Ethan Hunt has done a lot of crazy things in his time as an IMF agent, including, as depicted above, hanging onto the side of a plane as it took off. But thus far in the Mission: Impossible movies, all of the action has been strictly limited to the confines of Earth, though that's not to say that won't change in the future. In fact, when recently asked if there's ever been any thought to taking this franchise into space, Mission: Impossible - Fallout director Christopher McQuarrie believes it definitely more likely to happen than not. As McQuarrie put it:
I think it's inevitable. We've pretty much gone to the edge of thereof, so yeah, it's sooner or later, Tom is gonna be in orbit. If there's an actor that's going to be the first actor in space practically, it's Tom, or it's somebody... it's [James] Cameron, Chris Nolan, or Tom. Gonna be one of those three guys. That is the new space race.
Knowing Tom Cruise and all the insane stunts he's pulled off during his career, I wouldn't be surprised if he got his hands on a spacesuit and somehow made his way into space aboard a shuttle. Alright, so it probably wouldn't go down quite like that, but as he told Collider, Christopher McQuarrie does think that not only will Ethan Hunt eventually head off planet in a Mission: Impossible movie, but eventually Tom or a heavyweight filmmaker like James Cameron or Christopher Nolan will find a way to legitimately shoot scenes out in space.
As fun as it would be to see Ethan Hunt fighting weightless, I doubt that a future Mission: Impossible movie will actually be able to send actors and cameras out into space, and would instead rely on traditional movie-making magic and effects as is the norm. Then again, Tom Cruise has been playing Ethan Hunt for over 20 years now, so if the actor hangs onto the role for another two decades, maybe by that point whoever's helming the franchise can accompany the actor on board a ship, shoot a couple scenes of a geriatric Ethan punching bad guys inside of a space station, and then safely head back to the ground. From there, the only place left to go is to pit Ethan against aliens!
Not only will we have to wait and see whether or not the Mission: Impossible franchise heads into space, as things stand now, Mission: Impossible 7 hasn't officially gotten the green light yet. However, given that Mission: Impossible - Fallout earn critical acclaim and collected over $790 million worldwide (making it the highest grossing film in the franchise and the fifth highest grossing movie of 2018 so far), it's safe to assume that we'll see Ethan Hunt and his crew back on the big screen eventually.
Mission: Impossible - Fallout is winding down its time in theaters, and then you can pick it up on Digital HD November 20, followed by the Blu-ray and DVD copies hitting shelves on December 4. Don't forget to also look through our 2018 and 2019 release schedules to see what's heading to theaters over the next year.
