Mission: Impossible Fallout

Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt won’t be the only familiar face returning for Mission: Impossible 6: Michelle Monaghan’s Julia, Hunt’s wife and a Mission: Impossible mainstay from the third film all the way to Ghost Protocol, is coming back to the series.

Mission: Impossible 6 is currently filming on location in Middle Earth — I mean, New Zealand, and director Christopher McQuarrie is still taking Instagrams of the cast. Today, McQuarrie posted a fantastic portrait of Henry Cavill in his spy outfit sitting in what’s probably a helicopter. There’s no telling whether he’ll actually be in a helicopter in a movie or if this was taken while the actors were being flown to whatever location they’d be filming in. It is New Zealand, after all.

Folks, we’re finally going to hear Angela Bassett say the words, “Your mission, if you choose to accept it….” Well, probably. I haven’t read the script of Mission: Impossible 6, but I do know that today Bassett was cast as Ethan Hunt}s new CIA director.

Are we still doing #SquadGoals? Because if so, I think I’ve found mine. Earlier today, Mission: Impossible 6 director Christopher McQuarrie posted a photo of himself hanging out with series stalwart Tom Cruise and dashing newcomer Henry Cavill against the Eiffel Tower, raising the bar for family vacation photos everywhere. If I worked in the photo department at the local Walgreens and saw this in someone’s film roll, I would put a sign up on the door that said “No More Eiffel Tower Photos” for everyone to see. What’s the point? They’ll never be this cool.

Look, I know that Tom Cruise must be getting older. There are lines on his face that weren’t there before and, like many gym rats, he’s been forced to trade leanness for bulk over the years just to maintain his active lifestyle. And I know that, someday, Tom Cruise will reach an age where the aches and pains catch up to him and he’ll no longer be able to pull off at least three incredible stunts per movie. But you know what? Today is not that day, and if this new batch of Mission: Impossible 6 set photos is to be believe, this is not that movie.

Writer-director Christopher McQuarrie seems to have developed a pretty strong working relationship with Tom Cruise. In addition to working with the actor on the highly regarded Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation movie, McQuarrie had previously directed Cruise in Jack Reacher while also serving as either a producer or screenwriter on Jack Reacher 2 and Cruise’s upcoming Universal Monsters movie The Mummy. When it comes to actor-director pairings, there’s no denying McQuarrie and Cruise are one of the more impressive duos at work these days.

Fake news alert! Our precious readers who also scan less reputable publications than good ol’ Screencrush may have noticed an eye-catching item on Showbiz 411 last night. The “exclusive” headline defiantly asserted, “Jeremy Renner NOT in ‘Mission Impossible 6,’ Said to be Too Busy with ‘Avengers’.” The article explained that Renner’s ongoing gig as the Avengers’ resident archery expert Hawkeye would keep him too busy to rejoin Ethan Hunt for what would be a third go-round in the Mission: Impossible franchise. But when word got back to director Peyton Reed, he set the record straight and called this less-than-factual bit of showbiz reporting out for the act of international subterfuge that it truly is.

Watching the Mission: Impossible movies is like watching Tom Cruise engage in a series of escalating dares. Like the Fast and the Furious franchise, each new M:I movie features an increasingly bonkers stunt scene, made all the more impressive by Cruise’s dedication to performing his own stunts (or as much of them as humanly possible). It’s hard to imagine how Cruise and returning writer / director Christopher McQuarrie will outdo Rogue Nation’s riveting plane sequence, but according to the producer of Mission: Impossible 6, they have something “mind-blowing” up their sleeves. How mind-blowing? Well, Cruise has been training for the stunt for a whole year.

Remember those few days last August where Tom Cruise’s salary negotiations had shut down production on Mission: Impossible 6? For a moment there, it looked as though one of the best action movie franchises on the planet had finally shut down. No more age-defying stunts from AARP member Cruise; no more innovative action sequences from unexpected movie directors. When things were finally smoothed over between star and studio in September, I’m not ashamed to admit I breathed an audible sigh of relie

Here is the mathematical formula to create a Tom Cruise Movie™.