'Mission: Impossible': What Music Inspired Movie Stars?

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One arrived in theatres this week and we’re proud to be among the select critics who have already seen the film. Fret not because we’re not about to leave you hanging! See what we did there? As to be expected, Tom Cruise is back in fine form doing daredevil stunts that will leave your jaw dropped open. He’s not the only one either. This movie introduces a new leading lady in Hayley Atwell and favorites like Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames and Vanessa Kirby are back and better than ever. There are also scene stealing newcomers like Pom Klementieff and Greg Tarzan Davis and the story itself has a villain that most of the real world has some very understandable concerns about.

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We attended the world premiere of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One in Rome where we spoke to the film’s stars and director/writer Christopher McQuarrie about the music that they listened to as inspo while making the movie and getting ready for the premiere. Unfortunately we couldn’t get Tom Cruise to name names — but we really can’t blame him. He was reluctant to open up about his favorite artists out of fear that other artist friends might take offense. What would you do if you were him?

1. Shea Whigham as Jasper Briggs

“I listen to something arbitrary. Before I start a project, it could be Briggs [his MI character] I listen to something that, I don’t plan it out, it could be The Cure. I never know what it’s going to be but then I latch onto it. And then you take it with you. “

2. Greg 'Tarzan' Davis as Degas

“I listen to my boy Kevin Gates, I gotta listen to him. He’s one of my favorite artists, he gets me in the mood, we don’t get tired.”

3. Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt

“I love music, I’m an audiophile. If I say someone my other friends are gonna be like, ‘Tom!’ This will go out and in five minutes all my friends will be like, ‘Really?’”

4. Vanessa Kirby as Alanna Mitsopolis AKA The White Widow

“A lot of upbeat, a lot of tough stuff, a lot of hip-hop, she’s like gangsta.  This morning we were listening to Rihanna. As we were getting ready we had her on. We had a bit of champagne it was really good.”

5. Frederick Schmidt as Zola Mitsopolis

“Everything, from Angie Stone, to James Brown. I’m a Soul man but equally can be listening to Chopin. Some classical music. Or it can be crazy heavy metal, Slipknot and all the rest of it — so real broad spectrum.”

6. Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn

“Lorne’s [Balfe] soundtrack. Lorne’s score to this film. And [Mission Impossible] Fallout as well. It’s so good. I listen to the Fallout score in my car, but then I got a speeding ticket because it was making me drive fast. So then I had to be careful. When you want to get in the mood for something like this you just need a little bit of the film score.”

7. Cary Elwes as Denlinger

“Believe it or not I listen to the theme music for the movie because I want to get into the headspace – it’s a great theme, Lalo Schifrin. I also listen to classical music a little bit. And then some of my other favorites – Radiohead, Thom Yorke.”

8. Hayley Atwell as Grace

“The thing I listen to on repeat, it’s so obvious, is the Hamilton soundtrack, because the beat is so consistent. It’s such a life-affirming, uplifting story. It means that I can kind of keep going without even thinking about what I’m doing because it gets me going. But also, I’m loving at the moment Self-Esteem – Rebecca Taylor, her incredible album, very empowering, very vulnerable, very funny, witty, also Arlo Parks I’m really into at the moment. So yeah a whole selection of things.”

9. Writer/Director Christopher McQuarrie

“One of the scores I listened to for this movie quite a bit was Bernard Hermann’s The Ghost And Mrs. Muir, a really beautiful score. It was Hermann’s favorite score. It’s a very romantic score. Lorne Balfe and I talked a lot about classical romantic music. We wanted to give this movie a more romantic feeling. And Sibelius. The classic composer Sibelius. Not exactly the most rock’n’roll answer, but when you listen to that music you’ll see the effect it had on the movie.”