Spoilers for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning are ahead! If you haven’t seen the 2025 movie schedule entry yet, you can catch it in theaters.
I’m always scared watching a Mission: Impossible stunt, because I know they’re done as practically as possible. However, nothing scared me more than the submarine sequence in The Final Reckoning. Honestly, it felt like it could have been a scene in an upcoming horror movie rather than a set piece in an M:I movie. That is one of the reasons why I love it, and the cast told CinemaBlend why they couldn’t get enough of this underwater moment either.
Let me set the scene: in the middle of Final Reckoning, Ethan Hunt has to dive down to a sunken submarine to retrieve a drive. He’s under literal and figurative pressure, he could die at any second, and the vessel starts spinning and sinking while he's in it. It’s terrifying and a miraculous piece of filmmaking. That, according to Hayley Atwell and Simon Pegg, is thanks to Tom Cruise’s commitment to stunts and various BTS pieces coming together to create one remarkable moment.
Hayley Atwell Broke Down How Tom Cruise’s Commitment To Stunts Impacts The Final Product
With each of the Mission: Impossible movies, it feels like Tom Cruise's commitment to pulling off unimaginable stunts is plastered on the screen. Hayley Atwell shared that idea with us, too, during an interview with CinemaBlend’s Jeff McCobb. When asked about the submarine scene specifically, she said:
I remember being on set and seeing the scale of what they were doing, what they were setting out to achieve, and seeing also his suit and his training for it, and the extra training he had to do for this particular sequence. To see the kind of dedication to bettering himself, like every movie for him is a new mountain to climb, where he wants to top what he did last time, it's a testament to how committed he is to developing himself as an actor and as a producer.
The actress, who plays Grace in the film, then explained that all this is done in pursuit of the most "thrilling" moments possible, saying:
He's so dedicated, and it's phenomenal what he's able to achieve, and it's all for the sake of thrilling an audience.
And thrill the audience he did. However, while Tom Cruise is obviously a massive reason why this sequence works, Simon Pegg revealed some other elements that helped make this moment as tense and suspenseful as it is.
Simon Pegg Explained How The Score And Revolving Set Increased The Intensity Of The Submarine Scene
While Simon Pegg said he was “dazed” and “couldn’t remember” the scene the first time he saw Final Reckoning, he had a totally different experience on his second watch. Taking in everything in the submarine sequence, the Benji actor explained that it was “immersive.” That had to do with everything from the camera work to the score and more, as the actor pointed out:
And that sequence, the way that [Christopher McQuarrie] scores that sequence, his idea was that you can't have an orchestra underwater. So all the sound in the underwater sequences has to be something you could hear underwater. So he uses these Russian throat singers and this mega bass thing, and it's so incredible.
I also took note of the haunting and unique score used during this sequence, and it 100% helped build the tension and put you underwater as time started running out for Ethan.
Pegg also noted that the submarine was rolling, and recalled the “insane gimbal” they used on set to capture it. He said there were “torpedoes falling everywhere,” and when he went back to watch it a second time, he was blown away. His daughter was, too, it seems, as the actor recalled:
I looked at my daughter, who was watching it with me, and she watched the whole thing with her head in her hands and her eyes wide open, and her mouth open. And it was true, raw cinema.
Angela Bassett shared a similar sentiment. She explained that watching the submarine sequence upped the stakes for the entire film, including her character’s storyline. The actress adored that intensity and how it “ups the stress level,” saying:
The stress, you know, is heightened, on both ends, you know, like, ‘Will he make it? Will I make it?’ So I really love that.
I also love that. I was watching the submarine scene like Pegg’s daughter, with wide eyes and my hands on my face, I loved every tense second. It was a remarkable moment and feat of filmmaking, and it’s one of the many reasons why reviews of Final Reckoning have been solid.
Honestly, this whole underwater sequence is one of the biggest and best highlights of this film. I loved it, the cast did too, and I can guarantee, it’s worth seeing it all unfold on the big screen.
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