Latest news with #RogueNation
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Impossibly frustrating: why Mission: Impossible 8 was a major letdown
If the title is sincere, and this really is the final reckoning, then it's been a franchise of two halves. Mission: Impossible diehards tend to underrate the first half (which ran from Brian De Palma's brisk 1996 original to 2011's fun Ghost Protocol) as much as they overrate the second (which launched with 2015's Rogue Nation). Yet the rumbles and grumbles emanating from public screenings suggests a disgruntled consensus is forming around the concluding instalment: that this is an altogether disjointed way to resolve the affairs of Ethan Hunt and his IMF crew, and a shaky way to ignite the movie summer season. Ninety minutes in which nothing happens over and over again, followed by 70 minutes of M:I B-roll. To better diagnose this latest glitch in the Hollywood machine, we need to return to the relighting of the fuse. This was the franchise to which Tom Cruise retreated in the wake of the commercial underperformance of 1999's Eyes Wide Shut and Magnolia – the two most rigorous turns of this star's career, films in which Cruise allowed himself to be rattled and seen to be rattled, only to be met with widespread public and awards-circuit indifference. The Mission: Impossibles, by contrast, would be the sort of 4DX-coded sure thing for which audiences have routinely turned out, a creative safe space, even as the films' constituent set pieces pushed their prime mover into performing ever riskier business to ensure bums on seats. In those early films, the character of Hunt was as much martyr and marked man as saviour or secular saint, targeted at every turn by directors with comparably forceful visions. The sensationalist De Palma revelled in the set-up's potential for spectacle; and while, in retrospect, the motorbike-and-mullet combo of 2000's M:I 2, directed by John Woo and set to a bruising Limp Bizkit beat, was bound to date rapidly, the sometime animator Brad Bird, in Ghost Protocol, had the bright idea of turning the series into a live-action cartoon, with Cruise defying gravity and nature alike by hanging off the side of the Burj Khalifa and personally outrunning a sandstorm. The last four films, however, bear the imprint of screenwriter turned director Christopher McQuarrie, who concluded that what this series needed was a little more conversation, overseeing the construction of a vast story framework for his star to dangle off one-handed. That approach reaches its apotheosis in The Final Reckoning, but the scaffolding now overwhelms the spectacle. The attempt to solder eight films together ends in much-rewritten incoherence – see Ving Rhames's confused sendoff – and, worryingly, results in missions being described rather than shown. You wonder whether the insurers blanched after Cruise crocked an ankle shooting 2018's Fallout; now we're left with folks talking at length in nondescript rooms. Is this a Mission: Impossible movie, as advertised, or some M:I-themed podcast? The spectacle, when it tardily follows, is subpar; nothing rivals the train derailment in 2023's Dead Reckoning, which perversely benefitted from McQuarrie's yen for stringing matters out. A soggy deep dive, cramped and claustrophobic, offers another (this time depressurised) chamber piece; during a rote subterranean shootout, we learn world-ending AI generators can apparently be stored in complex cave systems. (I mean, how long's the extension cable?) The biplane conclusion feels more like the M:Is of yore, but chiefly reminds you of Top Gun: Maverick's superior engineering. Too often, McQuarrie has deferred to Cruise and his exhausted stunt coordinators; as a result, the series' bank of memorable images has dwindled. At this length, other flaws become apparent. While the cast expanded once the series set up shop in London, the supporting players now have far less to do, save raise sporadic eyebrows in Hunt's direction. McQuarrie has penned great intros for his women (Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Hayley Atwell), but they're then stranded because Cruise is neither Cary Grant nor Colin Farrell. (Onscreen chemistry remains his most impossible mission.) Making artificial intelligence (AI) the villain in 2025 is a resonant choice, but it's never developed beyond abstract concept; the human big bad (the ever-underused Esai Morales) is an afterthought. Late M:I is mostly All About Tom, or as the credits frame it: Tom Cruise in A Tom Cruise Production. Maybe the star still has enough goodwill in the tank to get the series over the line financially, but creatively, The Final Reckoning is a busted flush: the fact it's been outperformed on opening weekend by a live-action Lilo & Stitch seems in some way telling. For his part, Cruise has earned the right to stand alone and unbowed atop the BFI Imax like the world's most celebrated Antony Gormley figure; his stardom has only been reaffirmed over the course of the past quarter-century. But it's a problem when your publicity stunts generate punchier images than anything in the film you're promoting. That long-lit fuse flickered out before it reached the explosives; and in any event, the gelignite has been swapped for flannel and waffle.
