bounce off each other and it's worlds away from Cruise's pretty safe, chaste performances of the past 20 years.

Their car chase in the Seville hills – surely the biggest case of 'why not, we have a budget to spend' in action movie history, complete with slow-motion swerving – also gives us a sparkling taste of Hunt doing his best Bond impression. For a series that has shied away from the 007 comparisons in recent years, this is a goofier, sillier baby brother of the DB5 chase in GoldenEye – not bad company to keep, then.

Cruise control

Mission: Impossible 2's biggest strength, though, is in how much it dines out on 2000s camp, with lashings of cheese on the side. Slow-mos, fades, fish eye lenses, black-and-white shots, zooms, and, bizarrely, Flamenco dancer wipe transitions are all Woo's stock in trade here. They don't make 'em like they used to, that's for sure. 

The shot choices might furrow some brows, but it helps that Woo makes everyone here look like a star; everything they do gives off the laid-back, seductive tone of a faintly sexy perfume ad. Eyes shimmer, lips purse, and the tension is off the charts. For the first – and last – time, Mission: Impossible is a little bit naughty, and it revels in it.

The relaxed attitude (Woo, famously, didn't speak English during production) also gives us rare chef kiss clunkers of lines that are eaten up by Cruise. "We just rolled up a snowball and tossed it into hell. Now we'll see what chance it has," he mutters in one moment. Even he's not buying what he's saying – and it's glorious. 

It's easy to forget, too, that there are bizarre bit-part roles for Brendan Gleeson and Anthony Hopkins. That's the sort of movie Mission: Impossible 2 is: one where two of the leading talents of their generations get in and get out as low-energy footnotes. They walked so Phillip Seymour Hoffman could run.

In 2023, it's a time capsule of another kind – an intriguing glimpse at Cruise before he fully cultivated his action hero persona. Cruise is oddly fine with not being the centre of attention, here – even if it does suffer in places because of it. If you like watching a man who counts cheating death as a part-time hobby using binoculars and looking at computer screens for half the runtime, you're in luck.

Stamp of approval

Instead, we get a giant what-if: Dougray Scott's Ambrose – the anti-Ethan Hunt, for all intents and purposes – glowers and snaps his way through the movie. He could've been Hollywood's next big thing, but arguably reached his ceiling here. Indeed, an accident or scheduling conflicts – depending on who you believe – while filming Mission: Impossible 2 cost him a gig as Wolverine in X-Men. It's also an intriguing sideways glance at where the direction of the series could have gone until it had the rough edges sanded off by J.J. Abrams and Brad Bird before being refined by Christopher McQuarrie.

Then there's its absurd peak: the death fake out scene. In today's meme economy, it feels tailor-made to be accompanied by pictures of Martin Scorsese declaring, 'this is cinema.' Hunt manages to pull a fast one, using a mask bait-and-switch to trick Ambrose into killing his henchman Hugh Stamp. It's then topped off by Cruise (as Stamp) sprinting away, surrounded by the Woo trademark of white doves as the scene's operatic score transitions into the Mission: Impossible theme. 

McQuarrie and Cruise are a Hollywood dream ticket, but even they would be hard pressed to match the Woo-ness of it all, a superb blend of melodrama and mayhem that feels like a fever dream. Watch it for yourself if you don't believe me.

Is any of this good? It's hard to say – but it sure is entertaining. There's something scientific and calculated about later Mission: Impossibles. Not quite filmmaking by algorithm, but Cruise and his creative team certainly cracked the code by the time Rogue Nation rolled around. Here, half the fun is watching the series fumble around for its place in a cinematic landscape that would soon be filled with Bournes, Bonds, and action knock-offs galore. All told, there's something inherently watchable about Cruise starring in something a little bit messy and imperfect.

Yes, the series would go on to have greater, more impossible Missions. But there's something to be said – should you choose to accept it – about embracing this fascinating and flawed one-of-a-kind sequel.

Not sure what to watch next? Here are the best action movies on Netflix. If you're still in a Mission: Impossible mood, read our interview with Dead Reckoning director Chris McQuarrie.

When GamesRadar+ and Total Film sat down with the cast in London, it was clear that what unites them is a deep-rooted admiration for the series’ seemingly immortal lead. 

"He’s such a consummate professional, entirely dedicated, always looking and searching for what’s going to feel most alive for the audience," Atwell tells us about Cruise, echoing the rest of the cast.

"The thing about Tom that I’ve always admired is that he’s not just a talented actor and an insanely talented stuntman and producer, he’s just a very warm guy. He’s a very magnanimous guy, all about supporting other people," says Elwes, who reunites with Cruise for the first time since 1990’s Days of Thunder. "He believes that he can’t do his best work unless everybody else is doing theirs. He’s really all about lifting you up."

"For me, it’s trusting the process, you know?" Klementieff remarks. "When you work with people who are so incredibly talented and are such amazing filmmakers, you just lean in and give options with whatever you do. You do a lot of takes, but you know they’re going to make it perfect."

Klementieff, especially, is one who knows all about trusting the process. She joins the cast as Paris, a "force of destruction" on Ethan’s tail and, crucially, a character who says very little. As Klementieff reveals, she took inspiration for her action-first henchman from the likes of Clint Eastwood and Takeshi Kitano – as well as putting her own flourishes on top.

"It was really fun to play. I think she brings something that is a little bit punk, even in the way she dresses and the way she behaves. She follows her own rules. She’s a rebel and quite lonely too. She’s a character that doesn’t speak much, but doesn’t need to. She’s almost like a cowboy, riding in and killing people," Klementieff says.

As for the look, complete with powder-white face and soldier garb? It all stems from the Guardians actor’s own experiences – and speaks to the collaborative nature of a global production.

"It was my idea. I thought it would be cool, instead of wearing a mask, because we’re supposed to be in Venice at a party, to draw a mask on my face. I actually did that years ago. I was invited to a party last minute and they said it’s a masked ball, so I drew a mask on my face. I thought the character would do the same thing."

Tech issues

Attention soon turns to the elephant in the room. AI, from ChatGPT and beyond, has made headlines for all the wrong reasons over the past 12 months. Despite filming starting in 2020, Dead Reckoning is eerily prescient in depicting a cold, calculating algorithm that can predict Ethan Hunt’s every move – fronted by Gabriel (Esai Morales), a ghost from Ethan’s past.

"I remember thinking this is really interesting because he is a villain but he’s working on behalf of a bigger villain which is AI or an intelligence we don’t understand," Kirby, who returns as arms dealer The White Widow, says of Dead Reckoning’s new antagonist. "That was a threat that, bizarrely, united everyone in that room. It wasn’t just Esai as the face of it, it was affecting him somehow as well. It was a really interesting concept and we were all learning about it at the same time together."

"Almost accidentally, when we started the film, McQ pitched the idea and I thought it felt very Mission: Impossible," Pegg, who plays tech whizz Benji for a fifth time, reveals. "It felt almost a little sci-fi but in keeping with [being] gadget-related… IMF is all about subterfuge, illusion, masks, setting up situations that aren’t real to capture enemies. Suddenly they’ve come up against this thing and that’s all it does. It’s what the IMF does, but it’s everywhere. It’s become prescient in these three years. Now, it’s on everyone’s lips. Back in 2019, less so."

"Totally prescient," Elwes adds. "McQ and Tom, they decided this was a subject matter they were going to tackle and it turns out, now, we’re talking to all of you. It’s the most prescient thing. Extraordinary."

Despite its contemporary subject matter, Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning – Part One still packs in the classics. Namely, the panic-inducing ticking clock.

Pegg, a master of the style of anxious acting that has peppered the franchise’s countdowns and near-misses, explains – as time runs out on our own interview – how he’s honed his craft.

"Rebecca and I had to defuse a nuclear bomb at the end of Fallout. It was one o’clock in the morning, the crew were really tired, we were edging into overtime. It was cold. That tension off-screen is brought in," Pegg recalls. "In this film – no spoilers – Benji comes up against a device. I remember the feeling on set being like we’ve got to get this done, it’s got to happen. McQ likes there to be…" 

"A pressure outside," Ferguson interjects.

