Key Takeaways
- Tom Cruise plans to continue playing Ethan Hunt for many more years, so Mission Impossible 8 wasn’t intended to be the final entry.
- Paramount may be advertising Mission Impossible 8 as the last installment to increase box office earnings.
- Despite hints at being the final film, if Mission Impossible 8 achieves box office success, a ninth installment is likely with Tom Cruise reprising his role.
It’s been a big week for fans anticipating the release of Mission: Impossible 8 in May 2025. The teaser trailer recently dropped and, as expected, it featured a lot of Tom Cruise running for his life to save the world. The trailer also revealed that the seventh sequel will be called The Final Reckoning, which heavily suggests this could be the last time fans get to see Ethan Hunt in action, despite Tom Cruise’s insistence that he wants to play the character for many more years.
Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1 didn’t have the box office return that Paramount was hoping for, and this has led to a rethink of how Mission: Impossible 8 is marketed. Even though the title suggests it could be the last movie in the popular action franchise, Tom Cruise has many more stunts to perfect in future installments, so he should be the one to call time on the franchise.
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Tom Cruise Has Plenty More Action Left In Him Meaning Mission Impossible 8 Doesn’t Have To Be The Final Entry
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Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning |
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Cast |
Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Hayley Attwell, Esai Morales, Hannah Waddingham, Vanessa Kirby, Angela Bassett, Pom Klementieff, Nick Offerman, Henry Czerny and Shea Whigham |
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Written by |
Christopher McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen |
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Directed By |
Christopher McQuarrie |
Tom Cruise and Paramount appear to be at loggerheads over the direction of the Mission: Impossible franchise. Dead Reckoning Part 1 underperformed at the box office in 2023, but it was unfairly compared to the Barbenheimer craze that swept theaters that summer. The movie itself was one of the strongest in the franchise, and proved that the action franchise still had plenty left in the tank.Tom Cruise pulled off one of his most outlandish stunts to date, riding a motorcycle off a cliff, and the tense ‘to be continued’ ending was an exciting new direction to go in. Let’s not forget, Dead Reckoning Part 1 also had its fair share of hurdles to overcome, with multiple production delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, the finished product was very good, and unlike other long-running franchises, Mission: Impossible just gets better with each entry.
Tom Cruise has been very clear about his intentions for the Mission: Impossible franchise and his future role in them. In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald in 2023, he said:
Harrison Ford is a legend. 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.
Sure, the action franchise doesn’t want to experience burnout like Indiana Jones and many others, but there haven’t been any signs of the quality declining ahead of the release of the eighth entry in the series. Mission: Impossible 8 shouldn’t be the final entry, and Ethan Hunt’s retirement should be decided by Tom Cruise.
Paramount are teasing the audience with the potential end of the Mission Impossible franchise ahead of the new installment’s release next year. However, unless Tom Cruise has had a sudden change of heart about wanting to play Ethan Hunt into his 80s, this is far from what he wants. It seems like Paramount are actually promoting Mission: Impossible 8 as the final entry to boost the potential box office takings.Dead Reckoning Part 1 grossed 567.5 million at the worldwide box office, and while this figure is huge, it was significantly less than Fallout‘s $791.1 million overhaul in 2018. To add to this, Mission Impossible 8‘s budget is rumored to have ballooned to a staggering $400 million, meaning it will have to make significantly more than Dead Reckoning Part 1 just to break even.
It’s a typical industry trick to bill a movie as the final chapter in order to boost interest and subsequently increase the box office, and this seems to be the case with Mission Impossible 8. It’s not likely Ethan Hunt will be killed off or anything drastic like that, it’s just Paramount trying to boost their coffers and get a return on their huge investment. If the upcoming movie hits the billion dollar mark, Mission: Impossible 9 will happen without a doubt, and Tom Cruise will get his wish to continue his beloved franchise.
Mission: Impossible 8 is in theaters on May 23, 2025.
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