(L to R) Alan Alda, Wayne Rogers and Loretta Swit in ‘M*A*S*H’. Photo: 20th Century-Fox Television.
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Loretta Swit has died aged 87.
She became most known for her role of Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan on TV’s ‘M*A*S*H*.
The actor also had roles in ‘Race With the Devil’ and ‘The Love Boat.’
Loretta Swit, the Emmy Award-winning actress renowned for her portrayal of Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan on the iconic television series ‘M*A*S*H*,’ has passed away at the age of 87 in her New York City home.
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The cause of death is believed to be natural, though an official determination is pending.
Born Loretta Jane Szwed on November 4, 1937, in Passaic, New Jersey, Swit was a member of a Girl Scout troop sponsored by the Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church of Passaic, known as the Holy Rosary Scouts.
She graduated from Pope Pius XII High School in Passaic in 1955, where she had been a cheerleader, taken part in theatrical productions, and served as co-captain of the women’s basketball team.
She graduated from Katharine Gibbs School in Montclair, New Jersey, in June 1957, then was employed at a variety of clerical jobs, including as a stenographer in Bloomfield, New Jersey, secretary to the ambassador from Ghana to the United Nations, and at the American Rocket Society in New York City while being trained to dance by a classmate, Elizabeth Parent-Barber, a Rockette and student at the New York School of Ballet.\
Swit was also a singer, having trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
During this time, she began developing her acting career, including studying drama with Gene Frankel in Manhattan in New York City, whom she considered her acting coach. She regularly returned to his studio to speak with aspiring actors throughout her career.
Her earlier acting roles were on stage, including an Off-Broadway production of ‘An Enemy of The People,’ touring with the national company of ‘Any Wednesday’ and as one of the Pigeon sisters opposite Don Rickles and Ernest Borgnine in a Los Angeles run of ‘The Odd Couple.’
The cast of ‘M*A*S*H’. Photo: 20th Century-Fox Television.
After lobbying for the role, Swit joined the cast of the TV take on ‘M*A*S*H* in 1972, portraying“Hot Lips” Houlihan, the strong-willed head nurse at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War.
Her performance earned her two Emmy Awards and ten nominations over the show’s 11-year run. Swit’s nuanced portrayal and the show’s own growth from farcical sitcom to more meditative series transformed Major Houlihan from a one-dimensional villain character into a multifaceted figure, reflecting the evolving social dynamics of the era.
Loretta Swit: Other TV and Movie Work
(L to R) Warren Oates, Loretta Swit, Lara Parker and Peter Fonda in ‘Race with the Devil’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
Swit struggled somewhat to distance herself from the Houlihan role in made for television movies like ‘Games Mother Never Taught You’ and ‘Hell Hath no Fury’ and found a seeming new direction after landing the role of Chris Cagney on the pilot episode of cop series ‘Cagney & Lacey,’ only to be unable to play the part when ‘M*A*S*H’ producers refused to let her out of her contract.
Though her career became much quieter in later years, her most recent cinematic credit was in 2019’s ‘Play the Flute.’
Loretta Swit: Beyond Her Career
Beyond her television success, Swit was a passionate advocate for animal rights. In 2017, she founded the SwitHeart Animal Alliance, a charity dedicated to ending animal cruelty and providing medical care to animals in need. She also published ‘SwitHeart: The Watercolor Artistry & Animal Activism of Loretta Swit,’ a book featuring her watercolor paintings and stories supporting animal welfare.
Swit was married to actor Dennis Holahan from 1983 to 1988.
She is survived by her brother, Robert Szwed, and a legacy of artistic and philanthropic contributions.
The cast of ‘M*A*S*H’. Photo: 20th Century-Fox Television.
The (possibly) final chapter of his ‘Mission: Impossible’ series, entitled ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning‘, opens in theaters on May 23rd and in honor of the new release, Moviefone is counting down the 35 best movies of Tom Cruise’s career, including his latest!
(L to R) Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown in ‘Cocktail’. Photo: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution.
After being discharged from the Army, Brian Flanagan (Cruise) moves back to Queens and takes a job in a bar run by Doug Coughlin (Bryan Brown), who teaches Brian the fine art of bar-tending. Brian quickly becomes a patron favorite with his flashy drink-mixing style, and Brian adopts his mentor’s cynical philosophy on life and goes for the money.
In ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,’ Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his IMF team embark on their most dangerous mission yet: To track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands. With control of the future and the fate of the world at stake, and dark forces from Ethan’s past closing in, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than his mission – not even the lives of those he cares about most.
Wounded in Africa during World War II, Nazi Col. Claus von Stauffenberg (Cruise) returns to his native Germany and joins the Resistance in a daring plan to create a shadow government and assassinate Adolf Hitler. When events unfold so that he becomes a central player, he finds himself tasked with both leading the coup and personally killing the Führer.
Military cadets (Timothy Hutton, Sean Penn, Cruise) take extreme measures to ensure the future of their academy when its existence is threatened by local condo developers.
Nathan Algren (Cruise) is an American hired to instruct the Japanese army in the ways of modern warfare, which finds him learning to respect the samurai and the honorable principles that rule them. Pressed to destroy the samurai’s way of life in the name of modernization and open trade, Algren decides to become an ultimate warrior himself and to fight for their right to exist.
Tom Cruise in ‘Vanilla Sky.’ Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
David Aames (Cruise) has it all: wealth, good looks and gorgeous women on his arm. But just as he begins falling for the warmhearted Sofia (Penélope Cruz), his face is horribly disfigured in a car accident. That’s just the beginning of his troubles as the lines between illusion and reality, between life and death, are blurred.
When two poor Greasers, Johnny (Ralph Macchio) and Ponyboy (C. Thomas Howell), are assaulted by a vicious gang, the Socs, and Johnny kills one of the attackers, tension begins to mount between the two rival gangs, setting off a turbulent chain of events.
A young man (Cruise) leaves Ireland with his landlord’s daughter (Nicole Kidman) after some trouble with her father (Robert Prosky), and they dream of owning land at the big giveaway in Oklahoma ca. 1893. When they get to the new land, they find jobs and begin saving money. The man becomes a local barehands boxer, and rides in glory until he is beaten, then his employers steal all the couple’s money and they must fight off starvation in the winter, and try to keep their dream of owning land alive. Meanwhile, the woman’s parents find out where she has gone and have come to America to find her and take her back.
A fugitive (Cruise and Cameron Diaz) couple goes on a glamorous and sometimes deadly adventure where nothing and no one – even themselves – are what they seem. Amid shifting alliances and unexpected betrayals, they race across the globe, with their survival ultimately hinging on the battle of truth vs. trust.
(L to R) Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt, Greg Tarzan Davis plays Degas, Simon Pegg plays Benji Dunn and Hayley Atwell plays Grace in ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and the IMF team continue their search for the terrifying AI known as the Entity — which has infiltrated intelligence networks all over the globe — with the world’s governments and a mysterious ghost from Ethan’s past on their trail. Joined by new allies and armed with the means to shut the Entity down for good, Hunt is in a race against time to prevent the world as we know it from changing forever.
Jack Harper (Cruise) is one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying threat known as the Scavs, Jack’s mission is nearly complete. His existence is brought crashing down when he rescues a beautiful stranger (Olga Kurylenko) from a downed spacecraft. Her arrival triggers a chain of events that forces him to question everything he knows and puts the fate of humanity in his hands.
