Tom Cruise is known for doing a lot of his own stunts in the Mission: Impossible films, whether he’s performing a HALO jump, climbing the tallest building (Burj Khalifa), jumping across rooftops, dangling from a plane, and many more. In Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, the Cruise’s team comprises of Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Pom Klementieff, Greg Tarzan Davis and more.

“These films are like taking a vacation from your comfort zone,” Pegg tells Nerd Reactor. “You spend the entire shoot out of your comfort zone. It’s only like in the evenings maybe that we get back into it. And when we were staying together in various parts of the world, we’d have these kind of little movie nights or game nights. And that was us getting back into our comfort zone because we spent a lot of time out of it. And I think that’s what makes the movie so thrilling.”

“You asked yourself questions like when you’re faced with that those tough situations, like ‘What would Tom do?'” Davis added. “Okay, I guess I have to do it because I know he would confront it.”

“WWTD,” Pegg said.

One of the messages for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is about writing your own history, and Pegg shares a story about how being a part of the franchise has changed his life.

“Well I’ll take that because it relates to this in 2005,” Pegg explained. “I got a phone call from JJ Abrams who was a producer on a show called Alias, which I had seen a couple of episodes of and somebody said, ‘JJ Abrams is on the phone.’ And he said, ‘Would you like to come and be in Mission Impossible 3?’ And I chose to accept and that there began an incredible chapter of my life, which has led us here and hanging with my homies [pointing to Klementieff and Davis] – my beloved homies here.”

“It’s been an incredible adventure and it was a dream for me to be in Mission: Impossible,” Klementieff added. “And years ago I was training. I was learning how to kick, how to punch and I would even write in my schedule – I would write Mission Impossible because it was my dream to be a part of it, so now to have been in two Mission Impossible movies is just exceptional and I feel very grateful.”

“Having to stop a scene because the polar bear was walking across the set is not something that you would expect to see.” – Hayley Atwell

Playing the role of Grace, the professional thief turned IMF agent, is Hayley Atwell. The actor talks about how her path to acting has led her to a memorable moment during the film’s production.

“Yeah, I think working in the Arctic was particularly memorable for me because it was such a remote landscape and a place I never would have gone to had it not been for being a part of this movie,” Atwell said. “Having to stop a scene because the polar bear was walking across the set is not something that you would expect to see or have to do in your career when you’re training in Shakespeare at a drama school in London. And I feel incredibly privileged to be given that opportunity. And this movie is the accumulation of 30 years of an epic franchise that seems to attempt to have a bigger ambition for each one. And Tom Cruise does a great job.”

About Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

Synopsis: Our lives are the sum of our choices. Tom Cruise is Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.

The film is directed by Christopher McQuarrie and written by McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen. The film is produced by Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie, based on the television series created by Bruce Geller.

The cast includes Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Mariela Garriga, Holt McCallany, Janet McTeer, Nick Offerman, Hannah Waddingham, Tramell Tillman, Shea Whigham, Greg Tarzan Davis, Charles Parnell, Mark Gatiss, Rolf Saxon, Lucy Tulugarjuk and Angela Bassett.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning releases in theaters on May 23, 2025.