Director of Mission: Impossible unveils abandoned submarine sequence from Final Reckoning, featuring Tom Cruise, explaining its exclusion: "Simply didn't pan out"
In the highly anticipated movie, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, a dramatic underwater scene featuring Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) struggling to gain access to a submarine was filmed, but ultimately left out of the final cut.
The scene, which was shot in an 8.5 million liter water tank on a rotating gimbal, was intended to provide extra material to create a sense of pressure and difficulty for Ethan Hunt. Tom Cruise, who wore a special suit and mask for the underwater sequence, could only wear the suit for 10 minutes at a time due to the risk of hypoxia.
The scene featured Cruise checking his dive computer, adding a "ticking clock" element to create tension, a typical Mission: Impossible storytelling device. However, director Christopher McQuarrie felt that it did not work well within the film's final pacing and narrative flow, and ultimately decided to cut it from the movie.
The deleted scene added a realistic kind of tension by showing Ethan Hunt’s difficulty entering the submarine, symbolizing the time-sensitive mission pressure. McQuarrie expressed appreciation for the deleted footage but felt it was unnecessary for the finished movie.
Although the scene will not be included in the final cut, fans can still look forward to Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, which will be available on VOD beginning August 19. For more information on upcoming movies, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2025 and beyond.
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