Tom Cruise and Hayley Atwell in a screengrab from the leaked trailer. Photo / Screenshot
Tom Cruise and Hayley Atwell in a screengrab from the leaked trailer. Photo / Screenshot
The trailer to the highly anticipated Mission Impossible 7 was briefly posted online before it was pulled by Paramount.
The two minutes and 10 seconds video was screened at CinemaCon last month and was posted on Twitter at 7.30am AEST before it was removed soon after due to a copyrightnotice.
The video, which also confirmed the title of the next Tom Cruise action extravaganza would be called Dead Reckoning: Part One, was a quickly edited trailer featuring the insane stunts fans expect from a Mission Impossible instalment.
Any doubt over its authenticity – fan-compiled trailers are often deceptively titled on YouTube and similar platforms – was quashed when footage of franchise newcomer Hayley Atwell appeared in the video.
The trailer for the film, which is due for release in July 2023, also revealed multiple car chases, writhing dancers at a party, a military-esque gun unit, Rebecca Ferguson fencing on a Venetian bridge, Cruise airborne on a motorcycle, shenanigans involving a train, an underwater sequence and a mysterious key.
Tom Cruise in the latest Mission Impossible outing. Photo / Screenshot
Recurring Mission Impossible supporting stars Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames and Vanessa Kirby also feature while there are snippets of Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham and Esai Morales.
Henry Czerny, who portrayed Eugene Kittridge in the first Mission Impossible film, has a prominent role in the trailer with his voiceover the only dialogue to feature.
And, of course, there is a clip of Cruise running at full speed. It's not a Tom Cruise movie if he doesn't run – it must be in his contract.
The Mission Impossible franchise was rebooted in 1996 by director Bryan De Palma with Cruise as Ethan Hunt, an agent of the Impossible Missions Force.
A sequel by John Woo followed in 2000 before J.J. Abrams took the reins for Mission Impossible III in 2006 and Brad Bird in 2011 with Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.
Since 2015, Cruise has collaborated closely with filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie who has written and directed Rogue Nation and Fallout, and is responsible for the upcoming seventh and eighth instalments.
Cruise and McQuarrie often start filming without a full script, merely a story outline and a bag of ambitious stunt ideas.
The seventh and eighth Mission Impossibles were filmed back-to-back, starting in February 2020 before Covid shut down the production. After filming commenced in mid-2020, footage of Cruise was leaked which showed the actor angrily reprimanding crew members for being lax about Covid protocols.
Production is currently under way on the eighth film.
There is further drama behind the scenes as the Hollywood Reporter revealed a clash between Cruise and executives at Paramount over Mission Impossible 7's theatrical window. Cruise, who is vehemently backing cinematic releases over streaming, was incensed at Paramount's decision to shorten the window to 45 days. Cruise is said to have engaged lawyers to fight Paramount over the issue.
Of course Tom Cruise is running again. Photo / Screenshot
THR also revealed there was tension over the production's expanding budget.
The Mission Impossible series has been marked by its action set-pieces, which are known for being shot practically rather than created on a soundstage in front of a green screen. Cruise famously broke his foot during filming on an earlier film, jumping between rooftops in London.
Cruise brought the same commitment to practical stunts in the Top Gun sequel Maverick, which is due for release this coming week.