"So I am genuinely just that stressed, is one way of saying it," Pegg jokes.

For more from our interviews with the cast, check out the latest episode of the Inside Total Film podcast and our latest coverage:

• How Mission: Impossible's Hayley Atwell brought her "scrappy" Dead Reckoning newcomer to life
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’s Hayley Atwell spent 100 days on set before recording dialogue
• Mission: Impossible director on why Dead Reckoning is split into two parts
• Chris McQuarrie opens up on Dead Reckoning: "I’m more frightened now than I was on my first Mission: Impossible"
• Cary Elwes says Dead Reckoning is the biggest action movie of all time
  

With Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning heading to theaters this year, you’ll probably want to relive Ethan Hunt’s journey. Here, we tell you how to watch the Mission: Impossible movies in order so you can prepare for a week-long film marathon ahead of the eighth installment in the saga. Mission: Impossible is not the most extensive franchise out there, which means putting together this list is definitely not as difficult as the James Bond movies in order, or the MCU in order.

Still, you might need a refresher – should you choose to accept it. Don’t worry, this guide won’t self-destruct in five seconds. Here’s how to watch the Mission: Impossible movies in order.

How to watch the Mission: Impossible movies in order

Don’t worry too much about chronological order here, it's all about the release dates. There are a handful of flashbacks – most notably, Dead Reckoning includes a brief look back at Ethan’s pre-IMF days – but the series should be watched beginning with 1996’s Mission: Impossible (which technically takes place six years after the TV series it’s based on) and concluding with The Final Reckoning, which is set to be released in theaters on May 2023, 2025.

• Mission: Impossible (1996)
• Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)
• Mission: Impossible 3 (2006)
• Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
• Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)
• Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
• Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025)

If you want to divide up your Mission: Impossible marathon, we’d recommend watching the first four movies in order and then watching Rogue Nation and Fallout in pretty close proximity before heading to the cinemas to see Dead Reckoning. The fifth and sixth movies are most closely connected. Both directed by Chris McQuarrie, they introduce villain Solomon Lane. Dead Reckoning then continues on with multiple relationships and alliances from that pair of missions, with various characters returning.

As for skippable entries: if you're short on time, Mission: Impossible 2 is by far the most disposable. It's a completely self-contained affair with essential no carry-over in future films - which can't be said of every other entry.

For more on Mission: Impossible, check out our latest Dead Reckoning interviews and coverage:

• How Mission: Impossible's Hayley Atwell brought her "scrappy" Dead Reckoning newcomer to life
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’s Hayley Atwell spent 100 days on set before recording dialogue
• Mission: Impossible director on why Dead Reckoning is split into two parts
• Chris McQuarrie opens up on Dead Reckoning: "I’m more frightened now than I was on my first Mission: Impossible"

"It’s not just probably the biggest action movie of all time, I think it’s also one of the most emotional action movies we’ve ever seen," Elwes, who plays Denlinger in Dead Reckoning, tells GamesRadar+ and Total Film.

"That was what blew me away. I was fully just expecting amazing stunts and cool locations, but the emotional journey the audience is going on is, for me, what sends it into a whole other stratosphere."

Simon Pegg, who plays Benji in the series, agrees that Mission: Impossible’s scope and scale keeps getting bigger and bigger.

"It did feel different," Pegg says. "Not just because we were making it when we made it, but you know Tom [Cruise] and [director Christopher McQuarrie] are never going to rest on what they’ve done before. They’re going to push it forward. Every film, when it ends, we get asked 'What’s next?' and we think, 'Well, what could we possibly do?'"

Despite the "enormity" of the movie, Elwes – who has appeared in everything from The Princess Bride to Stranger Things – was struck by how nonplussed director Christopher McQuarrie was by the globetrotting production.

"There was never a bead of sweat on his head, not once," Elwes reveals. "We had to deal with all kinds of things then – COVID, all kinds of logistical things – that a huge production of this nature entails. The guy never broke a sweat. He was totally, totally chill the whole time. So he set the tone on-set and so everyone felt [like] this is great, this is just a fun day at work."

For more from Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, check out our coverage on:

• How Mission: Impossible's Hayley Atwell brought her "scrappy" Dead Reckoning newcomer to life
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’s Hayley Atwell spent 100 days on set before recording dialogue
• Mission: Impossible director on why Dead Reckoning is split into two parts
• Chris McQuarrie opens up on Dead Reckoning: "I’m more frightened now than I was on my first Mission: Impossible"

"We did five months of training before principal photography began," Atwell says, listing Pilates amongst her regimen. "As well as the fight choreography and a lot of the drifting I did with [stuntman] Wade Eastwood, we looked at sleight of hand tricks but also the dancer’s body."

"Everything was about making the fights look as elegant as possible. At the same time, though, I wanted it to feel that she was a little bit scrappy, that she had not really had any formal fight training, she was an opportunist. As she went along in her life, she learned on the job. So, we don’t want to make it look too competent or perfect."

Grace enters Hunt’s orbit early on in Dead Reckoning. Unlike Cruise’s IMF agent and his team of specialists, Atwell’s sticky-fingered newcomer is an “outsider” with her own goals in mind. "Artful Dodger was absolutely one of the references we used," Atwell says, referring to Charles Dickens’ tricksy Oliver Twist pickpocket. "She’s sort of grace under fire."

"She is a lone wolf. She describes herself as ‘strictly single-o’, which means when she takes jobs as a thief, she doesn’t really know who the job is for, she doesn’t care. She lives in a kind of hyper-vigilant survival state at all times," Atwell reveals.

The actor adds, "It’s sort of by accident and kind of a botched job that she finds herself opposite someone like Ethan Hunt. She has absolutely no concept of who he is or what this world is. In some ways, she’s the audience. If they’re coming into this world, they will be like; ‘What have I got myself involved in here? How do I navigate this space?’ In some ways, we’re seeing the world through her perspective."

Grace under fire

While Cruise and Atwell butt heads on-screen, the British actor couldn’t be more effusive about her co-star away from the camera, someone who she describes as a "consummate professional" always "searching for what’s going to feel most alive for the audience."

"His energy is contagious and invigorating," Atwell remarks. "Part of the fearlessness that he carries – and that I also feel inspires me – is that he is so well-prepared and disciplined when it comes to being specific about the details that go into a stunt… It means you can create a sort of freedom within the performance. All the preparation has led you to be able to relax and give in to the foundational training."

Atwell continues: "So, for me, there was a creative freedom to perform moments where [Grace] is more reckless or full of self-doubt. Because all the preparation meant that I knew I was capable of doing those things safely."

Atwell’s work in creating Grace culminates in a gripping and intense train sequence, one that’s only been partially glimpsed in Dead Reckoning’s trailers. For Atwell, it was the most physically demanding part of the actioner – a set-piece that was spread out over multiple years and involved several stunts being left on the cutting room floor.

"I mean, just the size and scale of it, and the length of time it’s in the film – that was months and months and months and months. We came back to it a year later to do pickup shots and when I saw it on the call sheet I was like ‘Okay, here we go."

"There’s so much of it, of course, that didn’t make the movie because we shot so much story. I did the splits in the carriage car at one point and I climbed onto the roof while there’s a sea of chairs beneath me. There’s so much that we shot because we kind of wanted to get this feeling that this was a runaway train that was going to hold us in its grip the whole time," Atwell says of the sequence.

Mission: Masterclass

With all the emphasis on physicality, then, it comes as little surprise when Atwell confirms she spent her first 100 days on-set without a line of dialogue. 

"I’m so used to language. Language has always been the first tool that I learned from drama school and understanding the classics and plays… So, coming into a franchise like this and spending 100 days purely about physical behaviour and gesture, I felt like ‘Am I expressing enough?’ because I’m so used to being vocal as my main thing," Atwell says.

"Then what was clear was you’d look at the playback and it just felt alive. The physical presence had come from the chemistry I’d found with Tom and the preparation I was doing with this incredible, world-class stunt team. So, you feel her energy and emotions without her having to say anything."

Far from being restrictive, the plan led to a "masterclass" in filmmaking from director Chris McQuarrie and Cruise – something that is indicative of the open, collaborative nature during production.

