Film news: Mission: Impossible 8 Director claims someone ‘nearly had a heart attack’ watching the franchise’s craziest stunt yet
Mission: Impossible will return this May with its eighth instalment and Director Christopher McQuarrie revealed a stunt in the feature almost prompted a heart attack during a small test screening.
The Final Reckoning could deliver fans the most thrilling entry in the Tom Cruise-led franchise to date.
Film News Blitz’s Joe Matthews ponders what stunt could have warranted such a reaction.
McQuarrie reveals exciting test-screening reaction to latest Mission film
It’s not uncommon for film directors to host intimate private screenings with colleagues and trusted peers to test if their latest creation is hitting the mark.
Upon showing Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning to a lucky few recently, McQuarrie revealed that it had a profound effect on one member of the audience.
“We had a small screening, and someone said, ‘I was suffocating throughout the entire sequence,” McQuarrie revealed to Empire Magazine, according to GamesRadar.
“I almost had a heart attack’, and I thought, ‘I guess we did something right.”
A franchise loved for its commitment to high-stakes stunts
Cruise and the Mission: Impossible franchise has become renowned for its daring, and death-defying stunts, with several becoming iconic for the level of danger involved.
Some of the most famous include lead character Ethan Hunt clinging onto the outside of an Airbus A400M in Rogue Nation, the HALO jump over Paris which required Cruise to make 106 skydives, and arguably the most notable being when the 60-year-old rode a dirt bike off a cliff and parachuted to safety.
Whilst the new sequence in question has not been specifically named, the film’s trailer certainly provides a hint of what could come.
In a gravity-defying moment, the series lead can be seen hanging upside down from a biplane, suspended high above the ground, but it might actually be an underwater stunt that will get hearts racing.
A behind-the-scenes teaser posted on the Mission: Impossible X account shows Cruise suited up in a futuristic-looking diving suit, with final checks being done on his breathing equipment. Taking a closer look, you can see Cruise looking rather nervous, taking several deep breaths, and giving out fist-pumps to his team around him.
Is Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning the end for Tom Cruise?
Whilst we know Cruise survived the stunt, is there a chance this is the last we see of Ethan Hunt?
It has been heavily hinted that this is the final time Cruise takes to the screen as the lead character in the Mission franchise, as he battles with his latest AI foe, the Entity.
Namely, the changing of this latest instalment title from Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part Two, to Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning has audiences pondering if this is Cruise’s final turn as one of action cinema’s greatest characters.
Speculation will continue until the film’s release on May 23, 2025, and Paramount Pictures will surely be keen to deliver a real blockbuster.
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