Tom Cruise and his Impossible Mission Force bested already-high expectations to debut atop the U.S. box office this weekend with $56 million, according to estimates Sunday.
That gave “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation” one of the best three-day openings of the five movies in the franchise and restored the 53-year-old Cruise to bankable action star status with his third-best debut after “Mission: Impossible II” and “War of the Worlds.”
Despite opening two days earlier on Wednesday, “Vacation” fell short of projections to finish with $21.2 million over the five-day period, though the Ed Helms-starring film’s modest $30 million should ensure that the raunchy comedy ends in the black.
Returnees “Ant-Man” and “Minions” followed with $12 million-plus each while “Pixels” petered out with $10.4 million and “Paper Towns” fizzled with $4.6 million.
As the resident intelligence analyst in the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, Simon Pegg rarely has to step in harm’s way. But in “Rogue Nation,” the fifth sequel, the British star found himself in a seemingly precarious high-speed car chase sequence.
Luckily, with adrenalin junkie Tom Cruise behind the wheel, Pegg had nothing to fear.
“He’s an extraordinary driver—as good if not better than anybody else on the driving team for the stunt crew,” Pegg tells Made in Hollywood. “Tom did all the driving and we are driving at those speeds.”
Pegg insists that although he appears to be scared out of his wits in the scene, in truth it was spine tingling.
“I wasn’t terrified in that I thought I was going to die, but it was like being on a roller coaster—which you always scream on,” he explains, clarifying, “a very safe roller coaster. It was brilliant fun.”
“Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” hit theaters Friday. Watch the trailer below.
In theory it seemed like what the action-thriller’s title suggests: Impossible. But in reality, it was nothing more than an off-the-cuff comment said in jest. Still, the 53-year-old was undaunted by the challenge.
“It was a joke,” director Christopher McQuarrie tells Made in Hollywood. “We were looking at a model of the plane and I said, ‘What if you were on the side of that (plane) when it took off?”
But the daredevil actor didn’t laugh.
“Tom didn’t blink,” McQuarrie reveals. “He said, ‘Yeah, I can do that.’”
Known for performing his own stunts, it meant that bringing the feat to fruition would involve many resources to ensure his safety.
“On ‘Mission Impossible’ when you make a suggestion like that people immediately start making phone calls, taking notes,” McQuarrie explains.
The director, who previously teamed with Cruise on 2012’s “Jack Reacher,” says aerospace company Airbus had a rather dubious reaction to the inquiry.
“They were a little skeptical at first,” he says, clarifying, “I’d say cautious.” He continues: “They didn’t know that it was a terribly good idea, but once they got into crunching the numbers and figuring out the engineering, actually, I think they started to have fun.”
What resulted was the Hollywood star’s most daring move in the past 20 years with the box office franchise, now in its fifth installment.
“Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation,” co-starring Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg and Jeremy Renner hits theaters on Friday. Watch the trailer below.
Apparently clinging to an airplane, getting beat up and shot at, briefly dying underwater and enduring the wrath Alec Baldwin just wasn’t enough for Ethan Hunt to cash out his 401k and drift off into a peaceful retirement.
“We’re starting to work on it now,” producer-star Tom Cruise told Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show” on Tuesday night (video below). “We’ll probably start shooting it next summer.”
The next film will mark the sixth installment in the action franchise, which started in 1996 and is based on a 1960s TV series.
“Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation” — opens Friday with Cruise’s Impossible Missions Force being dismantled by the U.S. government but carrying on anyway to save the world. It co-stars Baldwin, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner and Ving Rhames.
“I have vertigo, massive vertigo,” the “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” star tells Made in Hollywood.
At the last possible moment she revealed this fact, more than little inconvenient on the set of a big-budget, stunt-driven action film, to co-star Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie. The pair huddled and then gave her the bad news: She’d soon be rappelling off the roof of the Opera House in Vienna, Austria.
“And I went: ‘Uh-huh, how?’” she recalls. “And you do it on location. It’s not green screen.”
Well, the film had stunt doubles, which was a good thing, but in time she realized she could overcome her fears. “And the more I can do myself, the more fun and exciting it is,” she says.
Gradually, she mustered the courage for her big moment.
“I was up 75 feet standing there on the rooftop holding onto Tom, swearing like a house on fire,” she says. “He was laughing and said, ‘Are you ready?’ And I went: ‘No, no, no, can’t go!’ And he jumped.”
Oh, the things Tom Cruise does to entertain moviegoers.