"Anyone who comes onto that set is welcome to watch playback, watch the monitor. Tom and McQ will explain something technically that’s going on or how this piece of technology didn’t exist a couple of years ago"

"So, there is this sense that you’re part of this workshop or masterclass in pure cinematic experience and how they create it. That, to me, in between takes – that’s where I did all my talking and all my questions. For the camera, I found this new language that was just not having to be vocal."

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is out in cinemas on July 10 in the UK and July 12 in the US. For more from our chat with Hayley Atwell, check out the Inside Total Film podcast and more coverage on:

• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’s Hayley Atwell spent 100 days on set before recording dialogue
• Mission: Impossible director on why Dead Reckoning is split into two parts
• Chris McQuarrie opens up on Dead Reckoning: "I’m more frightened now than I was on my first Mission: Impossible"

"I come from the theater and I talk a lot. I’m so used to language," Atwell tells GamesRadar+ and Total Film of her unique experience when filming the action blockbuster. 

"Language has always been the first tool that I learned from drama school and understanding the classics and plays… So, coming into a franchise like this and spending 100 days purely about physical behaviour and gesture, I felt like ‘Am I expressing enough?’, because I’m so used to being vocal as my main thing."

It quickly became apparent, however, that the emphasis on body language not only helped Atwell’s understanding of her character, but also her chemistry with lead Tom Cruise.

"What was clear was you’d look at playback and it just felt alive," Atwell explains. "The physical presence had come from the chemistry I’d found with Tom and the preparation I was doing with this incredible, world-class stunt team. So, you feel her energy and feel her emotion without her having to say anything."

Atwell also notes that anyone on-set is invited to watch playback – and can pick the brains of Cruise and director Chris McQuarrie.

"So there is this sense that you’re part of this workshop or masterclass in pure cinematic experience and how they create it," Atwell says. "That, to me, in between takes – that’s where I did all my talking and all my questions. For the camera, I found this new language that was just not having to be vocal."

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is out in cinemas on July 10 in the UK and July 12 in the US. For more on what’s coming out this year, check out our movie release dates calendar and guide to upcoming movies. Then check out more of our Dead Reckoning coverage:

• How Mission: Impossible's Hayley Atwell brought her "scrappy" Dead Reckoning newcomer to life
• Mission: Impossible director on why Dead Reckoning is split into two parts
• Chris McQuarrie opens up on Dead Reckoning: "I’m more frightened now than I was on my first Mission: Impossible"

"I was fully confident every day was my last day on the job," McQuarrie tells GamesRadar+ and Total Film. "I was waiting for them to figure out that I didn’t know how to produce movies. I had never produced one before. I was waiting to be fired – and wouldn’t blame them for doing so."

Fast forward 15 years and McQuarrie is Hollywood’s premiere action director. Dead Reckoning Parts One and Two will mark his third and fourth Mission: Impossible movies – and the continuation of a Midas-like relationship with his leading man Tom Cruise.

It’s an impossible turnaround that would make Ethan Hunt – Cruise’s IMF agent, who regularly risks life and limb for the greater good – blush.

Ahead of McQuarrie is the biggest Mission yet. Encompassing multiple continents, hundreds of crew members, and a motorbike drop over a ravine that McQuarrie previously called "the most dangerous thing" he’s ever filmed – it’s a project that’s too big for just one movie.

"Instead of fighting the running time, I said let’s just cut the movie in half and give ourselves the breathing room to tell that story – not anticipating, then, that Part One would expand to the size that it did, the epic scale that it did," McQuarrie reveals. "I was hoping to make a four-hour epic and just cut it in half and everybody could have a two-hour movie, but here we are."

McQuarrie, though, isn’t resting on his laurels for the two-parter. While he is acutely aware of the cliffhanger trend permeating Hollywood (Across the Spider-Verse and Fast X both left fans with unanswered questions earlier this year), he’s keen to point out there’s no sense of complacency on his part in ensuring audiences return for Dead Reckoning Part Two.

"If [the other two-parters] do [trust them to come back], I envy them. I don’t. I saw that trend and the first instinct is [for us] not to do that because it’s happening," McQuarrie says.

Again, McQuarrie returned to the freedom of no longer having to fight an increasingly longer runtime: "I don’t want to be sitting here cutting things out of the movie because it’s too long. I want to be cutting things out of the movie because they can go. I don’t want to be struggling with the number of screenings per day. I don’t know what the rationale is for the other movies that were doing it, but that was mine."

Pushing the envelope

With a franchise such as Mission: Impossible, however, there runs the risk of diminishing returns with its big set-pieces. In truth, it’s a trend that Cruise, especially, has warded off in emphatic fashion. 

How do you top that breathless wire sequence from the first movie? You hold on to a plane while it takes off. But then how do you top that? You skydive from 25,000 feet. While Cruise’s stunt exploits (rightfully) grab attention, it’s McQuarrie – and the world-class stunt team and crew – who have to put the pieces together. Despite making over a half-dozen films, it’s clear the Mission: Impossible team isn’t running out of ideas – or steam.

"It’s always a process of elimination," McQuarrie explains. "The more movies there are, the more you come up with solutions that are: 'You can’t do that, they did that in this one or that one'."

He continues: "At the same time, we don’t get so religious about it like 'Ah, you can’t have a train sequence because there was a train sequence in [the first] Mission: Impossible.' What we try to do is apply everything we’ve learned from the previous movies to the movies we’re doing now and the movies we’re doing next. It tends to be a more refined process. The scenario boils down to this: what an audience wants in a big tentpole movie like this is exactly what they expect in a way they never see coming."

But it’s not all action and bombast. McQuarrie is using the extra space to dive deeper into Ethan’s motivations this time around. That’s through not only expanding on the work done in previous movies, but bringing in elements from both Hunt and Cruise’s past into the present. Henry Czerny’s Kittridge returns for the first time since the very first Mission: Impossible, while Esai Morales – who plays villain Gabriel – is someone who has known Cruise since the "very beginning of his career."

"In Fallout, we reached into his inner world a little more than we had in Ghost Protocol and found there was more to explore. [Here] we reached deeper still, in bringing back Henry Czerny and Esai Morales coming in. A door was opening into Ethan’s past and we started exploring how we could tell that story and how you could tell it in the present – rather than delving back into the past.”

"I don't want to let the franchise down"

It’s clear from talking to McQuarrie that an urgent anxiety exists: he doesn’t see Dead Reckoning as a surefire success – in an industry that desperately needs one. Instead, it’s the lessons he’s learned from Valkyrie that he carries with him to ensure he keeps delivering action classics.

"I’ve maintained that attitude ever since. I don’t take my position for granted. I don’t take the audience’s participation for granted," McQuarrie says. "When we were making Top Gun: Maverick, I didn’t take for granted that people loved that movie or that it was a 35-year-old cultural institution. I looked at it with a very suspicious and cynical eye towards Hollywood’s tendency to make it a cash grab.

"So, everything I do is to constantly check myself and remind myself that it does not matter what you did before, this is the one you’re doing now. I’m terrified of the result of Dead Reckoning, which lives in the shadow of Fallout, which lives in the shadow of Rogue [Nation], and Ghost [Protocol], and all the other movies that came before it. I don’t want to let the franchise down. I’m more frightened now than I was on my first Mission."

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning - Part One is out in UK cinemas on July 10 and in the US on July 12. For more from our chat with the director, here's why Dead Reckoning is split into two parts. Then be sure to check out our interview with star Hayley Atwell:

• How Mission: Impossible's Hayley Atwell brought her "scrappy" Dead Reckoning newcomer to life
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’s Hayley Atwell spent 100 days on set before recording dialogue

This means it has just taken the top spot from Cruise’s previous top movie, Mission Impossible: Fallout which has a 97% score. The Hollywood action star actually has several highly-rated movies in his oeuvre, including Top Gun: Maverick, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

Total Film is among the positive reviews of the movie, having given it four stars. "This franchise is never happy to cruise – and M:I 7 goes all-out," writes our reviewer. "It judders at times, but when it delivers, it delivers big time."

