When the eighth and supposedly last Mission Impossible film, The Final Reckoning, is released this week, there will be little discussion of its writer-director Christopher McQuarrie or its talented cast led by Hayley Atwell and Simon Pegg. This is understandable because, as the credits declare over deafening music, the film is “A TOM CRUISE PRODUCTION” and is most definitely a vehicle for its star from start to finish. While its glumly apocalyptic plot may not linger in the mind after you’ve left the cinema, the breathtaking stunts—most notably a climatic biplane scene—are testament to the remarkable dexterity and fitness of its now 62-year-old star.
Still, at a time when sexagenarian actors remain viable leading men—see Cruise’s former co-star Brad Pitt in this summer’s racing epic F1—there is no doubt that the line between Cruise’s on-screen character, super-spy Ethan Hunt, and the off-screen actor is thin to a point of negligibility. Throughout The Final Reckoning, the audience is repeatedly informed that only Hunt stands between “the end of the world as we know it” (presumably the REM allusion is intentional, but this is not a film concerned with levity) and the continual maintenance of peace and prosperity.
Much the same could be said of Cruise, whose 2022 mega-hit Top Gun: Maverick saved theatrical exhibition from its post-Covid malaise, gave him his biggest ever commercial success and made him synonymous with two characters who, in truth, it would be hard to tell apart: Hunt and Top Gun’s Maverick. When it is said, with great awe, of Maverick that “He’s the fastest man alive”, the moment isn’t risible, as it would be with any other actor: it is thrilling, because we sincerely believe that to be the case.
There are many reasons why Hunt-Cruise remains the last movie star. His dedication to doing his own stunts, however dangerous they might be—and his broken ankle while filming the sixth and best Mission Impossible picture, Fallout, is testament to the possibility of things going awry—is tied up with an old-school entertainer’s belief in giving his audience value for money. You pay your £10 and, in turn, you see the star risk life and limb on your behalf. Are you not entertained?
This is not restricted to American audiences, either. The Mission Impossible franchise has always been a global one, with its filming locations including everywhere from Prague and China to Dubai and Venice. (Pleasingly, London remains the lynchpin throughout the series, popping up in four of the eight pictures.) The films have always used international actors for their key roles—the Anglo-Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson, who played the MI5 agent Ilse Faust, is especially missed this time around—and this dedication to overseas markets has always meant that the films do as well, if not better, with foreign audiences as they do domestically. Ethan Hunt may travel the world on life-saving acts of derring-do, but Cruise himself has turned into a global brand: the ubiquitous, planet-conquering movie star writ large.
Yet with the series now coming to its explosive end, it remains uncertain as to what on earth its lead is going to do next. He has already filmed his next picture, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s as-yet-untitled saga, which has the following plot summary: “The most powerful man in the world embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity’s saviour before the disaster he’s unleashed destroys everything.” Well, no prizes for guessing who’s playing the most powerful man in the world.
It represents the first time that Cruise has worked with a proper auteur since 2005’s Spielberg-directed War of the Worlds. The success of that picture was overshadowed by a series of off-the-leash moments, including the notorious couch-jumping incident on The Oprah Winfrey Show. It was rumoured that journalists were only allowed to interview him if they firstly went on a half-day Scientology course, and he offered strange, hysterical denunciations of psychiatry, Brooke Shields and antidepressants. His career declined accordingly.
Nothing of the kind is likely to occur these days. Cruise control has been exerted, and his newfound status as saviour of the planet and the film industry alike will be maintained indefinitely. Leaked footage of a foul-mouthed rant in 2020—aimed at two Mission Impossible crew members who weren’t following Covid protocols—was clearly intended to damage him, but it backfired after most people agreed with Cruise’s sentiments, if not the vigour with which he expressed them.
The Iñárritu collaboration may be a welcome return to the days when Cruise worked with directors such as Kubrick and Paul Thomas Anderson on challenging, three-dimensional projects that stretched him as an actor and allowed him to show considerable range. Or it may be another exercise in self-aggrandisement and vanity, à la Vanilla Sky, which became a superficially beguiling study in narcissism. Either way, Cruise remains a fascinating figure, a movie star whose undeniable charisma has often threatened to obscure his equally potent talent. Perhaps the real impossible mission will be to find the project that unites the two, for a true final reckoning.
