News Analysis India

Tag: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

  • A man from Ethan Hunt’s past: Esai Morales on playing Tom Cruise’s foe

    By Express News Service

    Tom Cruise is all set to dazzle the silver screen again with his next massive outing, Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One.

    Every great spy movie needs a great villain. And, in Esai Morales’ mysterious character Gabriel, Cruise and McQuarrie feel they’ve found perhaps the most compelling and complex villain in the entire Mission series. Fixated on finding a key—in two parts —that will give the holder control over an all-powerful weapon, Gabriel is an enigma, deriving pleasure from the suffering he causes; he is a ghost from Ethan’s past—before the latter joined the IMF—and a messenger with a dark vision for humanity’s future. Without Gabriel, Ethan might never have become the man he is. And without Ethan to stop him, Gabriel will bring his gift of suffering to everyone on Earth.

    “Gabriel is a character from deep in Ethan’s past. From before Ethan was the Ethan Hunt we know,” teases McQuarrie. “They know each other from long, long ago and have this shared event in their past that made them who they are. And now that has come full circle.” McQuarrie adds, “It’s fascinating to watch these two characters [Ethan and Gabriel] chase each other all over the planet”—especially given the conflict between them is also “distinctly personal, intimate and intense.”

    Moreover, Gabriel is a proxy for something even more horrifying, a menace McQuarrie describes as “far and away the biggest and most undefeatable threat that Ethan has ever faced.” “It’s been a long time, friend,” Gabriel tells Ethan when they reconnect. “You have no idea the power I represent. It knows your story… And how it ends.”

    Making his film debut in Rick Rosenthal’s Bad Boys starring Sean Penn, Morales is no stranger to acting opposite powerhouse performers, having also starred with the likes of Al Pacino in Oscar Wilde’s Salome, on Broadway; and Raul Julia, in Joe Papp’s production of The Tempest. Most recently, he appeared as one of the antagonists in the acclaimed Netflix series Ozark. But, in Cruise, he has found a sparring partner that has sent the sparks flying.

    “I think Tom and I have the same level of energy. He has applied his energy a lot more productively than I have in my life,” Morales laughs, “but, man, I just love going toe to toe with him.” What makes Gabriel so intimidating a foe, Morales says, is a combination of the philosophical threat he poses and the lengths he is prepared to go to in pursuit of it. “It’s about fate. Everyone has their fate. Can you change yours?” Morales says of Gabriel’s motivation.

    “He’s a formidable character because he has no fear. There’s nothing scarier than someone who is not afraid of anything you can do to them, including killing them. I see him as an agent of change who has given his complete being to the trust that technology is superior to Man.” A Paramount Pictures and Skydance Presentation and a Tom Cruise production, Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One hit theatres India-wide on July 12 in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. 

    Official synopsis:

    In Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team embark on their most dangerous mission yet: To track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands. With control of the future and the fate of the world at stake, and dark forces from Ethan’s past closing in, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than his mission—not even the lives of those he cares about most.

    Tom Cruise is all set to dazzle the silver screen again with his next massive outing, Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One.

    Every great spy movie needs a great villain. And, in Esai Morales’ mysterious character Gabriel, Cruise and McQuarrie feel they’ve found perhaps the most compelling and complex villain in the entire Mission series. Fixated on finding a key—in two parts —that will give the holder control over an all-powerful weapon, Gabriel is an enigma, deriving pleasure from the suffering he causes; he is a ghost from Ethan’s past—before the latter joined the IMF—and a messenger with a dark vision for humanity’s future. Without Gabriel, Ethan might never have become the man he is. And without Ethan to stop him, Gabriel will bring his gift of suffering to everyone on Earth.

    “Gabriel is a character from deep in Ethan’s past. From before Ethan was the Ethan Hunt we know,” teases McQuarrie. “They know each other from long, long ago and have this shared event in their past that made them who they are. And now that has come full circle.” McQuarrie adds, “It’s fascinating to watch these two characters [Ethan and Gabriel] chase each other all over the planet”—especially given the conflict between them is also “distinctly personal, intimate and intense.”googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Moreover, Gabriel is a proxy for something even more horrifying, a menace McQuarrie describes as “far and away the biggest and most undefeatable threat that Ethan has ever faced.” “It’s been a long time, friend,” Gabriel tells Ethan when they reconnect. “You have no idea the power I represent. It knows your story… And how it ends.”

