Christopher McQuarrie Had One Concern About Directing Another Mission: Impossible Film After Rogue Nation
The “Mission: Impossible” franchise is a revolving door. Countless characters appear in one movie and then vanish without a trace, let alone a name-drop, from the next one. The only anchors from the beginning to the present are Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt and Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell.
These hi-and-byes happened behind the camera too. From the first 1996 “Mission: Impossible” up to 2015’s “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation,” each film had a different director. This was what kept the franchise fresh even though the scripts were formulaic (Ethan’s framed for treason by the real mole in every other movie). Each director had a different style and so told the story in a different way.
Brian De Palma’s original “Mission: Impossible” had the most low-key set pieces but still had his usual boiling suspense; take the scene where Ethan is accused of being a mole by his handler Kittridge (Henry Czerny) in a montage of dutch angle close-ups. Directing “Mission: Impossible II,” John Woo took the ingredients for a Bond movie with Hong Kong-style over-the-top action.
J.J. Abrams made a breezy, well-cast, back-to-basics thriller (with a mystery box at the center) in “Mission: Impossible III.” Brad Bird, befitting his background in animation, focused mostly on high-tech set pieces in “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” which remains the most sci-fi-flavored “Mission: Impossible” film. In “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation,” Christopher McQuarrie scaled back the gadgets but kept the action just as death-defying, creating the most consistent thrill ride of the series to that point. Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), the anti-hero of “Rogue Nation,” was also the first character in the series who could be an almost equal foil for Ethan.
Then, “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” broke a pattern that had been going on for five movies; McQuarrie returned to the director’s chair.
Christopher McQuarrie Had One Concern About Directing Another Mission: Impossible Film After Rogue Nation
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