After Dr. Bill Harford’s wife, Alice (Nicole Kidman), admits to having sexual fantasies about a man she met, Bill (Cruise) becomes obsessed with having a sexual encounter. He discovers an underground sexual group and attends one of their meetings — and quickly discovers that he is in over his head.
Former pool hustler “Fast Eddie” Felson (Paul Newman) decides he wants to return to the game by taking a pupil. He meets talented but green Vincent Lauria (Cruise) and proposes a partnership. As they tour pool halls, Eddie teaches Vincent the tricks of scamming, but he eventually grows frustrated with Vincent’s showboat antics, leading to an argument and a falling-out. Eddie takes up playing again and soon crosses paths with Vincent as an opponent.
When Ethan Hunt (Cruise), the leader of a crack espionage team whose perilous operation has gone awry with no explanation, discovers that a mole has penetrated the CIA, he’s surprised to learn that he’s the No. 1 suspect. To clear his name, Hunt now must ferret out the real double agent and, in the process, even the score.
Tom Cruise in ‘Jack Reacher.’ Photo: Paramount Pictures.
When a gunman takes five lives with six shots, all evidence points to the suspect in custody. On interrogation, the suspect offers up a single note: “Get Jack Reacher!” So begins an extraordinary chase for the truth, pitting Jack Reacher (Cruise) against an unexpected enemy, with a skill for violence and a secret to keep.
Retired from active duty to train new IMF agents, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is called back into action to confront sadistic arms dealer, Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman). Hunt must try to protect his girlfriend while working with his new team to complete the mission.
Mitch McDeere (Cruise) is a young man with a promising future in Law. About to sit his Bar exam, he is approached by ‘The Firm’ and made an offer he doesn’t refuse. Seduced by the money and gifts showered on him, he is totally oblivious to the more sinister side of his company. Then, two Associates are murdered. The FBI contact him, asking him for information and suddenly his life is ruined. He has a choice – work with the FBI, or stay with the Firm. Either way he will lose his life as he knows it. Mitch figures the only way out is to follow his own plan…
Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team are racing against time to track down a dangerous terrorist named Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist), who has gained access to Russian nuclear launch codes and is planning a strike on the United States. An attempt to stop him ends in an explosion causing severe destruction to the Kremlin and the IMF to be implicated in the bombing, forcing the President to disavow them. No longer being aided by the government, Ethan and his team chase Hendricks around the globe, although they might still be too late to stop a disaster.
The biography of Ron Kovic (Cruise). Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for.
Talented but unproven stock car driver Cole Trickle (Cruise) gets a break and with the guidance of veteran Harry Hogge (Robert Duvall) turns heads on the track. The young hotshot develops a rivalry with a fellow racer (Michael Rooker) that threatens his career when the two smash their cars. But with the help of his doctor (Nicole Kidman), Cole just might overcome his injuries– and his fear.
Ethan (Cruise) and team take on their most impossible mission yet—eradicating ‘The Syndicate’, an International and highly-skilled rogue organization committed to destroying the IMF.
Meet Joel Goodson (Cruise), an industrious, college-bound 17-year-old and a responsible, trustworthy son. However, when his parents go away and leave him home alone in the wealthy Chicago suburbs with the Porsche at his disposal he quickly decides he has been good for too long and it is time to enjoy himself. After an unfortunate incident with the Porsche Joel must raise some cash, in a risky way.
Tom Cruise plays Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ from Paramount Pictures, Skydance and Jerry Bruckheimer Films.
After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. When he finds himself training a detachment of TOPGUN graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose.” Facing an uncertain future and confronting the ghosts of his past, Maverick is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who will be chosen to fly it.
When car dealer Charlie Babbitt (Cruise) learns that his estranged father has died, he returns home to Cincinnati, where he discovers that he has a savant older brother named Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) and that his father’s $3 million fortune is being left to the mental institution in which Raymond lives. Motivated by his father’s money, Charlie checks Raymond out of the facility in order to return with him to Los Angeles. The brothers’ cross-country trip ends up changing both their lives.
Jerry Maguire (Cruise) used to be a typical sports agent: willing to do just about anything he could to get the biggest possible contracts for his clients, plus a nice commission for himself. Then, one day, he suddenly has second thoughts about what he’s really doing. When he voices these doubts, he ends up losing his job and all of his clients, save Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.), an egomaniacal football player.
Cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx) picks up a man (Cruise) who offers him $600 to drive him around. But the promise of easy money sours when Max realizes his fare is an assassin.
Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. lead an ensemble cast in ‘Tropic Thunder,’ an action comedy about a group of self-absorbed actors who set out to make the most expensive war film. After ballooning costs force the studio to cancel the movie, the frustrated director refuses to stop shooting, leading his cast into the jungles of Southeast Asia, where they encounter real bad guys.
Tom Cruise in ‘Minority Report.’ Photo: Paramount Pictures.
John Anderton (Cruise) is a top ‘Precrime’ cop in the late-21st century, when technology can predict crimes before they’re committed. But Anderton becomes the quarry when another investigator (Colin Farrell) targets him for a murder charge.
Major Bill Cage (Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously demoted and dropped into combat. Cage is killed within minutes, managing to take an alpha alien down with him. He awakens back at the beginning of the same day and is forced to fight and die again… and again – as physical contact with the alien has thrown him into a time loop.
When an IMF mission ends badly, the world is faced with dire consequences. As Ethan Hunt (Cruise) takes it upon himself to fulfill his original briefing, the CIA begin to question his loyalty and his motives. The IMF team find themselves in a race against time, hunted by assassins while trying to prevent a global catastrophe.
When cocky military lawyer Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Cruise) and his co-counsel, Lt. Cmdr. JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore), are assigned to a murder case, they uncover a hazing ritual that could implicate high-ranking officials such as shady Col. Nathan Jessep (Jack Nicholson).
Tom Cruise in ‘Top Gun.’ Photo: Paramount Pictures.
For Lieutenant Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell (Cruise) and his friend and co-pilot Nick ‘Goose’ Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards), being accepted into an elite training school for fighter pilots is a dream come true. But a tragedy, as well as personal demons, will threaten Pete’s dreams of becoming an ace pilot.
Also returning to the franchise is actor Rolf Saxon (‘Saving Private Ryan’), who played William Donloe in 1996’s ‘Mission: Impossible’. He was the CIA analyst that Ethan Hunt (Cruise) stole the NOC list from in that famous scene from the first movie.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Rolf Saxon about his work on ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’. The actor discussed returning to the franchise, his character’s pivotal role in the story, how the script changed on set, creating his backstory, reuniting with Tom Cruise, how he was cast in the original, what it was like appearing in that film’s iconic scene, his admiration for the legacy of the franchise and Cruise’s stunt work, and what it means to him to be part of one of the most popular franchises in cinematic history.
Rolf Saxon plays William Donloe in ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance. Photo: Russell Baer.
Moviefone: To begin with, how did you find out that you would be returning for ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ and were you surprised to get a call 30 years after filming the first movie?
Rolf Saxon: Honestly, I thought it was a joke. I thought a friend of mine in Scotland was winding me up. Suddenly, I get an email to meet Christopher McQuarrie, and I see the address and I think, “Oh, that’s good, man. I’m going to owe you big time on this one, dude.” So, I’m in a t-shirt with a glass of wine and McQuarrie comes up and it’s like, “What? Wait, what?” I’ve got goosebumps just thinking about it. It was insane. He offered me the job within about three minutes, and he spent the next hour telling me what he thought. I couldn’t even joke about, “Oh, let me think about it, Chris. I might do this. I might not.” I just went for it. I thought it was a joke, and it wasn’t. So, I’m still having difficulty with this. No kidding. I had two lines, maybe three minutes on screen in the first movie and suddenly I’m doing this. Unbelievable.
