Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is the latest movie in an ambitious action franchise that has seen Tom Cruise and his cohorts push boundaries, from clinging onto planes to fights on moving trains and scaling major landmarks. But amid all the stunning sequences featured throughout Mission: Impossible's three-decade run, the franchise has never dared to venture into outer space -- for a very good reason.

Speaking with Collider, Mission: Impossible franchise helmer Christopher McQuarrie addressed why the film series decided against leaving Earth ... despite fan intrigue in seeing Cruise's character Ethan Hunt take his superspy endeavors to another galaxy. "I get asked all the time," he explained. So shooting in Zero-G would be a complete rethink."

Previous Mission: Impossible movies have garnered praise for their grounded action sequences, with Cruise putting himself through the wringer by doing several death-defying stunts to deliver believable and gripping thrills to audiences. Such stunts have included scaling Dubai's Burj Khalifa in Ghost Protocol, holding on to a plane that was taking off in Rogue Nation, and both riding a bike off a cliff and fighting enemies on a moving train in Dead Reckoning.

The Final Reckoning continues this tradition with some of the franchise's most ambitious stunts. Chief among Cruise's sequences in Mission: Impossible 8 are a moving plane stunt that sees him hanging onto the wing at 8,000 feet in the air. Cruise also shot an underwater scene inside a tank that nearly caused him to suffocate. One behind-the-scenes story that has since become public involved McQuarrie having to step in and stop Cruise from reshooting some of his stunt sequences. "There are stunts in this movie that will melt your brain," the director enthused.

Though Cruise hasn't tried going to space in Mission: Impossible, he is still expected to take the zero-gravity trip in a long-gestating film directed by Edge of Tomorrow's Doug Liman -- which would be the first feature-length project to be shot entirely outside of Earth.

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning continues where the previous film Dead Reckoning left off. Hunt and his IMF operatives are still in hot pursuit of the Entity, the AI-powered adversary they encountered before, and its liaison Gabriel (portrayed by Esai Morales). The movie also stars hunt down the Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, Henry Czerny, Vanessa Kirby, Ving Rhames, Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham, Greg Tarzan Davis, Angela Bassett and Hannah Waddingham. Rolf Saxon also reprises his role as William Donloe from 1996's original Mission: Impossible.

Early reviews of The Final Reckoning have been encouraging, with the film earning an 88% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes before its release. Despite the title, Cruise has been coy about whether the Paramount blockbuster -- which cost a reported $400 million to make -- is the last Mission: Impossible movie, imploring that fans watch to find out. That makes it possible that Ethan Hunt could continue to do more death-defying things in the future... just not in outer space.

The Final Reckoning opens in theaters on May 23, 2025.

Source: Collider