If you sign onto a Mission: Impossible film, you’re not just joining a franchise, you’re strapping in for a ride that might literally throw you off a cliff. The Final Reckoning, which brings Ethan Hunt’s saga to its adrenaline-fueled climax, pushed its cast to the limit in the best and most brutal ways possible.
Tom Cruise is, of course, the high priest of practical stunts. At this point, he’s made a career out of cheating death on screen. But it wasn’t just Cruise dangling off helicopters this time. Every member of the IMF team got a taste of chaos, fire, and freezing cold.
Pom Klementieff, who returns as a fierce assassin-turned-IMF recruit, tackled two particularly punishing sequences, one of which involves a gritty prison brawl, the other inside a building literally on fire.
“They were both very challenging in different ways,” Klementieff told GamesRadar+. “The first one was the restriction with handcuffs. I had to do high kicks and also, I was wearing less clothing, so when you fall hard on the ground, it hurts more. I did all the fight for that, too.”
Then came the heat. “The one with the fire, with the real flames, where we had to be in sync with the other characters, with Tarzan and with Simon… I was wearing winter clothing, but it was hot inside and there was a real fire,” she said. “Fighting all day long like that, it was exhausting and very hot, but I think it also shows on our face, the struggle, and it seems real. That was amazing to shoot too.”
Greg Tarzan Davis, who plays Degas, had the bruises to prove just how real those fights were. “I was getting kicked by Pom, repeatedly,” he said. “I had bruises on my side. Granted, I did ask her to do it to make it look realistic. I just forgot how strong a Pom kick can be. She was like, ‘Oh my gosh, are you okay?’ I’m like, ‘I’m good. Just keep kicking.’”
But it wasn’t all flame and fury. Sometimes, the challenge came in the form of frozen breath and polar bears. Hayley Atwell found herself in the unforgiving Arctic, filming in negative 40-degree weather—and loved every second of it.
“I loved it,” she said. “I didn’t find it difficult as such because I found it really fulfilling and satisfying every day to be there… I never thought in my life that I would be in such a remote landscape, let alone working with Sled Dogs and filming a huge franchise movie. I think it will always stay with me. A set being interrupted by the presence of a polar bear walking past is not something that you see every day.”
Even amid the exhaustion, danger, and crazy temperatures, the team still found time to enjoy the perks of flying with Cruise. Simon Pegg recalled wanting to ride in helicopters during Fallout, only to realize he got his wish this time, just not in the way he expected.
“Tom used to fly us back to number ones when we were doing the scene, when we drove up the mountain,” Pegg said. “We got to the top of the mountain, and then we’d all bundle into this helicopter, me, Hayley, Tarzan, and Pom and then we’d fly through this canyon back to number ones… I guess I did that already!”
Klementieff chimed in saying: “Yeah, it was amazing. Or [Tom] would fly us from the studio back to central London with the sunset. It was beautiful.”
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning hits theaters on May 23rd.
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