Latest news with #FinalReckoning
IOL News
an hour ago
- Entertainment
- IOL News
Can South African cinemas survive in a streaming-dominated world?
Can the cinema industry in South Africa survive in an age of streaming? In an age where streaming services offer an endless number of films at our fingertips, the global cinema industry faces challenges, grappling with declining audiences and escalating operational costs. Despite the closure of several cinemas nationwide, Ster Kinekor is confident that this year will be a good year, as it recorded its biggest 'out of season' weekend admissions of 2025 last weekend. 'This once again is proof that cinema is alive and well, and that audiences still prefer watching the new release of a blockbuster title on the big screen. It also proves that movie magic is not regulated by the calendar,' said Mark Sardi, chief executive officer of Ster-Kinekor. The strong showing was fuelled by two major releases: the live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch and the latest Mission: Impossible film, Final Reckoning. Across South Africa, several theatres have closed their doors over the past year, including long-running venues at Bedford Square in Johannesburg, Gateway in Umhlanga, and most recently, Cavendish Square in Cape Town. These closures follow years of pressure from streaming services, shifting consumer habits, and the lasting effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Cinema chain Nu Metro recently took over the Bedford Square site previously occupied by Ster-Kinekor. It is expected to take over the Ster Kinekor cinema complex at Gateway.
IOL News
a day ago
- Entertainment
- IOL News
The future of cinema: Can South African theatres thrive in a streaming world?
Can the cinema industry in South Africa survive in an age of streaming? In an age where streaming services offer an endless number of films at our fingertips, the global cinema industry faces challenges, grappling with declining audiences and escalating operational costs. Despite the closure of several cinemas nationwide, Ster Kinekor is confident that this year will be a good year, as it recorded its biggest 'out of season' weekend admissions of 2025 last weekend. 'This once again is proof that cinema is alive and well, and that audiences still prefer watching the new release of a blockbuster title on the big screen. It also proves that movie magic is not regulated by the calendar,' said Mark Sardi, chief executive officer of Ster-Kinekor. The strong showing was fuelled by two major releases: the live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch and the latest Mission: Impossible film, Final Reckoning. Across South Africa, several theatres have closed their doors over the past year, including long-running venues at Bedford Square in Johannesburg, Gateway in Umhlanga, and most recently, Cavendish Square in Cape Town. These closures follow years of pressure from streaming services, shifting consumer habits, and the lasting effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Cinema chain Nu Metro recently took over the Bedford Square site previously occupied by Ster-Kinekor. It is expected to take over the Ster Kinekor cinema complex at Gateway.
Chicago Tribune
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Column: In the new ‘Mission: Impossible,' Rolf Saxon is the secret weapon, a ‘coffee guy' no more
Every movie franchise has its worker bees, the supporting players working somewhere along the bit-part spectrum. Three, maybe four lines of dialogue. Lines such as: 'Such as?' or 'Here, I got you these,' spoken to the more dynamic and prominent characters we're supposed to be watching. Statistically speaking, these bit-part mayflies of the movie world have next-to-zero odds of returning for a sequel. But next to zero is not zero. And a faintly absurd long shot just came in for the actor Rolf Saxon. You may not know Rolf Saxon's name, which is Rolf Saxon, but you may know about his latest film. 'Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,' the super-expensive $400 million franchise finale (though who's to say), now off to a strong $200 million global box office launch in its first weekend, a record for the eight-film series. Twenty-nine years ago, Saxon, a veteran stage and screen actor who makes his home in northern California, was hired for a small role with four lines of expedient dialogue in the first 'Mission: Impossible,' directed by Brian De Palma. Remember the CIA break-in scene, with Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt lowered by wires into the impenetrable maximum security vault? Remember the CIA analyst, a tall fellow with glasses and the vaguely beaten-down air of an ill-fated company man, whose coffee is spiked with drops of something nasty but not fatal by Emmanuelle Béart? That's Saxon. The character's name is William Donloe. His lines: And that's all he says, though Donloe comes and goes a fair bit, wordless, puzzled and sometimes puking, in that still-dazzling suspense sequence. Last we hear of Donloe, Impossible Mission Force director Kittridge, played by Henry Czerny, orders him banished and 'manning a radar tower