MF: When it was announced that you would be returning, many thought it would be just a cameo, but your character plays a pivotal role in the story of the film. Was it always designed to be like that or did your part grow through production?
RS: Two things. One, Chris works in a very improvisational way. When I first came on board, it was a very different concept. Not hugely, I mean, it was still the same thing, but the way I was introduced was one way when we started filming, and then they decided to change an integral part of the story structure. So, that had to be readjusted. With that came a further readjustment. I was put in act three of the film. Again, this job has been like that for me. It’s like, “Wait, what? Seriously are you winding me up now? Is this a joke?” With Chris, I realized very soon, he doesn’t joke about stuff like that ever. Never. So, when he says something like that, it’s like, “This is wonderful.” I mean, I don’t know what his original concept of it was, to be honest with you. There was no script that I could read. It was just what he was telling me. That’s what I was going on. Then, as I said, we started filming it, and then we changed it. He then said, “We’re going to do something here and there, and we’re going to do this now.”
(L to R) Greg Tarzan Davis, Christopher McQuarrie, Lucy Tulugarjuk, Simon Pegg, Rolf Saxon, Pom Klementieff and Hayley Atwell on the set of ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
MF: A lot of time has passed since the last time we saw your character, and some of that is explained in the movie but did you create a backstory for yourself so you would understand how he got to this point in his life?
RS: Christopher was clear on what he wanted. As an actor, when one gets that kind of direction, it’s up to us to sort through that. Because of this, the energy and the positivity that’s around that just permeated that set. When someone said something like that, instead of like, “How am I going to do this?” It’s like, “Okay, this is cool. This is great.” It’s much more proactive. You’re not on the back foot so much, you’re on the front foot. I love that and that wasn’t a fluke that from day one to the last day for me was like that. So yeah, we worked, Chris and I talked a lot about what it was going to be, and then Lucy (Tulugarjuk) came on board. When she came on board, we did some more chatting about it. Then it was just a matter of making it work with what he was presenting us.
MF: You had only one scene with both Henry Czerny and Tom Cruise in the first movie, but you didn’t have any speaking lines in those scenes. What was it like to reunite with both of those actors on this movie and get to act opposite them this time around?
RS: Yeah, it was great. I mean, to get to act with Tom Cruise, again, it sounds a little bit fan-like, but it was brilliant, man. I mean, it was great. He brings, again, an energy and a positive focus that, there’s only one Tom Cruise. That’s it. There’s a reason for that. I got to experience it, which was wonderful. Henry, I met on set, but before we started working together, and it’s the first time I’d seen him in 30 years, I walked up to him and I said, “Hey, listen, I just want to say, no hard feelings.” He looked at me, and then he just started laughing. He’s got a great sense of humor. We’ve been tight since then. I mean, we get on very well. He’s a lot of fun.
(L to R) Hayley Atwell plays Grace, Simon Pegg plays Benji Dunn, Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt, Rolf Saxon plays William Donloe, Lucy Tulugarjuk plays Tapeesa, Greg Tarzan Davis plays Degas and Pom Klementieff plays Paris in ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
MF: Can you talk about the first time you saw Tom Cruise again after all these years? Did he thank you for returning to the franchise?
RS: The first day I was brought on set just outside of London, to the studio. I was brought on just to see the set because there were two sound stages they were using. One of them was for a tunnel sequence that they had rebuilt where Luther (Ving Rhames) was working in that room. I was brought on to see it, meet a couple of heads of department and stuff. I came in around this corner and through this room, and there was Tom, the heads of department, and Christopher McQuarrie. I got this big round of applause, and Tom came up and hugged me. Simon Pegg was also there, who I’ve known for many years ago. I was made to feel so welcome immediately on the set. Tom just said, “Anything you need, let me know.” He’s not a warm and fuzzy kind of guy. He’s not that kind of Californian thing, but boy, he’s a hundred percent there.
MF: Can you talk about how you were cast in the first ‘Mission: Impossible’? Did you audition for director Brian De Palma?
RS: I was doing a David Mamet play, a tour. We’d done a theater, and it was very successful. So, we went on tour with it. I got a phone call from my agent saying they want to set up an audition for this movie. Tom Cruise is going to do ‘Mission: Impossible’. I said, “Like the TV series? This is going to be interesting.” So, I took a three-hour train ride and met them at Pinewood Studios. Brian (De Palma) was working at the time, so there was a little bit of a delay, and I had to be back for the curtain that night. So, I went in, I was there with him for about three minutes, and that was it. As I walked out, I turned to the casting director, and I said, “Well, that was a waste of time.” She said, “No, you were in there longer than anybody else. I think he really liked you.” I thought, “Yeah, right. Thanks. Appreciate it.” So, I got on the train back three hours just in time for the half hour call, and I got a message saying, “Phone your agent.” And I thought, “Oh, that’s cool. Okay.” So, I did the show. The next morning, I called my agent and he said, “Yeah, they’ve offered you the job. They want you to do it.” I said, “You’re kidding.” I was doing another film, a much better part, but they said they were going to work around it. So, I thought, “Okay, cool.” Of course, that film has completely disappeared. It’s funny how things work. That’s how I got that one. Again, this job has been like that from the get-go. A constant series of surprises, and very pleasant ones.
(L to R) Tom Cruise and Rolf Saxon in ‘Mission: Impossible’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
MF: The scene from the first film where Ethan Hunt is stealing the NOC list and Tom Cruise is hanging from the ceiling above you has become one of the most popular scenes in cinematic history. How has it felt over the years to know you were part of such an iconic movie moment?
RS: Well, I’ll be honest with you, Jami. I had no idea of this. I mean, I saw myself in the movie, I’m critical of things I do. So, some of it I like, some of it I didn’t like. I’ve seen it, and all my friends and family say, “Oh, you’re brilliant.” They’re your friends and your family, what are they going to say, you stink? No. So, McQuarrie said what you’re saying, and I thought he was blowing smoke. When I came to London, I was in a hotel. I met a guy, I didn’t know him, but I could tell he was American. So, I said, “Hey, how are you doing?” We chatted for 30 seconds on an elevator ride, and then I didn’t see him again for a couple of days. The next time I saw him was on the set for ‘Mission: Impossible’. It was Greg Tarzan Davis. He looked at me and pointed and said, “Oh, my gosh, you are William Donloe.” Christopher was standing behind him. I thought, again, between the two of them, they’d worked this out. Tarzan said, “No, man. I suddenly realized you’re the guy.” He said, “You looked a little familiar. But I thought, it was just me.” He said, “That is a great scene. Everybody knows it.” To be honest with you, I still find that difficult to believe, the fact that I’m in it. It’s more to do with what Tom’s doing and the film, I’m in the background of it. So, while I am part of it, it’s a tiny little part. I’m ecstatic about it. Don’t get me wrong. I love being a part of it. It brought me back. So yeah, I’m very happy.
MF: What is your opinion of the direction the series has gone in since the first film, and Tom Cruise’s incredible dedication to the stunt work?
