As we are weeks away from Dead Reckoning Part One, the filmmaker behind the latest Mission: Impossible is still crafting the conclusion to its follow-up Dead Reckoning Part Two, due to arrive next year.
With around a year to go, Christopher McQuarrie says he and star Tom Cruise have yet to figure out how they’ll end this part of the franchise. In a recent interview with Collider, McQuarrie explains where he is with crafting the film’s ending.
“I don’t know what the ending of Part Two is, so I couldn’t tell you. I’m not being evasive. I could tell you that I know what the end of Part Two is, but I can’t guarantee that that will be the ending when we get there,” says McQuarrie.
The filmmaker doesn’t want you to think he’s just winging it with Cruise however, saying: “Tom and I never obsess about executing the plan. We always have a direction; we always have a place we’re going. In our trying to describe the process, in retrospect, it sounds as though what we do is just flying by the seat of our pants and making it up as we go along. That’s not an accurate description. You are definitely flying in a direction; you’re definitely prepared. You couldn’t be that cavalier without somebody getting seriously physically hurt. These things are planned within an inch of their life. Along the way, we see a shiny object and go for it.”
Don’t think anyone would ever accuse Cruise or McQuarrie of being the type to not plan things out with intense deliberation. We’ll see the first part of their epic two-part Mission: Impossible saga this July.
In Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team embark on their most dangerous mission yet: To track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands. With control of the future and the fate of the world at stake and dark forces from Ethan’s past closing in, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than his mission – not even the lives of those he cares about most.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One features M:I returnees Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Frederick Schmidt, and Henry Czerny, along with new additions Esai Morales (Titans), Hayley Atwell (Agent Carter), Pom Klementieff (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3), Shea Whigham (Boardwalk Empire), Rob Delaney (Deadpool 2), Mark Gatiss (The League of Gentlemen), Indira Varma (Game of Thrones), Charles Parnell (The Last Ship), Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride), and Greg Tarzan Davis (Top Gun: Maverick).
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is set for release on July 24th, 2023, and Part Two on June 28th, 2024.