in Alaska by the end of the day. Just mail him his clothes.' Seven 'Mission: Impossible' films later, a crazy thing happened. Donloe came back, and Saxon with him, in a greatly expanded supporting role. In 'Final Reckoning,' he brings a steady, reassuring presence to a character now given the larger dimension of a beautiful marriage (Inuit actor Lucy Tulugarjuk plays his wife), some hardy sled dogs and a useful role in saving the world at the film's first climax. (It has two, maybe three.) Saxon, who turns 70 in July, has worked extensively on stage in England and the U.S. and on TV and larger screens for decades. In 'Final Reckoning,' what sounds like a one-joke nostalgia callback to a character of little narrative importance becomes something more, and not a joke. 'A total fluke,' he says of Donloe getting a second chance in the franchise. 'It just kept getting better and better and better.' Our conversation has been edited for clarity and length. Q: When the first 'Mission: Impossible' came around, where were you in your career? A: I was doing the David Mamet play 'Oleanna,' touring around Wales. I got a call from my agent, saying they wanted me to audition for a Tom Cruise movie. I said great, I took a three-hour train ride to Pinewood Studios near London and I met with Brian De Palma for three and a half, four minutes. I thought, well, that was a waste. I thanked the casting director for calling me in, but told her I didn't think it went very well. And she said, 'No, no. No! Oh, no. He loved you! You were in there the longest of anybody.' Q: So you got the part. How long was the gig? A: They offered me the gig, but I had another film job to finagle a little, to make them both work. It meant working three or four weeks, seven days a week, which was fine. Great, actually. Three weeks on 'Mission,' then another week or so finishing up while I did this other film. I was younger then. Q: At that point in your career were you thinking, well, good gig, small part, big movie? Or did you have anything like a hope of it turning into something more? A: No! I mean, I got to do a Tom Cruise movie directed by Brian De Palma, and to be honest, if it hadn't been for those two, I probably wouldn't have gone in for the audition, because it meant six hours on the train back and forth from Wales and I had a show that night. Donloe was a tiny part, walk-on stuff. That's how it started, although it did develop a little bit more as shooting went on. Q: How so? A: I was very at ease on set, having a good time, and I was sort of messing around one day, you know, cutting up, making people laugh. I don't even remember how. But then I got a tap on the shoulder from the first assistant, who said: 'Mr. De Palma wants to speak to you.' Q: And he fired you. A: (laughs) You're joking, but believe me, that's what I thought was happening. The look on the first assistant's face — we're still in touch today, a great guy — seemed to indicate exactly that. All he said to me, as we walked over to De Palma, was: 'Watch me. Watch when you're talking to.' So he stands behind De Palma and De Palma says to me, 'I saw you messing around up there.' And I say, 'Yes, sir.' And he says, not smiling at all, 'Yeah. Everybody seemed to be enjoying that.' And I started to say something, and right then Chris, the first assistant, who's standing behind De Palma, just does this (holds his finger up to his lips in a 'shush!' gesture). So I didn't speak. De Palma says, 'Uh, well, could you do that again, whatever it was you were doing?' And I said sure, and he said, 'Because I have an idea for something. After lunch we'll film for an hour or two.' So that afternoon, and then the next morning, we improvised all the throwing-up bits, and Donloe running to and from the bathroom. And that came from just messing around on set. Most of it ended up on the (cutting-room) floor, but it was fun. Q: You barely talk in that entire scene, which for a lot of people was the best thing in the first movie. It makes Donloe seem like an accidentally crucial figure. A: That's De Palma. I'm forever in his debt for that scene. A masterful filmmaker. Q: And you had no reason to hope, any time over the last 25 years, that Donloe might find some excuse to return to the 'M:I' universe? A: Only in my own mind (laughs). I did draft a letter years ago: 'Dear Tom: What about if we did this?' Some ridiculous excuse to bring back Donloe, you know. Then I thought, who am I kidding? I crumpled it up and threw it away. And then years later this happens. Q: You've told the story of how you got word from your agent that Christopher McQuarrie (director and co-screenwriter of several 'M:I' films, including 'Final Reckoning') was setting up a Zoom meeting to talk to you about the movie, and you were convinced it was a friend of yours, punking you. A: Right, and then I'm on the Zoom call, and there's Christopher McQuarrie. He offered me the job within two minutes, and we spent the next hour talking about where (the script in development) could go, and what could happen. I didn't see a final script until about three days before leaving to do the project, two and a half years later. I