RS: I’ll be honest, this is not my genre of film. I’ve watched every single one of them. I watched the second one because I was in the first one. But it became very much, “I love these.” I love these films. They’re great fun. This is not my normal genre, what I normally watch. So, that says for me how good they are. I’m not someone who gravitates to this kind of thing, and I love them. I watch them as soon as they come out. What I think of the franchise, it’s grown and grown. I mean, when we did the first one, it was a gamble. Tom was taking a big chance, and it paid off. That’s before he was the Tom Cruise he is now. That could have failed. So, because of him and his guiding, and especially when Chris came on, I think the last four films, they’ve got a working relationship that just gets bigger and bigger. Technology has improved. They do amazing things with technology, except the stunts. There’s no technology there. There’s none. That’s all him. That, I think, is one of the major selling points of the film. You’re seeing a human being doing everything that he does. I mean, I wouldn’t train to do those stunts. No way. I have friends who are stunt performers, and one of them who is American guy, he’s been doing it for a long time, and he said he’s never met any stunt person who has a sense of physical space the way Tom Cruise does. He doesn’t get excited, or nervous. He gets problem-solving. He said, “I’ve never seen anybody do anything the way he’s doing this.” I thought, “Well, it makes perfect sense.” But stunts can go wrong, and stunts have gone wrong with him. He’s broken bones. He’s injured himself, but he’s never come close to dying. That is a mark of, I think, how good he is at this and his team around him. He gets the best in the world. He can do that, and it works.
Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt in ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
MF: Finally, you were in the first ‘Mission: Impossible’ and now you’re in the last. What does it mean to you personally to have been a part of one the most popular film franchises of all time?
RS: Again, it’s a gift. This from the outset has been a gift, an unknown gift in the beginning. I mean, this kind of thing, I suppose someone like Tom can do this kind of thing as an actor. He can say, “This is what I want to do,” but to be able to do that is a whole other thing. This was presented to me on a platter. I am fortunate that I’m the one it was presented to. Do you know what I mean? I spend a long-time perfecting what I do as best I can. So, when something like this comes up, hopefully I can do it. But the right place, the right time kind of thing comes to mind. I’ve had a lucky career. I’ve been very lucky. I’ve done many things that I’ve been gifted for. But this has got to be at the top. This is great.
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What is the plot of ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’?
Following the events of ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning,’ Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team must stop the villainous Gabriel (Esai Morales) from gaining control of the powerful sentient AI known as the Entity, which has plans of its own for the world.
Who is in the cast of ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’?
Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt in ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
Based on the popular TV series of the same name, Tom Cruise‘s ‘Mission: Impossible‘ films have earned more than $4 billion at the box office and has become one of the most popular cinematic franchises of all time!
Cruise and McQuarrie have revitalized the franchise with their elaborate stunts and action sequences, and their latest addition to the series, and possibly the last, ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning‘, opens in theaters on May 23rd.
In honor of the new film’s release, Moviefone is ranking every ‘Mission: Impossible’ film ever made.
With computer genius Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) at his side and a beautiful thief (Thandiwe Newton) on his mind, agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) races across Australia and Spain to stop a former IMF agent (Dougray Scott) from unleashing a genetically engineered biological weapon called Chimera. This mission, should Hunt choose to accept it, plunges him into the center of an international crisis of terrifying magnitude.
Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt in ‘Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning – Part One ‘from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.
In ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,’ Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his IMF team embark on their most dangerous mission yet: To track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands. With control of the future and the fate of the world at stake, and dark forces from Ethan’s past closing in, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than his mission – not even the lives of those he cares about most.
When Ethan Hunt (Cruise), the leader of a crack espionage team whose perilous operation has gone awry with no explanation, discovers that a mole has penetrated the CIA, he’s surprised to learn that he’s the No. 1 suspect. To clear his name, Hunt now must ferret out the real double agent and, in the process, even the score.
(L to R) Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt, Greg Tarzan Davis plays Degas, Simon Pegg plays Benji Dunn and Hayley Atwell plays Grace in ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and the IMF team continue their search for the terrifying AI known as the Entity — which has infiltrated intelligence networks all over the globe — with the world’s governments and a mysterious ghost from Ethan’s past on their trail. Joined by new allies and armed with the means to shut the Entity down for good, Hunt is in a race against time to prevent the world as we know it from changing forever.
Retired from active duty to train new IMF agents, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is called back into action to confront sadistic arms dealer, Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman). Hunt must try to protect his girlfriend (Michelle Monaghan) while working with his new team to complete the mission.
Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team are racing against time to track down a dangerous terrorist named Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist), who has gained access to Russian nuclear launch codes and is planning a strike on the United States. An attempt to stop him ends in an explosion causing severe destruction to the Kremlin and the IMF to be implicated in the bombing, forcing the President to disavow them. No longer being aided by the government, Ethan and his team chase Hendricks around the globe, although they might still be too late to stop a disaster.
Ethan (Cruise) and team take on their most impossible mission yet—eradicating ‘The Syndicate’, an International and highly-skilled rogue organization committed to destroying the IMF.
When an IMF mission ends badly, the world is faced with dire consequences. As Ethan Hunt (Cruise) takes it upon himself to fulfill his original briefing, the CIA begin to question his loyalty and his motives. The IMF team find themselves in a race against time, hunted by assassins while trying to prevent a global catastrophe.
Joe Don Baker in 1973’s ‘Walking Tall’. Photo: Cinerama Releasing Corporation.
Preview:
Joe Don Baker has died at the age of 89.
He enjoyed a long career playing characters on both sides of the law.
The actor may be best remembered for his role in 1973’s ‘Walking Tall’
Joe Don Baker, a burly, charismatic actor, died, according to a report from his family, on May 7th.
As a performer, he enjoyed a long and successful career, though it could well be defined by one standout –– a very violent, yet righteous lawman.
In 1973’s ‘Walking Tall,’ he was Sheriff Buford Pusser, who spoke his mind and carried a big stick to mete out his particular brand of justice.
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Yet there was far more to Baker’s life and work than just being a tough guy. As his obituary reads, he was “a beacon of kindness and generosity. His intellectual curiosity made him a voracious reader, inspiring a great love of nature and animals, particularly cats. Throughout his life, Joe Don touched many lives with his warmth and compassion, leaving an indelible mark on everyone fortunate enough to know him.”
Joe Don Baker in ‘Charley Varrick’. Photo: Universal Pictures.
Born on February 12, 1936, in Groesbeck, Texas, Baker’s early life was marked by the loss of his mother at the age of 12, after which he was raised by his aunt. He attended North Texas State College, where he joined the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and graduated in 1958 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. In 1994 he received the Distinguished Alumni award from his college, now renamed University of North Texas.
Tellingly, for the frame that would help define his later movie presence, he played linebacker on the football team, graduating in 1958 with a degree in business administration.
Despite that accreditation, he followed a familiar path at the time, and joined the U.S. Army for a two-year stint, before heading to New York to pursue acting at the Actors Studio.
Joe Don Baker: TV Roles
Joe Don Baker in 1973’s ‘Walking Tall’. Photo: Cinerama Releasing Corporation.
In 1963 and 1964, Baker appeared on Broadway in Actors Studio productions of ‘Marathon ’33’ opposite Julie Harris and ‘Blues for Mister Charlie,’ written by James Baldwin and directed by Burgess Meredith.
