Mission Impossible 7: Tom Cruise had to wear a wig

Additional shots were required for "Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1". In some scenes of the film, Tom Cruise wears a wig for a very specific reason.

Additional shots to stick to the story

Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise chose to shoot Misson Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 and Part 2 one after the other. Except that, a lot of time passed between the two shoots because of the Covid pandemic. And during this time, the interpreter of Ethan Hunt has changed his appearance somewhat to stick to the physical evolution of his character for the future. A change that had to be masked during the filming of the additional shots of part 1.

These additional shots did not concern stunts or action scenes. These were simple dialogue scenes. As Christopher McQuarrie confided, a few scenes from Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 had to be re-filmed to adjust to the film's new narrative ideas.

Indeed, Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise have the principle of creating a story around the stunt ideas planned for the film. The latter influence in some way the narrative direction that the story takes. So as the stunts and the narrative come to life, scenes are then added or redone to complete the story.

Mission Impossible 7: Tom Cruise wears a wig in some scenes

In the recent episode of the Empire Spoilers Special podcast, Christopher McQuarrie talked about the additional scenes from Dead Reckoning Part 1. Before clarifying that some of them were shot two years after the original scene.

The one I particularly like is Ethan and Hailey (Atwell) when he says goodbye to her at the end. And she said to him: "Go away". This scene was shot two years later after the other shots (this same scene). Originally, they behaved differently, but during the new ending of the film, we realized that it just didn't work...

Christopher McQuarrie then confided that Tom Cruise wore a wig in this additional scene from part 1. Why? Because Ethan Hunt has longer hair in the second part, which the team was shooting at the time of the reshoots: “Tom wears a wig in this scene because he has his hair long for Dead Reckoning Part 2. So keep in mind that in all the cuts and reshoots we did after we started shooting part two, Tom has a different hairstyle. He wears a wig throughout much of the film. In the (meal delivery scene), he wears a wig. And it's a sensational wig made by our amazing makeup department.”

Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 2 is scheduled for release on June 26, 2024.