Tom Cruise On the Rumor That He Doesn't Allow Anyone to Look Him In the Eyes, Co-Star Reveals Why He Had That On-Set Pandemic Outburst

The adage of Hollywood and or pundits who closely follow Hollywood, writers, armchair analysts, etc., is that you should always have a plan and never just “make it up as you go.” Filmmaking is such a massive endeavor and a massively expensive endeavor, a plan to execute all the ambitious things you want to do is critical, and it’s why some big films feature massive and extensive pre-production periods: precisely to map out and work out how to pull all that stuff on in advance so on the day of shooting, no one is wasting money.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” now playing in theaters. “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’s” jaw-dropping train sequence in the film’s third act features Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt fighting Esai Morales’ Gabriel on the roof of a locomotive as it hurtles down a track at 60 mph. The set piece was originally supposed to be much longer. The scene climaxes with the train plunging off a bridge one carriage at a time during which Ethan and Grace (Hayley Atwell) cling on for dear life as they climb back up through the train.

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” now playing in theaters. The “Mission: Impossible” movies have no shortage of death-defying stunts, but the Tom Cruise-starring action franchise is known for another iconic magic trick: its mask reveals. “Dead Reckoning Part One” features two mask reveals — in the first, Cruise’s Ethan Hunt uses a mask to infiltrate a meeting between CIA director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) and officials from various intelligence agencies about a rogue artificial intelligence system, known as the Entity. The other is a face swap between Hayley Atwell’s Grace, a pickpocket who becomes embroiled in IMF’s hunt for the Entity, and Vanessa Kirby’s black-market arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis, aka the White Widow.

Tom Cruise’s "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning" co-stars have revealed the "thoughtful" gifts the 61-year-old star gave them during filming, and they are fitting of an action hero.  "He's always very keen to show his appreciation," Simon Pegg, who also starred with Cruise in the last four "Mission: Impossible" films, told People magazine. "I think he's so used to being the focus of attention, it's naturally his instinct to kind of reflect everything back.

Todd Gilchrist editor Since “Mission: Impossible III” in 2006, Simon Pegg has been part of the core ensemble of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, playing hacker and sometime field agent Benji Dunn opposite its stalwart star Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. Pegg was never going to be the actor risking life and limb on screen — “it’s Benji’s job to be the one that actually says, ‘what the fuck are we doing here?’,” he observes. But over five installments of the indefatigable series, his character has shifted from questioning what Ethan is doing in the moment to believing absolutely in why he’s doing it, thanks in no small part to the writing and directing of Christopher McQuarrie. McQuarrie came onto “Ghost Protocol” as “a sort of master plumber to re-wriggle the pipes,” as Pegg characterizes it, and since became the series’ ongoing co-architect with Cruise. Their partnership reaches its peak, even if by all indications it’s far from over, with “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One,” half of an operatic culmination of narrative seeds planted since Cruise first played Hunt back in 1996. In a conversation with Variety, Pegg discusses what makes McQuarrie’s creativity so special, and his collaboration with Cruise et al so unique; he also talks about new details he discovered about Benji, explored the challenges of being self-referential in a franchise like this without undermining emotional stakes, and hinted at what is yet to come as he and the rest of the filmmaking team move on to “Dead Reckoning — Part Two.”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses the ending of “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” currently playing in theaters. “Dead Reckoning,” the seventh installment of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, is the latest Hollywood blockbuster to be split into two movies, but Tom Cruise and writer-director Christopher McQuarrie tried their hardest to give “Part One” a non-cliffhanger conclusion. The filmmaker recently told Total Film magazine that thinking about how to conclude the first of two movies kept Cruise up at night during the filming of “Part One.” “Where we ended the movie was always where we were going to end it,” McQuarrie said of the train action sequence. “How we ended the movie was a big, big mystery for us. It kept Tom awake at night throughout production. He would come in all the time and say, ‘This can’t be a cliffhanger, it’s got to be satisfying.’ The audience has to feel a sense of completion.”

