When Tom Cruise broke his ankle in gruesome fashion while filming a stunt last year on Mission: Impossible Fallout, it seemed like a huge blow to the film. With the star out of commission, production was temporarily shut down, and from the outside looking in, it seemed like getting this film to hit its release date and deliver in the way it was expected to was the real impossible mission. Yet as it turned out, Tom Cruise's injury was actually a good thing for Mission: Impossible Fallout because it gave everyone a much-needed break, as star Henry Cavill explained:
I don't know how many months in it was, but we were all knackered at that stage. So when the break happened, literally, and then the hiatus, we just went, 'You know what it's not a bad time to recoup and we can just rest up a bit, make sure everything's perfect and come back.' And we did. It was good and worked really in our favor.
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So the seven-week break in production was a good thing because it allowed for everyone to get some much needed rest, although I imagine Tom Cruise wasn't thrilled about it at the time. It is kind of funny to think that everyone else was tired and thankful for the break, while Tom Cruise completed the shot and then proceeded to work like a madman to rehab himself and heal at an incredible rate to get back to filming. Although judging by the relentless action in the trailers for the film, I imagine that filming Mission: Impossible Fallout was an exhausting experience, so the reprieve must have truly been a blessing in disguise. That way everyone was able to come back fresh and ready to go when production resumed.
Time for the cast to catch their breath wasn't the only benefit of the production shutdown due to Tom Cruise's gnarly injury. Director Christopher McQuarrie explained to CinemaBlend that there were still parts of the script that they were struggling with, and the extra time allowed for those issues to be ironed out to make for a better film. Post-production was also moved up, so the cast and crew was able to see a lot of what they had already, which helped to inform how the rest of the film was shot when things picked up again. As Henry Cavill told Metro, the break allowed them to make sure everything was perfect.
This might all seem like lip service to put a positive spin on a bad situation, but the results apparently speak for themselves onscreen. Not only is the film meeting its release date, but the reviews are in and Mission: Impossible Fallout seems to live up to the hype, continuing to elevate this always-improving franchise. This worked out so well that maybe they should just build a break into the schedule for the next film in the franchise and hope that Tom Cruise doesn't suffer any more literal ones.
Mission: Impossible Fallout smashes its way into theaters this weekend. Check out our release schedule to see the biggest movies still coming this year, and for all the latest movie news, stay tuned to CinemaBlend.
