Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible 8 Stunt Caused Intense Screening Reaction, Final Reckoning Director Reveals

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning director Christopher McQuarrie shares the intense reaction one viewer had to a Tom Cruise stunt during an early screening for the film. Serving as a sequel to 2023's Dead Reckoning, the upcoming eighth installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise features Cruise returning as superspy Ethan Hunt to finish his fight against Gabriel (Esai Morales) and The Entity. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning's trailer has already teased that the film will feature a handful of thrilling Cruise stunts, including underwater action and an aerial plane sequence.

During a recent interview with Empire (via GamesRadar+), McQuarrie reveals that one of Cruise's stunts prompted an enthusiastic reaction during a Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning screening. According to the director, the upcoming movie features "the most difficult thing" they've ever done in the franchise, and it had one viewer overwhelmed with some pretty intense feelings while watching it. Check out McQuarrie's comment below:

"We had a small screening and someone said, 'I was suffocating throughout the entire sequence. I almost had a heart attack.' And I thought, 'I guess we did something right."

What McQuarrie's Tease Means For Mission: Impossible 8

The Final Reckoning's Stunts Explained

The Final Reckoning's first trailer has provided a fairly solid idea of what's to come from the eighth and potentially final Mission: Impossible movie. The most notable sequence from the film looks to be an aerial action set piece involving byplanes, which was filmed in South Africa, with Cruise seen hanging onto a plane as it flies upside down. The film is also, however, set to include a notable underwater set piece involving the Sevastopol submarine, which the Entity sinks in Dead Reckoning's opening moments.

After Hunt and his team learn of the Sevastopol submarine in the Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning ending, they will seemingly set out to find it in order to destroy the Entity. The trailer shows Cruise wearing scuba gear while exploring the wreck, in addition to another shot of him unconscious on the ocean floor. McQuarrie previously told Colliderthat he and Cruise both felt "dissatisfied" with the underwater set pieces in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) and Edge of Tomorrow (2014), and The Final Reckoning represents "the application of knowledge from previous sequences."

McQuarrie served as writer/ director for Rogue Nation, and he wrote the screenplay for Edge of Tomorrow.

Our Take On The Final Reckoning's Tom Cruise Stunts

Mission: Impossible 8 Will Deliver

If The Final Reckoning is indeed the final Mission: Impossible movie, Cruise and McQuarrie will definitely want to go out with a bang. Considering their strong track record thus far, the movie seems sure to succeed on this front. In addition to the major stunt sequences, audiences will also be in for at least one car chase, some fist fights, and a foot chase through London, all of which are sure to also be thrilling.

The Mission: Impossible franchise has been one of the most reliably entertaining action blockbuster franchises ever, and Cruise's passion for entertaining audiences has been a major reason for this. It's clear that he and McQuarrie will be pulling out all the stops for the next one, and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning looks to be another incredible theatrical experience.

Source: Empire (via GamesRadar+)