Tatler Asia
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Tatler Asia
‘Mission: Impossible': 7 stunts that redefined high-stakes action cinema
The knife to the eye ('Mission: Impossible 2', 2000) The stunt: A knife stops just short of Cruise's eyeball during a brutal, close-quarters fight. Game changer: This bold moment cemented the actor's reputation for going above and beyond, pushing the limits of commitment in performing dangerous stunts. Don't miss: Exclusive: Meet Jess Khan-Lee, the actress making Hong Kong shine in the latest 'Mission: Impossible' movie The Burj Khalifa climb ('Ghost Protocol', 2011) The stunt: Scaling the exterior of the world's tallest building in Dubai using only suction gloves. Game changer: This climb transformed Mission: Impossible into a global spectacle. Cruise trained on glass walls before performing the actual climb hundreds of stories above ground. The image of Cruise clinging to glass became instantly iconic, establishing the franchise's new scale of ambition. The airplane hang ('Rogue Nation', 2015) The stunt: Clinging to the exterior of an Airbus A400M cargo plane during takeoff and flight to 5,000 feet. Game changer: Director Christopher McQuarrie initially suggested this as a joke—Cruise took it literally. Performing the stunt eight times while facing bird strikes, debris impacts and fuel exhaust, this aerial nightmare became the signature marketing imagefor Rogue Nation and set a new benchmark for Mission: Impossible madness. The HALO jump ('Fallout', 2018) The stunt: A high altitude low opening parachute jump from 25,000 to 30,000 feet at dusk, making Cruise the first actor to perform an authentic HALO jump on screen. Game changer: This sequence required 106 jumps to capture three perfect takes, with filming restricted to a narrow window at dusk. Apart from making Cruise the first actor to perform an authentic HALO jump on screen, it demonstrated how the franchise could make physiological extremes as thrilling as traditional action scenes. The motorcycle cliff jump ('Dead Reckoning Part One', 2023) The stunt: Riding a motorcycle off a massive Norwegian cliff, then BASE jumping to safety. Game changer: Described as 'the biggest stunt in cinema history', this leap required one full year of BASE jumping training and 13,000 motocross jumps. Cruise performed it six times from a specially constructed Norwegian mountain ramp. Director McQuarrie considered it the most dangerous stunt the team had ever attempted, pushing the franchise into extreme sports territory. The rooftop jump and ankle break ('Fallout, 2018') The stunt: A London rooftop leap that resulted in Cruise breaking his ankle on impact—and finishing the take. Game changer: This wasn't planned, but it became the ultimate testament to Cruise's dedication. After breaking his ankle, he completed the take anyway—footage of his injury reportedly appears in the final cut. Production halted for three months, yet Cruise continued performing on his healing ankle, underscoring the real dangers of practical stunt work. 'Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning' (2025) As the franchise comes to its epic conclusion, Cruise has saved his most audacious stunts for last. The Final Reckoning promises two sequences that may once again redefine the meaning of 'impossible': one sees Cruise clinging to the wing of a 1930s Boeing Stearman biplane flying upside down through South African canyons at 10,000 feet. The other is an underwater scene filmed in a custom-built 800,000-gallon tank with a 1,000-ton rotating gimbal. After nearly three decades of defying gravity and redefining what's possible on screen, Cruise continues to prove that even the most impossible missions are worth attempting. Credits This article was created with the assistance of AI tools
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Review
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning opens in theaters Friday, May 23. For nearly 30 years, the stunts and action sequences of Mission: Impossible have been synonymous with big-screen spectacle. And as expected, the franchise's newest entry finds Tom Cruise's alter ego Ethan Hunt risking life, limb, and the fates of millions, this time in pursuit of stopping The Entity, the evil A.I. introduced in 2023's Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. But the way I see it, the sequel – which stopped being Dead Reckoning Part Two sometime in the last two years – might be trying a little too hard to top the IMF's greatest hits. First thing you should know about me is that I've always been a huge mark for James Bond movies. I've got a lot of formative movie memories from growing up with those films. So I was, frankly, thrilled to see all the things I loved about Bond captured perfectly in 2016's Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, the first of now four Ethan Hunt adventures written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie. Rogue Nation nails the combination of go-for-broke practical stunts, grinning self-awareness, and just the right touch of believability that make up the most important parameters for a successful IMF mission – Fallout nails it slightly less, and I think Dead Reckoning misses by a wider margin. The Final Reckoning, unfortunately, has gone farther afield. My biggest takeaway from the eighth and very evidently not final film starring Cruise as fate's chosen lucky boy is that it's extremely sober. The Final Reckoning veers into melodrama whenever there is story to be told. The cast, which is an assembling of familiar franchise faces and newcomer cameos, whisper-talk their way through soap-opera levels of tension. Nearly every scrap of dialogue is invested in no less than the end of all life on the my first litmus test for these movies is how serious they treat Ethan Hunt getting the mission. Rogue Nation was a flirty encounter at a record shop, Fallout's knock on the door woke him up from a dream where a nuclear blast interrupted his