The director Tom Cruise admitted he was “there to serve”
Whenever Tom Cruise attaches himself to a movie, more often than not, he’s viewed as the most important cog in the machine, regardless of who the director, writers, or co-stars happen to be.
That comes with the territory when he’s reigned as one of the biggest and most bankable names in the industry for four decades, with his A-list wattage and influence ensuring that very rarely does he lend his name to anything where he doesn’t have at least some degree of creative control or behind the scenes influence.
Of course, that hasn’t always been the case, with Cruise going out of his way in the 1980s and 1990s to work with some of the best and brightest filmmakers the industry has had to offer, but things changed from the turn of the millennium onwards as his profile continued to grow.
For the most obvious example of how Tom Cruise the persona impacts the work of Tom Cruise the actor, look no further than the fact that since their first collaboration on 2008’s war drama Valkyrie, Christopher McQuarrie has been credited as a director, writer, or producer on ten of the 13 features the star has made in the decade and a half since.
That indicates that Cruise will bring his own people into the mix regardless of what shape the film in question is even before he signs on the dotted line, although that hasn’t always been the case. Before – surprise, surprise – McQuarrie became the first person to helm multiple Mission: Impossible movies, the franchise was known for hiring a different director for each of its first five instalments.
A large part of that was Cruise’s desire to give each chapter its own distinct look, feel, and flavour, which saw him speak very highly of John Woo. The action maestro was drafted in for 2000’s Mission: Impossible II, which saw the leading man go out of his way to ensure that he was merely a servant of the genre icon’s vision.
“Having John Woo come in, I was really excited. He said, ‘Look, I want to make a love story.’ He wanted to do it – bringing that wonderful quality of his – as a mythic adventure picture,” he said to Vanity Fair. “All the colour tones in the picture are earth, wind, and fire.”
Furthering that sentiment – one that isn’t entirely true of the long-running spy saga these days with regular cohort McQuarrie currently overseeing his fourth consecutive stint behind the camera – Cruise stated that when it comes to Mission: Impossible, “the director dictates the style.”
“Producing it as a fan of John Woo, and as a fan of Mission: Impossible, I wanted to see what he was going to do with it,” he continued. “I was there to serve. It’s Woo’s Mission: Impossible.” It may not be lauded as the best entry in the series, but Cruise was at least true to his word because Ethan Hunt’s sophomore outing is unmistakably a Woo film.