Elsewhere, the film has landed five stars from the Telegraph, which calls it "stunningly executed" and four stars from The Independent which labels it a "muscular, extravagant, thoroughly old-school work of ingenuity and craft". 

Although not everyone was sold on Cruise’s latest, with The Times giving it two out of five stars. "It feels like a movie that’s been assembled by an inattentive monkey, or a luckless studio intern who was handed a bucket of half-completed rushes and told, 'Go make a Covid-beating blockbuster out of that,'" says their review.

Dead Reckoning Part One sees Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team track down a mysterious new AI weapon that could give it its wielder ultimate power. His mission to find the key that controls him takes him around the world and into the path of some familiar faces.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is in UK cinemas from July 10 and in US theaters from July 12. For more upcoming movies, check out our guide to 2023 movie release dates.

"That takes us all the way back to Rogue Nation where we discovered an emotional component to the story that we really weren’t expecting. Stuff that we thought was going to be pure exposition actually turned out to be the emotional core of the story," McQuarrie tells GamesRadar+ and Total Film in London. 

"When we went to make Fallout, I wanted to build upon that. That led to a longer movie, because you couldn’t scrimp on the action at the expense of emotion."

From there, the Mission: Impossible films grew larger and larger – with Ethan Hunt’s personal tale being weaved into bigger and better action set-pieces. For that to happen, concessions had to be made.

"So, we were fighting to get that movie down to two hours and 20 minutes," McQuarrie recalls. "I knew I wanted to expand further in terms of the cast and in terms of the emotion of the story. I knew automatically that meant we were going to have a longer movie."

Which brings us to Dead Reckoning. While McQuarrie admits he was expecting a neater divide ("I was hoping to make a four-hour epic and just cut it in half and everybody could have a two-hour movie, but here we are," he tells us), the decision to cut the movie into two parts for the first time ever in the franchise gave the narrative space to operate – without having to compromise.

As McQuarrie explains: "Instead of fighting the running time, I said let’s just cut the movie in half and give ourselves the breathing room to tell that story – not anticipating, then, that Part One would expand to the size that it did, the epic scale that it did."

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is out in cinemas on July 10 in the UK and July 12 in the US. For more on what’s coming out this year, check out our movie release dates calendar and guide to upcoming movies. For more on our Dead Reckoning coverage, be sure to read our latest interviews:

• How Mission: Impossible's Hayley Atwell brought her "scrappy" Dead Reckoning newcomer to life
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’s Hayley Atwell spent 100 days on set before recording dialogue
• Chris McQuarrie opens up on Dead Reckoning: "I’m more frightened now than I was on my first Mission: Impossible"

Benji’s being flippant, of course. Because the mission Ethan accepts in Dead Reckoning Part One – to retrieve both halves of a mysterious key that is the means of controlling this untold power – really might be impossible. Yes, even for the guy who scales the outside of the world’s tallest building with more ease than most of us clamber up the stairs to bed. 

The mission is, naturally, a race against time, with every nation in it for themselves. And as Ethan streaks across the Arabian Desert, Rome, Venice, and the Austrian Alps, he encounters a host of familiar faces: old pals Benji and Luther (Ving Rhames), the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby), Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), and former IMF director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny), the latter making his first appearance since clashing with Ethan in Brian De Palma’s 1996 original. 

But that’s not all of the grains in the sandstorm. There are several new faces too, most notably skilled thief-for-hire Grace (Hayley Atwell), who helps Ethan for as long as it helps her, and enigmatic villain Gabriel (Esai Morales), who has ties to Ethan’s pre-IMF past (‘he made me who I am today,’ grimaces Hunt). And let’s not forget Gabriel’s fearsome henchwoman Paris (Pom Klementieff, hopping into the Mission franchise from the MCU), whose fight moves are one of the highlights of the film. In fact, her showdown with Ethan in the dark alleyways of Venice has enough grace and grit to make film fans forget any classic scenes involving Donald Sutherland, red macs, and meat cleavers. 

But here’s the thing: just as Ethan playing ‘four-dimensional chess with an algorithm’ is his biggest challenge yet, star/producer Cruise and director/producer Christopher McQuarrie now also face a daunting task. Namely, how do they outdo their previous two Mission movies, Rogue Nation (2015) and Fallout (2018)? They’ve clearly gone to huge effort to try do just that: a globe-trotting (or rather, globe-galloping) scale, gigantic set-pieces, numerous parties fighting for control, plus a 163-minute running time that’s just half of the story (Dead Reckoning Part Two is due in June 2024). And yet they come up (relatively) short. Part One has neither the elegance and suspense of Rogue Nation, nor the momentum and crunch of Fallout. This instalment is so big that - at times - it borders on lumbering and unwieldy.

So, why the four stars? Because the above statement is judging Dead Reckoning by its franchise’s own gold standards. And for all the moments when the spectacle doesn’t quite hit the now-obligatory bullseye, or when the pace momentarily flags, it still leaves most action thrillers for dead. So, while an automatic gunfight in the desert is no match for the toilet scrap in Fallout, there’s a delightful car chase through Rome, with Ethan and Grace zigzagging past Polizia while handcuffed together in a yellow Fiat 500, like something orchestrated by Hitchcock or Hawks. 

And though some caper-flavoured stalking and pilfering in a crowded airport doesn’t quite have the sophistication of the silkily fluent opera-house assassination sequence in Rogue Nation, a fight atop the Orient Express is sensationally staged. It’s just a shame that Dead Reckoning’s MVP stunt of Cruise driving a motorcycle off a cliff, for real, has been played on a loop for months to promote the film. The few extra seconds we get in the movie can’t replenish the diminished wow-factor. Modern marketing, eh?

Still, there’s more than enough here to ensure that no hard sell will be necessary to get punters lining up for Dead Reckoning Part Two next year. As themes of the inescapable past and of people being shaped by the choices they make swirl beneath the action, and as Lorne Balfe newly ignites Lalo Schifrin’s original theme tune with a percussive makeover that plays like syncopated detonations, it’s impossible to be anything but all-in as the excitement surges.

We can thank the ending for that, too. In a post-Avengers cinematic landscape where many major franchises are now splitting climactic stories over a couple of movies, Dead Reckoning Part One does so satisfyingly. No abrupt, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse-style cut-off here, just a natural pause for breath following an outrageous action sequence. The pieces on the four-dimensional chessboard are enticingly reset. Or, put another way, the fuse is lit…

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One is in UK cinemas from July 10 and in US theaters from July 12.

When asked (via the Sydney Morning Herald) whether he wants to channel Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and keep making movies until he’s 80, Cruise replied, "Harrison Ford is a legend; I hope to be still going; I’ve got 20 years to catch up with him."

Cruise added: "I hope to keep making Mission: Impossible films until I’m his age."

Whether Ethan Hunt is still accepting missions as an octogenarian remains to be seen. Next up for Cruise’s agent is Dead Reckoning Parts One and Two. The first chapter, out July 10 in the UK and July 12 in the US, has already received rave responses from critics.

"This is now my favorite Mission: Impossible film," Screen Rant’s Joseph Deckelmeier wrote. "With AI being the villain, this feels like a cautionary tale. The action had my heart rate elevated. That train scene is mind blowing!"

Director Chris McQuarrie has previously confirmed – despite speculation to the contrary – that Mission: Impossible wouldn’t draw to a close with Dead Reckoning Part Two in 2024. Cruise, meanwhile, is setting his sights even bigger – and has a plan in place to film a movie in space with director Doug Liman.

While we don’t know what’s coming in 2043, we have a good idea of out in cinemas later this year. Check out our movie release dates calendar and upcoming movies guide for more.

The stunt involved riding a motorbike off a cliff, then deploying a parachute while mid-air. Pretty terrifying stuff, but Cruise seems to have been focused only on the practicalities of what would happen if a multi-million dollar blockbuster suddenly lost its star midway through production (and his own state of mind approaching the stunt, which is very sensible if you ask us). 

"Well we know either we're going continue with the film or we're not. [Laughs] Let's know day one," Cruise told Entertainment Tonight. "Let's know day one, what is going to happen? Do we all continue, or is it a major rewrite?"

