The Director of ‘Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning’ Unpacks Key Franchise Moments

Christopher McQuarrie was a 27-year-old former movie-theater security guard when he won the Oscar for best screenplay in 1996 for “The Usual Suspects.” Things went a little pear-shaped from that early peak, as they tend to do in Hollywood, and the Princeton, N.J., native was looking to leave the industry altogether when he piqued Tom Cruise’s interest for another script that became the 2008 Hitler-assassination drama “Valkyrie.”

It was the start of a professional relationship that has culminated in McQuarrie, now 56, directing and co-producing the past four films of the “Mission Impossible” franchise, including “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” in which Cruise famously stars as the unsinkable (and seemingly unkillable) special agent Ethan Hunt.

Recently, McQuarrie spoke with The Times in New York and later via video call from the back of an SUV in Mexico City about the choice to make A.I. the villain, the question of whether the franchise is coming to an end, and a “gnarly” secret Tom Cruise movie in the works. Here are edited excerpts from those conversations.

When did the decision come that “Dead Reckoning” and “Final Reckoning” would be the final two films in the franchise?

Over the course of “Rogue Nation” [2015], “Fallout” [2018] and then “Dead Reckoning” [2023], we were delving deeper and deeper into the emotions of the characters and their arcs. I said, “Look, we know that it’s going to be a long movie, let’s just cut it in half.”

I understand the irony of me saying we were going to make two two-hour movies and we ended up making these two much, much bigger ones. But we didn’t really think of it as being the conclusion of anything until we were about halfway through “Dead Reckoning.” Over time, we started to feel that this is a movie about the franchise more than just about the mission.