The upcoming Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning will feature a number of incredible stunts, with star Tom Cruise recently revealing he was breathing in his own carbon dioxide during a particularly dangerous scene.
What did Tom Cruise say about the underwater scene in Mission: Impossible 8?
Speaking to Empire Magazine, Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie detailed a scene in the movie in which Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is caught underwater after diving into the wreckage of the Sevastopol submarine from 2024’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.
According to Cruise, the scene — which featured the actor in a specially-designed mask and suit and was filmed in an 8.5 million liter water tank — required him to wear a suit that could only be worn for 10 minutes at a time before he would start to suffer hypoxia (a lack of oxygen in the body tissue).
Cruise said he would breathe in his own carbon dioxide filming the scene: “It builds up in the body and affects the muscles. You have to overcome all of that while you’re doing it, and be present.”
McQuarrie added that it was crucial to not only keep Cruise safe, but find ways to film the scene in a way that conveyed to the audience just how arduous everything was.
“He’s in a rotating structure filled with debris, and you had to find a way to make that environment look as chaotic and unhinged as humanly possible, but in a way that you could repeat, and that Tom could navigate, and survive,” said McQuarrie.
Along with Cruise, the cast of Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning includes Hayley Atwell as Grace, Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell, Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn, Vanessa Kirby as Alanna Mitsopolis, Esai Morales as Gabriel, Pom Klementieff as Paris, Mariela Garriga as Marie, Henry Czerny as Eugene Kittridge, Holt McCallany as Bernstein, Janet McTeer, Nick Offerman as Sydney, Hannah Waddingham, Angela Bassett as Erika Sloane, Shea Whigham as Jasper Briggs, Greg Tarzan Davis as Degas, Charles Parnell, and Frederick Schmidt.
The synopsis for the film simply reads, “Our lives are the sum of our choices. Tom Cruise is Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.”
The film is directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who co-wrote the script with Erik Jendresen. Cruise and McQuarrie both serve as producers on the film, while David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, and Chris Brock all serve as executive producers.
Mission: Impossible 8 will be released in United States theaters on May 23, 2025, from Paramount Pictures.
(Source: Empire Magazine)