was hired in July 2022, and I finished in May 2024. The pandemic, which we were still recovering from, plus two strikes (the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild strikes), all meant massive, expensive hiatuses. I was probably on set four, maybe five months total, mainly in London, and in Norway (doubling for St. Matthew Island in the Bering Sea). Q: I gotta say, watching you bring Donloe back in such a satisfying way is like a victory for all the actors out there. A: Very gracious, thanks. I mean, I can't remember a part of that size coming back 30 years later. I've never heard of such a thing. And originally I was supposed to be in only one section of the new film, the Alaska segment, when there was a very different storyline. The idea that this is happening to me at my age, at this point in my career, well. It's cool. Q: This is your biggest part in a big-budget studio film? A: By far. I've done some smaller roles in other big movies. I was in that film with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones, what was that called … Q: The one with the laser-wire acrobatics, right … A: Oh, golly, this is what age'll do to you. (Interview devolves momentarily into two men in their 60s trying to remember a movie title). Q: 'Entrapment!' Just looked it up. A: That's it! (laughs) Q: Also, you're in the opening of 'Saving Private Ryan.' A: (pause) That one hurt. I had a wonderful part in that film at first. Tom Hanks played the good guy and Lt. Briggs, who I played, was the adversary, this (jerk) in the platoon nobody liked. And then the first 20 minutes of the film were rewritten, and a lot of us lost material as a result. I lost the most. Couldn't go to the premiere. I couldn't face it. Q: Maybe 'Final Reckoning' is karma coming around for you. A: Maybe. Maybe. I've been very lucky.
Geek Girl Authority
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Girl Authority
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING Spoiler Review
Major spoilers ahead for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning . You've been warned. * * It's hard to believe that it's been 29 years since the first Mission: Impossible (1996) flick. Only the James Bond flicks have been going longer than the Tom Cruise-led franchise. And even though it seems like Cruise will live forever, it does feel like maybe it's about time for him to hang up the IMF hat. But does Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning provide a satisfying ending to the beloved series? Read on to find out. (Note: Before you read on, if you need a refresher on the full story, first read our spoiler review of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One . ) RELATED: Thunderbolts* Spoiler Review Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning begins with Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) watching a message from Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett), who's now the President of the United States. The analog videotape is the only way to communicate safely, now that the all-powerful AI known as the Entity has taken over all of cyberspace and is causing havoc all over the world. It even has its own cult. Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Pres. Sloane wants Ethan to come out of hiding, knowing he has the highly coveted cruciform key, which opens the Entity's main unit. But of course, Ethan knows he can't let anyone have the key. He's been in hiding in the tunnels underneath London along with Benji (Simon Pegg) and Luther (Ving Rhames), who's now ill with (we assume) cancer but is still hard at work on something secret. Ethan and Benji travel to Austria to free Paris (Pom Klementieff), who, turns out, didn't die in the last flick after all. They scuffle with Agents Briggs (Shea Whigham) and Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis), who have been assigned to watch her. Ethan manages to convince Briggs to let Paris go so she can help them destroy the Entity. RELATED: Movie Review: The Surfer When Ethan goes back to London, he's confronted by more agents. Then, Grace (Hayley Atwell) shows up and pickpockets their guns. She tells Ethan that Kittridge (Henry Czerny) sent her to bring him in. But then they're both shanghaied by goons sent by Gabriel (Esai Morales), who used to work for the Entity, but failed to get the key. So he's trying to get back into the Entity's good graces. When Ethan and Grace wake up, they're in Gabriel's custody. He tells Ethan that the Rabbit's Foot (from Mission: Impossible III ) was one of the earliest versions of the Entity. He tasks Ethan with finding the Sevastopol, the sunken Russian submarine, which contains the Entity's main unit. Ethan pretends to bite down on a cyanide capsule in one of his teeth. As Gabriel's goons race to revive him, Ethan gets in a fight with them and wins, of course. He frees Grace, and they meet up with Benji, Paris and Degas. They find this weird, coffin-like machine with a VR-type mask. Ethan gets in and puts on the mask, which connects him to the Entity. Ving Rhames in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning The Entity tells Ethan it knows that