May 22nd marks 25 years since the first Mission: Impossible film hit theatres. The movie went on to spawn five sequels, and the seventh movie is currently in production with the eighth following behind. Recently, franchise star Tom Cruise spoke with Collider and reflected on the first movie, which was directed by Brian De Palma. It turns out, Steven Spielberg played a major role in getting De Palma on board for the film.
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“I remember one night I went over [to Spielberg’s house] and there was Brian De Palma, and so the three of us had dinner. And we were just talking about movies and there’s Brian, and I’d seen all of his films, and I went home that night – Mission was on my mind, also I was prepping Interview with the Vampire at that time, working on a few other things. And I went home that night and I stayed up for about 14 hours and I just got all of De Palma’s movies and I restudied all of them… I just went, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s gotta direct Mission: Impossible.’”
De Palma was the first of many directors to helm movies in the Cruise-led franchise. He was followed by John Woo, JJ Abrams, Brad Bird, and Christopher McQuarrie. McQuarrie is actually the only repeat director, having helmed Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and Mission: Impossible – Fallout. He’s also tackling the untitled seventh and eighth installments.
In addition to Cruise, Ving Rhames will be reprising his role as Luther Stickell in the next film, making him the only other person to appear in every movie. Simon Pegg, who made his franchise debut in Mission: Impossible III, is returning as Benji Dunn. Other returning actors include Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, and Angela Bassett. Marvel stars Pom Klementieff and Hayley Atwell will also be making their M:I debut in the seventh installment. Recently, it was announced that Rob Delaney (Deadpool 2), Charles Parnell (Top Gun: Maverick), Indira Varma (Game of Thrones), Mark Gatiss (Sherlock), and Cary Elwes (Stranger Things) would be joining the cast. Henry Czerny will also be returning as Eugene Kittridge, which will mark his first appearance in the franchise since the first film was released in 1996. Recently, Czerny revealed what his character has been up to all these years.
“I decided that he’d been to all the agencies on some level or other, had a good idea now of how the game is played and what his place is in this mechanism of national intelligence,” Czerny recalled to /Film. “I figured he’d been through all of them at this point, and he’d been schooled by Ethan 25 years ago. He’s known Ethan, he’s known he’s done these things, and he knows that Ethan is someone to go to, but he also feels that it’s not ever good to have one person controlling anything.”
Mission: Impossible 7 is set to hit theaters on May 27, 2022.
