The filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie discusses major character deaths, the end (or is it?) of an action-movie franchise and what comes next.

This daring stunt fits Cruise’s reputation for performing his own high-risk action scenes. Throughout the Mission: Impossible franchise, he has completed similarly dangerous feats, including hanging off the side of a commercial jet and extended underwater breath holds.

Tom Cruise has spent three decades redefining the action genre by throwing himself off cliffs, scaling skyscrapers, and hanging onto planes mid-flight, and with these kinds of stunts come absolute exhaustion.