Something that’s brought up in a new Happy Sad Confused podcast with “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning—Part One” star Hayley Atwell. The host of the podcast, Josh Horowitz, essentially says ‘Mission Impossible’ movies should not work.

Paramount/Skydance’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is off and running overseas with a $39.8M cume through Thursday in 48 international box office markets. This includes Wednesday openings in some markets and a strong paid preview program. With domestic’s Wednesday/Thursday plus previews, that brings the global total on the Tom Cruise-starrer to $$63.6M through yesterday.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” netted $8.3 million at the box office on Thursday, pushing the action sequel’s North American gross to $23.8 million after two days of release. The film, which finds Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt hurtling off cliffs, fighting knife-wielding bad guys on trains and evading pursuers while driving a Fiat through the streets of Rome, was incredibly expensive to produce. Shot during the pandemic (with all the attendant shutdowns, delays and health protocols that were a staple of the COVID era), the budget on the film ballooned to $290 million. So “Mission: Impossible” will need to generate a lot of repeat business if it’s going to turn a profit, and it needs to boom at the global box office.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One stars Simon Pegg and Rebecca Ferguson have revealed the secret Morse Code meaning behind the franchise’s theme.Speaking to NME, the pair shared that they were recently made aware of the secret while appearing the Today FM show Dermot & Dave, hosted by Dermot Whelan and Dave Moore.“This is an amazing fact,” began Pegg. “Dave from Dermot & Dave, an Irish Radio show told us that when Lalo Schifrin wrote the original music, the theme, [he put in] two dashes, two dots [which translates to] ‘MI’,” the actor explained while sounding out the tune.“Stop it, it’s true!” interjected Ferguson, who was equally as excited to share the little-known fact.Lalo Schifrin, an Argentine composer, recorded the M:I theme in 1967.

Tom Cruise appears ageless in his films. But Mission: Impossible-Dead Reckoning director Christopher McQuarrie was close to de-aging Cruise as a gimmick in the new film’s opening sequence.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” almost pulled an “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” by opening with an extended sequence featuring a de-aged version of its main star. “Dial of Destiny” de-aged Harrison Ford to mixed results for a 25-minute opener. “Dead Reckoning” director Christopher McQuarrie ultimately nixed an idea to de-age Tom Cruise because the technology just isn’t convincing enough yet. “Originally, there had been a whole sequence at the beginning of the movie that was going to take place in 1989,” McQuarrie told GamesRadar+ and Total Film. “We talked about it as a cold open, we talked about it as flashbacks in the movie, we looked at de-aging.”

Missions: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One stars Pom Klementieff and Vanessa Kirby were present when Tom Cruise performed one of the most dangerous stunts in cinema history – and they were understandably stunned.Speaking to NME, the pair explained how they watched Cruise drive a motorbike off the top of a cliff six times while shooting the franchise’s latest instalment. You can watch their full interview above.“It was mind-blowing,” said Klementieff, who stars in the film as French assassin Paris.Kirby, who reprises her role Alana Mitsopolis, added: “Everyone else was so nervous and fearful, and he wasn’t.

Tom Cruise still has every opportunity blast off into space.

Tom Cruise is ready to go where no actor has gone before. The 61-year-old star offered a recent update on an exciting project that is planned to be filmed in outerspace. In 2020, it was revealed that Cruise was working with NASA and Elon Musk's SpaceX on a movie that would be shot at the International Space Station.

Jordan Moreau Henry Czerny received a mission from filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie and chose to accept it. That mission? Return as former IMF chief Eugene Kittridge in “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” 27 years after he first appeared in the original “Mission: Impossible” in 1996. At the “Dead Reckoning” premiere in New York, Czerny said when he first got the call about returning to the “Mission: Impossible” world, he didn’t believe it. “I think it’s a joke at first because my reps called me and said they want to bring Kittridge back and I’m in the middle of doing my errands in Los Angeles and fighting traffic or shredding old tax documents,” he told Variety. “I think, ‘Okay, what’s going on really?’ They say, ‘Chris McQuarrie wants to talk to you about bringing Kittridge back,’ and I take it seriously. Two days later, I’m on a call with Chris McQuarrie.”

