Tom Cruise has dropped a surprise first trailer for Mission: Impossible 8, with its new title The Final Reckoning lining it up to be the franchise’s last outing.
At a reported cost of $400million (£310m), studio Paramount – who is also hoping to premiere the movie at Cannes in 2025 – is apparently keen to promote the movie as the ‘final’ one to help boost interest.
Its whopping rumoured budget, according to The Hollywood Reporter, would make this film the fourth most expensive ever made, behind two of the Star Wars sequels – The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker – and 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
This follows long production delays and a weaker than hoped for performance at the box office for previous film Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, which was first called ‘part one’ to this intended movie’s ‘part two’.
It also goes against what Cruise has previously indicated about wanting to keep making Mission: Impossible movies, despite his jam-packed slate also including a movie filmed in space, a Top Gun threequel, Oscar-winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s secretive next film, and other possible projects.
‘Harrison Ford is a legend,’ he previously said when comparing their successes with long-running franchises in 2023.
‘I hope to be still going. I’ve got 20 years to catch up with him. I hope to keep making Mission: Impossible films until I’m his age,’ he added to The Sydney Morning Herald.
The long-running film series, based on the iconic 1966 US TV show, first kicked off in 1996 and the new trailer celebrates famous moments from its 28-year history.
From ultimate action star Cruise, 62, dangling on a wire in that classic vault scene, to him as Ethan Hunt scuba diving, hanging off a plane and running (a lot), all the impressive action moments are present.
‘Everything you were, everything you’ve done, has come to this,’ the voice over intones as fans are minded of the fundamentals of the films, such as: ‘The mission falls to him, should he choose to accept.’
And if we were wondering what the stakes might be this time, we hear Ethan told: ‘Now the fate of every living soul on earth is your responsibility.’
Flashes of his friends and collaborators are also shown throughout the trailer, with returning actors Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Pom Klementieff, Vanessa Kirby, Angela Bassett and Henry Czerny featured, as well as Esai Morales as villain Gabriel, who works for the Entity, an all-powerful AI system looking to rule the world.
As the trailer ends, Cruise’s Ethan is seen calmly imploring: ‘I need you to trust me, one last time.’
‘Our lives are the sum of our choices. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. See you at the movies May 23, 2025,’ the Hollywood star wrote in the caption of his Instagram post sharing the video.
Joining him for the ride are franchise newcomers Hannah Waddingham and Nick Offerman in undisclosed parts, and it will be written and directed once more by Christopher McQuarrie, who also produces alongside Cruise.
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Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning has also had its original release date of May 2024 pushed on an entire year.
While Dead Reckoning might not have ruled the box office in 2023, grossing $571m (£443m) on a budget of roughly $291m, (£226m) it did still do well with critics and fans alike.
The movie is sitting pretty on a very impressive 96% rating on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, and the studio will no doubt be looking to go out with a bang.
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Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is set to release in cinemas on May 23, 2025.
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