This year has seen multiple blockbusters clock in with some quite long runtimes, and that will hold true for three of the big four upcoming studio films in the next month.
Whilst “Barbie” comes in at a relatively tight 114 minutes, that film is competing against some decidedly longer fare, including “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” at 142 minutes, “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1” at 156 minutes, and “Oppenheimer” at 180 minutes.
The new “Mission: Impossible” is set to overtake 2018’s “Mission: Impossible Fallout” as the longest entry in the series thus far. So one question arises out of that – when is a good time in the film to duck out to the toilet?
Eddie Hamilton has served as editor on the films since the fifth one ‘Rogue Nation’ as well as working on “Top Gun: Maverick,” the first “Kingsman” along with movies like “X-Men: First Class” and “Kick-Ass”. Speaking with Total Film (via Slashfilm), Hamilton says the way he works is that there deliberately isn’t any such downtime:
“In a dialogue scene or an action scene, you’re always trying to make sure that the emotional intention of the scene is clear for the audience and that they give a s— about what’s happening.
I think that the real trick is, if we’ve done our job right – if I’ve done my job right as an editor – everything is paced so that you are constantly leaning in, and you never even think, ‘Is this the right time to go and pee?’
You don’t want to give the audience space to feel that that’s an option. They have to be pulled along in the story and kept engaged the whole time, and (they] don’t want to leave the cinema because they don’t want to miss anything. From the very beginning of the movie to the end, it’s just one massive, complex sequence after another.”
Judging by the last two ‘Mission’ films, he may have a point. “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” is set to hit cinemas on July 12th.
