Cruise Control

Tom Cruise and the Mission: Impossible movies — the two are synonymous, and for good reason.

- John Lui

The American actor is not just the star of the eight installments that started in 1996, but he has creative and financial authority over them too.

Other actors act as producers on franchise films. Vin Diesel, for example, has some creative control over the Fast & Furious series (2001 to present). So does Ryan Reynolds over the Deadpool trilogy (2016 to present). But neither has the power that Cruise wields, nor have they held it for as long.

Cruise has a say in who gets hired as director. He helps craft the stunts, which he performs himself. He decides on the films' release schedule and budgets because his production company co-finances them.

In a leaked video from 2021, he was caught berating crew members who broke Covid-19 social distancing rules on the set of Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) because, naturally, he is in charge of that, too.

More importantly, he has guided how his character, the operative Ethan Hunt, has changed over the years. Cruise's control over the screenwriters and casting has determined who snags the job and which characters live to see another film.

Cruise and American director Christopher McQuarrie have said The Final Reckoning — which is showing in Singapore cinemas — is the last movie in the current franchise.