    Making his film debut in Rick Rosenthal’s Bad Boys starring Sean Penn, Morales is no stranger to acting opposite powerhouse performers, having also starred with the likes of Al Pacino in Oscar Wilde’s Salome, on Broadway; and Raul Julia, in Joe Papp’s production of The Tempest. Most recently, he appeared as one of the antagonists in the acclaimed Netflix series Ozark. But, in Cruise, he has found a sparring partner that has sent the sparks flying.

    “I think Tom and I have the same level of energy. He has applied his energy a lot more productively than I have in my life,” Morales laughs, “but, man, I just love going toe to toe with him.” What makes Gabriel so intimidating a foe, Morales says, is a combination of the philosophical threat he poses and the lengths he is prepared to go to in pursuit of it. “It’s about fate. Everyone has their fate. Can you change yours?” Morales says of Gabriel’s motivation.

    “He’s a formidable character because he has no fear. There’s nothing scarier than someone who is not afraid of anything you can do to them, including killing them. I see him as an agent of change who has given his complete being to the trust that technology is superior to Man.” A Paramount Pictures and Skydance Presentation and a Tom Cruise production, Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One hit theatres India-wide on July 12 in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. 

    Official synopsis:

    In Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team embark on their most dangerous mission yet: To track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands. With control of the future and the fate of the world at stake, and dark forces from Ethan’s past closing in, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than his mission—not even the lives of those he cares about most.

  • Christopher McQuarrie on stunts in ‘Mission: Impossible 7 – Part One’

    By Express News Service

    We had earlier reported that the latest instalment in the Tom Cruise-fronted Mission Impossible franchise, titled Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, will be the final assignment of Cruise’s Ethan Hunt.

    In a recent interaction with Empire, director Christopher McQuarrie spoke about the stunts performed by Tom Cruise in the film. The filmmaker explained the challenges of wanting to stage the most outrageous action scenes but also figuring out how to film them in a logical way.

    “The Mission films always have a huge stunt, a jaw-dropping moment of wonder. This one is no exception,” said Christopher. “In an epic set-piece, Cruise battles Esai Morale’s villain on top of a moving steam train, and this isn’t a steam train that belongs in a museum.

    This is a fully powered, very fast, rocking, and rolling steam engine barreling down tracks. All the days on the train were exhausting. The train just sucks you dry but in a good way. We’re making a movie that involves sequences that they just don’t shoot practically anymore, and haven’t in a long, long time,” he added. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One will hit screens on July 12. 

    We had earlier reported that the latest instalment in the Tom Cruise-fronted Mission Impossible franchise, titled Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, will be the final assignment of Cruise’s Ethan Hunt.

    In a recent interaction with Empire, director Christopher McQuarrie spoke about the stunts performed by Tom Cruise in the film. The filmmaker explained the challenges of wanting to stage the most outrageous action scenes but also figuring out how to film them in a logical way.

    “The Mission films always have a huge stunt, a jaw-dropping moment of wonder. This one is no exception,” said Christopher. “In an epic set-piece, Cruise battles Esai Morale’s villain on top of a moving steam train, and this isn’t a steam train that belongs in a museum.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    This is a fully powered, very fast, rocking, and rolling steam engine barreling down tracks. All the days on the train were exhausting. The train just sucks you dry but in a good way. We’re making a movie that involves sequences that they just don’t shoot practically anymore, and haven’t in a long, long time,” he added. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One will hit screens on July 12.
     

  • It’s a wrap for ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’

    By Express News Service

    We had earlier reported that Tom Cruise-starrer Mission Impossible film, titled Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, will be the first in the final two-part conclusion to Cruise’s career as Ethan Hunt. The makers have now announced that the shooting for the film has been wrapped up.

    The director of the film, Christopher McQuarrie, took to Instagram to announce the update. The film is set to hit the theatres on July 12, 2023, while the second part is expected to be out on June 28, 2024.

    Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One will feature Ving Rhames, Henry Czerny, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, and Frederick Schmidt. The seventh film has a few callbacks from the past, including Vanessa Kirby as Alanna Mitsopolis, a black-market arms dealer who’s the daughter of Max Mitsopolis, played by Vanessa Redgraves in the first Mission: Impossible in 1996.

    We had earlier reported that Tom Cruise-starrer Mission Impossible film, titled Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, will be the first in the final two-part conclusion to Cruise’s career as Ethan Hunt. The makers have now announced that the shooting for the film has been wrapped up.

    The director of the film, Christopher McQuarrie, took to Instagram to announce the update. The film is set to hit the theatres on July 12, 2023, while the second part is expected to be out on June 28, 2024.

    Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One will feature Ving Rhames, Henry Czerny, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, and Frederick Schmidt. The seventh film has a few callbacks from the past, including Vanessa Kirby as Alanna Mitsopolis, a black-market arms dealer who’s the daughter of Max Mitsopolis, played by Vanessa Redgraves in the first Mission: Impossible in 1996.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

  • Tom Cruise’s ‘Mission: Impossible 7’ official title revealed

    By IANS

    LOS ANGELES: Hollywood star Tom Cruise will be returning as Ethan Hunt in the seventh instalment of the ‘Mission Impossible’ franchise called ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’.Paramount Pictures revealed the tentpole’s official title during its Thursday presentation at CinemaCon, the annual trade show for theatre owners.Cruise, who is usually a regular presence at the convention in Las Vegas, wasn’t in attendance, reports ‘Variety’.Though in fairness, he attended last year’s CinemaCon to talk up the death-defying stunts in ‘Mission: Impossible 7’ before the movie’s release date was pushed back by a year due to Covid.At that time, he was most excited about driving a motorcycle off a cliff in Norway, an antic he called “far and away the most dangerous thing I’ve attempted.”Audiences got a sneak preview of that anxiety-inducing moment – and more – in the high-stakes trailer, which hasn’t been made available to the public.His stunts have gotten so outrageous that everyone in the room laughed when Ethan Hunt nose dives off a cliff while on his motorcycle and then free-falls into the abyss.General audiences will be able to watch the teaser in front of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, which hits theatres on May 27.Though plot details for ‘MI7’ are mostly ambiguous, Hunt and his team of operatives are again faced with an existential threat.The trailer was stuffed with action-packed footage, including vintage-looking trains flying off tracks, deadly emerald-coloured clouds of biochemical weapons, and plenty of brutal street combat.”You’re fighting to save an ideal that doesn’t exist… never did,” Henry Czerny’s character Eugene Kittridge, the former director of the IMF, tells Hunt.”You need to pick a side.”Since he was not at Caesars Palace, Cruise sent along a pre-recorded video that was basically unintelligible because the actor was hanging from an airplane.”Please enjoy,” he told the audience.”And hey! Let’s try to have a great summer.”Cruise loomed large over Paramount’s three-hour presentation; the studio devoted nearly the entire time to screening his other high-profile blockbuster, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, a sequel to the 1986 action adventure.Thursday’s screening marks the first time a wide audience will see the movie, which is going to the Cannes Film Festival next month.Christopher McQuarrie returns to direct ‘Mission: Impossible – 7’ after steering the franchise’s fifth and sixth installment – 2015’s ‘Rogue Nation’ and 2018’s ‘Fallout’.The latter became the highest-grossing entry in the long-running series, grossing nearly $800 million at the global box office.Along with Cruise, who once again stars as an IMF agent known to occasionally hang off airplanes and skyscrapers, ‘MI’ stars Ving Rhames, Henry Czerny, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby and Frederick Schmidt will also return.Newcomers to the franchise include Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham, Esai Morales, Rob Delaney, Charles Parnell, Indira Varma, Mark Gatiss and Cary Elwes.’MI7′, which has been delayed several times during the pandemic, is scheduled to open in theatres on July 14, 2023.’Dead Reckoning Part Two’, as it will presumably be called, is set to be released on June 28, 2024.