Tom Cruise is to make the first big splash of the Cannes film festival on Wednesday with “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning”, which despite its name, is not likely to be the last of the blockbuster franchise.
It is the eighth of the hit saga, a three-decade-long high-octane ride of spectacular stunts and equally breakneck plot twists shot all over the world.
Read more: Social media reacts after Imran Khan’s sons interview
– From small to big screen –
The hit saga is an adaptation of the television series of the same name that ran from 1966 to 1973.
After a bid to revive it flopped in 1990 after just two seasons, “Mission: Impossible” was reborn on the big screen in 1996 with Cruise playing Ethan Hunt, the star secret agent of the Impossible Missions Force (IMF).
As well as the sprawling backstory, the movie version inherited Lalo Schifrin’s famous theme tune and the legendary catchphrases “This message will self-destruct in five seconds” and “Your mission, should you choose to accept it”.
Read more: Trump vows to lift sanctions on Syria
– Tom Cruise reigns –
Unlike the TV series, the film franchise is almost completely focused on Ethan Hunt’s exploits and therefore Cruise, who has somehow hardly gained a wrinkle over three decades of playing the all-action hero.
The actor exercises an iron grip on “Mission: Impossible” through his production company Cruise/Wagner, even doing many of his own stunts.
– Top directors –
The series has attracted some of the biggest directors in Hollywood, with each leaving their mark.
Brian De Palma of “Carrie” and “Untouchables” fame packed the first with suspense and adrenalin. Although he believes “Mission: Impossible” to be the peak of his career, De Palma dug his heels in and refused to make another saying, “One of these is enough. Why would anybody want to make another one? Of course, the reason they make another one is to make money.”
John Woo then turned up the volume and the speed on the action sequences. While the critics were harder on the Hong Kong director, his movie packed cinemas. Then came J.J. “Star Wars” Abrams and Brad Bird.
“Usual Suspects” scriptwriter Christopher McQuarrie took over in 2015, making the four last films.
– The secret to success –
The franchise is driven by its heart-stopping action scenes. Anyone afraid of heights — or of a sensitive disposition — should stay away.
Cruise takes some terrible beatings, does acrobatics on the roof of the Paris-London Eurostar, clings to a passenger jet as it takes off and climbs the world’s highest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
But for many fans the vault scene in the first film by De Palma remains an almost unrepeatable peak of tension.
Cruise makes little use of body doubles for his stunt scenes, which has resulted in several accidents, including in “Fallout” (2018), when he had a double ankle fracture during a dangerous climb in London.
At a time of threatened Trump tariffs, “Mission: Impossible” is Hollywood at its most globalised, taking viewers from France to Ukraine, the UK, Hungary, Austria, Cuba, China, India and the Bering Sea and South Africa in the latest episode.
– Box office billions –
“Mission: Impossible” is eye-wateringly expensive to produce but extremely profitable.
The total budget of the eight films runs to $1.5 billion. And the cost keeps going up. While the first opus was made for $80 million, the latest cost an estimated $400 million.
But it has taken a stupendous $4 billion at the box office.
While some have speculated that “The Final Reckoning” could bring the curtain down on the franchise, and Cruise has appeared to play along, calling it a “Homeric… emotional journey of the entire franchise”, McQuarrie has said it is not all over yet.
The world will finally find out Wednesday if Ethan Hunt’s luck has at last run out.