Ethan Hunt, aka Tom Cruise, is back for the fifth instalment of the Mission Impossible franchise with ‘Rogue Nation’ – a high-octane adventure that sees the Impossible Mission Force pitted against their most nefarious enemy to date.
Starting life back in 1966 as a hit US TV show, Mission Impossible has grown into a multi-million dollar franchise spawning a series of hit, slick, action movies.
This next chapter in the series sees Tom Cruise reprise his role as daredevil spy Ethan Hunt, – and his team that includes computer whizz Benji played by Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner as special agent Brandt and Ving Rhames as hacker Luther – pitted against ‘The Syndicate’; an anti-IMF agency headed up by the menacing Solomon Lane, played by Sean Harris.
Director Christopher McQuarrie, who takes over from Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) helmer Brad Bird, is now in the driving seat. Talking about the challenges of directing the film, McQuarrie, who previously worked with Cruise on the World War II drama, Valkyrie (2008) and sci-fi adventure Edge Of Tomorrow (2014), stated, “I wanted this film to bring together a Dream Team of Mission Impossible and give all the members of the IMF a major role.” McQuarrie continues, “I wanted to reach back into the franchise to bring back the best of them all to create a kind of super group of players.”
With each instalment of the high-octane franchise, audiences have seen the action increase with an array of spectacular, signature stunts. McQuarrie had a tough job after the death defying stunts featured in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, that saw Cruise climbing the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. At the beginning of ‘Rogue Nation’ we see Cruise clinging to the side of a plane as it takes off to the skies. While the onscreen image is enough to knock the wind from your lungs, the added fact is that this stunt was done 100% for real, without the aid of digital effects, which enhances the peril.
Talking about the origins of the stunt, Cruise said, “When I’m on a plane I am always thinking what it would be like to be out on the wing.” While this was an opportunity to find out how it feels to have the wind rushing through your hair 1000m up, Cruise was nervous about the stunt. “I couldn’t sleep the night before. I knew that once we took off, if something went wrong, no one could do anything.” He continued, “We started taxiing and I remember we were at the end of the runway and I’m hanging on saying to Chris (McQuarrie), ‘let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.’ Suddenly, the throttle goes and we are down the runway. The force of it! But then I was thinking, ‘Now do I say my line?’”
If that wasn’t enough, Cruise had to do this stunt eight times to make sure that the director captured the footage that was needed. This, however, isn’t the only heart-stopping stunt featured. In ‘Rogue Nation’, we see Cruise leap from the perilous heights of the Vienna Opera House, zoom around Morocco on the back of a motorcycle in a high-speed chase, only to then plunge the depths of an underwater server.
Joining Cruise on many of these breath-stopping adventures is a newcomer to the franchise, Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson, as the mysterious Isla Faust. Ferguson, who many will know from 2014’s Hercules, was not as eager to perform the dangerous stunts as Cruise. “I have claustrophobia and vertigo, but somehow, they got me to throw myself off high buildings and strap myself underwater. I just had to do it, so I did”, said Ferguson. McQuarrie was highly complementary of the actress, saying, “Rebecca only had a few weeks to train before we started shooting. She was very honest that she had a fear of heights and claustrophobia, but four weeks later she was leaping off the roof of the Vienna Opera House! She never pretended she wasn’t afraid, but she pushed herself and became so remarkably proficient that I think she had a great time.”
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation is sure to please fans of the franchise, which ups the ante in terms of action and stunts and is out in Cineworld Cinemas this Friday, 31 July 2015.
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation is released in cinemas nationwide 31 July 2015
