Christopher McQuarrie teases the “obscene” stunts of Mission: Impossible 7

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

After the course of six MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movies, Tom Cruise has risked life and limb in a series of death-defying stunts, and there's little doubt that the upcoming MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 7 & 8 won't continue that tradition. While speaking on the Empire Podcast, writer/director Christopher McQuarrie teased that we haven't seen anything yet.

We've figured out three obscene things that he's doing that I'm terrified of, that make the helicopter chase look like tinker toys.

Christopher McQuarrie denied that they would be sending Tom Cruise to space in the sequels, saying that there's plenty left for the actor to do on Earth. McQuarrie added that production is set to begin "soon," and although they've been working very hard on the character arcs, action, and production challenges, he only figured out the story about four weeks ago. "Over the course of many movies that Tom and I have done together, our process has evolved and we’ve learned to trust the process," McQuarrie explains. "Not try to control the process…You do what Mission wants, and you resist that at your peril, and this was the first time where we really have the comfort and the support, and probably the exhaustion because we were still working on Top Gun, to just not worry so much about where it was going and just go where it wanted to go. I figured out the story about four weeks ago." McQuarrie continued:

What happens is that over the course of a year where you're developing story arcs for the characters, what we focused on is emotional story arcs for the characters and action scenes that we're thinking about doing, scouting all over the world, moving resources around, I really only need to know what the gear is when we get there. I'm concerned less about what the characters are going to say than what they're wearing and what they're driving… About a month ago I moved one essential piece of the puzzle… and suddenly I was able to outline the entire movie in eight minutes. I sat down and went, 'oh okay, this would go to here.' It's like when you put that one word in the crossword puzzle and it all fits together.

Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, and Vanessa Kirby are all confirmed to return, where they'll be joined by franchise newbies Hayley Atwell, Shea Whigham, Nicholas Hoult, and Pom Klementieff, but the film will also feature a blast from the past in the form of Henry Czerny, who played Eugene Kittridge in the very first MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE film. "I've been thinking about Kittridge going all the way back to Rogue Nation," McQuarrie said. "I'm much more interested in finding something great for that character to do. Early in this process I had an inkling that there could be a place for Kittridge – the tone of the movie, the shape of the movie lent itself to that. I realised, 'Kittridge has got to be in this scene.' I had written it not knowing who was in it, and then suddenly Kittridge came into it and the scene was transformed, it was really fun. I got to call Henry Czerny and say, 'You're in! Will you be in it?' He was great about it."

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 7 and 8 are slated to be released on July 23, 2021 and August 5, 2022.