The movie Jeremy Renner refused to die in: “Thanks, but no thanks”
The Mission: Impossible series has come a long way since its days as a 1960s TV show. Ever since Tom Cruise got his hands on the franchise, it has become one of the biggest in cinema history, grossing over $4billion across seven films and, with an eighth one on the way, that number is only going to increase.
The first four films in the series were all directed by different people – Brian De Palma, John Woo, J J Abrams, and Brad Bird, in that order – before Christopher McQuarrie assumed regular control. The Jack Reacher director has helmed three MI films, beginning with 2015’s Rogue Nation, and is set to add a fourth to his resume with the release of Dead Reckoning – Part Two in 2025.
Whilst McQuarrie has done a great job in bringing his creative vision to life, not all of his plans have come to fruition. Speaking to Empire about the sixth instalment, 2018’s Fallout, the spymaster revealed that he had plans to open the movie with a big surprise. “I had this whole idea that the movie would start with the death of a team member,” he revealed. His original plan was to bump off Ving Rhames’ Luther Stickell, but then he remembered that this character was originally supposed to die all the way in the first movie. “[Rhames] quite famously said to Tom Cruise, ‘Hey man, how come the brothers always gotta die?’ And Tom said, ‘You’re right.’”
Unable to kill off Luther and fearing that the movie wouldn’t recover if Benji, played by Simon Pegg, were to die, McQuarrie turned his murderous eye towards the character of William Brandt. An analyst originally introduced in Ghost Protocol, Brandt is played by Jeremy Renner, who had a few things to say about his on-screen demise.
“So I said to Renner,” McQuarrie recalled. “‘Hey listen, I have this idea for an opening sequence where you sacrifice yourself to save the team, and that the mission-gone-wrong not only involves losing the plutonium, but involves the death of a team member.’ And Jeremy was like, ‘Thanks, but no thanks’ […] He was smart not to take the short paycheck for three days of work and getting blown up.”
Ultimately, the idea of killing off one of the team at the start of Fallout was abandoned. Instead, a group of terrorists called The Apostles take Luther hostage to escape with a stash of plutonium. Cruise’s Ethan Hunt chooses to save his friend over recovering the stolen nuclear material, which must have made Rhames very happy. As for Brandt, he hasn’t appeared in a Mission: Impossible movie since Rogue Nation, so perhaps he’s due a return at some point soon. Or maybe McQuarrie killed the character off-screen out of spite.
Jeremy Renner recently had his own real-life brush with death. On New Year’s Day in 2021, he saved his nephew from getting hit by a 14,000lb snow plough but was himself run over by the massive vehicle. He suffered 38 broken bones and nearly died, but was saved by his incredible fitness and physical health. Renner has since opened up about the horrifying accident and, thankfully, has been able to come back to acting. He returned to his Paramount+ TV show, Mayor of Kingstown, and is part of the cast of the upcoming Benoit Blanc mystery film, Wake Up Dead Man.
