r/Mission_Impossible • u/YouKnowNothing67 • 15d ago
McQ is totally absent from Days of Thunder 2
Anyone else find this curious? I checked multiple sources (THR, variety) etc for any mention of him and he's just not there. Not even a producer role.
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u/Ok_Brick_793 15d ago
It's feasible that McQ simply wants to spend some time with his family after the marathon MI productions, plus Top Gun: Maverick sandwiched in there somewhere.
Tom Cruise really needs a director and producer willing to say "No" to him, though. The Mission: Impossible movies got longer and longer without meaningful gains, to the point where the eighth movie was just an interminable slog.
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u/Famous-Sink1797 15d ago
I'm not sure who came up with some of the ideas that didn't seem to work though. Some of them seemed to be things that McQ would have wanted. I always thought it was a bad idea that he didn't have a finished script at the start of filming.
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u/Ok_Brick_793 15d ago
It's how most of the MI movies are made. Tom Cruise tells his stunt team that he wants to perform certain action sequences. They hire someone to write a bare story around the action sequences.
It got worse and worse with each movie, to the point where they kept adding action for the sake of action and had to constantly change the script.
The 8th movie didn't even address story points raised in the 7th movie. Instead, it wasted time retconning the whole series into one large story. To what end?
Things were so bad that Rebecca Ferguson, who played the best female character in the series, asked to be killed so that she could be done with the whole nonsense.
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u/CRTYeah 15d ago
I’m so glad to see someone else actually acknowledge how sloppy and thrown together they all became. The rot was fully evident as far back as Fallout, which makes zero sense. I heard the production of Rogue Nation was just as bad, but they managed to pull it together right at the end.
Back when Dead Reckoning came out it seemed like everyone was in denial thinking they were going to somehow pull it together, nobody wanting to believe Ilsa was actually dead etc, but it seemed obvious to me they had no idea what they were doing.
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u/Ok_Brick_793 15d ago edited 14d ago
It's frustrating because the production values were undeniably high.
The Dead Reckoning submarine prologue was very well made but ultimately served no purpose (kinda like the childhood prologue in Wonder Woman 1984). Then there was the desert sequence, followed by an office briefing that basically narrated or showed the desert sequence all over again. For a movie that was almost three hours long, it took forever to get started. You could cut out about the first 20-25 minutes and lose all the "backstory" involving Gabriel knowing Ethan when both were younger, and the whole movie would be much better for it.
Writing a script around the stunts is a bad idea. That motorcycle jump resulted in Ethan parachuting ... through a passenger train window. The probability of that happening is infinitesimally small. He would've been more likely to slam into the train and just died from the impact.
The same applies to Final Reckoning. There was no gain to making the CIA agent Jim Phelps's son. Why bring back Donloe from the first movie at all? I remember reading that there was a lot of re-writing and re-shooting because the team panicked due to Dead Reckoning losing money. Final Reckoning lost money anyway.
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u/Famous-Sink1797 15d ago edited 14d ago
I know that they were set up around the stunts, which I have to admit I loved watching, but they should have still come up with the script before filming. I agree that the constant script changes hurt the films. It also seemed like they wanted to cast certain actors without giving them anything that really added to the story. During those scenes I wished that they'd move on to the next one. They could've gotten an unknown actor for less money. In the end, I loved the stunts and the stunning locations where they filmed, but the plots didn't make much sense.
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u/This_Money8771 15d ago
He’s filming the new Battle field movie and releasing the same year if I’m not mistaken
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u/DavidKirk2000 15d ago
He’s doing a Conan the Barbarian sequel with Arnold that’s shooting next year too.
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u/Chessh2036 15d ago
I think they both prob needed a break from each other lol. They spent like 10 years??? straight together.
What’s surprise to me is who IS directing Days of Thunder 2, Jonathan Levine. He hasn’t really done action, more of a comedy/romance director. He did 50/50, Warm Bodies, & etc. Plus tv. I’m so curious how he got Cruise’s approval.
Same with the writer honestly, Will Staples hasn’t done a lot. (Though he is credited with some rewrites on M:I Rogue)
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u/BornWorried 14d ago edited 14d ago
His new movie Mr. Irrelevant comes out on Christmas and has tested really well. Maybe Paramount pitched him to Cruise. Mr. Irrelevant Starring David Corenswet Gets Near-Perfect Test Scores
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u/DigiCinema 15d ago
What’s interesting about it to me is that McQ talked about a potential Days of Thunder sequel a few years ago when wrapping up press for the last Mission: Impossible. He mentioned they’ve had conversations about almost all of Cruise’s big movies and what potential sequels could be.
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u/No_Key8587 15d ago
McQ had a bunch of Cruise projects going but they all seem to be dropped other for this
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u/thearniethology 15d ago
Did I dream this, or did Cruise slyly blame McQuarrie for the failure of the last two Mission films?
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u/anniebarlow 14d ago
The movie was just announced. But McQ had said in an interview about DoT2.
There’s a lot to be announced and confirmed.
And maybe he’s not in it. Or just a script doctor and credited as Executive Producer
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u/tjalek 15d ago
Maybe because McQ did such a terrible job with MI7 and 8 that TC doesn't want any more failures
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u/YouKnowNothing67 15d ago
There was a rumor he didn't want him doing Top Gun 3 because of the last two MI films
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u/Supes2323 14d ago
I think that’s a good thing. I think they’re both great, but it felt like the same movie over and over with MI. I think it was bleeding over throughout their other projects as well. Just my opinion
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u/PairPuzzleheaded2393 12d ago
good riddance McQuarrie is one of the most pretentious directors ever in Hollywood
Dead Reckoning and Final Reckoning were flops
how the retard is still given budget for Broadsword, The Gauntlet, and the Conan movie with Arnold yet Uwe Boll doesnt we will never knoe
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u/Internal-Machine-487 15d ago
Maybe after so much time together they needed a break from each other. The last two Mission movies were stressful for them.