Tom Cruise's Viral Covid Rant To Mission Impossible Crew Members Was Clearly Worth It After Watching The Masterpiece They All Delivered With Dead Reckoning Part 1
I know we're getting a bit of movie blog fatigue on the website this week. I'm not here to tell you how magical or not magical the movie theater is. I just want to talk about the recent Mission Impossible movie and how all of Tom Cruise's effort was well worth it. I know there's a certain wannabe witch (or maybe she just is one at this point) on this forum who aims to bring Tom down in every way, but I won't stand for it. Not when he puts out movies like this on a regular basis.
In this day and age it is so hard to keep our concentration for a lengthy period of time. There are so many things out there to distract our attention, it's sad. If there's one place to escape and shut off from the world it's the movies which Jeff D. Lowe perfectly described in his blog here. But even with that, for a longer movie it's rare to never have the thought of "alright, let's wrap it up, I gotta get outta here." There was a moment watching Dead Reckoning Part One when I glanced at my phone to see the time out of curiosity. Doing the math and realizing there was still an hour left in the movie was a delight as opposed to a dread. When the 2.5 hour movie was done with I felt like a boxer who just went 12 rounds, but could easily have gone another six. I was fresh and ready to rock. Sure the plot would have deteriorated the longer they went on, but in terms of those actions sequences I could have stayed all night and never batted an eye. You just can't say that about a lot of movies these days, but the Mission Impossibles get it right.
One thing I went back to after watching the movie was Tom's infamous on-set rant about crew members breaking covid rules. At the time a lot of people probably came firing at Tom for being too much of a hardo and an asshole. After watching this movie and seeing the final product you have to appreciate how dedicated the man is to his craft of delivering the best action movies in the world. The rant was great which you watch back below.
All worth it and warranted in my mind. You've got a few idiots on set being lackadaisical with rules and threatening the entire movie's production? Not gonna happen on Tom's watch. Not when you've got this much money on the line. Is he a little extreme in all that's at stake? Yeah sure, but I'll never knock a guy for being passionate about something he loves doing, as long as it's legal of course. Passionate murderers and all those crazies? That's where I draw the line.
When you're building a train from scratch to crash it on only one take for this insane scene you need everyone on the same page. I mean look at this fucking set-up.
Going to these extremes to put the best product on the screen is all you can ask for as a paying customer. This entire sequence was insane.
And with that I'm going to take this time to talk about one scene in the movie with SPOILERS.
If you like these movies and haven't seen the new one yet, either exit the blog or scroll past. I'm going to start talking after the video below. By the time you see the next video in the blog I'll be done with the spoilers.
LAST CHANCE TO AVOID SPOILERS
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I refuse to believe or acknowledge that Isla Faust is dead. Nope, not buying it one bit. Am I coping here? It's quite possible, but hear me out.
So before the party you have Ethan, Luther, Benji, and Ilsa in that room trying to figure out their plan of attack. They make sure to acknowledge they can't trust anyone outside of that room as they come to grips with how powerful the Entity is. We never hear them talk about the actual plan outside of coming to the understanding that in order to beat the Entity they need to start thinking like the Entity. Almost anytime they go into a big moment without telling us the plan it involves serious misdirection, similar to what we saw with Benji pretending to be Solomon Lane in Fallout or Ethan pretending to be Chief Atlee in Rogue Nation.
They know the Entity is going to want to use Ethan's emotions to alter his judgement. To do that it'll attack who he cares about most. When they're all in the club and Gabriel brings this up the camera pans to Isla who gives a smirk. A great way to beat the Entity is to make it think it's getting something it actually isn't. Once it's operating under false pretenses is when you the advantage.
You then have the battle on the bridge where we first see Grace going at it with Gabriel. Grace is an expert thief and nothing more. She holds her own and doesn't get killed by him, but Isla a trained assassin with a fucking sword meets her demise? Not buying it. Yes she gets stabbed, but we later on see Paris get stabbed by those same knives and live.
You also don't really see anyone really grieving aside from Benji who appears shaken up. They just killed off a major character and arguably the biggest female the series has ever had. They spend maybe 60 seconds on it before moving on? This franchise is too good to just brush an Ilsa Faust death off like that. She's way too much of a fan favorite and an integral piece to the series to discard like that. I simply won't allow it.
Luther's final scene in the movie has him telling Ethan he's going to be working in the shadows to try and figure out the Entity's source code. The way I see it for the 8th movie next summer you're gonna have Ilsa and Luther as ghosts, where the Entity can't find them as the team finally gains the upper hand. Eventually they'll show up to take down Gabriel and it'll be this big twist.
Or….Ilsa is actually dead and it's the biggest mistake the franchise has ever made. I think they're too smart to kill her off like that, but only time will tell. I just love Rebecca Ferguson and don't want to accept she won't be in thees movies in the future.
Okay back to non-spoiler stuff. Henry Czerny, who plays Kitredge, might have the best whisper talk in the history of movies. He somehow makes every he's about to say sound 100x more important just with his delivery. Perfect for the dramatics of Mission Impossible. Love that they brought him back from the original.
Shea Whigham is criminally underrated in everything he does. I feel like his name isn't well known as much as his face. He's the "oh what's his name" guy in movies right now who is great in all his movies. Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, Wolf of Wall Street, Kong Skull Island, Joker, Fast and Furious, and probably a lot more I'm missing. Loved him in this Mission Impossible.
It's pretty impossible to make seven movies and have them maintain the quality that the MI series does. You just don't see it ever. The Fast and Furious movies make a ton of money no doubt, but they don't hold a candle to what Cruise has going here. I love John, but he's brainwashed.
Tom said he plans on making these movies until he's 80 and I hope to God he keeps his word. June 28, 2024 cannot come soon enough.
P.S. One thing I got a kick out of was Rebecca Ferguson's reason for rocking an eye patch in the early desert scene while shooting her sniper. Yeah turns out she just can't wink. I love her.