He added: "I was training, I was ready. You have to be razor sharp when you do something like that, so it was very important as we were prepping the film that that actually was the first thing. I don't want to drop that and go shoot other things and then have my mind somewhere else. Everyone was prepped. Let's just get it done."

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has already drawn strong first reactions following its premiere. Alongside Cruise, the film stars Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, Pom Klementieff, Rebecca Ferguson, and Vanessa Kirby. Part Two is just around the corner, arriving in June 2024. 

"We don't see ourselves in competition with Bond or John Wick. We love those movies, and we admire those filmmakers, and we want to see those guys win. All we're really doing is competing with ourselves," director Christopher McQuarrie told us in the new issue of Total Film magazine, which features Netflix spy movie Heart of Stone on the cover. 

"And coming away from Top Gun, we looked at that movie, and said, 'We're going to bury those guys. We're going to crush Top Gun.' That's how we look at it. Our only rivals are ourselves. You'll see things in Part Two that benefit entirely from everything we learned from Maverick."

Mission: Impossible 7 arrives in theaters this July 12. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming major movie release dates for everything else 2023 has in store. 

"Edgar came to one of the later screenings [of the film], and asked one simple question about a specific sound – kind of an audio cue – and I thought I’d addressed that note. It was so obvious to me. But it wasn’t obvious to Edgar," McQuarrie says in the new issue of Total Film magazine, which is out on newsstands on Thursday, June 22.

"And when I asked the audience, it wasn’t obvious to them either. Nobody thought to bring it up until Edgar did. And that changed the entire movie. It changed the entire movie for the better. You just need honesty and clarity and awareness. No one person, Tom [Cruise] included, can really sit there, and look at the movie 24 hours a day, objectively. Tom and I will just look one another in the eye, and say, 'do we want to change this? Or is this what we prefer?'"

Dead Reckoning Part One is the seventh instalment in the Mission: Impossible film series, starring Cruise as IMF agent Hunt. The cast includes Ving Rhames, Hayley Atwell, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Simon Pegg, Shea Whigham, Indira Varma, Rob Delaney, and Cary Elwes.

The flick centers on Hunt and his IMF team as they try to track down a humanity-threatening weapon before it falls into the wrong hands. During the mission, Ethan's dark past comes back to haunt him, as he comes face to face with his new nemesis Gabriel.

Production was among the first to shut down for Covid in 2020, while Nicholas Hoult had to drop out of the film due to scheduling conflicts. McQuarrie also estimated that Atwell was on set for "over 100 days before she had her first dialog scene, owing to the chaotic nature of the production".

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One hits cinemas on July 10 in the UK and July 12 in the US. Part Two is currently dated July 28, 2024.

For more on what else is coming your way, check out our movie release dates calendar.

• Preorder the Heart of Stone issue of Total Film now

This is just a snippet of our interview in the new issue of Total Film magazine, which features Netflix thriller Heart of Stone on the cover. The magazine hits shelves this Thursday, June 22. Check out the covers below:

If you're a fan of Total Film, why not subscribe so that you never miss an issue? You'll get the magazine before it’s in shops, with exclusive subscriber-only covers (like the one pictured above). And with our latest offer you can get a free STM ChargeTree worth £69.99. Head to MagazinesDirect to find out more (Ts and Cs apply).

Tom Cruise and the starry ensemble cast (including Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Vanessa Kirby, and Pom Klementieff) attended the glamorous first screening of the latest instalment in the beloved action franchise, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, which will kick off a blockbuster July (both Greta Gerwig's Barbie and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer also release that month).

The bar of course had been set high by previous entry Mission: Impossible - Fallout, but according to the first tweets this is another winner for the series. In fact, Joseph Deckelmeier from ScreenRant named it the best chapter yet: "This is now my favorite Mission: Impossible film. With AI being the villain, this feels like a cautionary tale. The action had my heart rate elevated. That train scene is mind blowing!"

Nigel Smith from People also praised that action-packed sequence in his tweet: "There's a car chase scene that brought me so much joy, it reinvigorated my love for the summer blockbuster. The craftsmanship of this franchise is unmatched. The final train sequence is a whopper too - I caught myself leaning IN from my seat."

Meanwhile Brandon Davis from Comicbook.com named franchise newcomer Hayley Atwell as the stand-out star tweeting: "Hayley Atwell steals every scene. The villain, cliffhanger, and runtime didn’t blow me away but the rest is wildly entertaining and brilliantly filmed. It’s solid."

Not everyone was impressed though, with some negativity amidst the sea of praise. For instance, Scott Mendelsohn from The Wrap was very disappointed writing: "Mission Impossible 7 was a big let-down. Wonky dialogue, oddly broad acting, and narrative contrivances/shortcuts that (being generous) seemed like COVID-related issues. Felt 'off' in a way akin to 'Saw 3-D' after 'Saw VI'."

Audiences will soon find out for themselves which side of the fence they will fall on as Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One hits cinemas on July 10 in the UK and July 12 in the US. Part Two is currently dated July 28, 2024.

For more on what else is coming your way, check out our movie release dates calendar.

Director Christopher McQuarrie, who is helming Dead Reckoning Parts One and Two across 2023 and 2024, told Fandango that it is 'not the end' for the action series. Additionally, they already have 'ideas for what comes next.'

Variety had previously reported last year that the two-parter will a 'sendoff' for Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt – so there's every chance the ex-IMF agent could be put out to pasture, with the franchise continuing without him.

McQuarrie, meanwhile, is only focusing on a narrower picture – and that includes ignoring any talk of Mission: Impossible competing with other prominent action icons.

"We don't see ourselves in competition with Bond or John Wick. We love those movies, and we admire those filmmakers, and we want to see those guys win. All we're really doing is competing with ourselves," McQuarrie says in the new issue of Total Film magazine, which is out on newsstands on Thursday, June 22.

"And coming away from Top Gun, we looked at that movie, and said, 'We're going to bury those guys. We're going to crush Top Gun.' That's how we look at it. Our only rivals are ourselves.”

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One, starring Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, and Vanessa Kirby, hits cinemas on July 10 in the UK and July 12 in the US. Part Two is currently dated July 28, 2024.

For more on what else is coming your way, check out our movie release dates calendar.

"We don’t see ourselves in competition with Bond or John Wick. We love those movies, and we admire those filmmakers, and we want to see those guys win. All we’re really doing is competing with ourselves," McQuarrie says in the new issue of Total Film magazine, which is out on newsstands on Thursday, June 22. 

"And coming away from Top Gun, we looked at that movie, and said, 'We’re going to bury those guys. We’re going to crush Top Gun.' That’s how we look at it. Our only rivals are ourselves. You’ll see things in Part Two that benefit entirely from everything we learned from Maverick."

Alongside Cruise, Dead Reckoning Part One sees the return of cast members including Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, and Vaness Kirby, along with new faces like Guardian of the Galaxy's Pom Klementieff. The franchise's eighth installment, Dead Reckoning Part Two, is set to follow in June 2024.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One arrives in cinemas in the UK on July 10 and in US cinemas on July 12. In the meantime, check out our guide to the other most highly anticipated upcoming movies in 2023 and beyond. 

• Preorder the Heart of Stone issue of Total Film now

This is just a snippet of our interview in the new issue of Total Film magazine, which features Netflix thriller Heart of Stone on the cover. The magazine hits shelves this Thursday, June 22. Check out the covers below:

If you're a fan of Total Film, why not subscribe so that you never miss an issue? You'll get the magazine before it’s in shops, with exclusive subscriber-only covers (like the one pictured above). And with our latest offer you can get a free STM ChargeTree worth £69.99. Head to MagazinesDirect to find out more (Ts and Cs apply).

Ahead of the action sequel's release on June 28, IGN has confirmed that the movie is 2 hours and 36 minutes long without credits. In comparison, it's predecessor, Mission: Impossible - Fallout, was 2 hours and 28 minutes total and the installment before that, Rogue Nation, was 2 hours and 11 minutes. 