wedding, and Dead Reckoning was some kind of dramatic poetry slam with the IMF Oath and a new recruit. The Final Reckoning features a lo-fi delivery method thanks to the Entity's infiltration of all things digital – and it's honestly kinda fun. But the message is the most dire and serious thing. This is a story point introduced by Dead Reckoning: The Entity as a villain capable of literally every bad thing imaginable, like a laundry list of vague shorthand threats – any one of which could've been enough to carry a movie. Instead, they've all been lumped together in the form of a nebulous digital boogeyman, and reiterating that in the 'this message will self destruct' section of the movie sets a very somber tone for everything that follows. Save for a few bits of humor here and there, it's never shaken (or stirred). Absurdly astronomical stakes are one of the biggest issues with The Final Reckoning. A good-old fashioned nuke or biological weapon – those live in Mission: Impossible's sweet spot: life-and-death at a massive scale, while also real enough to be relatably scary. But all life on planet Earth is just too much to plausibly wrap your head around, particularly with how seriously everyone takes everything else compared to say, Rogue Nation or Fallout. I know I keep swerving away from The Final Reckoning and back into the rest of the franchise but, for better and worse, this is a part eight that's very aware that it's a part eight. You can't call a movie The Final Reckoning without delivering some degree of, well, finality, and oh boy does this one try. It's not merely planting Easter eggs from the earlier films so much as picking entire story points – largely unnecessary ones, I would argue. It's a nice nod to the diehards, but when you consider the nearly three-hour run time and the relative lack of importance these moments have to the overall movie, I'm not sure what McQuarrie and Cruise were trying to accomplish. This is all to say, The Final Reckoning is impossible to review out of the context of the other seven Missions: Impossible, which is why I keep recapping my feelings for the franchise as a whole. One of the callbacks that I really did enjoy, though, is a guy we've seen in the trailers for The Final Reckoning: William Donloe (Rolf Saxon), the poor bastard working in the CIA black vault whose nose Ethan stole the NOC list out from under way back in the '90s. His part in The Final Reckoning is spot on. He's a meaningful character for Ethan and the IMF to encounter who also speaks to the themes of the movie: Our lives are the sum of our choices. He's fun, which is short supply here, and I would've loved it if he'd have been the only bit of retconning this movie tried to do. But I've been talking a lot about the things I didn't like – it's important to note that there are some things The Final Reckoning very much did right. The action is predictably excellent, with the highlight being Ethan's infiltration of the Sevastopol, the MacGuffin of a submarine that sank at the start of Dead Reckoning. It is incredibly tense and intricate and claustrophobic and all the other nail-biting things you want from a thriller. More than that, there's clearly a huge chunk of the reported $400 million budget on screen, and Christopher McQuarrie is getting all the nautical miles he can out of it. The set is equal parts Avatar and the hallway fight from Inception. The fight choreography is also elevated from previous entries, as other countries send their most special forces after the same prize Ethan is after. The fights are a little more brutal and legitimately feel like the IMF could lose. At this point in the franchise, that's a difficult tightrope to walk, and McQuarrie and Cruise deserve a lot of credit for that. They also deserve a fair bit of credit bringing the team together again. I felt that was one part of the Mission: Impossible formula that was a little absent from the last film. The climax of The Final Reckoning gives every team member a job – it's reminiscent of Fallout in that respect, and very important for the IMF. Because it's less fun when Ethan is running around doing everything himself. An abiding trust in his team is part of Ethan's allure – in addition to being, as Shea Whigham's Jasper Briggs puts it in Dead Reckoning, a mind-reading, shape-shifting incarnation of climactic biplane sequence is great, too. It's thrilling in parts, funny in others, and most importantly, all the effort and planning that goes into a stunt like that is apparent. The only question I have about it is, would The Final Reckoning be worse if it were a stunt double walking out on the wing of that plane instead of Tom Cruise? Or would it just have one less interesting thing going for it? A lot of how I feel about this movie, though, comes down to that subtitle. The Final Reckoning can't be officially final with the way it ends, and I don't think there are any of us who believe Tom Cruise is done risking his life for our entertainment. So it's either the best subtitle for this movie, or the worst. Maybe they completely missed the mark on the 'Final' part of the equation, and it's not a representative title at all. Maybe its not-entirely-successful attempt at tying a neat and all-encompassing bow is the Final Reckoning for the franchise and the path it laid out across 8 movies. From a real world perspective, maybe a messy and self-serious capstone to an otherwise iconic franchise is exactly what they deserve and it's a perfect subtitle. For my part, because again, I'm a big fan of this kind of movie, I'm rooting for the latter. Threads have been picked up and tugged on in different directions throughout the course of these eight films. That's just the cost of doing business with a 30-year juggernaut of a franchise. Their mission now, should they choose to accept, is to take the clean slate they've created with all those threads tied up, however clumsily, and get back to what Mission: Impossible does best: not take itself so seriously.
