Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning powers into the Cannes Film Festival for its premiere Wednesday on a steamroller of hype, with fans asking if this will be the final curtain for secret agent Ethan Hunt.
With some fretting that the $400-million epic—the eighth in the high-octane franchise—could be the last, Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie have been teasing up the tension by dropping contradictory clues about its future.
What we do know is that British actor Simon Pegg, who has played field agent Benji Dunn in six of the films, is hanging up his Impossible Missions Force badge.
But hours before the premiere, McQuarrie revealed that Cruise, who does his own stunts, nearly took his risk-taking too far during the shoot.
The crew feared the 62-year-old star had passed out after climbing out on the wing of a stunt biplane he was piloting alone, he said.
“Tom had pushed himself to the point that he was so physically exhausted” after spending 22 minutes being blasted by the propeller, more than twice the time safety guidelines allowed.
“He was laying on the wing of the plane, his arms hanging over the front of the wing. We could not tell if he was conscious or not,” said the American filmmaker, who has shot the last four movies of the franchise.
Cruise, a trained acrobatics pilot, had agreed on a hand signal to show if he was in trouble, McQuarrie said.
“You can’t do this when you’re unconscious,” the director told an audience at Cannes.
For his part, Cruise has been sharing other heart-stopping behind-the-scenes footage of other stunts he did for the movie on social media, including a free-fall jump from a helicopter at 10,000 feet (3,000 meters).
He is seen jumping from the chopper high over a South African mountain range and putting himself into a high-speed spin with a camera strapped to his stomach.
The blockbuster is set to ramp up adrenaline levels and promises to lighten the tone at Cannes. AFP
