There’s always a central mystery to a Mission: Impossible movie. The why of it all, so to speak. Who is hunting Tom Cruise‘s Ethan Hunt? What’s the threat? And Dead Reckoning Part One and Part Two are no different—except there’s one small caveat. While Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part Two may not signal the end of the franchise, the ending of the film itself is a question that is still waiting to be answered by the key players involved in making the film a reality.

Director Christopher McQuarrie, speaking at length to Collider‘s Steve Weintraub before the worldwide premiere of Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, teased that even he doesn’t know how the final chapter of Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning is going to end. Which is quite fascinating, considering the film seems to be well underway. As anyone who has ever read or watched an interview with McQuarrie knows, he is always very honest when it comes to discussing what is—and is not—on his mind for a film. Because of this, you can often take his word at face value when he gives you an answer—even if it seems like he’s sidestepping it. Given the nature of the Mission: Impossible films, which start with a set piece and then build the story around it, it is easy to believe him when he says he has no idea how the next part of the movie will end.

When asked directly by Weintraub about how the film would end, McQuarrie simply explained, “I don’t know what the ending of Part Two is, so I couldn’t tell you.” He went on to add, “I’m not being evasive. I could tell you that I know what the end of Part Two is, but I can’t guarantee that that will be the ending when we get there.”

“We See a Shiny Object and Go For It”

Elaborating, McQuarrie added that he and Cruise have a process where they know the direction that they want the story to take, but not necessarily all of the finer details. Admitting that it does sometimes sound as if the duo are ‘winging it,’ so to speak, the director went on to explain that failure to prepare for what’s to come could result in disaster on a film with so many moving parts, hence the need to plan the film to “within an inch of their life.” He went on to say:

“Tom and I never obsess about executing the plan. We always have a direction, we always have a place we’re going. In our trying to describe the process, in retrospect, it sounds as though what we do is just flying by the seat of our pants and making it up as we go along. That’s not an accurate description. You are definitely flying in a direction, you’re definitely prepared. You couldn’t be that cavalier without somebody getting seriously physically hurt. These things are planned within an inch of their life. Along the way, we see a shiny object and go for it.”

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two opens on June 28, 2024. Part One is in theaters on July 12, 2023.

via Collider