Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning was heavily marketed as the final movie in Tom Cruise’s action saga, and as such, the fate of Ethan Hunt seemed to be in the hands of the gods for the first time in the history of the franchise. So why did director Christopher McQuarrie pull the usual cop-out and not kill off the leading man like the Bond franchise did with Daniel Craig’s iteration of the famous spy? McQuarrie has an explanation.
“Everything is on the table. There was a moment in the editing of the final sequence of the movie where Ethan goes spinning into that cloud bank where I thought, ‘If you cut to his grave right now, you’d feel the sacrifice was sufficient. Wow, that’s very, very effective.’”
However, McQuarrie eventually decided that Hunt’s death was not what the movie was about, and it was not needed to make the final act of the film work. He added:
“The idea of a conclusion of a story being the death of that character… they are not one and the same. When you fully tie off the story, the story ceases to be. And that’s not life. Stories go on, whether or not the movies do.”
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Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt has faced countless challenges, but there is one that may be too much of a giant leap.
Obviously, just a few years ago, James Bond fans were left shocked as No Time to Die ended with the unprecedented death of the lead character for the first time in his history. While the face has changed, and the character has been adapted for a new generation, it was the first time anyone had actually killed off James Bond. It seems that McQuarrie was not about to remove another action hero from the world so soon.
Will Ethan Hunt Return for Another Impossible Mission?
There are no guarantees in Hollywood, and the idea of the book being completely closed on Tom Cruise appearing as Ethan Hunt again cannot be completely ruled out. The ending of the movie does not provide complete closure for either the franchise or Cruise’s role in it – in fact, it probably makes it more likely that there will be another movie at some point.
Cruise has not outright said that he will or won’t be back, but he has made subtle hints that he told McQuarrie, “We can do better.” As one of those actors who cannot stop doing what he does, if the well of other movies runs dry in the near future, it would not be hard to imagine Cruise attempting to bring Ethan Hunt back for one more mission.
However, there is a small matter of the budget versus box office argument, and with the last two Mission: Impossible movies coming at astronomical costs and lacking ticket receipts, Cruise’s impossible mission could be getting the studio on board to make any more movies in the franchise that began in such a low-key way back in 1996.
Source: Empire Magazine
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
