Tom Cruise, the man of the moment, was at the forefront of the A-list arrivals during the premiere of his film Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday.
The 62-year-old Hollywood actor was accompanied by his fantastic female co-stars Hayley Atwell, 43, Pom Klementieff, 39, and Hannah Waddingham, 50, along with a multitude of other celebrities gracing the red carpet.
Tom’s much-anticipated eighth and final instalment of Mission: Impossible is one of the earlier premieres on this year’s Cannes calendar.
The film, which has faced multiple delays, is finally due to hit cinemas on May 23 2025.
The movie’s leading lady Hayley has reprised her role as Grace, a former thief turned IMF agent and ally to Tom’s Ethan Hunt.
Hayley looked radiant and glowing in a massive ruffled red gown as she joined the main man on the glittering red carpet.
Hannah, whose cameo in the new movie was only revealed in a recent trailer release, embodied Hollywood glamour in a strapless pale pink gown.
His long-time co-star and movie sidekick Simon Pegg was also in attendance on the red carpet.
Pom risked breaking the new and very strict dress code as she arrived in a very revealing semi-sheer gown amid the ban of risqué ensembles.
Andie MacDowell, 67, was suited and booted in a sophisticated tailored suit, teamed with sparkling court heels and a giant bow tie.
Eva Longoria, 50, and Heidi Klum, 51, dazzled in incredibly glitzy gown as they arrived on the glittering red carpet.
The German model was joined arm in arm with her dapper husband Tom Kaulitz, who bared his chest in an unbuttoned white shirt.
Heidi demonstrated that she had finally received the updated dress code instructions by presenting herself in a gorgeous dress with a shorter train, a stark contrast to the incredibly long dress she wore on the red carpet the day before.
Hayley pulled out all the stops for the morning sunshine wowing in a feather-trimmed full white skirt at the photocall earlier in the day.
The Cannes Film Festival originally emerged in the World War II years, when the rise of fascism in Italy led to the founding of an alternative to the then-government controlled Venice Film Festival.
In the time since, Cannes’ resolute commitment to cinema has made it a beacon to filmmakers. Countless directors have come to make their name.
This year is no different, though some of the first-time filmmakers at Cannes are already particularly well-known. Kristen Stewart (The Chronology of Water), Scarlett Johansson (Eleanor the Great) and Harris Dickinson (Urchin) will all be unveiling their feature directorial debuts in Cannes´ Un Certain Regard sidebar section.
Many Cannes veterans will be back, too, including Robert De Niro – who´s to receive an honorary Palme d´Or 49 years after Taxi Driver premiered in Cannes – and Quentin Tarantino, to pay tribute to low-budget Western director George Sherman.
Over recent years the star-studded extravaganza has arguably won more attention for the outfits worn by its celebrity guests than the roster of feature films being screened on the Croisette.
But new nudity rules, devised for ‘the sake of decency,’ have been implemented at this year’s festival.
According to organisers, the austere move is an attempt to stifle the celebrity trend for ‘naked dresses’ – namely provocative outfits that reveal considerably more than they conceal – on the red carpet.
‘For decency reasons, nudity is prohibited on the red carpet, as well as any other area of the festival,’ states a Cannes festival document.
‘The festival welcoming teams will be obligated to prohibit red carpet access to anyone not respecting these rules.’
The surprise new policy features in a recent festival-goers charter – released with a series of outlines regarding expected public behaviour.
Guests are expected to converge on the Grand Auditorium Louis Lumière for some of the highest profile film screenings across a packed two-week schedule in Cannes.
It’s understood that the iconic venue now adopts a more conservative dress code, with suits, dinner jackets and floor-length evening gowns generally favoured over headline grabbing ensembles.
Classic little black dresses, cocktail dresses, pant-suits, dressy tops and elegant sandals, ‘with or without a heel’, will also be permitted.
While the decision to implement a more stringent policy will be a first, it is not known if French TV broadcasters, wary of airing nudity, played a role in its enforcement.
Major red carpet events, including the Cannes Film Festival, are aired in France by France Télévisions.
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning is 3 hours of nonsense that will make you wish for the world to end! BRIAN VINER’S blistering review of Tom Cruise trying to save the planet in his underpants
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2hr 49 mins)
Those attending last night’s world premiere of the latest Mission: Impossible film in Cannes should have been greeted with a warning. This movie will take nearly three hours to self-destruct.
The premise can be summed up in less than five seconds. Ethan Hunt of the Impossible Missions Force, played by Cruise for the eighth time, saves the world. Again.
Only this time he does it partly in his underpants.
Cruise will turn 63 this summer, which is no age for a fight to the death in one’s briefs, but then he abides by different rules from the rest of us.
He has grown his hair this time, as if to showcase the startling absence of grey. A better title might have been Mission Impossible: The Grecian 2000 Protocol.
The film begins with the US President (Angela Bassett) praising Hunt to the skies, the same skies he will later grace in another deadly fight, on the wings of an upside-down biplane, somewhere over South Africa.
Famously, Cruise is said to do all his own stunts. If that’s the case, a hefty chunk of the estimated £300 million cost of the film – one of the three or four most expensive of all time – must have gone on insurance premiums.
As for the actual plot, it picks up pretty much where the last one left off. In 2023’s Dead Reckoning: Part One, a rogue slab of Artificial Intelligence known as ‘the Entity’ was bent on conquering all of cyberspace.
It is now brainwashing folk into taking its side, so you never know who might unexpectedly try to slash your windpipe.
In fairness to director Christopher McQuarrie and his co-writer Erik Jendreson, this dystopian scenario has gathered some credibility since 2023, what with the advent of powerful real-world AIs such as ChatGPT.
The Entity is now infiltrating the world’s nuclear command centres, bringing Madam President to within a manicured fingernail of pushing the red button.
Only Hunt holds the key to stop this happening, but of course an IMF agent’s work is never done.
He must also find the Entity’s original ‘source code’ – and foil the dastardly assassin Gabriel (Esai Morales) who wants its powers for himself.
In this noble endeavour Hunt is assisted by old chums Benji (Simon Pegg) and Luther (Ving Rhames), as well as Grace, the reformed pickpocket from last time, nicely played by Hayley Atwell.
Yet he’s the one taking the real risks, including an Arctic Ocean dive so perilous that he is told his body might go into spasm and he will incur severe mental confusion, rather like me after 170 minutes of this nonsense.
In previous Mission: Impossible outings, I should add, the capers were fun and the stunts were spectacular.
There’s some of that here, and evocative flashbacks to past glories, but the film drags terribly in parts, and could lose half an hour just by cutting most of the lines telling us, in about 100 different ways, that the planet stands on the edge of a precipice.
By the end, you might be wishing it would just fall off it.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning opens across the UK next Wednesday