he's planning to destroy it by using Luther's secret weapon (yes, I said secret weapon), which they're calling the 'Poison Pill.' All they have to do is plug it into the module with the Entity's source code, called the 'Podkova,' and it will destroy it. In true Skynet fashion, the Entity believes humanity to be its enemy and plans to destroy the world by controlling all the world's nukes. But the Entity needs a safe place to hide itself, lest it be destroyed as well. It wants Ethan to deliver it to a Doomsday vault in South Africa, which has enough server space to store it. RELATED: Sinners Spoiler Review Knowing that Gabriel's gone after Luther, Ethan races back to the tunnels. He finds Luther trapped inside with a bomb, the Poison Pill now in Gabriel's hands. Luther says he can keep the bomb from going critical and destroying London, but the tunnels will be destroyed – and so will he. Luther and Ethan say their goodbyes, Luther saying he has no regrets. Aww. Sad. Ethan escapes the tunnels as the bomb goes off, but ends up getting caught by Briggs. Now on a plane back to the U.S., Ethan tells Briggs he knows who Briggs really is – wait for it – the son of none other than Jim Phelps (Jon Voight, from the first Mission: Impossible ). Gasp! Briggs knows Ethan killed his dear old dad, despite the fact that Phelps was the bad guy. Ethan tries convincing Briggs that the Entity is trying to turn him against him, but Briggs seems pretty confident that he'll get Ethan back in the end. When they land at Mount Weather in Virginia, Kittridge meets them, telling Ethan that the Entity has been infiltrating different countries' nuke arsenal controls. He brings Ethan to the situation room where Gen. Sidney (Nick Offerman), Serling (Holt McCallany), Walters (Janet McTeer) and Richards (Charles Parnell) are gathered. Don't ask me what any of their titles are – Joint Chiefs? Cabinet? Security Council? I have no idea. Nick Offerman, Charles Parnell, Mark Gatiss, Angela Bassett, Janet McTeer in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Anyway, so the government types familiarize themselves with Ethan's long and distinguished record of impossible missions. Then Pres. Sloane arrives and lets Ethan know that the only countries still in control of their nukes are the U.S., China, Russia and the U.K. But they won't be able to keep the Entity at bay forever. Sloane wants control of the Entity, but Ethan's definitely not down with that. He's going to take out the Entity himself, and he wants every possible asset he can get from Sloane, including getting a ride out to the Sevastopol via aircraft carrier. RELATED: Movie Review: The Uninvited To the shock and chagrin of her underlings, Sloane gives Ethan carte blanche. Ethan flies out to the carrier and meets Admiral Neely (Hannah Waddingham) and gives her a note from Sloane, which just has a date written on it – a date that's important to both Neely and Sloane. So, Neely knows it's all for real and the Prez has given Ethan her blessing. Neely drives the carrier out to the Bering Sea, where Ethan's asked the rest of the team to meet him. Meanwhile, the team, being Grace, Benji, Paris and Degas, arrive on St. Matthew's Island where, supposedly, there's an outpost that has the exact coordinates of the Sevastopol. But the outpost turns out to be just a house where William Donloe (Rolf Saxon) lives. If you've seen the first Mission: Impossible, you'll remember that famous vault infiltration scene – Donloe was the guy working in the vault and puking in his trash can. Benji remembers hearing about it and geeks out. Donloe tells them the CIA exiled him to the island after that little debacle. But he has no regrets; he met the love of his life there, his wife, Tapeesa (Lucy Tulugarjuk). Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, Pom Klementieff, Greg Tarzan Davis in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Donloe knows why they're there, and he knows the coordinates. The only problem is, the Russians have gotten there first. And on cue, they appear, armed to the teeth. The team fights the Russians, and in the middle of that, the house catches fire. Donloe manages to get to his radio and sends out the coordinates via Morse code for Ethan to receive. Meanwhile, Neely's people fly Ethan out to where a U.S. sub is waiting. Russian planes appear, and Ethan has to jump out of the helicopter so that they can turn back. The sub picks him up and brings him to Capt. Bledsoe (Trammell Tillman). Ethan details the whole crazy plan: He'll dive down to the Sevastopol, retrieve the Podkova and his team will rescue him by cutting through the ice. Yeah, sure, piece of cake. RELATED: Drop Spoiler Review But hey, it's about time for another fight, isn't it? Well, one of the sub's crew turns out to be an Entity acolyte and tries to kill Ethan. Luckily, one of the divers (Katy O'Brian) knocks the guy out. Then, after he's had some – well, actually very little – time to prepare, the divers give Ethan the rundown on the special suit he'll be wearing. The catch? Not only will Ethan feel the effects of HPNS (high-pressure nervous syndrome), which at the least will cause him to have tremors. But on his way back up, he'll also get the bends. Yay. But the IMF team has a portable hyperbaric chamber with them, which he'll have to immediately get into once they rescue him. So, Ethan enters the frigid waters and dives down to the Sevastopol. Once inside, not only does he have to search for the Entity's chamber, but he also has to deal with the sub rolling over and over. He finds the chamber and retrieves the Podkova, but then getting out turns out to be a whole other issue. The only way he can escape is through a torpedo tube. So, he ends up cutting his suit off so he can stuff himself and his gas tank out. Then, he pretty much drowns on his way up to the ice. Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning The next thing we see is Grace doing CPR, and then Ethan wakes up inside the hyperbaric chamber. He rejoins everyone and has a little reunion with Donloe. Then, the team comes up with the next phase of the plan. Once the Poison Pill's attached to the Podkova, the Entity will need somewhere to escape to. Benji has a drive they can use, but the timing to catch and trap the Entity inside has to be split-second. Ethan knows that Gabriel's waiting for him at the Doomsday vault in South Africa, so guess where we're off to next? Meanwhile, Pres. Sloane's team tries to come up with some kind of contingency plan as they watch the U.K. and China fall victim to the Entity. They suggest offering up a major city, figuring that nuking one city will keep the Entity from destroying the rest. Not really sure how that makes sense, but okay, whatever. RELATED: The Woman in the Yard Spoiler Review So, they get the nucl ear football and are just about to launch when Sloane suddenly refuses, deciding to take all nukes offline instead. Then, one of the Entity's acolytes tries to kill her. Gen. Sidney takes the bullet for her and kills the acolyte before dying. The IMF team arrives at the Doomsday vault, where they find Gabriel, along with Kittridge and Briggs. Gabriel's set up another bomb like the one that killed Luther. Kittridge wants the Poison Pill and the Podkova, of course. Then, a gunfight breaks out, and Gabriel escapes with the Poison Pill. While Ethan goes after him, Donloe, Tapeesa and Degas stay with the bomb so they can disarm it. Grace, Benji and Paris get to the server room – and Benji gets shot. He ends up talking Paris through reinflating his collapsing lung while also talking Grace through setting up the trap for the Entity. Meanwhile, in order to escape, Gabriel's got two biplanes (which can't be controlled by the Entity). He takes off in one, and Ethan, in his signature insanity, climbs onto the other one and dumps out the pilot. Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning A crazy dogfight ensues until Gabriel manages to disable Ethan's plane by coming in overhead and smashing the wing from above. Ethan climbs out and jumps onto Gabriel's plane because, well, it looks amazing. He fights with Gabriel and manages to get the Poison Pill back. Gabriel laughs (literally an evil 'bwahahaha'), shouting that he's the only one with a parachute. But when he flies off, he goes face-first into the plane's rudder. Youch. Ethan climbs back into the plane and attaches himself to the parachute in the other seat. He jumps out and deploys the chute, only to have it catch fire when the plane explodes. As he free-falls through the clouds, Ethan attempts to connect the Poison Pill to the Podkova. RELATED: Movie Review: Death of A Unicorn Back in the server room, Grace cuts whatever wire Benji told her to and then snatches the drive off the circuit board, with the kind of timing only a seasoned pickpocket would have. Yeah, it seems like a pretty weak connection to make, but whatever. Somebody's gotta do it. Anyway, Donloe, Tapeesa and Degas fix the nuke so it won't go critical and escape the explosion. Meanwhile, Ethan lands in a field after deploying a backup chute. The Poison Pill (somehow) plays a final message from Luther, who says he knows Ethan will save the world. He recites the IMF oath of living and dying 'in the shadows, for those we hold close…and those we will never meet.' Kittridge and Briggs find Ethan, and he hands over the now-fried Podkova. Kittridge is left beaten (ha-ha) and Briggs has to give Ethan credit for, well, saving the world – yet again. Back in the U.S., Pres. Sloane arrives back in D.C. (we assume) to a full military greeting, including her son, whom she hugs. Tom Cruise, Esai Morales in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Sometime later, Ethan arrives back in London. In short order, Benji, Paris, Degas and Grace arrive as well. Nobody speaks, and they keep their distance – except for Grace, who hands Ethan a small case containing the hard drive with the trapped Entity. They all nod at each other and then go their separate ways. And that's all, folks. *** I've been a fan of Mission: Impossible since the beginning, and I love all the flicks (even M:I 2, which is so over-the-top goofy it's hilarious). They're everything I love about the movies – exciting, engaging and often funny with action that cannot be paralleled. Christopher