Amid conflicting reports of what the future holds for the franchise, some of the The Mission: Impossible franchise has been enjoying a particularly high ride as nearly every installment helmed by Christopher McQuarrie has landed in the high 90 percentiles on Rotten Tomatoes from critics.
Now, Cruise and McQuarrie are back for Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, a continuation of 2023's Dead Reckoning in which Ethan Hunt and his team, now ed by Pom Klementieff's Paris and Greg Tarzan Davis' Degas, are racing to find The Entity before Gabriel gets his hands on it. Despite the franchise's continued success, talks have swirled of the new sequel being the final installment in the series, with Paramount appropriately marketing it as the end. This has made The Final Reckoning even more anticipated when paired with Dead Reckoning's ending, with critics largely praising it so far.
In anticipation of the movie's release, ScreenRant interviewed Simon Pegg, Angela Bassett and Hayley Atwell to discuss Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning. During the chat, the cast all shared their thoughts on Tom Cruise's potential future in the franchise, and why they think the four-time Oscar nominee likely isn't hanging up Ethan's boots anytime soon.
The Final Reckoning Cast "Can't Imagine" Cruise Retiring From Mission: Impossible Yet
"He Runs Like A 14-Year-Old Boy."
Word of The Final Reckoning being the final Mission: Impossible movie began swirling in November 2024, when a report of Cruise's potential Days of Thunder 2 return indicated Paramount was looking to market the film as such. However, both prior to and after this report, Cruise and McQuarrie have largely indicated the opposite to be the case in their minds, with the duo having begun working on ideas for more films during the press tour for Dead Reckoning, but also now pointing to the new movie holding the answer to the question.
When asked their thoughts on whether Cruise will return for more Mission: Impossible movies, the Final Reckoning cast were fairly confident he would be back as Ethan sometime in the future. Bassett began by echoing our sentiment that we "can't imagine" the franchise continuing without Cruise at the forefront, expressing that "I bet he's got some more running to do" and that he will "put those shoes on and get to booking" again at some point.
Pegg approached the question by sharing why he thinks the Mission: Impossible franchise won't directly set up an original character to take over Ethan's place, believing that the IMF team all have "a certain set of skills" and are not "interchangeable", thus making it trickier to put anyone in each other's places. "Ethan couldn't do the stuff that Benji does," Pegg explained. "Ethan couldn't hack his way out of a paper bag, but Benji could not hang off a plane or go to the bottom of the ocean. They need each other."
Mission: Impossible 8 Being The Last One Would Mean A Big Change For Tom Cruise After The $4 Billion Franchise
Even if Mission: Impossible ends with The Final Reckoning, fans can look forward to original films from Tom Cruise thanks to a deal with Warner Bros.
Pegg, who has worked with Cruise on the franchise since Mission: Impossible III, went on to explain that there's "a symbiosis between all the characters", and that if "you remove a single member of the team, the whole plan falls apart". Though acknowledging that a ing-of-the-torch moment could work if it was "to some younger agents" like Atwell's Grace or Greg Tarzan Davis' Degas, he doesn't "see that happening". "I don't think Tom will ever stop being an action star, whether it's Mission: Impossible or not," Pegg opined. "He's not going to quit anytime soon. He runs like a 14-year-old boy."
Atwell, on the other hand, looked to Cruise's wider filmography to point out the diversity in his work beyond the Mission: Impossible movies as a sign of where he might go after The Final Reckoning. "You think about things like Born on the Fourth of July, and Risky Business, and A Few Good Men, and Magnolia, and Eyes Wide Shut, and even Tropic Thunder," Atwell listed. "Jerry Maguire is a personal favorite of mine. He has such range, and I think he has such humanity in all the performances that he's given us. Collateral is another one, where he played someone that is considered to be definitely not a hero."
I just think that this is a big part of, obviously, his career, but we're going to be seeing so much more from him in different mediums.
More About Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning
Ethan Hunt and the IMF team continue their search for the terrifying AI known as the Entity - which has infiltrated intelligence networks all over the globe - with the world's governments and a mysterious ghost from Ethan's past on their trail. ed by new allies and armed with the means to shut the Entity down for good, Hunt is in a race against time to prevent the world as we know it from changing forever.
Check out our other Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning interviews with:
Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning hits theaters on Friday!
Source: ScreenRant Plus
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
- Release Date
- May 23, 2025
- Runtime
- 170 minutes
- Director
- Christopher McQuarrie
Cast
Ethan Hunt
Grace
WHERE TO WATCH
- Writers
- Erik Jendresen, Christopher McQuarrie
- Prequel(s)
- Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning
- Franchise(s)
- Mission: Impossible
- Main Genre
- Action
Your comment has not been saved