Mission: Impossible as a franchise has come a long way. From its early focus on action and suspense, it has gradually drifted towards telling more compelling stories with substantial stakes. While Brad Bird’s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol laid the foundation for this shift, it was really Christoper McQuarrie who gave the franchise an identity of its own. Among the many shifts he introduced were the increasing number of women playing strong, distinctive characters instead of simply servicing the story as eye candy.
With Dead Reckoning Part One on the horizon and the launch of a new trailer, Empire Magazine sat down with McQuarrie to do a detailed breakdown. Amongst the many new tidbits of information that he dropped, McQuarrie gave brief snippets of the female characters set to accompany Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt. This includes returning characters such as Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust as well as new entrants like Hayley Atwell’s Grace.
One actress whose presence had a huge impact on the movie’s sets was Pom Klementieff. Coming off a thunderous reception as Mantis in Guardians of the Galaxy, McQuarrie explained how her imposing demeanor and striking getup forced them to tweak everything from shot framing to costume design to take full advantage of Pom’s aura.
I dare you to go to this movie and try not to look at Pom. More than any other actor I’ve worked with, you cannot take your eyes off her. She’s completely compelling, completely dynamic. It was quite amazing. It changed the way I designed shots, it changed the way I wrote scenes, it changed the way we dressed the character. It’s just raw, raw power that’s unrecognisable from Mantis in Guardians.
Ever since her casting, McQuarrie has been largely tight-lipped about Hayley Atwell’s character. So much so that this might be the first we’re hearing him utter her on screen name: Grace. McQuarrie has successfully dodged any questions around her character, often describing her in platitudes such as an enigma, a force to reckon with and a pivotal presence in the story while refusing to share any details, lest he spoil her role. All of this has left fans with nothing more than speculation and theories. About the only thing we know about Grace is that she is stuck in a car chase in Rome with Ethan Hunt who handcuffs himself to her to prevent her from getting away, which does nothing more except raise suspicion of her being a valuable asset to the mission at large.
For the first time, McQuarrie offers a little more than this oft-heard tease. He describes her as someone external to the team getting caught up in their escapades. He also stresses on the importance of Atwell being in the movie, having wanting to work with her for over a decade now. It’s still broad strokes, but it should leave fans fuming in delight:
Grace represents something from outside of the norm, and definitely outside of the team. She more or less becomes ensnared in this movie, and there are forces constantly pushing those two characters together. There’s no way I’m going to take that long to work with Hayley Atwell, only to have her come in and be another version of a character we’ve seen before. So she has to be an outsider. Hayley is just extraordinary, as a character who is a fish out of water in one regard, but very much has her own element.
Lastly, unlike the first four Mission: Impossible movies, McQuarrie hasn’t forgotten all his existing women either. Which brings us to Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust, the most well-rounded female contemporary to Cruise’s Ethan Hunt created in the series. Unfortunately, we don’t get too much about Ferguson’s Faust except talk of her eye-patch that’s seen in the trailer; the article in question is a trailer breakdown after all. McQuarrie quips that he’s delighted to see fans share an interest in theorizing about that tiny detail and hints that she might have donned it to get a better shot from the sniper rifle she’s using.
The article does a neat breakdown of the trailer, with McQuarrie providing additional bits of context wherever relevant. Do check it out.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is set to release on July 12, 2023.
