It’s looking like that’s a wrap on Mission: Impossible 7 after what has been a tumultuous shoot. On Twitter, the Light the Fuse podcast shared an image taken from the Instagram account of gaffer Martin Smith. It reveals a large clapboard with the M:I VII logo along with the message, “Mission Complete!” You can take a peek at the wrap photo below.
UK-based gaffer Martin Smith posted this on Instagram today. Looks like principal photography on #MI7 is complete! Now onto #MI8! #ScorpioSeason approaches! ???? pic.twitter.com/DRzPwIthcO
— Light the Fuse Podcast (@LightTheFusePod) September 10, 2021
Christopher McQuarrie writes and directs Mission: Impossible 7, marking the third movie in the series to be helmed by the filmmaker. He also produces along with star Tom Cruise, J.J. Abrams, David Ellison, and Jake Myers. Cruise is of course back in the lead role as Ethan Hunt with the rest of the ensemble cast including Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, and Cary Elwes. It was recently reported that filming had wrapped for Atwell.
It’s got to be a good feeling for everyone involved to wrap the sequel’s shoot. It’s taken a very long time to get to this point from the start of production, as the pandemic of 2020 would result in frequent filming and release date delays. The production was also plagued with other problems, including a fire breaking out on set during a motorcycle stunt gone wrong. That scene had taken six weeks to prepare and had cost the production a lot of money. McQuarrie also came under fire for the plan to destroy a railway bridge in Poland for the shoot, resulting in another change of plans.
Meanwhile, Tom Cruise had been taking great efforts to get the movie made, despite all of the continuing challenges. The pandemic had been particularly rough on the shoot, even with Cruise spending his own money on cruise ships to keep the cast and crew isolated and hopefully safe from the coronavirus. Infamously, Cruise was captured on audio shouting at two crew members whom he spotted that were ignoring the set’s mandated safety protocols. Many had actually praised Cruise for taking the virus so seriously when others were apparently not.
“I said what I said,” Cruise said of the incident to Empire Magazine. “There was a lot at stake at that point. But it wasn’t my entire crew. I had the crew leave the set, and it was just select people. And here we are, continuing to film. All those emotions were going through my mind. And for the whole crew to know that we’d started rolling on a movie was just a huge relief… It was very emotional.”
In the original rant, Cruise said, in part: “If I see you do it again, you’re f-king gone. And if anyone in this crew does it, that’s it — and you too and you too. And you, don’t you ever f-king do it again. They’re back there in Hollywood making movies right now because of us. We are creating thousands of jobs, you motherf-kers. That’s it. No apologies. You can tell it to the people that are losing their f-king homes because our industry is shut down. We are not shutting this f-king movie down. Is it understood? If I see it again, you’re f-king gone.”
At least all of this stress of shooting can finally be put behind him at this point. Fans can look out for Mission: Impossible 7 to be released in theaters on Sept. 30, 2022. Meanwhile, fans can also anticipate the next movie in the series, as Mission: Impossible 8 has already been given a release date of July 7, 2023. The movies were initially set to shoot back-to-back, but the pandemic resulted in the eighth movie also getting delayed.