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By Staff Writer with Agencies
Cannes, May 14, 2025 — After a politically charged start to the 77th Cannes Film Festival, with debates swirling around Gaza, Trump, and the legacy of Gérard Depardieu, the Croisette roared back to life on Wednesday with the premiere of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two, the eighth and possibly final chapter in Tom Cruise’s high-octane franchise.
Cruise’s return to Cannes marked a cinematic highlight for the festival, three years after his wildly successful Top Gun: Maverick premiered here and soared to $1.49 billion at the global box office. This time, the 62-year-old Hollywood superstar was joined by director Christopher McQuarrie and cast members for a glamorous photo session outside the Palais des Festivals, as crowds surged for a glimpse of the ageless actor.
Above it all, in a scene almost worthy of the film itself, window cleaners rappelled down the glassy facade of a nearby Prada boutique. “Tom Cruise climbed the world’s tallest tower – that takes some beating,” quipped one, referring to Cruise’s famed Burj Khalifa stunt in Ghost Protocol.
Global Action, French Connection
The latest installment in the globe-trotting franchise spans Ukraine, Hungary, Cuba, India, and the icy Bering Sea. But it also returns to a recurring locale and inspiration: France. Ever since Jean Reno and Emmanuelle Béart joined Cruise in the 1996 original, French talent has had a starring role in Mission: Impossible.
“Reno’s betrayal of Hunt was iconic,” said Benoît, a long-time festivalgoer camped out on the palm-lined Croisette. “At the time, you never saw French actors like this in Hollywood blockbusters.” Indeed, Béart’s casting, a French arthouse icon thrust into the spy genre, reportedly hinged on an intense audition where she pinned Cruise to a wall with a gun to his head.
Since then, the franchise has featured a steady stream of French actors: Léa Seydoux in Ghost Protocol, Alix Bénézech in Fallout, and Pom Klementieff in both Dead Reckoning installments as the deadly assassin Paris.
A Love Letter to Paris
While Paris featured only briefly in the early films, Fallout (2018) brought Ethan Hunt fully into the French capital. The movie’s 36-day shoot included a bike chase around the Arc de Triomphe, a parachute jump over the Grand Palais, and a speedboat pursuit down the Seine.
Director McQuarrie later revealed that filming in Paris was meant as a tribute to a city still recovering from the 2015 terrorist attacks. “Tom said, ‘That’s exactly why we are going there — to show the world that it is safe,’” he recalled. The now-iconic chase scene around the Arc was also a nod to Claude Lelouch’s underground 1976 classic C’était un rendez-vous, famed for its raw, no-permit dash through Parisian streets.
Bébel and the ‘Proto-Cruise’
Cruise’s stunt work, whether leaping from helicopters or clinging to aircraft mid-takeoff, often draws comparisons to French film legend Jean-Paul Belmondo. Known for doing his stunts in thrillers like Le Professionnel, Belmondo helped redefine the French action hero.
“Bébel was the original daredevil,” noted French film critic Laurence Tardieu. “Cruise may have taken it global, but Belmondo did it first, in real Parisian traffic, without CGI.”
When Cruise was spotted last year rehearsing stunts near the Promenade Belmondo in Paris, fans speculated a tribute was in the works. Instead, the homage came during the Paris Olympics closing ceremony, where Cruise, in full Ethan Hunt mode, jumped off the stadium roof, rode a motorcycle out, and skydived into Los Angeles, Olympic flag in hand, all to the unforgettable Mission: Impossible theme.
The Final Mission?
Whether this truly marks the final chapter in the Mission: Impossible saga remains uncertain. Cruise has remained noncommittal, only saying, “As long as audiences are excited, I’ll keep running.”
But if this is the end, it’s a fitting one: a franchise that began with a French connection comes full circle on French soil, saluted by the most glamorous film festival in the world.
Tags: Cannes Film Festival, Mission Impossible, Tom Cruise, French cinema, Jean Reno, Emmanuelle Béart, Paris, Ethan Hunt, action movies, Hollywood, stunts, Christopher McQuarrie, Pom Klementieff, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Claude Lelouch, Top Gun Maverick, global cinema, French actors in Hollywood