McQuarrie's solid writing and direction have kept M:I from slipping back into silliness, even if the plotlines do get really convoluted. RELATED: Novocaine Spoiler Review And it's hard to fault anything Tom Cruise does, knowing he puts his life on the line to ensure an entertaining experience. His love of moviemaking and sheer will to get it done, whether it's climbing the Burj Kalifa, hanging off the sides of planes or breaking his ankle making a crazy jump, leave you feeling as enthusiastic as he is, ready to cheer him on. And in Final Reckoning, the stunts are second to none. The underwater sequence inside the rolling submarine was incredible, especially considering there was no dialogue. I was on the edge of my seat, watching Cruise navigate the obstacles set before him, wondering how he managed to survive it. And of course, the biplane sequence was just nuts in the best possible way. Simon Pegg, Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning I do have a couple of issues with Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, th ough. One is that even though we know this is the last flick, it doesn't feel like an ending at all. There are no final goodbyes, and there's no sense that anything is over. If anything, the last scene feels like a setup for another flick. RELATED: Natasha Romanoff vs. Yelena Belova: The Value of Well-Written Women Characters I can only guess that they're leaving room for the franchise to continue with the other characters. But I don't feel like the other characters could support the weight of a whole flick on their own. They're just not developed or interesting enough. And honestly, Mission: Impossible without Tom Cruise? Yeah, there's no point. I can't imagine I'm the only one who feels that way, so why bother with an open-ended finale? Just doesn't make a lot of sense. The other issue is that the action sequences in this flick, in particular, while spectacular, end up overshadowing everything else. In most of the Mission: Impossible flicks, the action serves the story, feels like it comes about because of t he story. But Final Reckoning feels kinda reverse-engineered, like they came up with the stunts first and built everything else around them, which doesn't hold up as well. That said, though, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is epic, loud, crazy fun. And the only real crime is not seeing it on the big screen. You get so much movie for your money, and the action is breathtaking. It's the whole reason for the theater experience. So, choose to accept the mission, and go see it big. Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie Written by: Eric Jendresen, Christopher McQuarrie Release date: May 23, 2025 Rating: PG-13 Run time: 2hr, 50min Distributor: Paramount Pictures FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES Spoiler Review
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning' reminds us Ethan Hunt is a Wisconsin native
Among the many, many, many things going on in "Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning," the eighth movie in the billion-dollar movie franchise that opened in theaters May 23, there's a reminder that the death-defying character played by Tom Cruise is, yes, a Badger. During a couple of scenes in "Final Reckoning," viewers get a flash of the dossier of Ethan Hunt, the character Tom Cruise has played in the "Mission: Impossible" movies since the big-screen reboot began in 1996. At the top of the first page visible in Hunt's top-secret file is his place of birth — Madison, Wisconsin. It's not the first time that Hunt's Wisconsin roots have come up in the "Mission: Impossible" movies, although they haven't been brought up all that often. In Cruise's first "Mission: Impossible" movie, released in 1996, Hunt is on the run after most of his team is killed. Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny), the head of the IMF, shows him documents from his parents' Wisconsin bank account, showing a huge inflow of money after his father's death and the family farm going into a form of receivership. Kittridge claims the money came from a Czech arms dealer. In the first of many, many, many times, Hunt manages to escape in a showy set-piece scene (this time by shattering a giant aquarium and flooding the restaurant where they're meeting). To smoke Hunt out, Kittridge stages an arrest — shown live on CNN — of his mother and uncle at a farm outside of Madison, who the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency claims were the kingpins behind a massive drug-manufacturing ring. (After things are all resolved — several chases and explosions later — the Justice Department apologizes to mom and uncle and lets them go.) The dossier on Hunt's background returns in 2018's "Mission: Impossible — Fallout." In a rarity for Wisconsin shoutouts in the movies, no cheesehead hats or beer jokes accompany any of these mentions. In its first weekend in theaters, "Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning" took in $77 million in North America and $204 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Is Tom Cruise character in 'Mission: Impossible' a Badger?