As mentioned above, Baker’s most memorable role will forever be that of former professional wrestler Sheriff Pusser in ‘Walking Tall’ — based on a real-life sheriff who cleaned up crime in his Tennessee town. In the part, his character survives a series of beatings; represents himself in court and wins; gets elected sheriff; sees his wife murdered; and wields clubs carved from oak trees to beat up vicious gamblers and moonshiners.
Here’s what Baker said of the part during an interview in the mid-1990s:
“In those days in the early ’70s, I think a lot of people wanted to take a stick to Nixon and all those Watergate guys. The movie touched a vigilante nerve in everybody who would like to do in the bad guys but don’t have the power and would get in trouble if they did. But Buford was able to pull it off.”
An independent release from Bing Crosby Productions, ‘Walking Tall’ was distributed by Cinerama Releasing Corp. and became a huge financial success, grossing an estimated $40 million ($622 million in today’s money) on a budget of about $500,000 ($3.6 million today).
Famously, Baker later became arguably the first American Bond villain and one of the few actors to return to the franchise in another role.
Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt in ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
If 2023’s ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’ was a rocketship of a movie that blasted clear into the stratosphere on a two-and-a-half-hour surge of supercharged action fuel, then ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ is the long, bumpy descent back to Earth, full of near-misses and some truly exhilarating moments before settling onto the ground in somewhat anticlimactic fashion.
As a possible close to this nearly 30-year-old, eight-movie saga, it’s frustrating, fan-servicey, and non-committal; as an entry on its own terms in what has become one of the best action franchises of the 21st century, it’s got a weird structure that goes flat for long stretches before jolting us with some of the series’ most electrifying set pieces. But star/producer Tom Cruise, writer/director Christopher McQuarrie and their cast work hard to sew up many of the franchise’s loose ends and deliver a ton of movie, even if it doesn’t quite live up to the expectations set by the last three or four chapters in the story.
Story and Direction
Director Christopher McQuarrie on the set of ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
The first 30 or 40 minutes of ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ are its wobbliest. The film begins with a montage of moments from across the entire series, as if to remind us of not just what happened in the last movie, but to recap the entire saga and jog our memories of how monumental it all is. We’ve also got to get up to speed on the events of ‘Dead Reckoning,’ since – despite the efforts to play down the two films as ‘Part One’ and ‘Part Two’ after the former underperformed at the box office – ‘The Final Reckoning’ is a direct sequel that picks up almost right where we left off (despite reports of reshoots, some of which are glaringly obvious here).
Cruise and McQuarrie seemingly want to secure their franchise’s place in the action/sci-fi movie firmament as well, right next to the likes of Marvel’s Infinity Saga, the James Bond films, and the Skywalker Saga. In fact, there’s an air of ‘Avengers: Endgame’ around ‘The Final Reckoning,’ with McQuarrie’s screenplay (co-written with Erik Jendresen) not just rehashing the events of movies past but bringing in plot points and characters from specific films — most notably the very first ‘Mission: Impossible’ and J.J. Abrams’ ‘Mission: Impossible III’ – while retconning a few as well. There’s also a significant death early in the picture, which makes it seem – at least initially – that everyone’s life could be up for grabs.
Well, they kind of are, actually: ‘The Final Reckoning’ leans fully into the pulp sci-fi aspect of the ‘Mission: Impossible’ IP — going all the way back to the TV show — by making the stakes here nothing less than the end of human civilization at the hands of the Entity, the sentient, self-replicating AI that was the bogey at the heart of the previous film. As the film opens, the Entity is seizing control of not just the world’s nine major nuclear arsenals one by one, but, oddly, all online content as well, creating its own never-ending of deepfakes and fake news to confuse the human race and turn everyone against each other (as if we need AI to do that these days).
(L to R) Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie on the set of ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
The Entity’s proselytizer and human henchman from the first film, Gabriel (Esai Morales), is now operating on his own and wants to get control of it, which requires a key that only Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is currently in possession of. Former CIA director Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett), now the President of the United States, wants Ethan to come in, while current CIA director, the eternally oily Kittredge (Henry Czerny), wants to get his hands on the Entity’s steering wheel as well. But Ethan knows that the Entity cannot be tamed and must be destroyed.
The means to do that is revealed in a lot of heavily-convoluted scenes of exposition that stop the film dead in its tracks several times, with McQuarrie deploying characters to finish each other’s sentences even if they’re sometimes not in the same room or on the same continent. The results are bizarre, as if the filmmakers are taking the criticism of this property’s often nonsensical storylines so seriously that they want to make sure that you’re fully briefed every 10 minutes or so.
In any case, it turns out that the only way to either stop or gain control of the Entity is by obtaining its source code, which is on a drive hidden away in that submarine that sank at the beginning of ‘Dead Reckoning.’ If that source code can be combined with a “poison pill” virus created by Ethan’s reliable bestie and teammate Luther (Ving Rhames) and uploaded to the internet, it can theoretically send the Entity scurrying through the world’s routers and fiber-optic cables into a trap that Ethan, Benji (Simon Pegg), Grace (Hayley Atwell) and their allies hope can capture the AI “in the blink of an eye.”
(L to R) Tom Cruise and Director Christopher McQuarrie on the set of ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’. Photo: Paramount Pictures and Skydance.
With the IMF team on the run from the Bering Sea to South Africa to achieve their mission, as Gabriel’s minions close in on them from one side and Kittredge’s squads bear down on the other, ‘The Final Reckoning’ eventually kicks into gear with two absolutely superb action sequences that are notable for how unlike each other they are. The first is an eerie, almost completely wordless 20-minute segment in which Ethan indeed breaches that sub, now a massive underwater tomb, and must escape with the source code before the sub plunges off the outcropping it’s perched on to the bottom of the ocean. Ethan’s fight to get out is incredibly nerve-wracking, although the end of the sequence undermines even its movie realism by allowing him to do something we were told one scene earlier is impossible for any human to do.
The second action set piece is basically the entire third act, a steady build-up of tension as we cut between Ethan and Gabriel battling in mid-air on dueling bi-planes, a standoff in an underground shelter involving guns, a ticking bomb, and one badly injured hero, and the President getting ready to pre-emptively press the nuclear button with a traitor standing just feet from her. The aerial dogfight is nothing short of stunningly spectacular, Cruise once again risking his life as he hangs off both planes and slides all over their wingspans as the aircraft dive and swoop through mountains, ravines and valleys.
That last half hour is really what we want from a ‘Mission: Impossible’ movie, and worth every penny onscreen (speaking of which, the movie looks astounding throughout, even if large chunks of it take place in tight, dark spaces). The very end of the story, meanwhile, sort of undermines the climax but also suggests a last-minute retooling. It’s not really clear where this franchise goes from here, but it is evident from the movie’s coda that the filmmakers themselves don’t really know either.
Cast and Performances
(L to R) Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt, Greg Tarzan Davis plays Degas, Simon Pegg plays Benji Dunn and Hayley Atwell plays Grace in ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
Is his job finally getting to Ethan Hunt, or is making these behemoths finally getting to Tom Cruise? The venerable movie star seems a bit tired here, although in some ways he gives perhaps his most emotional performance as Ethan Hunt. Still, the idea that the fate of the world rests on his shoulders – and has been resting on them for a while – seems a bit much to hang on one guy. Having said that, Cruise gives his all here as usual, particular in those gut-churning airborne stunts and his seemingly unending ability to run great distances at speed.