The series has been steadily increasing each entry's length since the original, which was only 1 hour and 50 minutes, was released in 1996. But the trend isn't exclusive to Mission: Impossible; it seems to apply to most modern blockbusters these days. Just this month, we've seen the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which comes in at 2 hours and 29 minutes, and Fast X, which is 2 hours and 21 minutes.

Those are short, too, compared to Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, which, according to the director, is "kissing three hours". Last year's Avatar: The Way of Water was a whopping 3 hours and 12 minutes.

While its undoubtedly dependent on each title – some lengthy flicks can feel like they whizz by, while other shorter films can often feel like they're dragging – it's hard not to think that movies have become too long in general now. It's also interesting when you look at it from a cinema's perspective. Longer movies mean less showings, essentially, and less opportunity to sell tickets; stricter editing might not only help out our bladders but box-office takings, as well. Then again, it's only really the films that are predestined to do big numbers that are taking risks with their runtimes, ie sequels and others with built-in fanbases.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning - Part One is set to see Tom Cruise reprise his role as Ethan Hunt for the first time in 5 years. He'll be joined on screen by returning players Henry Czerny, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Vanessa Kirby, and Rebecca Ferguson, and franchise newbies Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, and Hayley Atwell.

As you might expect, it centers on Hunt and his IMF team as they try to track down a humanity-threatening weapon before it falls into the wrong hands. During the mission, Ethan's dark past comes back to haunt him, as he comes face to face with new nemesis Gabriel.

For more, check out our breakdown of the most exciting upcoming movies coming our way throughout the rest of 2023 and beyond.

While plot details have previously been kept wrapped, the trailer sees Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) on what seems to be his toughest mission yet. "Our lives are the sum of our choices and we cannot escape the past," Agent Kittridge begins, "Ethan this mission of yours is going to cost you dearly."

This time, it seems all of the team is at risk from some mysterious new villains – but don't fret, Hunt isn't about to let anything happen to them. The rest of the trailer gives us a look at some of the incredible action sequences on the way, including Cruise jumping off a mountain on a motorbike (yes, really). There's also a fight on the train, as car chase through Europe, and a nightclub-set shoot-out.

Dead Reckoning Part One is the seventh installment in the Mission: Impossible film series, starring Cruise as IMF agent Hunt. The cast includes Ving Rhames, Hayley Atwell, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Simon Pegg, Shea Whigham, Indira Varma, Rob Delaney, and Cary Elwes.

"We like to say, 'disaster is an opportunity to excel'. We lean into the chaos," director Christopher McQuarrie said of the film's slightly troubled production. "We don't invite it, but we accept it as part of the process."

Production was among the first to shut down for Covid in 2020, while Nicholas Hoult had to drop out of the film due to scheduling conflicts. McQuarrie also estimated that Haley Atwell was on set for "over 100 days before she had her first dialog scene, owing to the chaotic nature of the production".

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is set to hit theaters on July 14, 2023, with Part Two arriving on June 28, 2024. For more, check our list of all the exciting upcoming movies in 2023 and beyond.

"The way Tom had explained it, he said, 'Look, I’d love for you to come and join the cast. The whole opening number where everybody gets wiped out, it’s going to be a lot of well-known people and all of them are going to go uncredited and it’s really going to set up the level of peril for Ethan,'" Estevez recalled in a recent interview with Uproxx. "And I said, 'I’m in. You don’t have to ask me twice, I’m in.' And then afterwards, obviously, the movie’s a giant hit."

The first Mission: Impossible movie, released in 1996, opens with a failed mission in Prague, where every one of Ethan Hunt (Cruise)'s IMF team members are killed one by one in front of him, leaving Hunt as the only survivor. Estevez's character, equipment technician Jack Harmon, is one of those team members.

"[They’re] still making them! Tom was like, we were doing a run the year after that and he says, 'Man, we made such a mistake killing you off,'" Estevez added. "He and [Mission: Impossible 2 director] John Woo were trying to figure out a way to bring me back for Part Two, but it just didn’t make sense," he said. "I thought you could have because with all the masks, right?"

The second movie was released in 2000, with a total of six installments having been released to date. The final two movies in the series, titled Dead Reckoning Part One and Part  Two, are slated to hit the big screen in 2023 and 2024. 

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One arrives in theaters on July 14. While we wait, check out our guide to the other most highly anticipated movie release dates in 2023.

The batch of images, from Entertainment Weekly, see Ethan Hunt (Cruise), Luther (Ving Rhames), Benji (Simon Pegg), and Isla (Rebecca Ferguson) stroll through a plaza; Hunt flanked by franchise newcomer Hayley Atwell; the return of Vanessa Kirby’s White Widow; Cruise going hell-for-leather in a candlelit chapel, and Pom Klementieff’s villain.

"She is somebody who, at the start of our story, is partnered with [Esai Morales’ villain] and represents this malevolent force that Ethan is opposed to," director Christopher McQuarrie told Entertainment Weekly of Klementieff’s villain.

While the pieces – including jaw-dropping stunts – are certainly coming together, it’s been a long road for Dead Reckoning to get there. Production was among the first to shut down for Covid in 2020, while Nicholas Hoult had to drop out of the film due to scheduling conflicts.

In fact, McQuarrie estimates Haley Atwell was on set for "over 100 days before she had her first dialog scene, owing to the chaotic nature of the production."

McQuarrie, though, is embracing the unique circumstances surrounding the film: "We like to say, 'Disaster is an opportunity to excel.' We lean into the chaos. We don't invite it, but we accept it as part of the process."

Dead Reckoning Part One hits cinemas on July 14, 2023. Its follow-up, Dead Reckoning Part Two, releases in 2024 – though it’s unclear if it will spell the end of Tom Cruise’s near-30-year-run as IMF agent Ethan Hunt.

For more on what’s coming to cinemas in 2023, check out our guides to upcoming movies and movie release dates.

During the Paramount panel at this year’s Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, & Telecom Conference (H/T IndieWire), Bakish said, "I haven’t seen all of Mission: Impossible 7, but I’ve seen a bunch of it. We actually just did the first test screening for an audience last week, and the audience lost their mind. And it’s still too long, they’ve got to cut it. But the movie is insane. It’s like a complete thrill ride. And [Tom Cruise], he’s very good."

Dead Reckoning Part One, starring Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, and Hayley Atwell, was originally reported as a sendoff to Cruise’s ex-IMF agent Ethan Hunt alongside 2024’s Dead Reckoning Part Two.

Speaking on the Light the Fuse podcast last year, Mission: Impossible director Christopher McQuarrie was keen to play down any talk of Cruise retiring the role.

"I've been working with Tom Cruise for 15 years and I cannot tell you the number of times I've been standing next to the man, witnessed an event and then read about it in the trades the next day and none of what they describe is actually true," McQuarrie said.

If nothing else, Cruise is showing no signs of slowing down: an early look at the film has showcased more of the actor’s stunt work, while he also recently thanked fans for heading to the cinema – before jumping out of a helicopter.

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning – Part One is set to hit cinemas on July 14, 2023. For more on what else is coming our way, check out our guide to movie release dates.

Per Variety, Cruise and McQuarrie are channeling Top Gun after the action star was spotted filming on a US aircraft carrier in the Adriatic Sea. Cruise flew into the Italian port city of Bari on a helicopter before jetting off on what seems to be the USS George H.W. Bush, a supercarrier from the United States Navy.

This all sounds very familiar to fans of Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick, where Cruise plays fighter pilot Pete 'Mitchell' Maverick. With reports of a third Top Gun movie very much still up in the air (if you'll pardon the pun), this could be enough to tide us over while we wait for more news.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One will be coming to cinemas on July 14, 2023. Ahead of its release, Cruise shared an impressible behind-the-scenes look at a dangerous stunt involving a cliff and a motorcycle. 

The death-defying setup sees Cruise ride his bike off a cliff, jump off it, and then parachute down. "This is far and away the most dangerous thing we've ever attempted," Cruise says. "It'll be a motorcycle jump off a clip into a base jump. I've wanted to do it since I was a little kid." 

For more on other upcoming movies, check out our guide to 2023 movie release dates.