Stuff.tv
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Stuff.tv
Every Mission: Impossible movie ranked ahead of the release of The Final Reckoning
Tom Cruise may have a phonebook of different roles in his illustrious movie career, but his most recognised is arguably IMF Agent Ethan Hunt of the Mission: Impossible franchise (now available to stream on Paramount+). With this movie series spanning nearly 30 years, Hunt has performed enough stunts to leave a Cirque du Soleil artist in cold sweats. He's gone free solo climbing, hung on to an airplane mid-takeoff, completed a HALO parachute jump and ran down the tallest building in the world. However, there's still room for a few more death-defying feats as the franchise wraps up with the release of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. With this in mind, our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to rank all the Mission: Impossible movies and discover which of these thrilling spy action flicks takes the top spot. Get the latest deals from Sky or Now TV in the UK 7. Mission: Impossible 2 (2000) Play MI's trademark scintillating stunts and John Woo seemed like a perfect match, so why is the first sequel widely regarded as the worst of the franchise? Well, beyond those franchise-defining action setpieces involving a breathtaking free solo opener and the bullet-ridden motorcycle chase finale, the main story ends up feeling fairly dull and uninvolving. And even if the premise revolves around a deadly bioengineered virus, there's a love triangle between our leads that falls flat due to a severe lack of chemistry. Still, between a languid stopover in Seville, a half-hearted heist at the horse races and a cliffside careening courtship scene, you'll be egging for the action to kick in again. Fortunately, these rousing OTT sequences are enough to kick you out of drowsiness, for those who stick with it are treated to Woo's trademark slo-mo balletic gunplay and doves. It's a John Woo film, you can't not have doves. 6. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) Play Ethan Hunt's fifth mission introduces shadowy organisation The Syndicate, a cabal of disavowed operatives turned rogue. If those individuals weren't enough, the IMF also faces blowback from the CIA, which brands the agency as uncontrolled and unchecked due to previous events in the series. With Hunt now on the run from both sides, he needs to bring down The Syndicate's leader, Solomon Lane, before the net closes in. This movie still fizzes with action and those ludicrous stunts, one of which features Ethan clinging onto the side of an Airbus transport aircraft during takeoff — talk about no-frills flying. Extra credit also goes to new addition Rebecca Ferguson as the mysterious Ilsa Faust, a capable foil for Ethan with a penchant for rifles and badassery. Still, Rogue Nation doesn't quite carve out its own place in the franchise, as villainous group The Syndicate doesn't quite feel as fleshed out and threatening as it could be, even though Sean Harris offers a brutal antagonist to Ethan and co. The final act is also somewhat forgettable, ending proceedings with a subtle whimper rather than a bombastic crescendo. 5. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) Play Part one of the team's final mission revolves around an AI asset known as The Entity gone rogue, which is right on the money, given public perception of this strange new tech. As various organisations race to secure this potential weapon, Hunt and his team need to make uneasy alliances and discover who or what is pulling the strings from afar. Adding to the mix are a whole host of new and old players, including Hayley Atwell as thief Grace, Henry Czerny as Kittridge, whom we haven't laid eyes on since the very first M:I, and Esai Morales as intimidating assassin Gabriel. Despite its lofty ambition, decent set pieces and technical prowess, Dead Reckoning feels very unbalanced under its vast juggling act, with an overly intricate plot, an excess of side characters with shifting loyalties, a bloated runtime, and confusing double and triple crosses aplenty. And while its endgame motorcycle jump was no doubt impressive, it was marketed to death, dulling its impact in theatres. 