From gracing the screen with smaller roles in movies such as Endless Love to becoming the world’s biggest action star and the face of one of the biggest franchises in the world, Tom Cruise has come a long way. His captivating performance in Risky Business in 1983 was what elevated him into the limelight. From there, Cruise never had to look back as he continued to take on diverse roles, establishing himself as a versatile actor and captivating the hearts of the audience with his remarkable performances in films.
Tom Cruise, who has been the lead of the franchise since 1996, and has been playing the role of Ethan Hunt. Since then several Mission Impossible films have been released and the recent production, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 paid a genius tribute to Leonard Nimoy.
Mission Impossible 7 Honors Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy is an icon of Hollywood and he was popularly known for his role as Spock in the iconic sci-fi franchise Star Trek. After he was done with the sci-fi franchise, Nimoy joined the CBS spy series, Mission Impossible in the fourth and fifth seasons of the show portraying the role of The Great Paris.
The Fringe actor was cast as a replacement for Martin Landau, who played the role of an IMF agent with the past of a professional magician. His character was a master of disguises, hence, over the two seasons, he slipped in to several dynamic roles, showcasing his range as an actor. As a result, he played a vital role in making the series popular.
Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible franchise has acknowledged the contributions of the legendary actor who departed in 2015. Therefore, in the seventh installment of their franchise, they decided to pay tribute to Leonard Nimoy by naming Pom Klementieff’s character Paris. And much like the original character, Klementieff’s character wore flashy clothes and face paint that radiated a punk aura and made her look like a magician.
During an exclusive with Entertainment Weekly, Klementieff talks about this gesture and how she thought it was a cool idea to name her character Paris.
“When Christopher McQuarrie cast me for the role, he didn’t know which name the character would have. It was cool to name me Paris, me being from France, and then they decided that I would speak French because I speak French in real life. She’s very different style-wise from every other actress in the Mission: Impossible franchise. She has a side that’s a bit more punk and she doesn’t really give a f—. So that was cool.”
Mission Impossible has always been regarded as one of the most successful franchises and even after seven films, fans enjoy watching the sequels. And it is for all the right reasons, as the franchise tends to push past its limits, especially in terms of stunts that will get the viewers to sit at the edge of their seats. However, Paul Schrader was not impressed by the script of the sequel.
Paul Schrader Criticized Tom Cruise’s Latest Outing
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 kept its audience hooked with the gripping storyline, star-studded cast and the much-anticipated scene where Tom Cruise jumps off a cliff was the selling point of the sequel. However, Paul Schrader, the writer of Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver was not impressed by the film and expressed his strong despise for the sequel via Facebook, stating his views on the script of the film.
“MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE — DEAD RECKONING. Such tiresome claptrap. There’s no reason that AI, given the correct prompts, could not have written this script.” Paul Schrader wrote.
Even though fans praised Tom Cruise for delivering one of his best performances in the sequel, it was a massive hit as it was positively received. The film has a rating of 8.0/10 on IMDb, the writer slammed the movie as a “tiresome claptrap.” Additionally, the sequel is heavily dependent on the international box office because domestically it has earned only $153.3 million, and internationally it has earned $339.6 million. Hence, they have earned only $493 million, barely meeting the expectations of the filmmaker and fans of the Spy franchise.