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Making something as big and epic as Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning can be an impossible task, per Simon Pegg, but at least the cast and crew had Tom Cruise on their side. ClutchPoints spoke to the cast of The Final Reckoning during the movie's press junket, who agreed with Pegg's point.
“We always say that there's a Mission: Impossible behind the Mission: Impossible,” Pegg quipped. “There's always a story going on in the real world, which adds to the tension.”
He recalled a scene from Fallout where his character Benji defuses a bomb with Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson). They were filming it around 1:00 am, but the timing had to be precise.
“We couldn't go over because it would mean that everyone's overtime would kick in, and it would cost a lot of money,” he explained. “So, we had to finish this scene of defusing this nuclear bomb before 1:00 am.”
According to Pegg, these types of stressful situations are the norm on a Mission: Impossible set. Pegg revealed that Cruise says, “Pressure is a privilege,” which Pegg concedes “adds to the verse of militude of what's happening on screen.”
Another scene that stands out to Pegg is when they filmed parts of The Final Reckoning in the Arctic, a set Pegg dubbed “hairy.” It was negative 40 degrees, and it was so cold that they were subject to frostnip, a “precursor to frostbite,” as he explained when their skin was exposed. Not to mention, there was also the “ever-present threat” of polar bears.
“We had to be monitored the whole time so that we didn't get frostbite on our faces, our noses,” he recalled. “I remember Pom [Klementieff's] nose went white — they had to get her inside the tent [to] warm it up real quick.”
Some of the other “impossible” Mission: Impossible scenes
Klementieff didn't mention the frostnip incident. However, she conceded that the movies are “challenging, but in a good way.” She praised the crew that made sure all the actors were “safe.”
Greg Tarzan Davis, who previously starred in Top Gun: Maverick with Cruise, found the Final Reckoning shoot “impossible” in a different way.
“We shot this over the last four and a half, five years, and everything that we had to do, it felt impossible,” Davis said. “But Tom and [Christopher] McQuarrie found a way to make it work.
“We're going to the most exotic locations, like filming out in the Arctic — there were no ducks quacking around, it was just ice [and] polar bears. We had to find a way in order to film in these exotic spaces. So yeah, it is very impossible, but the result is always beautiful, great cinema,” he continued.
Top Gun: Maverick star on reuniting with Cruise
Most actors don't get the privilege of working with Cruise once, let alone three times in the last few years. Davis appeared in Top Gun: Maverick and the last two Mission: Impossibles with him.
Obviously, Cruise is the connective tissue between the projects. Davis explained the similarities between them are “Tom being Tom” and his desire to “make an excellent movie that caters towards the audience that entertains and makes them want to come to [the] cinema.”
He once again went back to the globe-trotting nature of the Mission: Impossible series as the biggest difference: “One is planes, the other one is global, around the world. Mission: Impossible just [goes] everywhere,” Davis explained.
Hayley Atwell also “completely” agreed with Pegg's sentiment. Her character, Grace, gets in on the action — the train sequence from Dead Reckoning comes to mind — and her role increases in The Final Reckoning. It sounds like there was an unpredictability with the shoot, making every experience new.
“You never really know what to expect day in, day out,” Atwell revealed. “You can only prepare as much as you can before you then surrender to whatever is in front of you and whatever is required. I think it's a testament to the trust that we have as a group of people from the cast and crew that we can go to these very extreme places, like the Arctic, the winding mountains of South America, and the mines, and watching the technical feats Tom achieves.”
Without that trust in the Mission: Impossible crew (particularly Cruise), The Final Reckoning wouldn't happen. Luckily, Atwell and the rest of the cast put their trust in the filmmakers.
Praise for Mission: Impossible's leader Tom Cruise
All roads lead back to Tom Cruise, who is hanging off planes and going hundreds of feet underwater in The Final Reckoning. His co-stars applaud his efforts to make the movie as thrilling as possible.
It was almost a unanimous “no” when I asked if any of his co-stars envied his stunts. “Do you wanna do that?” Oscar-nominated actress Angela Bassett asked me, laughing.
That doesn't mean she doesn't feel it. Bassett plays President Erika Sloane in the Mission: Impossible series, keeping calm amid a hectic time. Her character makes decisions that could impact the entire world, not just her country. Watching the movie is a different experience, though.
“Not to the degree that I sensed when I saw the movie for the first time,” Bassett said of feeling stressed while playing the character. “It feels like it was incredibly stressful, but I think that's because it [her performance] was juxtaposed against what Tom was going through, which was absolutely brilliant in how they turned up the tension.”
Would Simon Pegg do any crazy stunts?
Pegg shared a similar sentiment. Even if the Mission: Impossible franchise continues after The Final Reckoning, I'd wager Pegg will remain boots on the ground.
“Not at all,” Pegg said. “I don't have the same level of commitment that Tom has. Nobody does. The truth is, nobody has the same level of commitment to their art [to the point they are] risking their life.
“Most people are happy to hand over to a stunt performer 'cause that's what stunt performers do. But Tom is just so determined to give the audience an authentic thrill, which is very present when you can see that it's him doing it. Even though you are watching the film thinking, Is Ethan gonna survive? Part of your mind is saying, That's Tom Cruise doing that, you know? It's an added thrill that you get to see him do these crazy things,” he continued.
Ultimately, Tom Cruise and the rest of the Mission: Impossible crew have continued to make groundbreaking movies. Pegg seems proud of what they've accomplished as he talked about what could be the final Mission: Impossible film.
“This whole film series has felt like a Mission: Impossible, in a way. We set the bar so high, we set ourselves such ridiculous goals to achieve that we're always fighting for the possibility of failure; that just adds to the fun,” Pegg concluded.