As with ‘Dead Reckoning,’ the cast here is stacked to the rafters. It’s just a shame that most of the glittering ensemble don’t really play characters but just chess pieces who each get a moment or two to shine if they’re lucky. Pegg and Rhames are dependable as always, forming the emotional core of the movie, while Hayley Atwell and Pom Klementieff look fabulous as they do whatever the script requires and little else.
(L to R) Nick Offerman, Charles Parnell, Angela Bassett, Mark Gatiss and Janet McTeer in ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
As for the rest of the folks – Bassett, Holt McCallany as the Secretary of Defense, Nick Offerman as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (just one year after playing the President himself!), the great Janet McTeer as Someone Important in the President’s Circle, and Hannah Waddingham and Tramell Tillman as a carrier commander and submarine captain respectively – well, they’re all terrific (especially Waddingham and Tillman) and we wish we could see more of them.
The biggest disappointment is Esai Morales’ Gabriel. We warmed to him in ‘Dead Reckoning,’ but here the character’s motivations are even more vague, and Morales seems unsure whether to play the character as a cool-as-a-cucumber 007 antagonist or a maniacally laughing comic book supervillain.
Final Thoughts
(L to R) Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt and Simon Pegg plays Benji Dunn in ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
Even though the movie itself doesn’t close the book definitively, this is probably where the mission should end (some thought it should have wrapped two movies ago with the sublime ‘Fallout’). It doesn’t seem plausible that each installment can keep getting bigger, and it’s less plausible that Tom Cruise will begin to age backwards. The more pronounced underlying theme here as well – Ethan Hunt is the savior of the world – strains good taste and credibility.
But let’s also give thanks to Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, and everyone else involved in these films over the years – including a handful that should receive a tip of the hat in this entry but don’t (cough, Rebecca Ferguson, cough) – who have kept the torch lit for big-screen, crowd-pleasing, spectacular action epics with a bit of heart and brains. ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ might not be the best of the series by a long shot, but it goes out mostly strong and even makes a much-needed plea for kindness, understanding, and trust. That might be the most impossible mission of all – should we choose to accept it.
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What is the plot of ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’?
Following the events of ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning,’ Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team must stop the villainous Gabriel (Esai Morales) from gaining control of the powerful sentient AI known as the Entity, which has plans of its own for the world.
Who is in the cast of ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’?
Answer: They are all movies based on popular TV programs!
Whether it’s a continuation of the original series like ‘The X-Files‘ or ‘The Simpsons Movie,’ or a remake of the show such as ‘The Fugitive‘ or ‘Miami Vice,’ Hollywood has long enjoyed success from adapting popular television programs into feature films.
In honor of ‘The Fall Guy,’ which is currently available to stream now at home, Moviefone is counting down the 30 best movies based on TV programs of all time.
NOTE: For this list we are including both movies that are remakes of TV shows featuring a new cast, as well as films that continue the story of the series with the original cast.
(L to R) Anjelica Huston and Raul Julia in ‘The Addams Family’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
When a man claiming to be long-lost Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd) reappears after 25 years lost, the family plans a celebration to wake the dead. But the kids barely have time to warm up the electric chair before Morticia (Anjelica Huston) begins to suspect Fester is fraud when he can’t recall any of the details of Fester’s life.
(L to R) Anne Hathaway as Agent 99 and Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart in ‘Get Smart.’ Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.
When the identities of secret agents from Control are compromised, the Chief (Alan Arkin) promotes hapless but eager analyst Maxwell Smart (Steve Carrell) and teams him with stylish, capable Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway), the only spy whose cover remains intact. Can they work together to thwart the evil plans of KAOS and its crafty operative?
(L to R) Mimi Rogers, Lacey Chabert, William Hurt and Heather Graham in 1998’s ‘Lost in Space’.
The prospects for continuing life on Earth in the year 2058 are grim. So the Robinsons (William Hurt, Mimi Rogers, Heather Graham, Lacey Chabert and Jack Johnson) are launched into space to colonize Alpha Prime, the only other inhabitable planet in the galaxy. But when a stowaway (Gary Oldman) sabotages the mission, the Robinsons find themselves hurtling through uncharted space.
(L to R) Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum in ’21 Jump Street’. Photo: Columbia Pictures.
In high school, Schmidt (Jonah Hill) was a dork and Jenko (Channing Tatum) was the popular jock. After graduation, both of them joined the police force and ended up as partners riding bicycles in the city park. Since they are young and look like high school students, they are assigned to an undercover unit to infiltrate a drug ring that is supplying high school students synthetic drugs.
(L to R) Alice Krige as the Borg Queen and Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard in ‘Star Trek: First Contact.’ Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
The Borg, a relentless race of cyborgs, are on a direct course for Earth. Violating orders to stay away from the battle, Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the crew of the newly-commissioned USS Enterprise E pursue the Borg back in time to prevent the invaders from changing Federation history and assimilating the galaxy.
(L to R) Lucy Liu, Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore in 2000’s ‘Charlie’s Angels’. Photo: Sony Pictures Releasing.
Three women (Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu), detectives with a mysterious boss, retrieve stolen voice-ID software, using martial arts, tech skills, and sex appeal.
(L to R) Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks in 1987’s ‘Dragnet’. Photo: Universal Pictures.
LAPD Sgt. Joe Friday (Dan Aykroyd) — the equally straight-laced nephew of the famous police sergeant of the same name (Jack Webb) — is paired up with a young, freewheeling detective named Pep Streebeck (Tom Hanks). After investigating some strange robberies at the local zoo and the theft of a stockpile of pornographic magazines, they uncover cult activity in the heart of the city and are hot on the case to figure out who’s behind it all.
(L to R) Harry Dean Stanton and Kyle MacLachlan in 1992’s ‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me’. Photo: New Line Cinema.
In the questionable town of Deer Meadow, Washington, FBI Agent Desmond (Chris Isaak) inexplicably disappears while hunting for the man who murdered a teen girl. The killer is never apprehended, and, after experiencing dark visions and supernatural encounters, Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) chillingly predicts that the culprit will claim another life. Meanwhile, in the more cozy town of Twin Peaks, hedonistic beauty Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) hangs with lowlifes and seems destined for a grisly fate.
(L to R) Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, Kim Cattrall and Sarah Jessica Parker in ‘Sex and the City’. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures. Sarah Jessica Parker Kim Cattrall Kristin Davis Cynthia Nixon
(L to R) Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer in film ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,’ directed by Guy Ritchie.
At the height of the Cold War, a mysterious criminal organization plans to use nuclear weapons and technology to upset the fragile balance of power between the United States and Soviet Union. CIA agent Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) and KGB agent Illya Kuryakin (Arie Hammer) are forced to put aside their hostilities and work together to stop the evildoers in their tracks. The duo’s only lead is the daughter (Alicia Vikander) of a missing German scientist, whom they must find soon to prevent a global catastrophe.
When the four boys see an R-rated movie featuring Canadians Terrance and Philip, they are pronounced “corrupted”, and their parents pressure the United States to wage war against Canada.
2002’s ‘Jackass: The Movie’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
Johnny Knoxville and his band of maniacs perform a variety of stunts and gross-out gags on the big screen for the first time. They wander around Japan in panda outfits, wreak havoc on a once civilized golf course, they even do stunts involving LIVE alligators, and so on.
Kristen Bell in 2014’s ‘Veronica Mars’. Photo: Warner Bros.
