While Mission: Impossible fans are excited for the eighth film’s debut as part of the lineup of upcoming 2025 movies, there’s also a bit of sorrow ahead. Why? Well, because The Final Reckoning is going to be the first without franchise star Rebecca Ferguson since 2015’s Rogue Nation, and intrepid operative Ilsa Faust is going to be sorely missed.
But on the plus side, I’ve just learned that the reason Ferguson wore the eyepatch that helped make her seemingly final appearance in the franchise so awesome was for an answer I totally didn’t expect. This subject came up in a clip from The Tonight Show’s Instagram, in which the Silo star’s recent appearance gave us even more tasty knowledge on this saga.
Apparently Rebecca Ferguson doesn’t only have an “endless pit” of Tom Cruise stories, as she dished the following anecdote about her own experiences:
Sometimes you might have set up a shot, and [Christopher McQuarrie] says ‘Action.’ And you realize that your actress can’t wink. … I can’t wink.
While we’ve seen Ferguson’s previous remarks on her Mission eyepatch, I still had no clue that this was the practical reason behind this admittedly cool touch. Yes, it sucks that Rebecca Ferguson can’t wink. But at the same time, we’re probably seeing the most practical approach to solving that problem -- and one that actual snipers probably use during their military service.
If there was ever a modern movie series that was primed to yield such amazing behind the scenes facts, it’d be the Mission: Impossible movies. Another Rebecca Ferguson tale proves that fact rather adeptly, as her comments on how even Dead Reckoning’s cast didn’t know the full story until the final cut was in showed just how kinetic this blockbuster epic can be at any given moment.
Heads need to be on a swivel, and if someone needs to pretend to be an expert sniper, sometimes the situation requires a quick and effective patch. Revisiting the action on display in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning’s teaser, I wonder more now than ever what sort of last minute curveballs may have presented themselves to shape this latest manifestation of cinematic destiny. The bar to impress is going to now reset though, as learning Rebecca Ferguson’s eyepatch story is the perfect crossroads between badass style and simple problem solving.
I’m already personally accepting the mission to see Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, when it hits theaters on May 23, 2025. Which also means I’ll probably be using my Paramount+ subscription to further pull together clues in the name of proving or debunking some random theories I have for Tom Cruise’s potentially final mission.