Watch the “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” Stunt That Earned Tom Cruise a Guinness World Record

It’s been well documented—on this site, no less—the extent to which Tom Cruise has put his body on the line for his Mission: Impossible franchise. Thirty years after we watched Cruise break into the CIA’s Black Vault in director Brian De Palma’s Mission: Impossible, we now have a portion of our cinematic memory bank filled with nothing but Cruise’s stunt work. We have seen him scale the 2,700-foot Burj Khalifa in 2011’s Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol and held our breath as we watched him hanging off the side of an Airbus A400m in 2015’s Rogue Nation.

Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie’s Final Dive: “The Final Reckoning” Writer/Director Takes Us Inside the Submarine Stunt That Caps a Franchise

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning closes out a behemoth chapter of writer/director Christopher McQuarrie’s career. For over a decade, he’s crafted missions for Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) to accept, starting with an uncredited rewrite on Ghost Protocol. He stepped behind the camera for his first film in the franchise as director, the muscular Rogue Nation, which included Cruise holding onto the side of an Airbus A400M as it took off and rose to 5,000 feet,

From Indie Darling to Action Hero: Katy O’Brian on Her Leap from “Love Lies Bleeding” to “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning”

If there’s a performer well-suited for the world of Mission: Impossible, it’s Katy O’Brian. The films are wildly ambitious technical endeavors – hugely physical and highly creative. Those are just a few of the characteristics that define O’Brian’s work, both on and off screen. On screen, she’s appeared in a galaxy far, far away in the world of Star Wars (The Mandalorian), mixed it up with superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania),

“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” First Reactions: A Pure Cinematic Adrenaline Rush 30 Years in the Making

The first reactions to Tom Cruise’s eighth and potentially final mission as IMF Agent Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning have arrived following a screening for critics and members of the press. The verdict? Cruise and his capable comrades Luther (Ving Rhames), Benji (Simon Pegg), and newcomer Grace (Hayley Atwell) have pulled off a sustained adrenaline rush of pure cinematic spectacle. In short, Cruise and co. have done it again.

If Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is indeed Cruise’s last go-round as the unkillable Ethan Hunt,

Tom Cruise Hangs On For Dear Life in “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” Trailer

The official trailer for Tom Cruise’s potential last mission as IMF Agent Ethan Hunt has arrived, giving us a fresh look at the lengths Cruise has been willing to go to keep this action franchise at the extreme edge of what’s possible to do on camera. The new look at Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning takes us on a brief trip down memory lane, to Cruise’s very first mission as Ethan Hunt,

Val Kilmer Passes Away, Leaving Behind a Legendary Career & Admirers Far and Wide

“I’m your huckleberry.”

In 1993, director George Cosmatos’ Tombstone came out, starring Kurt Russell as the legendary lawman Wyatt Earp and Val Kilmer as his drunken, decidedly decent and invaluable partner Doc Holliday. By then, Kilmer was already a legend, having played Ice Man, the ying to Maverick (Tom Cruise, of course)’s yang in Tony Scott’s 1986 film Top Gun, and Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s 1991 film The Doors, 

No More Games: “September 5’s” Oscar-Nominated Writers on the Day Terror Took Center Stage

The thriller September 5, directed and co-written by Tim Fehlbaum, revisits the day the Palestinian militant group Black September took nine Israeli athletes hostage during the 1972 Munich Olympics. Nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, the script, which Fehlbaum wrote with Moritz Binder, is a tightly-paced journalism procedural centered on the ABC Sports studio’s broadcast of the attack as it happened.

Peter Sarsgaard stars as Roone Arledge,

“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” Launches Tom Cruise Into the Super Bowl

If this is Tom Cruise’s last mission as IMF Agent Ethan Hunt, he chose an auspicious time to unleash a furious new look—in the midst of the Philadelphia Eagles prime time demolition of the reigning champs in the Kansas City Chiefs during the Super Bowl. The game wasn’t close, but Ethan’s hunt (pun intended) to secure a rogue AI and save the world is balanced on a knife’s edge.

The fresh look at Cruise’s 8th mission in the decades-old franchise,

Rihanna Has Entered Her Blue Era in First “Smurfs” Trailer

Ladies and gentlemen, Rihanna has entered her blue era.

Director Chris Miller’s Smurfs has the most potent possible Smurfette leading the new movie—yes, Rihanna—and she’s front and center in the first trailer for the film.

While Rihanna is undoubtedly the biggest star in just about any room or scene she’s in, animated or not, the heart of the Smurfs is the entire village of characters created by the Belgian comic artist and writer Peyo.

“September 5” Production Designer Julian Wagner on Recreating the 1972 Olympic Attack From the Inside Out

Named after a day that will live in infamy, September 5 (in theaters now) recounts the terrorist attack that killed 11 Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympics, as told from the perspective of ABC Sports broadcasters led by Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard) and Geoff Mason (John Magaro). Confined largely to their studio control room, purpose-built just a few yards from Olympic Village, journalists watched the attack in horror, scrambling to capture the tragedy with now-antiquated gear yoked to then-new satellite technology.

