The first cut of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One was nearly four hours long, and now fans are calling for the extended version of the Tom Cruise-led action feature to be released.
Dead Reckoning editor Eddie Hamilton recently spoke to Variety about the movie's first cut, which was much longer than the theatrical version's two-hour and 36-minute runtime (without credits), revealing that he and director Christopher McQuarrie had to drill down on every moment to make the final cut tighter.
"The first time we watched it, it was nearly four hours long and had no music," he revealed. "It was a tough watch because it was the first time Chris and I had ever watched the movie from beginning to end. Not having any score was a very strange experience. It's almost a silent movie because there were no sound effects either."
One of the movie's major action set pieces centered around a train that the team built from scratch. Hamilton said the sequence was "about an hour-and-a-half long" in its first iteration, with the ravine crash running over three minutes alone, but they managed to get the entire act down to around "50 minutes in the finished movie."
After learning of Dead Reckoning's nearly four-hour original cut, fans of the Mission: Impossible franchise immediately took to Twitter to call for the extended version of the movie to be released, with all of the "deleted scenes" added back in.
https://t.co/YrtX3J3wh2 pic.twitter.com/z6cB377Btb
— c (@filmcshow) July 18, 2023
Would love to see an extended cut of #MissionImpossible Dead Reckoning Part 1 when it releases on home video. Even if they kept the deleted/extended sequences separate I’d still love to see them! https://t.co/FlmRQUpZDN
— Justin Talks Movies (@JustWatchAFilm) July 19, 2023
Give me another hour of this!
— levelsoundz (@levelsoundz) July 19, 2023
we NEED that extended cut NOW
— . (@BriansFilms) July 18, 2023
#ReleaseTheMcQuarrieCut #MissionImpossible7
— ? Paul-B Loves Movies ? (@Paul_Berney) July 18, 2023
i wouldn't be surprised if they pull a LOTR and issue both movies with extended editions on blu-ray. gotta milk these last 2 for every dollar they can
— Tex Avery (@toonhound) July 19, 2023
Dead Reckoning – Part One is only the first half of the story, with Part Two scheduled to hit theaters in 2024. McQuarrie previously shared his rationale behind splitting the movie into two parts, citing the story's action and expanding cast as contributing factors, as well as it simply being "a very big story that needed two parts."
The reception to Mission: Impossible's Dead Reckoning chapter has been positive so far. IGN's review of Part One praised McQuarrie for creating "an explosive yet self-reflexive action saga that leaves you wanting more", with his third outing of the series proving that "he still has an ingenious bag of tricks to pull from".
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.
