The Pandemic Sent the 'Mission: Impossible' Budget Into the Stratosphere

Here's the upside for "Top Gun: Maverick": At least the Tom Cruise movie was finished and ready to release when the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the world in early 2020. We may still be waiting to see the film, but Paramount's financial losses have been limited to advertising dollars spent for releases that got delayed.

The studio can't say the same about its other Tom Cruise franchise, spy sequel "Mission: Impossible 7" (certainly not its final title). A report in Variety says that the movie's costs have ballooned to at least $290 million and that may be a lowball number, because it's taking into account all the not-yet-claimed tax incentives designed to reduce the movie's cost.

If we're to believe the possibly informed estimators at Wikipedia, that would make "M:I 7" the sixth-most expensive movie ever made and the most costly film that's not a Marvel, DC or Capt. Jack Sparrow title. For comparison, 2018's "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" has an estimated cost of $190 million, a number that wouldn't even put it in the top 50 most expensive ever made.

Combine a "Mission: Impossible" production team that's known for its attention to detail and insistence on upping the excitement in every movie with a worldwide pandemic, and you get a perfect storm of rising costs.

"Mission: Impossible 7" had just started production in March 2020 at the Carnival Venice on the same day that Northern Italy went into lockdown. The production improvised and tried to move the shoot to Rome, but that city also shut down before things could get rolling.

The team tried to get back on track in Norway in the fall of 2020 and filmed a train scene that was captured by cellphone cameras and posted online.

Related: Check Out Tom Cruise Filming on Top of a Moving Train

Just how weird has this process been? Insiders told Variety that the production has started and stopped seven times. Cruise is known for his attention to detail, and he confronted a British film crew in late 2020 over its lax attitude toward on-set COVID protocols back in the days before the vaccine.

Someone, of course, recorded the incident on their phone and leaked it to the press in hopes of embarrassing the star. Considering that this happened back in the days before a vaccine, Cruise's anger seemed perfectly reasonable as he tried to keep a troubled production on track.

Related: Tom Cruise Was Not Cut Out for Drill Sergeant Duty

The original plan to hold down costs was to shoot two "Mission: Impossible" movies back to back. That idea is now toast, but Paramount has bumped the release of "Mission:Impossible 7" from September 2022 to July 2023, with plans to shoot "Mission: Impossible 8" before the seventh movie hits theaters. "Mission: Impossible 8" is about to begin production in South Africa.

These two movies are supposed to wrap up the saga of Ethan Hunt and the Impossible Missions Force. It's coming up on two years since director Christopher McQuarrie and producer Tom Cruise set out to make another spy movie in a series that they had elevated to new heights. No one had any idea what plans the universe had for 2020. Or 2021. Or 2022. Here's hoping that "Mission: Impossible 7" survives the challenge, and we get a normal movie release in 2023.

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