Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is out in theatres now and is expected to be one of the biggest draws at the box office this year. And while the seventh film in the Mission Impossible franchise is the biggest one yet, the cast and crew dealt with their own mission while filming. PopCulure.com spoke exclusively with Simon Pegg who plays Benji in the Mission Impossible films. He told us that the seventh movie will stand out for one big reason.
“This film will forever be the film that we made in the midst of a global pandemic, and the challenge of making it sort of mirrored the mission, and we were having our own mission impossible in a way, aside to the film,” Pegg exclusively told PopCulture. “And I am so, so proud of everybody that worked on it, the crew, the cast, everyone that just came together through that adversity to create something, which against all odds is more extraordinary than anything that’s happened before in the Mission: Impossible franchise.
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Sept. 6, 2020, was the first day of principal photography for Mission: Impossible 7 after multiple delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In December of that year, an audio recording of Tom Cruise shouting at two production crew members for not following COVID-19 rules on set was released online. Filming would continue until September 2021, which led to the release of the flim being pushed back several times.
When filming began, Cruise — famous for doing his own stunts — drove a motorbike off a mountain in Norway before plunging 4,000 feet into the ravine before opening his parachute. This is one of the more intense scenes in the film, and Benji plays a big part in it. “I laughed a lot when I was up there on the mountain with Tom the day they did that,” Pegg admitted.
“We did the scene when Benji is sort of saying, Well, you’ve got a parachute, right? And I was, when I first read that, I really laughed because he’s just really being careful how to suggest this. And Benji has a habit of kind of confounding Ethan sometimes. Benji’s shouted at Ethan, I think on two occasions, and Ethan always backs down immediately. He kind of, like, he could never quite compute it when Benji loses his temper. But yeah, knowing that was what was going to happen and obviously, the ramp was all there ready to go. I watched the stunt in the afternoon, I filmed it on my phone.”
It’s clear Pegg had fun filming Mission: Impossible 7 with Cruise and the rest of the cast. That’s no big surprise considering he’s been part of the franchise since Mission: Impossible III was released in 2006. “It’s been a gift,” Pegg said. “I mean, as an actor, it’s a really, really exciting thing to be able to play a character over time, and evolve him as he ages, and add to the experiences he’s had in the previous film to the new film. I mean, it’s a privilege to get to be part, to get that kind of role, let alone in this franchise, which is just such a favorite. And I’m really proud, really, really proud.”
