Paramount Pictures has unleashed a new behind‑the‑scenes featurette for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, and it focuses on what may be the most technically audacious set piece in Tom Cruise’s four‑decade career: a prolonged underwater sequence that director Christopher McQuarrie promises will make every prior deep‑dive stunt in the franchise look tame. Clocking in at nearly three minutes, the reel intercuts rehearsal footage, tank tests, and candid cast commentary, revealing painstaking preparation for a scene that reportedly pushes Cruise’s free‑diving skills far beyond the breath‑holding feats that stunned audiences in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation.
Cruise himself opens the featurette with a retrospective nod: “From Ridley Scott’s Legend in 1985 to now, I’ve spent more than forty years studying underwater cinematography. Each project taught us how to stretch realism, but we always felt there was another level we hadn’t reached.” The actor‑producer then explains that he and McQuarrie envisioned The Final Reckoning’s aquatic centerpiece as a “white‑knuckle suspense beat that never blinks,” merging practical stunt work with the kind of single‑take tension first popularized by Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity. To achieve that immersion, the team built a custom 800,000‑gallon tank at Leavesden Studios, outfitted with robotic camera arms capable of tracking Cruise through a maze of submerged airlock doors and debris tunnels.
Although plot details remain under heavy NDA lockdown, the footage strongly hints that the sequence ties into the sunken Russian submarine Sevastopol, introduced in Dead Reckoning Part One. Fans already know Ethan Hunt possesses a cruciform key meant to access the Entity’s source code sealed inside the wreck. The featurette confirms that the IMF team finally pinpoints the vessel beneath Arctic pack ice—requiring Hunt to navigate a labyrinth of flooded bulkheads while O2 alarms flash and frigid water compresses the set pieces. Production designer Gary Freeman notes that every passageway was lined with modular LED panels calibrated to dim over time, simulating dwindling power as Hunt’s dive becomes a race against suffocation.
Training for the stunt began nearly a year before cameras rolled. Free‑diving legend Kirk Kraska coached Cruise to extend his static breath‑hold to over seven minutes, a personal record. Meanwhile, stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood drilled the star on breath‑up techniques and emergency “buddy breaths,” allowing safety divers to remain out of frame yet seconds away if something went sideways. Cinematographer Fraser Taggart utilized prototype RED Komodo‑XV cameras housed in carbon‑fiber casings, small enough to weave between bulkhead ladders while rolling at 120 fps for ultra‑slow‑motion detail. Taggart says the miniature rigs allowed him to “dance with Tom, not just observe him,” capturing claustrophobic close‑ups of panic bubbling in Hunt’s eyes.
McQuarrie appears midway through the featurette to frame the sequence’s narrative stakes. “We didn’t want an isolated stunt reel moment,” he tells the crew. “The water isn’t just danger; it’s a ticking clock. Every shot, every gasp had to advance the story.” To preserve continuity, the production scheduled all underwater scenes in a two‑week block, enabling Cruise to maintain peak physiological conditioning and keep facial scruff and hair length consistent. Editor Eddie Hamilton reveals that one uninterrupted shot lasts nearly four minutes in the final cut, the longest continuous take in franchise history.
Marketing executives are positioning the dive as The Final Reckoning’s equivalent of previous show‑stoppers like the Burj Khalifa climb or the HALO jump. IMAX trailers have already teased snippets: Hunt prying open a corroded hatch as phosphorescent algae swirl, and a rapid POV shot hurtling through a collapsing torpedo tube. One newly released poster shows a silhouette of Cruise against bioluminescent blue, the tag line reading, “His last breath is just the beginning.” In Dolby Cinema lobbies, QR codes direct fans to a 360‑degree virtual pre‑viz allowing viewers to navigate the flooded corridors themselves.
With tickets now on sale and Memorial Day weekend looming, Paramount is counting on buzz from this underwater extravaganza to propel Ethan Hunt toward a franchise‑best opening. If the featurette is any indication, audiences won’t just be holding popcorn—they’ll be holding their breath.
Remember to book your tickets now for the commercial-free IMAX Opening Day Fan Event on Thursday, May 22!
Check out new behind-the-scenes stills and the new "underwater communication" featurette below:
In our review of the previous installment, Dead Reckoning, we said, "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One is the undisputed blockbuster movie event of the summer! Tom Cruise delivers yet another action movie masterpiece, packed with jaw-dropping spectacle, pulse-pounding action, heartfelt emotion, awe-inspiring performances, and an exhilarating chemistry opposite new leading lady Hayley Atwell that’ll have you begging for more. This is one Mission we’ll always choose to accept! Bring on Part Two!"
In addition to Cruise, the supporting cast features Hayley Atwell (Captain America: The First Avenger; Agent Carter; Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning), Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible; Pulp Fiction; Dawn of the Dead), Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead; Star Trek; Mission: Impossible), Vanessa Kirby (The Crown; Pieces of a Woman; Mission: Impossible – Fallout), Esai Morales (Ozark; La Bamba; Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning), Pom Klementieff (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2; Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning; Westworld), Mariela Garriga (Bloodline; Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning; Y: The Last Man), Henry Czerny (Mission: Impossible; Ready or Not; Revenge), Holt McCallany (Mindhunter; Fight Club; Wrath of Man), Janet McTeer (Ozark; Albert Nobbs; Jessica Jones), Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation; The Last of Us; Devs), Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso; Game of Thrones; Hocus Pocus 2), Angela Bassett (Black Panther; What's Love Got to Do with It; 9-1-1), Shea Whigham (Boardwalk Empire; Joker; Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning), Greg Tarzan Davis (Top Gun: Maverick; Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning; Grey’s Anatomy), Charles Parnell (Top Gun: Maverick; Transformers: Age of Extinction; The Last Ship), and Frederick Schmidt (Angel Has Fallen; Mission: Impossible – Fallout; Supergirl).
McQuarrie helmed the feature, with a screenplay he co-wrote with Erik Jendresen (Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One; Ithaca; Band of Brothers).
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning hits theaters and IMAX on May 23!
Our lives are the sum of our choices. Tom Cruise is Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.