Warning: SPOILERS for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning are in play. If you haven’t taken flight with Ethan Hunt just yet, you’ve been warned.
“I need you to trust me… one last time.” One line was all it took for the 2025 movie schedule to seemingly become more deadly, and it was thanks to Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt being the one to utter it. With that dialogue in play, some thought that Mission: Impossible 8’s ending would be akin to that of No Time To Die. After being asked if that was ever on the table, co-writer/director Christopher McQuarrie, the series’ longtime steward, admitted the thought had crossed his mind.
Speaking to the good folks at Empire’s Spoiler Special Podcast, The Final Reckoning helmer spilled state secrets on several aspects of this summer blockbuster. When it came to the potential death of Ethan Hunt, McQuarrie shared that his head was literally in the clouds when pondering it:
Everything is on the table. There was a moment in the editing of the final sequence of the movie where Ethan goes spinning into that cloud bank where I thought, ‘If you cut to his grave right now, you’d feel the sacrifice was sufficient. Wow, that’s very, very effective.’
Ok, so it’s not quite Daniel Craig’s explosive 007 send off in No Time To Die’s ending. At the same time, it kind of doesn’t have to be. I’ll gladly agree that Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning avoided copycat claims by keeping Tom Cruise’s hero alive at the end. That is especially true when remembering this grand finale has Ethan Hunt basically living in exile for the protection of those he loves… and those Paramount+ subscription holders he’ll never meet.
That ties into another notion that Christopher McQuarrie discussed when it comes to killing your heroes. Some think of that sort of move as the big finish to a tale, which sees the hero’s loved ones honoring their death and moving on into life. However, the Top Gun: Maverick co-writer doesn’t see that as a given, as he explains below:
The idea of a conclusion of a story being the death of that character… they are not one and the same. When you fully tie off the story, the story ceases to be. And that’s not life. Stories go on, whether or not the movies do.
I wonder if this viewpoint was in mind when Christopher McQuarrie teased a Mission: Impossible 9 idea that he and Tom Cruise had developed? If so, that could mean adventures of an IMF without Ethan Hunt could still go on – just presumably without Tom Cruise’s daredevil playing a part in them. If you need proof on whether or not this sort of thing could work, you should see Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, in theaters now.