Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

Christopher McQuarrie’s film was called Dead Reckoning Part Two until 11 November 2024, and the plan to shoot the two pictures back to back had been dropped in 2021. Cinematographer Fraser Taggart says the biplane chase took four and a half months in South Africa. Z Cam bodies sat on lance like extensions reaching about 8 feet ahead of the wing, and rather than work on a long lens the chase helicopter flew roughly 5 feet behind the plane. Two tanks were dug at Longcross for the submarine, and around 90 per cent of the underwater lights were built by the crew. McQuarrie went into the water himself, talking to Cruise with writing pads and hand signs. William Donloe, the analyst banished to Alaska for losing the Langley vault in the 1996 film, returns, played again by Rolf Saxon, who assumed the offer was a prank. At the 53rd Saturn Awards the film took best action or adventure picture and Cruise best actor. A good fit if you can see on screen that the chase was flown for real, the camera just behind the wing rather than on a long lens. Not for anyone who does not remember the Langley vault, since one of the film’s biggest gestures is that scene’s bill, thirty years on.