Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning doesn’t have a post-credit scene, but at one point, it almost did. Writer/director Christopher McQuarrie told USA Today that he originally wanted to include a “coda” on the film and was even ready to film it before Tom Cruise decided against it.
As McQuarrie was putting The Final Reckoning together, he showed Cruise what would become the final ten minutes of the movie. “I came to Tom and I said, ‘Look, normally I would want you to see the whole movie before I showed this to you, but we’re about to shoot this coda in a couple of days and just look at this bit,’” McQuarrie said. “He said, ‘You know what, you can cancel Saturday’s work because this is the end of the movie. This is it.‘”
With that, the post-credit was scrapped, but McQuarrie isn’t about to spill the details. “I’m not going to say because it could end up in another movie,” he said.
While The Final Reckoning has a definite sense of finality (go figure), it remains to be seen if the movie will really be the franchise’s last installment. Cruise has said that he plans on making movies “into my 100s,” and I’m not about to bet against him.
The Final Reckoning hit theaters just last week with a franchise-best opening, although it was easily surpassed by Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch. Our own Chris Bumbray (and resident Tom Cruise superfan) certainly enjoyed the film, but he admitted that it definitely feels overstuffed at times. “I still don’t think it was a good call to make the Dead Reckoning storyline into two separate, nearly three-hour films, but even when it’s most uneven, the series is still worth watching,” he wrote. “If this is the end for the IMF, one can never say Cruise didn’t give this franchise his all, and this ends it on a satisfying note. If it falls slightly short of the others, it’s simply because the bar has been set so high.” You can check out the rest of his review right here, and be sure to let us know what you thought of The Final Reckoning as well!