Years after walking away from her past as a teenage private eye, Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) gets pulled back to her hometown – just in time for her high school reunion – in order to help her old flame Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), who’s embroiled in a murder mystery.
(L to R) Mel Gibson, James Garner and Jodie Foster in ‘Maverick’. Photo: Warner Bros.
Maverick (Mel Gibson) is a gambler who would rather con someone than fight them, and needs an additional three thousand dollars in order to enter a winner-takes-all poker game that begins in a few days, so he joins forces with a woman gambler (Jodie Foster) with a marvellous southern accent, and the two try and enter the game.
The adventures of two amiably aimless metal-head friends, Wayne (Mike Myers) and Garth (Dana Carvey). From Wayne’s basement, the pair broadcast a talk-show called “Wayne’s World” on local public access television. The show comes to the attention of a sleazy network executive (Rob Lowe) who wants to produce a big-budget version of “Wayne’s World”—and he also wants Wayne’s girlfriend, a rock singer named Cassandra (Tia Carrere). Wayne and Garth have to battle the executive not only to save their show, but also Cassandra.
(L to R) Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck in ‘State of Play’. Photo: Universal Pictures.
When a congressional aide is killed, a Washington, D.C. journalist (Russell Crowe) starts investigating the case involving the Representative (Ben Affleck), his old college friend.
Leslie Nielsen in ‘The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!’ Photo: Paramount Pictures.
When the incompetent Lieutenant Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) seeks the ruthless killer of his partner, he stumbles upon an attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II (Jeannette Charles).
(L to R) Colin Farrell as Detective James ‘Sonny’ Crockett and Jamie Foxx as Detective Ricardo ‘Rico’ Tubbs in ‘Miami Vice.’ Photo: Universal Pictures.
A case involving drug lords and murder in South Florida takes a personal turn for undercover detectives Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Ricardo Tubbs (Jamie Foxx). Unorthodox Crockett gets involved romantically with the Chinese-Cuban wife (Gong Li) of a trafficker of arms and drugs, while Tubbs deals with an assault on those he loves.
(L to R) David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in 1998’s ‘The X-Files’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson), now taken off the FBI’s X Files cases, must find a way to fight the shadowy elements of the government to find out the truth about a conspiracy that might mean the alien colonization of Earth.
A gruesome serial killer (Andy Serkis) is terrorizing London while brilliant but disgraced detective John Luther (Idris Elba) sits behind bars. Haunted by his failure to capture the cyber psychopath who now taunts him, Luther decides to break out of prison to finish the job by any means necessary.
He’s a stuntman (Ryan Gosling), and like everyone in the stunt community, he gets blown up, shot, crashed, thrown through windows and dropped from the highest of heights, all for our entertainment. And now, fresh off an almost career-ending accident, this working-class hero has to track down a missing movie star (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), solve a conspiracy and try to win back the love (Emily Blunt) of his life while still doing his day job. What could possibly go right?
2007’s ‘The Simpsons Movie’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
After Homer (Dan Castellaneta) accidentally pollutes the town’s water supply, Springfield is encased in a gigantic dome by the EPA and the Simpsons are declared fugitives.
(L to R) Liam Neeson, Sharlto Copley, Quinton Jackson and Bradley Cooper in ‘The A-Team’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
A group of Iraq War veterans goes on the run from U.S. military forces while they try to clear their names after being framed for a crime they didn’t commit. Along the way, Col. Hannibal Smith (Liam Neeson), Capt. H.M. ‘Howling Mad’ Murdock (Sharlto Copley), Sgt. Bosco ‘B.A.’ Baracus (Quinton Jackson), and Lt. Templeton ‘Faceman’ Peck (Bradley Cooper) help out various people they encounter.
(L to R) Ray Winstone, Hayley Atwell and Plan B in 2012’s ‘The Sweeney’. Photo: Entertainment One.
Jack Regan (Ray Winstone), a hardened cop who doesn’t play by the rules, is confronted with a criminal from his past. With sidekick George Carter (Ben Drew) they are put on the case of a jewellery store heist that ends in a killing. But is that killing really an execution in disguise? With pressure from his boss (Steven Mackintosh) and the fact that Regan is having an affair with that boss’s wife (Hayley Atwell), it’s not going to be easy for him to stay out of trouble.
Denzel Washington in ‘The Equalizer.’ Photo: Sony Pictures.
Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) believes he has put his mysterious past behind him and dedicated himself to beginning a new, quiet life. But when he meets Teri (Chloë Grace Moretz), a young girl under the control of ultra-violent Russian gangsters, he can’t stand idly by – he has to help her. Armed with hidden skills that allow him to serve vengeance against anyone who would brutalize the helpless, McCall comes out of his self-imposed retirement and finds his desire for justice reawakened. If someone has a problem, if the odds are stacked against them, if they have nowhere else to turn, McCall will help. He is The Equalizer.
A Hollywood agent persuades Kermit the Frog (Jim Henson) to pursue a career in Hollywood. On his way there he meets his future muppet crew while being chased by the desperate owner of a frog-leg restaurant!
(L to R) William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy in ‘Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
It is the 23rd century. The Federation Starship U.S.S. Enterprise is on routine training maneuvers and Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) seems resigned to the fact that this inspection may well be the last space mission of his career. But Khan (Ricardo Montalban) is back. Aided by his exiled band of genetic supermen, Khan – brilliant renegade of 20th century Earth – has raided Space Station Regula One, stolen a top secret device called Project Genesis, wrested control of another Federation Starship and sets out in pursuit of the Enterprise, determined to let nothing stand in the way of his mission: kill Admiral Kirk… even if it means universal Armageddon.
Harrison Ford in ‘The Fugitive’. Photo: Warner Bros.
Wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to death, Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) escapes from the law in an attempt to find the real killer and clear his name.
Tom Cruise in ‘Mission: Impossible’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
When Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), the leader of a crack espionage team whose perilous operation has gone awry with no explanation, discovers that a mole has penetrated the CIA, he’s surprised to learn that he’s the No. 1 suspect. To clear his name, Hunt now must ferret out the real double agent and, in the process, even the score.
(Left) Tom Cruise attends the Abu Dhabi Red Carpet and Premiere of ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’ presented by Paramount Pictures and Skydance at Emirates Palace Hotel on June 26, 2023, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Photo by Darren Arthur/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures. (Center) Henry Cavill is Agent Argylle in ‘Argylle,’ directed by Matthew Vaughn. (Right) Marion Cotillard in ‘Extrapolations,’ premiering March 17, 2023 on Apple TV+.
Preview:
Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill and Marion Cotillard may star in ‘Broadsword’.
It’s a World War II movie developed by ‘Mission: Impossible’ co-writer/director Christopher McQuarrie.
It may shoot before or after Cruise works with Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu.
While Tom Cruise and writer/director Christopher McQuarrie are still deep in finishing their latest ‘Mission: Impossible’ movie (for the record, that would be the eighth in the franchise, the follow-up to last year’s ‘Dead Reckoning’ and one that has seen its release date pushed several times for various reasons), they also have one eye on the future and collaborations outside of the world of Ethan Hunt and the IMF.
Once McQuarrie has finished getting the next ‘Mission’ movie in shape for its May 2025 release, it appears he’s ready to switch things up while still having Cruise star.
The filmmaker has been putting together a new script, set in World War II, with ‘Dead Reckoning’/eighth ‘Mission’ co-writer Erik Jendresen, and according to World of Reel, it’s called ‘Broadsword’.
