Wolf Blitzer Did Not Realize His Role Was So Pivotal in ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’

As an anchor for CNN, Wolf Blitzer is accustomed to delivering the news. His performance in Mission: Impossible – Fallout, however, delivered a major twist in the film instead.

Spoilers for Mission: Impossible – Fallout follow.

Featuring a star-studded cast with Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Rebecca Ferguson, and Simon Pegg, Mission:Impossible – Fallout earned a whopping $791 million dollars at the box office after its premiere on July 27th. One particular scene, early in the film, that took audience members by surprise saw Blitzer and Norwegian actor Kristoffer Joner paired up for one unforgettable moment.

“It was very exciting,” Blitzer tells ComicBook.com. “I didn’t even appreciate the scene until I actually saw the film, which was a year after we filmed it.”

The scene starts with Joner, who plays Nils Debruuk, in a hospital bed after being captured by Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and the IMF team. Hunt and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) are questioning Debruuk while Blitzer, who plays himself, is delivering a report on the hospital room TV.

The twist here is that IMF team member Benji Dunn (Pegg) is disguised as Blitzer on the “fake” news report as the entire scene is a setup to retrieve information from Debruuk. Once Hunt and his crew get what they need, Dunn takes off his Wolf Blitzer mask and the real Wolf Blitzer walks into the shot for an epic closing.

“Six months before I went to England to shoot that scene, I knew about it, read the script, we did a lot of reviews,” Blitzer explains. “But until I actually sat down and saw the film, it didn’t hit me how good it was.”

The two actors spent four days in England shooting their scene together, which Joner didn’t even prepare for.

“I don’t search in my soul and do stuff like that,” Joner says. “I just said, ‘OK, let’s see what happens.’”

Blitzer, on the other hand, jokingly said this is a role he’s prepared for his whole life.

“Over the years, they (producers) have invited me to have these little cameo roles, whether on TV shows like Murphy Brown, in the old days, or some of these motion pictures, and it’s been a lot of fun, and I have enjoyed it,” Blitzer said. “The good thing about it is, if the first take is not good, you do a second take, then you do a third take; it’s not live TV, which is what I do on a day-to-day basis.”

It is a part of the filmmaking process that Joner was already prepared for, of course.

“There’s no point in doing it just one time,” he says. “You are going to have to do it like seven or 10 times and see what happens.”

The duo agreed that being featured in a Mission: Impossible film left them speechless at times, but working with an actor like Tom Cruise is what made their experience all the better.

“I was just nervous,” Joner shares. “It’s strange. I grew up with Tom Cruise and all of a sudden he’s there, and you have to act. It’s a lot. But it’s a nice story to tell to your grandkids like, ‘I was apart of that.’ I’m looking forward to that.”

“For me it was really exciting,” Blitzer adds. “Because I grew up watching Mission: Impossible when it was a TV show, and then it became a motion picture, and of course I’ve been watching Tom Cruise for so many years. He’s a gentleman, he’s so nice, friendly and welcoming. He’s a great actor, and he does all of these amazing stunts, and he really does them himself.”

The digital release of Mission: Impossible – Fallout is available now, and the Blu-ray is scheduled to release on December 4th.