[Mission Impossible 7: Fatal Reckoning (Part I)], which has been appearing in our annual preview for years, is really coming.
Today [Mission Impossible 7] is released, Ethan Hunt's mission will continue, and the legend of Tom Cruise is far from the time to leave.
The scourge of reckoning
Since the filming was stopped in February 2020 due to the outbreak of the new crown, the release date of [Mission Impossible 7] has experienced many twists and turns.
Initially, it was scheduled for July 23, 2021, and then delayed for half a year and moved to November 19, 2021;
With the spread of the new crown, 2021 has become unrealistic, and May 27 and September 30, 2022 have become two more postponed new schedules.
After clarifying the seventh and eighth set plans, the film finally came to July 4, 2023 (Independence Day of the United States).
It was supposed to be a standard Friday premiere weekend.
After that, the film advanced the release time by two days, and this adjustment is likely related to the IMAX screen battle.
Coupled with issues such as overspending, streaming media and theatrical windows, the seventh part has become the most ill-fated one, which is undisputed.
This twist and turn also unexpectedly fits with the main line of the film.
And look at the subtitle of the movie, the English phrase "fatal liquidation" DeadReckoning is a nautical term, which literally translates into the industry term "dead reckoning".
That is, based on the last position of the ship, through various tools and data, the next position of the ship is deduced.
There is no clear definition of what exactly "dead" means here.
But for [Mission Impossible] director McQuarie, the phrase and the synergy that "dead" can create are a perfect subtitle.
On the one hand, this extrapolation relies heavily on historical data (the past) that translates into Hunter's life, presumably the fact that you are where you are today stems from what you did in the past.
In this calculation, the present is the most critical time point, which corresponds to the various crises that Hunter needs to face in this part.
Back outside the scene, the situation made the commercial pressure of the film unprecedented, so there was Tom Cruise's thoughts about IMAX screen screening.
He is very different from Christopher Nolan's films, but both are big screen believers.
This summer, the release date of [Fatal Reckoning (top)] and [Oppenheimer] was originally only a week apart - the former was originally scheduled for July 4, the latter was scheduled for July 21, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a direct fight in the ring.
However, in the lively summer season, it is not uncommon for works between large manufacturers to compete with each other a week apart, not to mention that in terms of genre, the audience positioning of the two seems to be obviously different.
It's just that the state of theater operations in the past few years has complicated the situation.
Prior to the release of [Oppenheimer], Nolan reached an agreement with IMAX to monopolize the IMAX screen (North America) for some time after the film's release.
This means that [Fatal Reckoning (above)] will be removed from IMAX screens a week after its release.
This is enough to make Tom Cruise feel unhappy.
The price of IMAX is on the one hand (the average ticket price is 2-3 times higher than that of ordinary screens), and more importantly, IMAX can amplify the audiovisual experience of such spectacle movies in terms of look and feel, which can further promote the fermentation of movie reputation and highlights.
Considering that the length of theatrical blockbusters frequently exceeds two and a half hours, this not subtle difference in experience is even more meaningful.
Therefore, two days in advance may seem small, but in the context of the film industry valuing the revenue of each screen, there is also a competition.
The Law of Liquidation
In recent years, elongated blockbusters have reminded you more and more often: Please watch the next episode.
So it was with the most successful supergiant [Avengers] before Covid, so did [Fast and Furious 10] last month, and now, so is [Fatal Reckoning].
The seventh and eighth sets are obviously a plan to deal with the new crown, which objectively guarantees the continuity of the main creative team. It also gives the series a grander narrative framework.
The condition of the shooting scene also proves the essence of the "frame", and Rebecca Ferguson bluntly said that the scene did not follow the paper script when talking about the shooting situation, and there would be a large number of temporary corrections.
So, when the Hollywood screenwriters' strike extended to the creation of the script for [Fatal Reckoning (Part II)], it didn't cause greater unease.
On the contrary, it added a "tribulation record" to the production history of the series.
Director McQuarrie has previously revealed the fabrication process of the two films, and he and Tom both have action as the core.
Tom Cruise came up with a cliff jump, while he himself was interested in train battles, and after establishing a few core action scenes, the rest of the work was to fill in the rest.
Tom Cruise's astonishing leap in Norway is now well known. McQuairey's favorite train fight has a tidbits that confirm the twists and turns of fate.
The crew had intended to shoot the scene in Poland. According to the scenario plan, it needs to blow up a real bridge.
The bridge stood there as early as World War II and is not very practical today, but it is also a historical monument for the local population.
As a result, the crew faced protests and even lawsuits in the local area, and finally chose to move to England.
Array of Reckoning
Since McQuarrie became the main director of the series, the entire [Mission Impossible] series has also been more connected than the previous parts of the fourth part.
The stunning character "White Widow" (played by Vanessa Kirby) in the previous film is the daughter of the mysterious arms dealer Max (Vanessa Redgrave) in the first film, and she will continue to appear in [Fatal Reckoning (Part I)].
Considering that the scenes in the series are always more skewed towards new actors, she may be a tandem character.
And Isa (played by Rebecca Ferguson), who has appeared since the fifth part, is still Tom Cruise's most reliable foreign aid this time.
Grace, played by Hayley Atwell, is currently a mysterious character, and in stills and trailers, she always goes on adventures with Tom Cruise.
But the kind of betrayal and backstabbing scenes of special agent films always have to be burdened, and as the "heroine" of the two films, it is not surprising if she experiences some reversals.
Looking at the main poster again, the last important female character is undoubtedly the villain played by Pon Klementev.
McQuarrie said that she has the energy to make you can't take your eyes off, just looking at the style, Clementev is indeed more eye-catching than several other female characters, but also clearly villain.
Together with Ezé Morales' Ozark, she will become the troublemaker of Hunter's squad.
Considering that actresses in the Mission Impossible series have a long tradition of fighting (especially after the third part), fighting between female characters is probably indispensable in addition to causing trouble for Hunter.
There are also some old friends who are not far from Hunter.
The so-called flowing secret agent group, the ironclad Vin Reams. He played Luther, although there are huge ups and downs in the scene - for example, in the fourth and fifth scenes, he has not missed the existing six [Mission Impossible].
Since Benji, played by Simon Page, joined the series, the two of them have become the film's funny responsibilities, fire support, equipment suppliers, drivers... In any organization, there can be no shortage of such "universal bricks".
There is also a series of ancient faces that will return.
In the first part, the IMF's Eugene Kittredge (played by Henry Cozeny) launches the first big roundup of Hunter and contributes the classic broken window stunt.
After more than 20 years, he made another appearance in "Fatal Reckoning (Part I)].
This character was revealed in the early stages of manufacturing, and predictably, he was only a concator of events, not a hindrance to Hunter's true power.