Mission: Impossible director on why Dead Reckoning is split into two parts

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One — (Image credit: Paramount)

Mission: Impossible director Christopher McQuarrie has explained why Dead Reckoning is split into two parts – and it goes back to the series’ fifth instalment in 2015.

"That takes us all the way back to Rogue Nation where we discovered an emotional component to the story that we really weren’t expecting. Stuff that we thought was going to be pure exposition actually turned out to be the emotional core of the story," McQuarrie tells GamesRadar+ and Total Film in London.

"When we went to make Fallout, I wanted to build upon that. That led to a longer movie, because you couldn’t scrimp on the action at the expense of emotion."

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From there, the Mission: Impossible films grew larger and larger – with Ethan Hunt’s personal tale being weaved into bigger and better action set-pieces. For that to happen, concessions had to be made.

"So, we were fighting to get that movie down to two hours and 20 minutes," McQuarrie recalls. "I knew I wanted to expand further in terms of the cast and in terms of the emotion of the story. I knew automatically that meant we were going to have a longer movie."

Which brings us to Dead Reckoning. While McQuarrie admits he was expecting a neater divide ("I was hoping to make a four-hour epic and just cut it in half and everybody could have a two-hour movie, but here we are," he tells us), the decision to cut the movie into two parts for the first time ever in the franchise gave the narrative space to operate – without having to compromise.

As McQuarrie explains: "Instead of fighting the running time, I said let’s just cut the movie in half and give ourselves the breathing room to tell that story – not anticipating, then, that Part One would expand to the size that it did, the epic scale that it did."

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is out in cinemas on July 10 in the UK and July 12 in the US. For more on what’s coming out this year, check out our movie release dates calendar and guide to upcoming movies. For more on our Dead Reckoning coverage, be sure to read our latest interviews:

I'm the Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, focusing on news, features, and interviews with some of the biggest names in film and TV. On-site, you'll find me marveling at Marvel and providing analysis and room temperature takes on the newest films, Star Wars and, of course, anime. Outside of GR, I love getting lost in a good 100-hour JRPG, Warzone, and kicking back on the (virtual) field with Football Manager. My work has also been featured in OPM, FourFourTwo, and Game Revolution.