Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One director Christopher McQuarrie reveals that there are a number of scenes in the film in which Tom Cruise is wearing a wig due to their reshoots schedule. The seventh installment in the long-running action franchise, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One sees Cruise return as Ethan Hunt to face off against a new AI adversary. The film features some of Cruise’s most jaw-dropping stunts yet, but the biggest surprise might just be that the star is often not sporting his actual hair.
In a recent interview on the Empire Spoiler Specials podcast breaking down Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’s ending, stunts, and everything in between, McQuarrie explains that the film’s unique production back to back with the filming of Part Two resulted in Cruise having to adopt a wig for select scenes.
While not revealing all instances in which the wig is present on-screen, the director reveals that at least two key moments do feature it. Check out McQuarrie’s full comment below:
“The one I absolutely love is Ethan and Hailey [Atwell] when he says goodbye to her at the end. And she says, ‘Go.’ That shot was shot two years later than the shots on either side of it. Originally they had a different piece of behavior that, in the course of the new ending of the movie, it just didn’t work…
“Tom’s wearing a wig in that shot because he’s got his [Part Two] hair. So keep in mind that any pickups and reshoots that we did after we started shooting Part Two, Tom’s got a different hairstyle. He’s wearing a wig in a lot of the movie. In the [food delivery scene] he’s wearing a wig. And it’s a sensational wig by our amazing makeup department.”
Dead Reckoning Part One’s Production Methods Explained
Early on in the conception of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, it became clear that the story and the scope was too great for just one movie. The challenge of mounting two globe-trotting productions with interlocking stories was also compounded not only by the COVID-19 pandemic, but also McQuarrie and Cruise’s approach to filming the movies.
While there are scripts for the Mission: Impossible movies, they are very much living documents instead of firm blueprints. McQuarrie and Cruise will work with actors to shape their characters and their role in the story, in addition to letting locations and stunt ideas dictate how the story actually plays out. This approach means that, sometimes, due to a last minute narrative decision or revelation, scenes will have to be reshot or adjusted to better suit this new direction. This approach further benefits from the extensive use of test screenings.
The scene in which Cruise recites the IMF vow near the beginning of the film, for example, was a relatively late addition, which is why he already had his longer Mission: Impossible 8 haircut. In fact, a portion of the briefing sequence that follows was filmed in Cruise’s garage because they realized late in the game that it needed an additional tweak. While this unorthodox production strategy isn’t evident on-screen, McQuarrie’s latest reveal about Cruise’s hair is sure to result in eagle-eyed viewers trying to spot the wig during future Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One viewings.