Last night I was excited to attend the premiere of Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (the fifth MI installment) at the Scotiabank Cineplex Theatre in Toronto.

Even better: Tom Cruise and director Chris McQuarrie were there, and did Q & A after the movie! (Yes, I know there are Cruise naysayers out there, but Scientology isn’t contagious and doesn’t seem to affect his ability to make great movies. I thought it was pretty cool to be in the same – very large – room with him.)

As for the film itself, I’m not an action fan, per se, but it was a great movie, with enough humour to make it more than just a car chase/motorcycle chase/underwater-danger picture, and the international locales added interest for me, too.

Thanks to my wonderful stalker long lens camera, I got a few good shots of Tom, Chris and ET Canada’s Rick Campanelli, who did a great job moderating the Q & A.

Rick gets ready

Tom arrives on stage

Tom and MI director Chris McQuarrie

The overall takeaway from the Q & A (which was streamed to several other Canadian Scotiabank Cineplex locations) was that Tom is a workaholic, does his own stunts, and starts thinking about the next project when the current one has only begun. They kept the focus firmly on this film (when asked their favourite MI villain, Tom and Chris agreed it’s the one from Rogue Nation). Tom did share a few stories, one being that the first time he broke his leg was when he was a child living in Ottawa for a short period of time. Of course he was already attempting stunts, and was flipping off the roof into a snowbank. One flip wasn’t enough, so he pushed himself to flip twice…with painful results.

Souvenir poster and lanyards

If you’re an action fan – or a fan of any of the cast members (shown below; I particularly like Jeremy Renner) – you should definitely see the movie. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation is in theatres Friday, July 31st.

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