4. Mission: Impossible (1996) Play The opening Mission: Impossible is very much a different beast to the missions that followed it, playing it straight and focusing on a deadly game of shadows, Cold War paranoia, and Dutch angles… lots of Dutch angles. When a mission goes awry, Ethan, framed and wanted by his own agency, must dive into a murky world with his talents for espionage and forge new partnerships with unscrupulous types if he's to clear his name and discover who's behind it all. As cool as its lead (perhaps a little too cold), Mission Impossible rarely ventures into OTT territory, though that train versus copter finale more than makes up for it. It takes things at a more slow-burning pace, with shady conversations over espressos rather than explosives. With lashings of suspense, it serves as a great introduction into this shadowy universe where you really can't trust anyone, while the CIA break-in scene is still a highlight that'll have you on the edge of your seat. 3. Mission: Impossible III (2006) Play A much-needed shot in the arm for a franchise that faltered somewhat with the previous entry, Mission: Impossible III sees J.J. Abrams take up the helm, having previous experience in shooting sleuthwork on Jennifer Garner's excellent ALIAS series. The story is much more accessible this time around, with Ethan Hunt trying to juggle a normal life with fiancée Julia and being a clandestine operative, which goes as well as you might expect. The teamwork, which the original TV series was famous for, is on point in this one, particularly during a hostage extraction job in a factory and a drone showdown on a highway. The standout sequence is the mid-movie heist, in which our team needs to infiltrate Vatican City to retrieve an arms dealer, played by the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman, who provides real menace and presence as one of the franchise's best villains. The plot moves at a breakneck pace and the screen is littered with Abrams' signature lens flares and grittiness thanks to its digital camerawork. Combining fun, humour, top drawer action and plenty of emotional stakes, this mission proved a great spy film needn't be so po-faced. 2. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) Play Mission: Impossible confidently strides into its fourth film with big shoes to fill, but director Brad Bird nails it with Ghost Protocol, an enjoyable action romp with plenty of absurd stunts and a gripping story. The team is on a mission to track down stolen Russian nuclear launch codes, which takes them on uncharted ground. After disaster strikes, the team must regroup and stop a plot to envelop the world in nuclear fire. It's a suspenseful movie that expertly blends well-drawn characters and a rip-roaring story. Brimming with unforgettable action and some of the finest stunt (and wire) work in the franchise, including a high-altitude jaunt on the exterior of Dubai's Burj Khalifa no less, and a surprisingly tense Kremlin infiltration mission, Ghost Protocol benefits from a tight yet explosive plot that doesn't let up until the credits roll. Peppered in with the action is a fair bit of human drama and baggage, courtesy of a bowless Jeremy Renner as Agent Brandt, Léa Seydoux as shady assassin Sabine, Simon Pegg's fan favourite Benji, and Paula Patton as a vengeful Agent Carter. 1. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) Play Fallout easily takes top billing as the gang's best mission, a perfectly taut thriller that quintessentially captures what makes this franchise such a hugely enjoyable popcorn blockbuster. Featuring an all-star cast, including the returning Ving Rhames as Luther and Rebecca Ferguson's Ilsa, new additions include Henry Cavill's one-man (and meme-d) gun show, August Walker, and Vanessa Kirby as the daughter of the infamous arms dealer Max from the OG M:I. Fallout expertly positions these characters as valuable pieces on the chessboard who serve their own agendas while helping or harming our heroes' endeavors. Of particular note is the HALO jump onto a Parisien skyline, a helicopter duel that ends on a heart-stopping cliffside encounter and a brutal bathroom brawl that's less WC and more 'did you see that??' Fallout breaks new ground in its thrilling sequences, thanks to Tom Cruise always going that extra mile, and then some, cementing the film's place among the hallowed halls of the finest action movies. Get the latest deals from Sky or Now TV in the UK
Pink Villa
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Pink Villa
Box Office: Tom Cruise soars even at the age of 62 with Mission Impossible
