“I’ve pushed myself out of my comfort zone”
Christopher Mcquarrie tells us why he’s the first director to make a second Mission: Impossible film
THERE ARE FIVE reasons why Christopher Mcquarrie was slightly reluctant to return to the director’s chair on Mission: Impossible — Fallout, the sixth in the series. And he was one of them.
The others were Brian De Palma, John Woo, J.J. Abrams, and Brad Bird. Together, not only would they make up a cracking side for a film quiz, but they’re also the five directors of the five Mission:
Impossible films, from the 1996 original to Mcquarrie’s own Rogue Nation in 2015. “The pedigree of M: I is that a new director comes on every time and brings their own spin to it,” explains Mcquarrie.
That idea wasn’t set in stone from the off; it’s something that happened as the franchise went from strength-to-strength. But it became important — that idea that each new instalment would retain the key tenets of the series (namely, Tom Cruise wearing masks and falling off things), while being reinvigorated by a different directorial voice. “Fans of the franchise are very conscious of that,” Mcquarrie tells
Empire. “When Tom asked me to do this film, I said, ‘I’ll do it, but on the condition that we maintain the sense that this is a film directed by another director. I want to make a movie that does not feel like it was directed by the last guy. Which is a challenge, because the last guy was me.”
So, for his next trick, Mcquarrie will be reinventing himself; something that might be easier for him than most directors, given that Fallout is only his
fourth time behind the megaphone. “I’ve come to this with different key crew,” he says (and sure enough, his DP, Rob Hardy, and production designer, Peter Wenham, are new to the fold). “I’ve also worked to push myself out of my comfort zone and into things that are against my instincts or the cumulative knowledge from the movies I’ve made previously.”
There’s one key collaborator that Mcquarrie can’t, and won’t, change up: Cruise. “Tom is great,” says Mcquarrie. “The time we spend in the mornings talking about what we’re going to shoot that day, and what we end up producing, is absolutely fantastic.”
The duo first worked together on Bryan Singer’s Valkyrie in 2008 and have been creatively inseparable ever since.
Fallout is Mcquarrie and Cruise’s third movie as director/star, and both see it as a chance to make new strides for a series entering its third decade. “I want this to be an emotional journey for Ethan Hunt,” says Mcquarrie. “It’s important to me that this is not just about all the action, but there’s emotional impact. That’s what I presented to him, and that’s the movie we’re making. The tone is distinctly different from anything you’ve seen in Mission: Impossible before.”
In a way, we’ve never really got to know Ethan Hunt over the previous five movies. We know he’s indefatigable. We know he’s had more missions: impossible than you’ve had dinners: hot. We even know he got married in M: I III. But the character remains something of a blank slate — an Energiser Bunny of espionage, battling bad guys and saving the world but not much more. Mcquarrie aims to change that. “Let’s do something more sincere and make a story about who Ethan and these guys are today,” he explains. “They’re spies. How does that feel in a strange and complicated world?”
Time will tell how Mcquarrie’s radical movie mogul makeover will turn out, but it’s an exciting prospect. Perhaps he could direct future instalments in the guise of different directors. Mission: Impossible 7 directed by Christopher Mcquarrie-as-john Ford? Sold.