MI7: How The Film's 'Beautiful' Impromptu Style Changes Set-Pieces, Costumes, & More
With a movie production on the scale of "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One," many would assume everything is thought of well in advance. There's such a massive team at play, with many scenes storyboarded, rehearsed, and thought out before the cameras even start to roll. But even in these kinds of mass productions, there are still moments that arise on the day of filming that force filmmakers to pivot.
That was precisely the case in one scene where Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) shoots enemies in the desert. She has a gun, and the trailer featured her wearing an eye patch. One would surmise she was always meant to wear the eye patch because it looks cool, but there's a sillier reason behind it. Ferguson talked about that scene with HeyUGuys, and she revealed it all came down to her inability to wink. She explained, "It's because I can't f***ing wink. He lined up the shot, I took it, I was ready, I was breathing, and he goes, 'Now close your eye,' and I went [makes funny face attempting to wink]. He went, 'No, close the one eye. Okay, other shot. Other angle. Close the eye.' [Makes funny face again] 'Can we get an eyepatch? Anyone?' There's nothing more to it than that."
It's a perfect example of how something can go wrong on the day of shooting. No one probably thought to ask if Rebecca Ferguson could only close one eye, but a solution was required since they were ready to film that scene right then and there. And that's par for the course on a "Mission: Impossible" film.
Many ideas for a Mission: Impossible scene come together on the set
In the case of Rebecca Ferguson's eye patch, it came down to a split-second decision. There was a problem, so the crew pivoted to something that would make the scene work in a manner befitting the movie. And it must have been lucky that an eye patch just so happened to be in the vicinity. This is the methodology the crew behind the "Mission: Impossible" franchise has mastered, as evidenced by so many other interviews.
In that same interview with HeyUGuys, Simon Pegg chimes in, "But out of circumstances, beautiful things are born. That's 'Mission' all the way ... We hit an obstacle, we pivot, and the pivot always makes it better." There's little denying the eye patch does, indeed, look cool, to the point that shot was featured heavily in the marketing. The ability to pivot is essential because the team isn't big on using scripts. Ferguson has spoken about this multiple times in the lead-up to the release of "Dead Reckoning Part One." For instance, when talking with Digital Spy, she discussed how Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie go about handling scenes with minimal script usage: "Seeing Tom and [director Christopher McQuarrie] on set and how they speak – because we don't have scripts, I can see how their brains work together [as] they talk about character."
Fortunately, there's a method behind the madness. They may build the story around the stunts, but they never lose sight of having a character-driven story. Ferguson went on to say, "We talk about action a lot, we talk about needing the stunts and then we build the story around it, but we don't talk a lot about how driven Tom is to create character and the reason why and emotion." All that hard work can now be seen on the big screen with "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One" playing in theaters now.