Director Christopher McQuarrie has set the bar incredibly high for himself when it comes to the Mission: Impossible franchise, with both Rogue Nation and Fallout widely regarded as two of the best action movies of the 21st century. It speaks volumes about his contributions to the series that the first four Mission films each had somebody different behind the camera, but McQuarrie has now stepped up to tackle four in a row.
As if that wasn’t enough pressure, the seventh and eighth installments are set to shoot back-to-back, which must be a logistical nightmare given the precision-designed action sequences and constant narrative rug-pulls that have become staples of the adrenaline-fueled action blockbusters. The proposed location shooting in Venice and Rome was delayed indefinitely due to the Coronavirus pandemic, but filming has continued in England regardless, at least until Mission: Impossible 7 becomes the latest high-profile project to get shut down as the crisis escalates.
Now, a new batch of set photos have made their way online, showing star Tom Cruise behind the wheel of several different vehicles as he tears around a test track in his typical daredevil fashion, and you can check them out below.
Watching the death-defying stunts that Tom Cruise puts himself through has made Mission: Impossible one of the most must-see franchises in the business, with the diminutive actor having scaled the world’s tallest building, strapped himself to a plane, performed a low-altitude skydive and learned to pilot a helicopter over the last several movies, all in the name of our entertainment.
McQuarrie has promised that some of the stunts Cruise has planned for the back-to-back shoot are nothing short of obscene, and we’ll be waiting with bated breath for official footage to see just what kind of situations he’s managed to get the insurers to sign off on this time.