One of next year’s biggest films is Paramount’s big-budget juggernaut “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”.
The action blockbuster serves as the seventh entry in that series and sees star Tom Cruise and filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie re-team for a third ‘Mission’ together following their success with the fifth film ‘Rogue Nation’ and sixth film ‘Fallout’.
The film is the first of a two-part story that is expected to cap off the franchise, and the subsequent eighth film, ‘Dead Reckoning Part Two,’ is slated to arrive in 2024.
So why the ‘Dead Reckoning’ title? Speaking with Empire, writer/director McQuarrie revealed that it ties back to the emotional journey of the characters:
“‘Dead reckoning’ is a navigational term. It means you’re picking a course based solely on your last known position, and that becomes quite the metaphor not only for Ethan but several characters.”
The film will see “many things emerging from Ethan’s past” according to McQuarrie, including the return of Henry Czerny’s Eugene Kittridge. Also, due to the two-part nature of the film, they had to go extremely big:
“The first thing we knew was that if it’s gonna be a big two-part adventure, it’s got to be epic. It’s going to have to be the instalment that swallows the rest of the franchise whole. There’s just not another way to do it.”
Separately McQuarrie was asked on Twitter the other day what has been the most difficult scene he has ever had to film. The director, currently filming ‘Dead Reckoning Part Two’, responded: “I’m in the air, shooting it right now. And two harder ones await.”
“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” is set to arrive in theaters on July 14th 2023.
