Tom Cruise's blockbuster Mission: Impossible franchise has really been on an upward swing over the past couple of years, thanks, in no small part, to the widespread critical & massive commercial success of both 2011's Ghost Protocol and 2015's Rogue Nation.
Now, in 2018, Ethan Hunt will embark on his sixth impossible mission since 1996 and thanks to a recent podcast appearance by director Christopher McQuarrie, we have a small beat on where the highly anticipated film might take him.
He didn't say much more in regards to Hunt's character arc, avoiding any sort of spoilers, but did hint that the film would delve deeper into character study territory, more so than any of the previous installments ever have. “I’ve seen five of these movies and I don’t know who Ethan Hunt is. One movie sort of dealt with his personal life; the other movies are about people speculating what’s really going on in Ethan’s head. I want to know who Ethan is in this movie, I want an emotional journey for this character, and Tom really embraced it.” Sounds like we could be in for quite the treat. McQuarrie then went on to briefly explain how he's approaching this one a bit differently than his previous effort: “I don’t want to string together a bunch of action scenes, I want to actually deal with character. So I put Ethan in a bunch of complicated moral quandaries, and I’m trying to find ways to connect them – and then, ironically, the way to connect them was through giant action scenes.”
Speaking of those "giant action scenes," it sounds like McQuarrie may be on the verge of cracking the upcoming film's signature moment, although when asked how he was planning on topping Cruise hanging off the side of a plane, he did reply: "I don't know!," before continuing: “And I have to find out by April 10th. I may have found something today. I came to Tom with a picture of something and Tom looked at it and said, ‘That’s awesome! I want to fall off of that!’ It’s like, OK, I can see it on a poster, and I can see Tom falling off of it.” Whoa, last time Ethan Hunt came close to falling off something, it was the Burj Khalifa, so this time, it must be something extra special to elicit such a strong reaction from Cruise. With the stunt idea still in its infant stages, McQuarrie wisely elected not to divulge any further details but did reveal that the film will start much differently than the jaw-dropping start of Rogue Nation: "It starts in a very unconventional way. It does not start with action. That was the hardest pitch of this movie.”
On another note, while Cruise and Rogue Nation breakout Rebecca Ferguson have both been confirmed to return for a while now, it sounds like they might be joined by a couple IMF agents we haven't seen since the original trilogy as McQuarrie cryptically teased the return of multiple franchise cast members, "including people you would not expect to be back.” It was previously reported that both Paula Patton & Maggie Q had been approached for Mission 5, but couldn't make it work back then due to scheduling conflicts, so could this be our first inkling at their possible return? Additionally, it's also probably a safe bet that the quartet (or at least a combination) of Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, and Alec Baldwin will also be back in some capacity, especially considering their statuses at the end of the 2015 summer blockbuster.
Be sure to check out Empire's full podcast with McQuarrie by heading HERE!
So, what do you guys think? Excited? What do you hope the new stunt is? Who else would you like to see return? Sound off with your thoughts below!
Mission: Impossible 6 lights the fuse July 27, 2018