Christopher McQuarrie says Edgar Wright’s feedback completely changed Mission Impossible 7

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EXCLUSIVE: Christopher McQuarrie talks getting advice from fellow director Edgar Wright on Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

mission impossible
(Image credit: Paramount Pictures)

Director Christopher McQuarrie says fellow filmmaker Edgar Wright’s advice completely changed Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One.

"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," McQuarrie says in the new issue of Total Film magazine, which is out on newsstands on Thursday, June 22.

"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. 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

(Image credit: Paramount Pictures)

Dead Reckoning Part One is the seventh instalment in the Mission: Impossible film series, starring Cruise as IMF agent Hunt. The cast includes Ving Rhames, Hayley Atwell, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Simon Pegg, Shea Whigham, Indira Varma, Rob Delaney, and Cary Elwes.

The flick centers on Hunt and his IMF team as they try to track down a humanity-threatening weapon before it falls into the wrong hands. During the mission, Ethan's dark past comes back to haunt him, as he comes face to face with his new nemesis Gabriel.

Production was among the first to shut down for Covid in 2020, while Nicholas Hoult had to drop out of the film due to scheduling conflicts. McQuarrie also estimated that Atwell was on set for "over 100 days before she had her first dialog scene, owing to the chaotic nature of the production".

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One hits cinemas on July 10 in the UK and July 12 in the US. Part Two is currently dated July 28, 2024.

For more on what else is coming your way, check out our movie release dates calendar.

This is just a snippet of our interview in the new issue of Total Film magazine, which features Netflix thriller Heart of Stone on the cover. The magazine hits shelves this Thursday, June 22. Check out the covers below:

Total Film's Heart of Stone issue

(Image credit: Robert Viglasky/Netflix/Total Film)

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Matt Maytum
Matt Maytum
Former Editor of Total Film magazine

Matt Maytum is the former Editor of Total Film magazine. Over the past decade, Matt has worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.

With contributions from