THIS MONTH AT EMPIRE

I’VE NEVER BEEN a huge fan of surprises. If you’re going to throw me a surprise party, tell me about it first. If you’re going to buy me a present, check my ramblings on Twitter. And don’t even think of jumping out at me wearing a William Shatner mask. But 2018 was so full of pleasant surprises, it might have turned me around on that. (Well, not the Shatner bit.)

Back in January, who could have guessed Jim from the American Office

would direct one of the year’s best and scariest movies? Or that the sixth Mission: Impossible would be the best action film in a decade? Or that the latest Avengers

adventure would end with half the universe being finger-clicked into oblivion?

Which is why this issue we’ve gone allout to celebrate a fantastic year for cinema. John Krasinski and Emily Blunt reflect on the sleeper-hit phenomenon that was A Quiet Place. Guillermo del Toro shares the very personal story of how he made Oscarwinner The Shape Of Water. And Tom Cruise and Christopher Mcquarrie reveal how they made Fallout so damn explosive.

Elsewhere we get under the hood of Transformers spin-off Bumblebee and unveil Peter Jackson’s latest epic offering, while I had an unforgettable encounter in Stockholm with He-man himself: Dolph Lundgren. Who wasn’t at all what I expected. In a good way. Actually, now I think about it, maybe I do like surprises.

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