After four films, Tom Cruise’s rapport with ‘Mission: Impossible’ director is ‘nods and groans’

VIENNA, Austria — Christopher McQuarrie, the writer and director of “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation,” worked with Tom Cruise on three previous movies before they teamed up on the latest Ethan Hunt adventure.

Since McQuarrie was the screenwriter on Cruise’s “Valkyrie” and “Edge of Tomorrow,” and also directed him in “Jack Reacher,” it would seem by now the two can basically finish each other’s sentences.

“We don’t even speak any more,” quipped McQuarrie, who won the best original screenplay Oscar for “The Usual Suspects” in 1996. “It’s basically just a lot of grunts and nods and groans. … Fortunately, most of those grunts tend to be, ‘Yes, we agree.’ ”

There was something different as they tackled this fifth “Mission: Impossible” film, in a franchise Cruise has co-produced since the first “Mission” in 1996. “While our relationship always has been a little different on each film, this is Tom’s franchise — and has been for 20 years. There was a different give-and-take this time around. But, this was far and away the most fun of the four films we’ve done together.”

When asked what Cruise finds to be the most fun about portraying super-spy Ethan Hunt in the “Mission: Impossible” movies, McQuarrie didn’t hesitate, saying: “Doing all the stunts. He gets to do what he wants to do, and nobody really is going to stop him. … Among the producers and me and everyone else on the set, there were a lot of antiperspirants used on the days Tom was doing some of the more aggressive stunts. That was for sure!”

Since we were sitting in a hotel suite adjacent to Vienna’s famed Ringstrasse, McQuarrie said it was like coming full-circle with his “Mission: Impossible” journey. “Vienna was the very first day of shooting on this film. I just love the fact that where we started the movie, is where we are finishing it — at the opera house. It was a sequence I had always wanted to do, and it was great that the State Opera let us do it in their venue.”