"This is far and away the most dangerous thing we've ever attempted," Cruise explains. "It'll be a motorcycle jump off a clip into a base jump. I've wanted to do it since I was a little kid."

The stunt calls for Cruise to ride his motorcycle off a cliff, let go of the bike, and dive straight down until a parachute deploys. Director Christopher McQuarrie shares that it was Cruise who assembled a group of experts for every single part of the stunt.

"I have to get so good at this that there's no way I miss my marks," Cruise says, noting the potentially fatal danger. "It's all about the audience, giving them that thrill."

The actor, known for performing his own incredible stunts without the aid of CGI, completed over 5,000 skydives and over 13,000 motocross jumps in preparation. Cruise had the cast of Top Gun: Maverick go through what star Miles Teller called "Tom Cruise boot camp," which involved three months of intensive flight and swim training.

Dead Reckoning Part One is the seventh installment in the Mission: Impossible film series, starring Cruise as IMF agent Ethan Hunt. The cast includes Ving Rhames, Hayley Atwell, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Simon Pegg, Shea Whigham, Indira Varma, Rob Delaney, and Cary Elwes.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is set to hit theaters on July 14, 2023, with Part Two arriving on June 28, 2024. For more, check our list of all the exciting upcoming movies in 2023 and beyond.

From December 15, those who are watching a movie in IMAX will be treated to another taste of Tom Cruise’s upcoming action movie. That’s perfect timing, then, with Avatar: The Way of Water hitting cinemas on Friday.

The 15-second teaser sees Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie standing on a ramp overlooking a sharp drop over a rock face.

Whatever stunt-filled action we’ll see on the big screen this weekend, expect it to feature Tom Cruise in peak death-defying form. His previous tease, at this year’s CinemaCon, featured him delivering a speech to audiences while perched on a plane and flying over the Blyde River canyon in South Africa.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is reportedly set to be the first of a two-parter that will bring Ethan Hunt’s story to a close. Variety said the two movies will be a "culmination" of the iconic action series, which began back in 1996.

McQuarrie, meanwhile, is keen to dampen any expectation that Tom Cruise is saying goodbye to the role after the Dead Reckoning one-two in 2023 and 2024.

"I've been working with Tom Cruise for 15 years and I cannot tell you the number of times I've been standing next to the man, witnessed an event and then read about it in the trades the next day and none of what they describe is actually true," he told the Light the Fuse podcast.

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One is hitting cinemas on July 14, 2023. For more on what else is coming next year, check out our guide to upcoming movies.

Tom Cruise is the star of the show in Mission: Impossible but, for a brief moment, he was overshadowed in 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout by Henry Cavill’s August Walker and his ‘reloading’ arms during one fight scene.

Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast (H/T Screen Rant), Cavill explained the movement came about after an especially long shoot.

"Everything starts to get quite sore after a while, because it’s a lot of repetitive motion. And the connective tendons in my biceps were getting sore, so I had to warm them up before I threw punches. I would literally do that to warm them up," Cavill explained.

He continued, "I did it once, and I thought ‘oh, god that probably looked really stupid’… And I said, ‘oh sorry [to director Christopher McQuarrie], I’ll do that again.’ And he’s like, ‘do what?... And then I did another take without doing it, and he’s like, ‘why didn’t you do that thing? That was really good.’ And I was like, ‘that was good?’ And he said, ‘yes! Definitely do that.’ And we did."

Mission: Impossible is returning – without any arms being reloaded, we expect – for an upcoming two-parter. Dead Reckoning Part One will release on July 14, 2023 with Part Two to follow on June 28, 2024.

Cavill has also just announced he’s officially back as Superman after his brief appearance in the Black Adam post-credits scene. DC is reportedly inviting writers to pitch ideas for the next Man of Steel cinematic outing – all against the backdrop of James Gunn becoming co-CEO of the newly-formed DC Studios.

Discover what else DC is cooking up with our guide to new superhero movies.

On September 4, Fangoria's Editor-in-Chief Phil Nobile Jr. took to Twitter to share some footage from the movie event. "Hello everyone, wish I could be there with you," Cruise begins in the recorded clip. "I'm sorry for all the... extra noise. As you can see, we are filming the latest installment of Mission: Impossible," he continues, as the camera pans out to reveal him propped up on a bright red biplane. "Right now, we're over the gorgeous Blyde River canyon in stunning South Africa. And we're making this film for the big screen for audiences to see in your wonderful photos."

With that, a yellow aircraft flies up behind Cruise's. "Hey, uh, sorry to bother you, Tom," a voice says, as the actor whips around and exclaims, "Oh, hey, McQ... Chris McQuarrie."

"Hey everybody," the director continues. "Listen, I hate to interrupt but we've really got to roll. We're losing the light and we're low on fuel."

"Low on fuel? That's not good," Cruise jokes, before introducing the first-look Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning trailer and Top Gun: Maverick. "See you at the movies," he says coolly, grinning as the plane veers violently to the left.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning - Part One is set to see Cruise reprise his role as Ethan Hunt for the 7th time. He'll be joined on screen by returning players Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Vanessa Kirby, and Rebecca Ferguson, and franchise newbies Pom Klementieff and Hayley Atwell. It will be released on June 28, 2024.

While we wait, check out our breakdown of the most exciting upcoming movies coming our way in 2022 and beyond.

"I've been working with Tom Cruise for 15 years and I cannot tell you the number of times I've been standing next to the man, witnessed an event and then read about it in the trades the next day and none of what they describe is actually true," he said in an interview on the Light the Fuse podcast.

He added: "When you read articles in the trades, just put the imaginary word in front of the headline: 'The agenda is…' When you read 'anonymous sources' or 'sources close to the production say,' that's somebody putting it out there for a specific reason. That's someone wanting others to think that for a specific reason, and you can never know for sure what those reasons are. You learn to ignore it and laugh at it. In today's world, you wait 17 minutes and another news cycle will sweep it away." 

Cruise will be joined by Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Henry Czerny, Hayley Atwell, Shea Whigham, and Pom Klementieff, along with recently announced new cast members Nick Offerman and Janet McTeer. Previous reports from trade publications said that the seventh and eighth installments would wrap up the franchise.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 arrives on the big screen on July 14, 2023, with Part 2 following on June 28, 2024. In the meantime, check out our guide to the other highly anticipated upcoming movies this year and beyond.

Offerman and McTeer will be joining already confirmed cast members Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Henry Czerny, Hayley Atwell, Shea Whigham, and Pom Klementieff. Details of their characters are being kept under wraps, but Offerman appears to be wearing a decorated military uniform in the image shared by McQuarrie. 

Light the Fuse also shared a snippet of an interview with Offerman from a forthcoming episode about his new role in the franchise. "It’s really fun and fascinating. There’s a handful of very high-caliber actors that I’m getting to work with as well as the lead guy, and getting to toss the ball around is incredible," he said. 

"Everybody brings a great deal of elan and panache and years of experience. And watching [McQuarrie] and Tom [Cruise] do their thing, you can’t really describe it to people. You have to be there. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s like they’re painting an incredible mural and we’re all the paints."

Offerman recently starred in the Hulu limited series Pam & Tommy and he also has a role in The Last of Us TV show, which is set to arrive on HBO in early 2023. Meanwhile, McTeer played Helen Pierce in Ozark season 2 and 3, as well as appearing in shows like Jessica Jones and The White Queen. On the big screen, she's received two Oscar nominations for her roles in the movies Tumbleweeds and Albert Nobbs.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 is set to arrive in theaters on July 14, 2023, with Part 2 following on June 28, 2024. In the meantime, check out our guide to this year's most exciting movie release dates.

"Happy 60th birthday, Tom," McQuarrie, who is directing the next two Mission: Impossible movies, tweeted. The accompanying image is a little less matter-of-fact: it showcases Cruise hanging upside down and holding on to a biplane for dear life. His Top Gun: Maverick co-star Glen Powell also tweeted, "This is 60. TC, there is just no one like you. Keep hangin’ in there. Happy Birthday!"

