Even though it’s comfortably in with a shout of being the most torturous production of the entire pandemic era, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is more than likely to be remembered for what happens onscreen rather than anything that unfolded when the cameras weren’t rolling.
After all, predecessors Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation, and Fallout each rank as one of the finest action-packed blockbusters of the 21st Century, which is admittedly some big boots to fill, but ones star Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie have proven themselves more than capable of stomping right into.
One of the new additions to the roster is Hayley Atwell, someone McQuarrie had been wanting to work with for a long time. As it turns out, he had to wait even longer to shoot any dialogue scenes with the Marvel Cinematic Universe veteran, after he revealed to Entertainment Weekly that she was part of the film for 100 days before even getting to speak out loud.
“[Hayley] “might have been on this movie for well over 100 days before she had her first dialog scene, owing to the chaotic nature of the production. When you’re making a movie with Tom, that’s not really a factor. And on these movies, we like to say, ‘Disaster is an opportunity to excel.’ We lean into the chaos. We don’t invite it, but we accept it as part of the process.”
Of course, this being a Mission: Impossible movie, she was no doubt kept plenty busy by the voluminous amount of stuntwork and explosive set pieces, but it just goes to show how Dead Reckoning kept trundling along in the face of repeated COVID-driven adversity.
