‘Mission: Impossible 8’: Tom Cruise Shows Off Stunts and Honors Christopher McQuarrie at CinemaCon

Paramount saved its biggest film and its biggest star for last in its CinemaCon presentation with a new trailer for “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” presented by Ethan Hunt himself, Tom Cruise.

Studio head Brian Robbins brought out Cruise to the stage at Caesars Palace, marking the first time in years that the star had appeared before exhibitors in person. In recent years, Cruise had been out shooting films like “Top Gun: Maverick” during the show, and sent video messages to exhibitors of him getting ready for his stunts.

In the new trailer, we see Ethan climbing on the side of a biplane before seeing government officials look back through the IMF agents past work over the last seven “M:I” films. The world’s powers are panicking over the Entity’s growing power and its threat to destroy the entire world, and they’re starting to wonder if they will have to take out Ethan to stop the Entity as well.

Prior to the presentation, Cruise took a moment to honor his “Top Gun” co-star, the late Val Kilmer.

“I can’t tell you how much I admired his work, how much I thought of him as a human being and how much it meant to me when he did ‘Top Gun’ and came back for ‘Top Gun: Maverick,” he said solemnly before asking for a moment of silence.

Cruise then turned to his attention to his director Christopher McQuarrie, who received CinemaCon’s Director of the Year award. In his speech, he reflected on his years of work with the Oscar-winning writer-director behind movies like “The Usual Suspects,” “Valkyrie,” and the past three “Mission: Impossible” films.

Cruise told many stories about his years working on films with McQuarrie, including how he was indispensable in resuming production of “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning” after the COVID shutdown. Cruise called him a “modern day Irving Thalberg” and credited him with handling multiple massive blockbusters in the face of unprecedented hurdles for the global film industry

“Because of Christopher, we were able to keep the show on the road. We were able to keep going and complete ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and two ‘Mission: Impossible’ films in the face of a global pandemic and two industry strikes,” Cruise said.

“Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” hits theaters May 23.

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