Tom Cruise debuts ‘epic’ 20-minute car chase scene for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning

CinemaCon attendees were treated to 20 minutes of Tom Cruise bombing around Rome in various cars and motorbikes in a special preview of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One on Thursday (27 April).

The seventh in the Mission: Impossible franchise sees Cruise join forces with Hayley Atwell who plays a mysterious and “destructive” new character named Grace.

According to Variety, attendees at the Las Vegas festival were shown a lengthy sequence involving Cruise and Atwell “driving at breakneck speed through the streets and alleys of Rome”.

The pair were apparently handcuffed for much of the chase, which sees them swap from motorcycles to police cars to beat-up old vehicles intended for the scrapyard.

According to Variety, Paramount executives were seen huddling around a phone after the screening to inform Cruise – who was not in attendance – of the audience’s positive reception.

The film will now open in cinemas two days earlier than planned, on 12 July. Returning cast members include Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby and Henry Czerny.

Cruise appears tonight (27 April) in James Corden’s final ever Late Late Show episode.

Tom Cruise will return in ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’ in July 2023 (Paramount Pictures)
Tom Cruise will return in ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’ in July 2023 (Paramount Pictures)

According to the host, the action star was “adamant” about performing a stunt on the show.

“I mean, think about that. He’s ridiculous. Eight, nine years ago, Tom Cruise wasn’t even a human being to me. He was like a sort of Marvel superhero,” Corden told Lorraine Kelly on Thursday.

Last year, Cruise and Corden together recreated a sensational aerial stunt from Cruise’s 2022 film Top Gun: Maverick.

While Corden kept schtum about the exact details of Cruise’s latest appearance, it’s been reported that the stunt will see the duo gatecrash a Broadway performance of The Lion King, dressed as the anthropomorphic animal characters Pumba and Timon.

Find everything you need to know about Corden’s final Late Late Show episode here.