One of the best parts of the Mission: Impossible movies thus far has been how each new film has brought in one of Hollywood’s best suspense and action auteurs to bring his own vision to the franchise. The first movie was directed by Brian De Palma, the second by John Woo, the third by J.J. Abrams, and the fourth by Brad Bird.
Now the fifth chapter in the series will have yet another new director: Christopher McQuarrie. McQuarrie doesn’t have anywhere near the proven track record of a DePalma, Woo, Abrams, and Bird. Instead, his presence points to the hand of the other Mission: Impossible auteur, the one whose influence stretches across the entire series: Tom Cruise. And the first full trailer for the new entry shows that it will be, through and through, a Tom Cruise Movie.
How do we know it’s a Tom Cruise Movie? Because Tom Cruise runs very intensely. Because Tom Cruise rides motorcycles. (Tom Cruise movies never uses a car when he can ride a motorcycle.) Because Tom Cruise beds women much younger than Tom Cruise. McQuarrie has long been a close collaborator of Cruise’s: Though he’s perhaps most famous for writing The Usual Suspects, McQuarrie co-wrote fellow Tom Cruise Movies Edge of Tomorrow and Valkyrie, and he both wrote and directed Jack Reacher.
Of course Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation will be a Mission: Impossible movie, too, with franchise veterans Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and Jeremy Renner all returning, alongside franchise newcomers Alec Baldwin and Rebecca Ferguson. And it will have Tom Cruise doing his signature Mission: Impossible move: dangling from progressively higher and higher things. After he dangled from a cable in Mission: Impossible, a cliff in M:I-2, the walls of the Vatican in M:I-III, and the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa, in Ghost Protocol, the only way to take him higher was to have him dangle from some sort of aircraft—so that’s exactly what they did. If you’re a fan of this surprisingly consistent franchise, as I am, you’ll want to find out how Tom Cruise gets out of this one this time when Rogue Nation comes out on July 31.