Super Bowl Trailers: Marvel’s “Thunderbolts,” “Jurassic World: Rebirth” and Tom Cruise’s Latest “Mission: Impossible” Expected

The Super Bowl is the most-watched television broadcast in the United States every year. In 2024, the Kansas City Chiefs clash with the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII (58 for the Roman numeral illiterate) drew an average of 123.7 million viewers across linear and streaming services in the U.S. alone. The big game is also broadcast in over 130 countries in more than 30 languages worldwide, and it functions not just as the year’s biggest TV draw but as a bonafide cultural event that includes a raucous halftime show with a rotating cast of musical icons.

“Better Man” Director Michael Gracey on Monkeying With Robbie Williams in Bold Bio-Pic

Australian director Michael Gracey skyrocketed to success after releasing his debut feature, the 2017 Hugh Jackman-led musical The Greatest Showman. For his second narrative feature, Better Man, which is also a musical, he has tackled the life story of English pop singer Robbie Williams. There’s a twist, though. For the entirety of the film, Williams is portrayed as a CGI-animated chimpanzee. Gracey co-wrote the film and has a producing credit,

Best of 2024: Maximus Effort: “Gladiator II” Production Designer Arthur Max on Creating Colossal Constructions

This interview was selected by measures having nothing to do with science as one of our standouts from 2024. Arthur Max was absolutely crucial to Ridley Scott’s vision of creating a completely unhinged, dementedly decadent Rome. To that end, Max delivered, creating not one but two Colosseums for Scott’s epic.

Oscar-nominated production designer Arthur Max has worked on 16 of Ridley Scott’s films. These include some of American cinema’s most indelible cinematic spectacles,

How “Gladiator II” Editors and the VFX Supervisor Shaped Three Ferocious Scenes

Gladiator II picks up fifteen years following the events of Russell Crowe’s portrayal of Maximus Decimus Meridius in Gladiator (2000), an epically visceral film from Ridley Scott that not only won five Oscars, including Best Picture at the 73rd Academy Awards but is considered one of the greatest action films in movie history – a notion underpinned by its quotable dialogue that has become part of the public lexicon.

“Gladiator II” Costume Designers Janty Yates and David Crossman on Lunatic Emperors & Blood-Splattered Warriors

She won an Oscar for outfitting the first Gladiator, and 20 years later, costume designer Janty Yates once again teamed with Ridley Scott to cloak ancient Rome’s ruling class in bespoke finery. Gladiator II stars Paul Mescal as a slave who fights his way to freedom, with Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen, Joseph Quinn, and Fred Hechinger in featured roles. Yates and military expert David Crossman, who costumed the downtrodden gladiators,

“Gladiator II” Cinematographer John Mathieson on Capturing Robotic Rhinos & Colossal Carnage

If you’re in the mood for a visually stunning film with gladiators battling to the death in a flooded Colosseum and a very ripped Paul Mescal going head-to-head with a rhinoceros and a baboon, Ridley Scott’s pulse-pounding period actioner is the movie you’ve been waiting for. Twenty-three years after his first Oscar nomination for the original Gladiator, British cinematographer John Mathieson (Logan, Mary Queen of Scots) is back with the long-anticipated sequel,

“Gladiator II” Production Designer Arthur Max on Rebuilding a Decadent, Debased Ancient Rome

In the first installment of our conversation with Gladiator II production designer Arthur Max, he talked about making Ridley Scott’s sequel on an even bigger scale than the original film and staging a naval battle sequence in the desert of Morocco for the opening sequence. Now, let’s find out what it took to flood the Colosseum to recreate the mock naval battle in the third act.

Did you use mostly local crew on the sequel?

Maximus Effort: “Gladiator II” Production Designer Arthur Max on Creating Colossal Constructions

Oscar-nominated production designer Arthur Max has worked on 16 of Ridley Scott’s films. These include some of American cinema’s most indelible cinematic spectacles, such as the original Gladiator (for which Max scored his first Oscar nod), Black Hawk Down, and The Martian. Despite the impressive body of work between them, Max thinks that the Roman epic actioner, Gladiator II, is their most ambitious yet.

“Gladiator II” Screenwriter David Scarpa on the Herculean Task of Writing a Worthy Sequel

It’s been a long time coming, but the sequel to Ridley Scott’s 2000 epic, which won the Oscar for Best Picture, opens in theaters nationwide on November 22. Starring Oscar nominee Paul Mescal (Aftersun), Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us), the iconic Denzel Washington, and original cast member Connie Nielsen, Gladiator II finally came to fruition thanks to the script from David Scarpa, who’d previously penned Scott movies All the Money in the World and Napoleon.

“Gladiator II” Enters International Arena With a Powerful Opening Weekend

Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II burst into the international arena this past weekend with a very strong start. Scott’s sequel to his 2000 Best Picture Winner opened across 63 markets, earning a massive thumbs up from audiences and boasting an $87 million dollar start.  This makes Gladiator II Scott’s overseas debut in his long, illustrious career.

Gladiator II also conquered $7 million on IMAX across 453 screens, another formidable opening salvo.