That image is likely part of 2024’s Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning – Part Two, the follow-up to 2023’s Part One. Cruise was previously seen rehearsing a similar-looking stunt for the movie, which is set to bring the Mission: Impossible franchise to a close. At first glance, this ranks right up there with some of Cruise’s biggest, most daring stunts.

The first trailer for Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One was released in May, with an early leaked cut of the teaser being called "epic" and "phenomenal" by fans – something that was backed up by the finished product.

Even at 60, things aren't slowing down for the actor. Cruise’s latest release, Top Gun: Maverick, has flown past the $1 billion mark at the box office, making it comfortably his best-performing movie of all time. After the next two Mission: Impossible movies, Cruise is also planning to film in outer space with director Doug Liman. 

Need another excuse to go to the cinema? Here are all the movie release dates you have to look forward to for the rest of the year.

Variety reports that the two movies will be a "culmination" for the entire series, acting as a sendoff for the iconic character. There's allegedly pressure on the director Christopher McQuarrie "to deliver a slam-bang farewell to the super spy" – expect Cruise to pull out all the stops when it comes to death-defying stunts, then. The seventh film also reportedly ends on a cliffhanger and was expected to film back-to-back with the eighth movie, but that plan was altered due to COVID measures.

Cruise first portrayed Ethan in 1996’s Mission: Impossible, the movie version of the 1966 television series of the same name created by the late Bruce Geller. Brian De Palma directed the first installment, which centers on an Impossible Missions Force (IMF) agent who seeks to hunt the traitor who framed him for murder. Frequent Tom Cruise collaborator McQuarrie – who penned the screenplay for the latest Top Gun sequel – previously directed Mission: Impossible 5 and Mission: Impossible 6.

 The seventh film introduces Hayley Atwell, Cary Elwes, Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham, Esai Morales, Charles Parnell, Indira Varma, Mark Gatiss, and comedian Rob Delaney to the Mission: Impossible universe. Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, and Vanessa Kirby will reprise their prior roles in both installments.

Mission: Impossible 7 and 8 are now set to premiere in 2023 and 2024, respectively, after their original 2021 and 2022 release dates were pushed back. For more upcoming movies, check out our guide to what’s being released in 2022.

Leading man Tom Cruise (AKA Ethan Hunt) is needed on promotional duties for Top Gun: Maverick ahead of that film’s planned release on July 2 – filming for M:I 8 should be able to get underway once that's over, though.

Alongside Cruise, Mission: Impossible 7 will see Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, and Angela Bassett reprise their roles from previous movies in the series. Captain America: The First Avenger star Hayley Atwell is joining the franchise in an undisclosed role. 

According to an Instagram post from director Christopher McQuarrie, filming has now wrapped in Abu Dhabi and the team is now heading back to London to apply a few "finishing touches" to the movie.

The movie's shoot has seen the cast travel from Norway to Italy to the UAE – quite the feat in the middle of a global pandemic. According to the sneak peek we've had from set photos, it looks like we can expect the usual jaw-dropping stunts from the newest installment in the action franchise. Cruise has been spotted speeding through Rome while handcuffed to Atwell and on top of a speeding train, to name just two glimpses behind the scenes.

Mission: Impossible 7 is due for release on November 19, 2021, delayed a few months from its original July release date, while Mission: Impossible 8 is currently planned for November 4, 2022.

While we wait for Mission: Impossible 7 (and 8), make sure you've caught up with the best movies of 2020.

Well, Fallout – the sixth film in the series – sees the actor/producer/stuntman engaging in one of his riskiest manoeuvres yet, with a helicopter sequence set to be a standout. Filmed in New Zealand, the set-piece required more than a year-and-a-half’s prep, with Cruise required to learn how to actually pilot the helicopter. Not only does he fly the chopper during the high-octane sequence – that’d be too easy – he’s also required to dangle off it on a cargo net, and climb his way up to the cockpit.

You can get a glimpse of that particular moment at in this exclusive image from the new issue of Total Film magazine, which has Mission: Impossible – Fallout on the cover. Check out Cruise in action below…

There’s obviously a huge amount of planning that goes into an action scene like this, but returning director Christopher McQuarrie (the first person to helm more than one M:I film) tells Total Film that the sequence was “far and away the most challenging thing that I’ve ever done, for the amount of screentime it will actually take on.”

And ever the multi-tasker, Cruise has the day-job to think about while performing in a stunt like this. “I’m also not just flying a helicopter, I’m performing in the scene,” Cruise explains to TF. And the intensity of the situation led to some unusual side effects. “The adrenaline was going so hard,” continues Cruise, “that I would finish at the end of the day, and I’d have to go home and eat three meals. I’d have to have three dinners. My body couldn’t get enough food, and my legs ached from adrenal fatigue. It was fascinating.”

Fallout sees Cruise’s Ethan Hunt going rogue after a mission gone awry, and franchise newcomer Henry Cavill is the unstoppable CIA agent on his tail. For much more on the film – including more from Cruise and McQuarrie, as well as Cavill, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg and more – grab a copy of the new issue when it hits newstands both real and digital this Friday, June 1. Or, to make sure you never miss and issue and even get it before it hits shelves, why not subscribe?

Doing so will net you an exclusive subscriber-only cover (like the one below), and you’ll also save money on the cover price. What’s not to like? Head to My Favourite Magazines for more info.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout opens on July 26 in the UK and July 27 in the US.

Tom Cruise is named Icon Of Our Life time in issue 200 of Total Film magazine , and inside we chat in depth with the man himself on his movie past, present and future.

The world’s biggest movie actor is this month's cover star, and you can read the complete feature inside the latest issue (available for just £1.99 on your iPad) .

Cruise chats about all of his upcoming films, including Jack Reacher , Van Helsing , and the long-mooted Top Gun 2 . And we also pressed him on the possibility of another Mission: Impossible installment, not least as Ghost Protocol was Cruise’s biggest hit to date.

On the fourquel’s success, Cruise told us, “Seeing an audience respond… to have that experience is really wonderful.

“I started Mission: Impossible hoping I could make many of them. It’s a character that I can grow with. At that time it was the most expensive film in the history of Paramount Pictures, and the first film I was producing.

“It’s been pretty exciting. I’ll make a bunch of those. I’ll make as many as people want to see... because they’re very challenging, and so much fun to make.”

Any ideas for the plot and set-pieces? “We’re already working on different images. Talking conceptually. I love travelling around promoting different movies because I’m always looking at different places, and I always walk around to see the city. I look at architecture, subways… coming up with different sequences.”

Jack Reacher opens in the UK on 26 December 2012.

For much more from Tom Cruise, grab yourself a copy of the 200th issue collector’s edition of Total Film magazine ! (You can save 50% on the cover price with our winter 2012 offer)

And don’t forget, the issue is available in our incredible interactive iPad edition for just £1.99 .

Check out the 50 Best Films Of Total Film magazine’s Lifetime !

Jeremy Renner has pretty much got the market in enigmatic superspies sewn up, what with his forthcoming roles in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and The Bourne Legacy .

So when Total Film sat down with The Hurt Locker actor recently, we naturally took the opportunity to grill him on those upcoming characters.

So tell us about the mysterious Agent Brandt…

“He’s a pretty complex character. There’s some things I can’t reveal but what I can tell you is he works for The Secretary, the guy dishing out the missions.

“We’re delivering a mission to Tom and then things go awry and we’re thrown into the mix with Ethan Hunt and another crew of people.

“It’s a big mosh-pit of agents and we go on a pretty cool thrill ride.”

And Renner went some way to assuaging cynics’ doubts about The Bourne Legacy when we asked him how it would differ from previous instalments…

“I think you’ll feel that it’s a wonderful continuation of the franchise; it’s going to be gritty with great action and character. The feel and tempo and intensity of it is all there.

“The main difference is it’s a new program – there’s a different hook in what they’re trying to do with the agents.”

So he won’t have to do the whole amnesiac routine?

“No, I don’t do that. I know who I am!”

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol opens on 26 December 2011.

For more on Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol , get the new issue of Total Film Magazine, which is out tomorrow!

To subscribe to Total Film Magazine, click here .

You can now read Total Film Magazine on iPhone and iPad via Apple Newsstand!

To find it on the App Store, click here .