For a long time, we’ve suspected that Tom Cruise is – as they say – ‘built different’. The man can simply do things that the rest of us can’t, a talent he uses to astonishing blockbuster effect. Whether that’s clinging to a biplane in mid-air, or biking off cliffs into a parachute drop, or climbing the world’s tallest buildings, Cruise can do it all. But for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning he pushed himself even further. While the film’s aforementioned biplane sequence has him flying high, another set piece in Christopher McQuarrie’s Dead Reckoning sequel takes him deep down – into the wreckage of the Sevastopol submarine, as seen in the previous movie. Once he’s inside, everything goes to hell.

The result is a breathless water-churning subaquatic sequence that has Ethan Hunt caught in the undertow – shot in an 8.5 million litre water tank on a gimbal that can rotate on command. In the middle of it all, Cruise dons a specially-designed suit and mask, with an illuminated helmet to show audiences that that really is him in the middle of the maelstrom. Except, he can only wear the gear for 10 minutes at a time, before suffering from hypoxia (an absence of oxygen in body tissue). “I’m breathing in my own carbon dioxide,” Cruise tells Empire of shooting the sequence. “It builds up in the body and affects the muscles.” It is, by the sounds of things, an acting challenge as much as a physical one. “You have to overcome all of that while you’re doing it, and be present,” Cruise notes.

Looking back on filming the sequence, it was “so challenging and so terrifying,” says McQuarrie. Not only was it “really physically punishing” for Cruise, but making it legible on screen, and – most importantly – not a deathtrap was quite the feat. “He’s in a rotating structure filled with debris, and you had to find a way to make that environment look as chaotic and unhinged as humanly possible,” explains the director, “but in a way that you could repeat, and that Tom could navigate, and survive.” If anyone can do it, Tom Cruise can. Mission accomplished.

Read Empire’s full Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning cover story – going on set with Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie, and speaking to Simon Pegg, Pom Klementieff, Hayley Atwell and more – in the April 2025 issue, on sale Thursday 13 February. Pre-order a copy online here. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning comes to UK cinemas on 21 May.