As a resident of Los Angeles, my winter experience doesn’t quite match those of people in most other areas of the country. While some states are dealing with freezing temperatures and multiple inches of snowfall, it’s a mild 67 degrees outside as I write this article. Regardless, I can’t help but feel a tad bit chilly as I watch a holiday greeting video from the stars of Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning that was filmed while the actors were shooting on location in the arctic.
The official Twitter account for the Mission: Impossible franchise has posted a video of Simon Pegg, Greg Tarzan Davis, and Pom Klementieff singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” and it comes with the caption, “An arctic holiday greeting from the set of #MissionImpossible — The Final Reckoning.” It’s not specified exactly where the actors are (the giant tanker in the background suggests a port or a shore somewhere), and even though they are all bundled up, they still look like they are seriously cold:
An arctic holiday greeting from the set of #MissionImpossible — The Final Reckoning. pic.twitter.com/OUewxyT6EVDecember 23, 2024
You have to squint a bit looking at the video to confirm that it’s Simon Pegg and Pom Klenentieff, as both actors are wearing face coverings, but I can’t blame them for wanting to expose as little skin as possible given the conditions of their surroundings.
As for why the stars of Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning are in the arctic, it likely has something to do with that very special submarine that fans of the franchise first learned about in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning last year. For those that don't recall, the Russian sub, named The Sevastopol, houses an advanced AI called The Entity that could destroy the world as we know it if unleashed or put in the wrong hands. A special two part key is needed to control the Entity, and Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt successfully acquired said key at the end of the 2023 blockbuster.
You can get a preview of all the action (including some of the eye-popping footage set in the arctic) in the Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning teaser trailer that was released in early November:
Simon Pegg will be back as reliable IMF agent and Ethan Hunt ally Benji Dunn; Pom Klementieff is reprising her role as Paris after saving Ethan's life at the end of the last adventure; and Greg Tarzan Davis will be back as Degas, who is evidently joining the protagonist on his latest adventure after being a foe in the last film.
The upcoming 2025 blockbuster is also set to feature Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Angela Bassett, and Henry Czerny.
While there was a plan at one point to have the new sequel arrive in theaters this past June, the Hollywood labor strikes of 2023 threw a wrench into the gears for that plan, and now Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is set for release on May 23, 2025. It’s one of CinemaBlend’s most anticipated big screen releases set to arrive in the next calendar year, so you can be sure that we’ll be writing a lot about it in the months ahead as we get closer to its debut.