Tom Cruise has become inseparable from the image of Ethan Hunt, the indomitable IMF agent who races against time to save the world in the Mission: Impossible franchise. Over the past two decades, Cruise has redefined action cinema not only through gripping narratives but through jaw-dropping stunts that have become the franchise's signature. From scaling the Burj Khalifa in Ghost Protocol, to clinging onto the side of a flying airplane in Rogue Nation, free-solo climbing in Fallout, and leaping off cliffs on motorcycles in Dead Reckoning, these feats have turned each installment into a global cinematic event. What makes it all the more remarkable is that at 62, Cruise continues to perform these stunts himself, redefining what it means to be an action hero in the modern era. His box office triumph with Top Gun: Maverick—his highest-grossing film to date—further cemented his stature, once again portraying a fearless maverick who defies odds and age with the same fervor as his fictional counterparts. Yet this sustained relevance is no accident. It is the result of Cruise 's relentless and almost obsessive desire to entertain audiences on their terms. He understands the pulse of the moviegoing public better than most of his contemporaries, and over the years, he has fine-tuned his choices to deliver maximum cinematic impact. This has also meant, at times, letting the actor within him take a step back so the global superstar persona can take over. Cruise isn't just performing for the camera—he's performing for the legacy of cinema itself. In doing so, he has carved out a space that no other actor of his generation currently occupies. Despite the recent tilt toward action spectacles, Cruise's acting résumé is a reminder that he is far more than just an adrenaline-fueled daredevil. In the early years of his career, he consistently showcased his range and emotional depth. Breakout roles in Risky Business (1983) and Top Gun (1986) catapulted him to stardom, while performances in The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988), and Born on the Fourth of July (1989) proved his mettle as a serious actor. His portrayal of Ron Kovic, a paralyzed Vietnam War veteran, earned him his first Oscar nomination and widespread critical acclaim. Throughout the 1990s, Cruise continued to impress with layered roles in A Few Good Men (1992), The Firm (1993), Jerry Maguire (1996)—which earned him another Oscar nod—and Magnolia (1999), where his role as a toxic self-help guru drew both shock and praise, culminating in his third Academy Award nomination. Cruise has also shown a surprising knack for comedy and reinvention. His unrecognizable, hilarious cameo as the profane studio head Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder (2008) became instantly iconic and reminded audiences of his fearlessness as a performer. In American Made (2017), he took on the morally complex real-life role of Barry Seal, a commercial pilot turned drug runner, balancing charm with nuance in one of his most underrated performances. And yet, despite these strong performances, it is the franchise juggernauts—especially Mission: Impossible—that have fueled his dominance at the box office in recent years. Original titles like Oblivion (2013), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), and American Made were met with critical approval but couldn't replicate the financial might of his action franchises. Rather than resist this shift, Cruise embraced it, understanding that in the age of IPs, sequels, and cinematic universes, he needed to evolve with the industry while still retaining what made him special. There was, however, a time not too long ago when studios began to question Cruise's box office reliability. Around the release of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol in 2011, Paramount sought to inject younger blood into the franchise to potentially carry it forward without him. Jeremy Renner was introduced as Brandt, a capable IMF agent with the skills and charisma to conceivably take over as the face of the franchise. Later, in Fallout (2018), Henry Cavill —fresh off playing Superman—was cast as CIA operative August Walker, a physically imposing presence meant to challenge Cruise's Ethan Hunt and perhaps even hint at a generational handoff. Both actors were excellent additions, and Cavill's brutal bathroom brawl with Cruise remains a series highlight. But despite these attempts, one truth became increasingly evident: there is no Mission: Impossible without Tom Cruise. Instead of fading into the background, Cruise doubled down, performing more outrageous stunts, taking more creative control, and fully reasserting himself as the indispensable engine of the franchise. Today, Mission: Impossible is more than just a spy series. It is a celebration of physical filmmaking, of real stunts performed by a real star, in an era increasingly dominated by CGI and virtual production. In many ways, Cruise is the last of the old-guard global movie stars—his name alone can still draw crowds worldwide. While others rely on shared universes and ensemble casts, Cruise remains a solo force of nature, committed to bringing audiences back to theaters for an experience they can't get anywhere else. Whether as the charming romantic, the dramatic powerhouse, or the fearless action icon, Tom Cruise continues to evolve, entertain, and endure. In a fast-changing industry, his career stands as a masterclass in reinvention, resilience, and relevance.
