Mission: Impossible 6 has been shooting since April, and up until recently the production was going off without any hitches. That changed yesterday when Tom Cruise injured his right ankle while performing a stunt, and now shooting has been delayed so that the lead has enough time to recover. However, according to director Christopher McQuarrie, this situation isn't as dire as it may seem, and this delay isn't expected to change Mission: Impossible 6's 2018 release date. When asked about long this hiatus will last, McQuarrie responded:
The hiatus itself is unknown. We're still figuring that out. Nothing that we're looking at right now is going to affect the release date.
The stunt Tom Cruise was performing at the time for Mission: Impossible 6 involved him jumping between rooftops and then slamming into the side of a building. Christopher McQuarrie told Empire that Cruise that had already pulled off this stunt multiple times, but in the final instance, he hit the wall at a bad angle and immediately realized he broke his ankle. Cruise then powered through the rest of the scene and hobbled off camera, and as soon as he was out of view, he collapsed.
Fortunately, McQuarrie says Cruise is in good spirits, and while he recovers, work on Mission: Impossible 6 will continue in other areas. Once the cast and crew have completed everything they can that doesn't require Cruise's presence, then they'll go on hiatus and McQuarrie will redirect his attention to "editorial." The director continued:
We've already shot a huge chunk of the movie so you're just taking a big chunk of post-production and moving it up sooner. Then we go back to shooting when the hiatus is over, which is to the full benefit of the movie. It's similar to situations I've had on other movies where, for whatever reason, you go on hiatus and you're able to look at the movie in a way you normally couldn't and reevaluate. The lesson I learned on Valkyrie, which had its share of difficulties in production, and we always used to say 'disaster is an opportunity to excel'.
Tom Cruise is notorious in Hollywood for performing crazy stunts, which includes strapping himself to the side of a plane taking off in Mission: Impossible --- Rogue Nation. In this case, it was a smaller stunt that took him out of commission, but as Christopher McQuarrie noted, this isn't an issue of Cruise "slowing down" due to age; it was simply a freak accident. McQuarrie also hopes that he will still be able to include this specific shot in Mission: Impossible 6.
No specific plot details for Mission: Impossible 6 have been revealed yet, but Tom Cruise will be accompanied by returning players Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Michelle Monaghan, Alec Baldwin and Sean Harris, as well as new faces like Henry Cavill, Vanessa Kirby, Angela Bassett, Sian Brooke and Frederick Schmidt. Assuming this production delay isn't extended, the next installment in the action spy franchise is still on track to be released in theaters on July 27, 2018.