In “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” the daredevil actor hangs off the side of an A-400 Airbus aircraft while in flight. And it was all real, too, as no stunt doubles were used.
“They strapped me on the side of the plane beforehand and then they started the engines and then we go down the runway and I remember telling the pilot, ‘I want to make sure my legs are hitting against the fuselage,’ and he’s just kind of smiling at me the whole time,” Cruise told Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show” on Monday.
He could barely keep his feet from going all over the place because the speed of the plane. They filmed the stunt in eight takes.
“I’m going up there going, ‘Oh, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. It’s too late now,’” he says.
Whereas most people would be concerned with falling off the side of the plane, Cruise says his biggest concern was getting hit by a bird.
“I just didn’t want to get by a bird or particle. Seriously, I got hit by a little stone,” he explains. “Luckily it hit my rib. I thought it broke my rib. Thank god it didn’t hit my face. I didn’t tell my family and friends or anyone that I was doing it beforehand.”
All of the peril wasn’t exclusively filmed in the air. Cruise also learned to hold his breath for six minutes to shoot an underwater scene where his character cracks a security system.
“It’s the longest underwater sequence I’ve ever done,” he says. “We had to train beyond it because when you go to shoot I have to take the regulator out, get on the side of the set underwater, then the camera comes into place and then we call action and just very long takes.”
The sequence, he reveals, was “intense.” He summed it up, saying, “I just didn’t want to drown.”
“Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” will be released in theaters on Friday. Watch the trailer below.
The 53-year-old revealed he’s ready to return to the pilot’s seat for a “Top Gun” sequel.
“It would be fun. I would like to get back into those jets,” he told Reuters at the “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” London premiere on Friday.
Ever the daredevil (he performed all of his own stunts in “M.I.”), Cruise insists on using real aircrafts if he’s to attach his name to a follow-up of the 1986 hit film, adding, “It would have to be practical. I don’t want any CGI jets. I want to shoot it like how we shot the first one.”
Of course, maintaining the integrity of the original isn’t likely his only motivation for demanding high-flying jets in the sequel. Nearly eight years after starring as navy pilot Maverick in “Top Gun,” Cruise obtained his pilot’s license and is believed to own three to five luxury jets.
Last month producer David Ellison said a screenplay was in development for “Top Gun 2” during an interview with Collider. “There is an amazing role for Maverick in the movie, and there is no ‘Top Gun’ without Maverick,” he told the website.
“Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” hits theaters on Friday.
And it’s the kind of line that should come with an affirmative wink-and-nod for Tom Cruise, the star of the action flick, who returns for more stunning action sequences (he performs his own stunts), creative gadgetry, global treks and a seemingly impossible mission, of which Cruise’s Ethan Hunt accepts.
So far, critics have given relatively positive reviews on its entertainment factor, but some say its circular plot falls short.
“‘Mission: Impossible’ is and has always been about Cruise wanting to push the limits of what an action star can do for the camera. But for all its style — and there is a lot of style, not to mention more than a little luck at some precarious moments — ‘Rogue Nation’ feels lacking in substance” –Ross Miler, The Verge
“The movie that emerges is a lot fun, with silly, suspenseful missions, espionage fantasy, and enough humor to poke fun at itself… It’s a ride, an often exhilarating one, but ultimately like most rides it ends exactly where it began” –Daniel Krupa, IGN
“Returning to make a mockery of the series title for a fifth time, Cruise ploughs through ‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation,’ a sequel that is slick with silliness, but peppered with enough wit and peril to sustain the franchise’s momentum” –Henry Barnes, The Guardian
To many critics, pairing Rebecca Ferguson, who plays a butt kicking disavowed British agent on Hunt’s team, is a refreshing female lead opposite Cruise.
“Also unusual is Ferguson’s role, which threatens to match Cruise’s in terms of screen-time. Her character is given agency and motivation. She’s neither love interest nor foil”–Henry Barnes, The Guardian
“Joining Cruise is computer whiz Benji Dunn (the always-talented Simon Pegg) and de facto femme fatale Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), who is without question the best part of the film as a fully-realized, very capable, complicated foil to Hunt”–Ross Miler, The Verge
“Rebecca Ferguson comes closest to matching Cruise’s screen time, playing Ilsa whose true allegiances aren’t clear. She’s really good in the film, excels in the fight sequences, and convincingly saves Hunt in the film’s best scene”–Daniel Krupa, IGN
The story follows Hunt as he leads a team to take down a global terrorist group called The Syndicate. Also starring Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson and Alec Baldwin, “MI” hits theaters July 31.
Mission: Accomplished.