Henry Cavill in ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’. Photo: Daniel Smith.
The new movie is reportedly the story of an S.O.E. (Special Operations Executive, an underground army battling the enemy in Europe and Asia) operation in World War II. It follows a marine captain who crashes in France and becomes the sole survivor. Against all odds, he must complete his mission amidst the chaos of war.
Cavill, of course, has some experience with covert World War II operations thanks to starring in this year’s ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’ for director Guy Ritchie. Cotillard, meanwhile appeared in ‘Allied,’ and Cruise in ‘Valkyrie‘, which McQuarrie wrote.
What has McQuarrie said about the movie?
Christopher McQuarrie, writer and director of ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.’
Speaking on one of several mammoth Empire Spoiler Special podcasts for the release of ‘Dead Reckoning’, this is what McQuarrie said about the new movie:
“There’s a movie that Cruise and I are talking about doing next or in some probable next, that Erik and I developed together –– what has been referred to on the internet as ‘The Gnarly Movie’. It’s that movie that they’re all asking for, and that we want to do.”
When can we expect ‘Broadsword’ to shoot?
Tom Cruise plays Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ from Paramount Pictures, Skydance and Jerry Bruckheimer Films.
It’s anyone’s guess at this point, though Production Weekly, ‘Broadsword’ will shoot next year. Cruise has been in talks with ‘Birdman’ Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu to star in his next movie, so it’s possible that will happen next, followed by ‘Broadsword’. And if recent chatter from Glen Powell is to be believed, there is a looming (though not immediate) start date for another ‘Top Gun’ movie too in our collective future too.
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‘Broadsword’ will be produced and distributed by Warner Bros. under its recent deal with Cruise, so naturally the studio will want to move on this as soon as possible. Does that mean Ethan Hunt and the team taking a break for a while? It certainly could –– but that means we get the chance to miss their crazy action antics.
And let’s not forget that the next ‘Mission’ movie isn’t too far away after all –– it’ll hit theaters on May 23rd next year.
(L to R) Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie on the set of ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.
Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt in ‘Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning – Part One ‘from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.
Preview:
Tom Cruise will help bridge the Paris and Los Angeles Olympics.
He’s already shot the L.A. portion, which also features James Corden.
The event will be part of the closing ceremony for Paris on August 11th.
Tom Cruise, it would seem, rarely misses a chance to pull off an audacious stunt. The actor, who has become famous for the death-defying action of the ‘Mission: Impossible’ movies in particular, has now pitched the International Olympic Committee about a stunt sequence to bridge the gap between the current Paris Olympics and the next summer event, to be held in Los Angeles in 2028.
While the planned ceremony already includes the more traditional handing off of the Olympic Flag from Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo to L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, it will also now feature the 62-year-old actor in a stunt sequence to celebrate the transition between two cities as part of the closing ceremony in Paris on August 11th.
It’s perhaps not the biggest surprise from Cruise, who might naturally be expected to help celebrate LA, and the fact that he’s a big Olympics fan, attending the opening ceremony in Paris and several events.
Tom Cruise in Paramount Pictures’ ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout.’
According to TMZ, the plan for the upcoming Closing Ceremony involves Tom (or possibly a stunt double, as negotiations for this segment are still underway) rappelling down from the top of Stade de France, landing on the stadium field and carrying the official Olympic flag.
We will then cut to pre-recorded footage of Cruise shot in March, jumping out of a plane to skydive down to the Hollywood sign in the company of former ‘Late Late Show’ host James Corden.
After that, it’ll apparently show Cruise passing the flag to Olympians –– including a cyclist, skateboarder and volleyball player –– as they make their way around the next host city for the Summer Games.
We’re told to expect a “major Hollywood production”, though given Cruise’s presence, that perhaps comes with the territory. And might it signal that his regular collaborator Christopher McQuarrie –– who has also been attending events with his friend –– could oversee the opening ceremony for the L.A. event as fellow filmmaker Danny Boyle did for London in 2012? We’d doubt it; McQuarrie’s schedule is already jam-packed with movies, including finishing the latest ‘Mission: Impossible’ outing for release next year.
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When will the Los Angeles Olympics happen?
Olympic flag. Photo: Olympics.com.
The next Summer Olympics are due to be staged in Los Angeles between Friday, July 14th and Sunday, July 30th, 2028.
L.A. will likely kick off the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad at a venue built for the 1932 event: the Coliseum. It will be part of what LA28 organizers are calling the Downtown Sports Park, a collection of venues that includes Crypto.com Arena, the Convention Center, the L.A. Football Club Stadium, USC’s Galen Center and the Peacock Theater.
Tom Cruise in ‘Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.
After months of negotiating, Paramount Global and Skydance Media are to merge.
Skydance boss David Ellison will become Paramount’s CEO.
Other companies had looked to make their own deal for the studio.
It has been months of feeling like Paramount Global was a Tinder user swiping left on potential suitors as it was courted by various groups for mergers and acquisitions.
Now, it appears that it has finally found the right partner, as, after rejecting one offer from the company, a special committee of Paramount’s board –– and now the full board of directors –– has approved an $8 billion takeover from Skydance Media.
Like many of the big legacy media companies, Paramount has found itself struggling with debt and lowered earnings, especially when it comes to its streaming service.
It has, naturally, been a target for interest from other big companies –– at one point, there was talk of a potential merger with Warner Bros. or Universal.
But among the most eager to take control has been David Ellison’s Skydance Media, which already has connections with the studio, since it co-produces the likes of the ‘Mission: Impossible’ movies and the ‘Star Trek’ movie franchise.
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Ellison, working with investment partners, made a previous overture to buy a controlling interest in National Amusements Inc., the entity owned by Shari Redstone which has a majority share in Paramount Global. It was rejected (partly because of concerns from other shareholders), but a new version has been accepted.
The current plan is for Skydance to take control of Paramount and for the companies to merge, which has largely been seen as a positive, since it means much of the studio stays intact.
Here’s Shari Redstone’s statement on the deal:
“In 1987, my father, Sumner Redstone, acquired Viacom and began assembling and growing the businesses today known as Paramount Global. He had a vision that ‘content was king’ and was always committed to delivering great content for all audiences around the world. That vision has remained at the core of Paramount’s success and our accomplishments are a direct result of the incredibly talented, creative, and dedicated individuals who work at the company. Given the changes in the industry, we want to fortify Paramount for the future while ensuring that content remains king. Our hope is that the Skydance transaction will enable Paramount’s continued success in this rapidly changing environment. As a longtime production partner to Paramount, Skydance knows Paramount well and has a clear strategic vision and the resources to take it to its next stage of growth. We believe in Paramount, and we always will.”
Right now, the company is being run by three Chief Executive Officers, but if (increasingly when) Skydance takes over, David Ellison would become the new CEO.
Paramount has 45 days to entertain other offers before formally accepting this deal –– and Skydance would receive a $400 million payoff if it should go a different route.
Who else has been interested in Paramount?
Sony Pictures Logo. Photo: Sony Pictures.
Skydance is far from the only company that has shown interest, as the likes of Barry Diller (a former president of the company), rival studio Sony and investment company Apollo have all considered bids for Paramount.
When will the deal be finally sealed?
Assuming no other issues come up –– since regulators still have to assess this current deal –– and Paramount doesn’t somehow decide to go with another option, the deal should be officially closed by mid-2025.
