It’s a great irony that any movie with Tom Cruise would have the word “impossible” in it, and yet here we are on the verge of the eighth. And just like the rest of us, co-star Hayley Atwell learned fast that Cruise wouldn’t just be doing insane stunts himself but encouraging castmates to do the same.

Hayley Atwell – who came onboard the Mission: Impossible franchise as Grace in 2023’s Dead Reckoning Part One – recently recalled being plunged into an environment that let her explore a style that took her places she had never seen before. As Atwell says, working with Tom Cruise forces you to do the homework and follow through. “There’ll be Tom going: ‘From five years old I’ve always wanted to jump from a cliff on a motorbike’, and realising his dream. But with the rest, they’re kind of making it up as they go.