Angelique Jackson It’s 10 a.m. in Sydney, where Hayley Atwell is preparing to walk the red carpet as the “Mission: Impossible” crew’s newest member, joining producer and star Tom Cruise and writer-director Christopher McQuarrie’s ensemble of battle-hardened actors. “This is a pure cinematic experience. It’s unadulterated entertainment, and of a huge scale,” Atwell says to Variety about “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” which finally hit theaters on July 12 following a two-year delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Flashy events like the Australia premiere (which featured a fireworks spectacle in honor of Cruise’s 61st birthday on July 3) mark the end of a four-year odyssey that pushed Atwell’s limits physically — leaving her hanging inside a train car that’s gone from horizontal to vertical, gripping anything nailed to the floor/wall/ceiling lest she fall to her death (or at least the safety rigging below) — and saw her creating a cunning character within the “M:I” universe.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has been released.Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, the first part follows Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his band of operatives as they chase down a key to deactivate a sentient AI device known as the “Entity”.Alongside returning cast members Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson and Vanessa Kirby, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One adds Hayley Atwell, Esai Morales and Pom Klementieff to the franchise.Lorne Balfe returns to compose the score for both parts of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning. He previously scored the sixth installment, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, while his other credits include Marvel’s Black Widow, Amazon series The Wheel Of Time and this year’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.You can stream the full soundtrack below.The original Mission: Impossible theme was written and composed by Lalo Schifrin in 1967.

Wondering if you should choose to accept the latest “Mission: Impossible” entry? Maybe you’re sick of all the bombast at the movie theatre lately? Well, put it another way: Do you really want to disappoint Tom Cruise?

Even Tom Cruise can’t believe some of the things he hears about himself. Cruise’s "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1" director, Chris McQuarrie, revealed in a new interview with the Times of London that the actor has heard some crazy rumors about himself, but was happy to debunk them. According to McQuarrie, he asked Cruise when they first met what the "weirdest story you’ve heard about yourself" was.  Cruise laughed and said it was the myth that people on set "were not allowed to look me in the eye." The first time the actor and director worked together was 2008’s "Valkyrie," and McQuarrie has directed Cruise in the last three "Mission: Impossible" films, as well as produced "Top Gun: Maverick." Simon Pegg, who joined the "Mission: Impossible" franchise in 2006’s "Mission: Impossible III," agreed that the stories surrounding Cruise are overblown.

Jordan Moreau Tom Cruise is still preparing to boldly go where no actor has gone before. He and his “Edge of Tomorrow” director Doug Liman are set to film a movie in space and make Cruise the first civilian to perform a spacewalk. Universal is backing the film, which has a budget of around $200 million. When asked about his space-set movie at the “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” premiere in New York on Monday, Cruise said he didn’t have a production start date set, but, “We’ve been working on it diligently and we’ll see where we go.” Of course, Cruise still needs to finish making “Dead Reckoning Part Two,” the potential finale of his “Mission: Impossible” series, before he can plot his next movie. Writer and director Christopher McQuarrie, who’s overseeing both “Dead Reckoning” movies, said he and Cruise are getting right back to work on “Part Two” as soon as the “Part One” press tour ends.

Madison LeCroy scored an invite to the Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One premiere — and she snagged a selfie with Ethan Hunt himself.

Tom Cruise makes epic blockbuster films, but the 61-year-old actor and producer doesn’t consider himself above his co-stars and film crew members.

How does it feel to be on the receiving end of completely wild, baseless dating rumors? Hayley Atwell did NOT like it!

The Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One press tour is coming to a close as the movie is about to hit theaters everywhere!

daredevil stunts can the silence the rumors about the “Mission: Impossible” star. From his sometimes abrasive perfectionism to his deep involvement with the Church of Scientology, Cruise, 61, prefers to keep public comments focused on his projects — leaving plenty of room for gossip about his personal life.But in recent interviews conducted with cast and crew around the upcoming “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning — Part One,” director Christopher McQuarrie revealed that there’s one dogged rumor that Cruise himself is happy to debunk.In a story in The Times, McQuarrie recalled asking Cruise for the “weirdest” story he’s heard about himself — the star revealed there was a rumor going around over the years that cast and crew members “were not allowed to look me in the eye.” Not true, said Cruise — an assertion backed up by co-worker McQuarrie.Additionally, while Cruise was seen getting frustrated on set in 2020, McQuarrie and co-star Simon Pegg (Benji Dunn) were quick to defend Cruise as the fun-loving, thrill-seeking guy.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it…

Zack Sharf Digital News Director According to Tom Cruise’s frequent “Mission: Impossible” director Christopher McQuarrie, the mega-star actor once told him that the “weirdest story” he ever heard about himself was that his co-stars “were not allowed to look me in the eye.” McQuarrie and the rest of his “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” cast told The Times of London that rumor is just a myth. Simon Pegg said Cruise is far more generous and fun than that rumor suggests, and that he even “took us go-karting and zip-lining” during off hours on “Dead Reckoning Part One.” “I’ve been able to hack my way through all the bizarre mythology that surrounds him,” added Pegg, who has starred in every “Mission: Impossible” movie opposite Cruise since 2011’s “Ghost Protocol.” “On one side he’s Tom Cruise — this enigmatic film star everyone wants to know about. And on the other he’s just a guy. I like being normal with him.”

Hayley Atwell has heard the rumors about whether she’s dating Tom Cruise — and she’s not thrilled about the speculation.

Tom Cruise has debunked the “weirdest” rumour that he’s heard about himself from the film industry.Across recent years, a rumour has emerged that Cruise is so intense on film sets that he requests that his co-stars don’t look him in the eye.Speaking to The Times along with his collaborators Christopher McQuarrie and Simon Pegg in new Mission Impossible film Dead Reckoning Part I, Cruise denied the rumour, with Pegg playing down the supposed intensity of his co-star.Asked to share the “weirdest” rumour he’s heard about himself, Cruise said he was confused by the rumour that people “were not allowed to look me in the eye” during filming.Pegg added of Cruise: “I’ve been able to hack my way through all the bizarre mythology that surrounds him.“On one side he’s Tom Cruise – this enigmatic film star everyone wants to know about. And on the other, he’s just a guy.

Hayley Atwell is opening up about the rumors she was dating Tom Cruise.

Ahead of the much-anticipated release of Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One, director Chris McQuarrie has revealed what Tom Cruise told him during their first encounter in 2006.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Riding a motorcycle off a cliff and learning the dangerous sport of speed-flying weren’t the only requirements for acting in “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.” Tom Cruise also had to fight co-star Esai Morales on the roof of a train moving at 60 miles per hour. The latest “Dead Reckoning” behind-the-scenes featurette confirms that Cruise and Morales, the latter of whom plays the film’s villain, shot the fight scene practically, meaning they were literally strapped to the top of a train as it sped through a valley in Norway. “When we started talking about this movie in the terms of a sense of adventure, an action sequence on a train is something we always wanted to do,” writer-director Christopher McQuarrie said. “We wanted to build upon the previous films and apply that knowledge to something practical and real and bring this train sequence to another level.”

Tom Cruise has no intention of slowing down.

Tom Cruise is always taking stunts to the next level.

Tom Cruise has said that he plans to still be making Mission: Impossible films when he’s 80.The 61-year-old action star, who reprises his role as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, said he has no plans to wrap up the franchise just yet.“Harrison Ford is a legend; I hope to be still going. I’ve got 20 years to catch up with him,” Cruise told The Sydney Morning Herald at the film’s Australian premiere, referring to the legendary actor’s role in Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny. “I hope to keep making ‘Mission: Impossible’ films until I’m his age.”The seventh instalment in the Mission franchise, out July 10, has received numerous positive reviews, with critics praising it as an “impeccably made” action film that “does not stop entertaining”.A less positive three-star from NME, however, said that “staggering stunts can’t make up for the nonsensical plot”.It went on: “The problems come when Dead Reckoning tries to be too clever.