As next year will bring the seventh installment of the long-running Mission: Impossible franchise, it's hard to imagine that there once was a time when Tom Cruise just didn't do sequels. By the time the first film in the franchise was in development, Cruise had already proven his leading man chops with films such as Top Gun, Rain Man, A Few Good Men, The Firm, and more, but there was nary a sequel to be found, despite producers hounding him for years to make a Top Gun sequel.
In a special feature found on the recently released 25th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray of Mission: Impossible, Tom Cruise told Christopher McQuarrie that he never expected the film to spawn sequels, although it was something he considered.
I was not expecting, I think in the back of my mind, I was…hoping, maybe. You know, I hadn't done sequels, and I kind of had a rule not to do sequels. Everyone was all over me about doing Top Gun [2], I was like, 'where do I take it?'
So what was different with Mission: Impossible? Well, Cruise went on to say that developing these films is a "logistical" and "artistic" challenge, forcing him and his team to work at the highest level possible in order to develop the stories and characters and deliver top-notch practical action. Early on, Cruise also came up with the idea to hire a different director for each sequel to keep things fresh, although he's obviously broken that rule with Christopher McQuarrie, who not only directed Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and Mission: Impossible – Fallout, but is also helming Mission: Impossible 7 & Mission: Impossible 8. Speaking of the upcoming sequel, Cruise recently teased that the film features his most dangerous stunt yet, which involves driving a motorcycle off the side of a cliff.
If the wind was too strong, it would blow me off the ramp. The helicopter [filming the stunt] was a problem, because I didn’t want to be hammering down that ramp at top speed and get hit by a stone. Or if I departed in a weird way, we didn’t know what was going to happen with the bike. I had about six seconds once I departed the ramp to pull the chute and I don’t want to get tangled in the bike. If I do, that’s not going to end well.
When you take the Mission: Impossible movies out of the equation, Cruise really hasn't done too many sequels compared to most blockbuster stars, with Jack Reacher: Never Go Back and the upcoming Top Gun: Maverick being the only times he's returned for a follow-up. Mission: Impossible 7 is currently slated to hit theaters on May 27, 2022, and will be followed by Mission: Impossible 8 on July 7, 2023.
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