Run, Tom. Run! In addition to doing his own stunt work, Tom Cruise famously sprints in a number of the films he makes. And in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, the actor is churning those legs again as the Impossible Mission Force (IMF) agent, Ethan Hunt. Yes, Ethan has gone rogue once more, but this time it’s to find the cruciform key and hopefully use it to destroy The Entity. And newcomer Shea Whigham is hot on Hunt’s trail. The actor also has a reason for wanting his character to thwart Ethan's plans so badly.
Whigham said in an interview with Slash Film:
I told them that there has to be a reason why I'm chasing [Ethan]. Otherwise, it's not going to play for two and a half hours, to have egg on my face in every country, that I just miss him. So, I just wanted to ratchet that up without explaining anything. I didn't want to explain it, other than going into, possibly, the next one.
Whigham joins the Mission: Impossible family for the first time in Dead Reckoning – Part One. In addition to starring in the new installment of the spy franchise, Whigham also lends his voice to the character of George Stacy in this summer’s megahit, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
Jasper Briggs is Hot on Ethan Hunt's Trail
Shea Whigham portrays The Community’s intelligence agent Jasper Briggs in Mission: Impossible 7. Briggs had never met Ethan Hunt prior to Dead Reckoning – Part One, but he’s obviously familiar with Hunts proclivity to do the impossible. In fact, as he is briefing his fellow agents, Briggs tells them not to consider Hunt neutralized until they drive a stake through his heart, like you’d do to kill a vampire. And Whigham definitely had some cinematic inspiration of his own to draw from outside of slaying Count Dracula.
Whigham said in the same interview:
I wanted to honor the 'Midnight Run' of it all, 'The Fugitive' of it all. I'm big on paying homage to films that I love, and so we sprinkled some of that in there and I just wanted to make Briggs a wild card. By any means possible, he'd tried to take Ethan in, with it being real and personal underneath.
Whigham also told Slash Film that he wasn’t at liberty to discuss the backstory of The Community’s Jasper Briggs. However, Briggs empathizes with Hunt in the movie, even those he's determined to catch Ethan. And Briggs actually aids the IMF agent during both the chase sequence in Rome and on the Orient Express during the film’s third act. So, it’s safe to assume that Briggs will be pro-Hunt when it comes to eliminating The Entity in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 2.
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 2 is currently slated to hit theaters in June 2024.