Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Star Compares Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie To Surprising Musical Duo

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One is now playing in theaters, and it’s had an okay start at the box office. The movie marks the third in the franchise to be helmed by Christopher McQuarrie, who first collaborated with franchise star Tom Cruise on the 2008 film Valkyrie. Recently, Simon Pegg, who has played Benji Dunn in the franchise since the third installment was released back in 2006, spoke with Variety about the new film and talked about the special bond between McQuarrie and Cruise. In fact, he even compared them to one of the biggest creative partners of all time: The Beatles’ John Lennon and Paul McCartney. 

“I think in Tom, he’s just found such a perfect creative partner, someone who can facilitate that way of working, can allow him to practice this extreme method of filmmaking,” Pegg explained. “I remember when we were making Ghost Protocol [directed by Brad Bird] and the script on that just wasn’t very focused, and Tom brought in McQ, a sort of master plumber to re-wriggle the pipes. And it was on that that their creative romance really took off.”

Pegg continued, “They’re both eternal students of film and just methods of filmmaking, methods of storytelling, certain camera rigs. I remember when we shot Rogue Nation, we were still using film. The cameras were quite cumbersome. Now, you can put a camera on a motorbike and just send it off a cliff and go down and pick it out of the undergrowth. And they’re forever absorbing these new methods of telling the story. So I just think they found each other – in a way that Lennon and McCartney found each other, if I could really hyperbolize.”

When asked about how Dead Reckoning ties in with the original Cruise-led Mission: Impossible from 1996, Pegg explained, “The interesting thing about the initial phase of this story was that it was an eclectic showcase of separate directors, and then it morphed into something with greater continuity in terms of Chris and Tom’s collaboration. But Chris has always had a great understanding of the importance of the legacy, and so we have Henry Czerny back for this one, which is so cool to see Kittridge back, and Henry’s such a brilliant actor.”

He added, “And also, the acknowledgement of where Ethan came from, this idea that the IMF agents are kind of offered a choice, which is usually prison, death or joining the IMF. And we came up with Benji’s whole backstory, that he was a hacker in the UK who broke into a sensitive database in the US and got extradited to be tried criminally and then was offered the choice. And so they’re striving to move forward, but also the embracing of the history of it, I think really kind of singles this story out, I think, in franchise cinema.” 

What Is Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning About?

Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, which premieres in theaters on July 12th. It’s the beginning of the end for the action-packed franchise, as Cruise reteams with longtime collaborator and filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie for more death-defying and breathtaking stunts. Hunt and allies Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) attempt to track down a new weapon with the power to tear the world apart. Actors Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, and Esai Morales join the cast for the latest installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise, which is set to wrap up with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two.