Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise’s 25-year partnership and friendship began when McQuarrie’s “The Way of the Gun,” his directorial debut, was released in 2000. It didn’t make much noise at the box office, but it nonetheless earned a strong following within the industry, and Cruise was among those who admired its writing and tone.
This admiration helped lead to Cruise bringing McQuarrie into his circle, eventually collaborating with him on “Valkyrie” and, later, turning him into his most trusted creative partner across multiple films, including the last four ‘Mission: Impossible’ movies.
Over this span of nearly three decades, McQuarrie, who earned an Oscar for writing “The Usual Suspects,” also teamed up with Cruise on action hits like “Jack Reacher” and contributed as a writer and/or producer on several other Cruise projects, including “Edge of Tomorrow” and “The Mummy.” In total, Cruise and McQuarrie have collaborated on 10 films since 2008.
Despite years of close collaboration between them—a partnership so tight that I’ve jokingly dubbed McQuarrie in this column as “Cruise’s valet”—the filmmaker is effectively out of the running to direct ‘Top Gun 3,’ which is quite surprising because many assumed Cruise would simply tap his go-to creative partner. Especially after McQuarrie co-wrote and produced “Top Gun: Maverick,” but according to The InSneider, that scenario was never seriously on the table.
Part of the story involves McQuarrie’s shifting role in Cruise’s orbit.
In early 2024, McQuarrie cut ties with his entire team—Creative Artists Agency, manager Ken Kamins, and attorney David Fox—and decided to firmly align with Cruise’s lawyer. He has since quietly re-signed with CAA, and insiders tell Sneider his agents were quickly told not to bother pitching him for ‘Top Gun 3,’ as Cruise’s camp had already ruled it out. Yikes.
The message was clear: whatever the history between the two, this wasn’t going to be their next collaboration.
The bigger factor, however, appears to be the fallout from the last two ‘Mission: Impossible’ films. Those last two films, ‘Dead Reckoning’ and ‘Final Reckoning,’ had very difficult productions; the latter saw its budget balloon to $400M-plus, and the two-part finale drew mixed reviews—particularly criticism aimed at its A.I. villain. Both installments failed to hit the franchise’s previous box office highs, each landing in the $500M+ range worldwide.
The report has sources saying that Cruise, fairly or not, ultimately blamed McQuarrie for the underperformance. Of course, the two remain “friendly,” but the prevailing sentiment is that they “need a break” professionally.
The result is that McQuarrie is now attached to two non-Cruise projects, both fairly buzzy endeavors. The first is a ‘Conan the Barbarian’ sequel, with Arnold Schwarzenegger returning to the role he made famous, and the other project—which has sparked a bidding war between five studios—is the “Battlefield” adaptation, with Michael B. Jordan attached to star.