Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is at its final stages of marketing and post production before it opens in theaters. At this stage in the movie’s lifecycle, stories about test screenings and test audience reactions are commonplace. In an interesting bit of insight though, director Christopher McQuarrie revealed how one particular note received during one of these screenings completely changed the way the movie was interpreted.
Filmmaker Edgar Wright was one of the directors who had a chance to see Dead Reckoning Part One. After the screening, he inquired about a particular audio cue that was not explained in the movie, something that other audiences agreed to after Wright pointed it out. McQuarrie addressed the problem in post-production which improved the movie and how audiences saw it.
Edgar came to one of the later screenings [of the film], and asked one simple question about a specific sound – kind of an audio cue – and I thought I’d addressed that note. It was so obvious to me. But it wasn’t obvious to Edgar. And when I asked the audience, it wasn’t obvious to them either. Nobody thought to bring it up until Edgar did. And that changed the entire movie. It changed the entire movie for the better.
McQuarrie further lamented about how it’s difficult for a single person to watch the movie continuously on repeat and keep looking for things to update. It’s why these screenings are crucial as they help surface honest feedback before the movie has had a chance to see the light of the day.
You just need honesty and clarity and awareness. No one person, Tom [Cruise] included, can really sit there, and look at the movie 24 hours a day, objectively. Tom and I will just look one another in the eye, and say, ‘do we want to change this? Or is this what we prefer?’
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One releases in theaters on July 12, 2023
