Cliff Notes – Mission Impossible cast break red carpet rule at Cannes premiere
- The cast of Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, including Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie, defied Cannes’ 2018 selfie ban by taking a mid-carpet selfie.
- The film received a five-minute standing ovation, highlighting audience enthusiasm for the latest installment, while McQuarrie shared a harrowing moment involving Cruise during a dangerous stunt.
Mission Impossible cast break red carpet rule at Cannes premiere
The cast of Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning were rule breakers at Cannes. A selfie proved to be a little bit of a daring move as the Mission Impossible cast broke the red carpet rules at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday night.
In 2018, Cannes Film Festival announced that selfies were forbidden on the red carpet.
The festival’s artistic director, Thierry Frémaux, told Le Film Français magazine seven years ago that it ‘tarnished’ the quality of the red carpet.
‘On the red carpet, the trivial aspect and the slowing down provoked by the disorder which these selfies create tarnishes the quality of [the red carpet experience] and of the festival as a whole,’ he said in 2018.
But that didn’t stop a certain group of daredevils.
Director Christopher McQuarrie was the major rulebreaker as he gathered the leading cast members of the eighth mission movie for a mid-carpet selfie.
Tom Cruise, Hannah Waddingham, Haley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Angela Bassett and Simon Pegg were among the actors in the image who posed with a smile in the picture.
Tramell Tillman, Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, Hannah Waddingham, Esai Morales and Angela Bassett took a selfie on the carpet.
The gang broke the rules
One fan quickly pointed out the rule-breaking, but joked that this was an ‘exception’ given the hype around the cast.
‘The #MissionImpossible8 cast and crew taking a selfie on the red carpet — which was banned in 2018, but this is of course an exception! #Cannes2025’ said jadabird on X.
After the film finished, it received a five-minute standing ovation from the audience, who appeared to be rather impressed by the latest instalment of the action-packed franchise.
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning is set to see some high-octane stunts from the lead cast members.
While at Cannes, the director shared a terrifying moment when he feared Tom Cruise had passed out while filming a death-defying stunt on the wing of a plane.
‘There was a moment – more than one moment – where Tom had pushed himself to the point that he was so physically exhausted he couldn’t get back up off the wing,’ he revealed during his Rendezvous event on Wednesday afternoon at Cannes Film Festival, attended by Metro.
‘He was lying on the wing of the plane, his arms are hanging over the front of the wing. We could not tell if he was conscious or not,’ he continued.
‘We watched Tom as he pulled himself up and stuck his head in the cockpit so that he could replenish the oxygen in his body and then climb up into the cockpit and bring the plane safely down to land.
‘No one on earth can do that,’ he concluded.
The cast looked incredible on the carpet.
This isn’t the film festival’s first rule
Cannes has recently issued other bans, including a dress code ban forbidding nudity and ‘voluminous ensembles’ from its red carpet under new rules.
The iconic cinematic event stated: ‘For decency reasons, nudity is prohibited on the red carpet, as well as in any other area of the festival.’
They continued: ‘Voluminous outfits, in particular those with a large train, that hinder the proper flow of traffic of guests and complicate seating in the theatre are not permitted.’
‘The festival welcoming teams will be obligated to prohibit red carpet access to anyone not respecting these rules.’
Sources told The Hollywood Reporter that the regulations were updated to reflect ‘certain rules that have long been in effect.’ They claimed the new guidance was implemented to comply with the festival’s rules and French law.
Red carpet looks have trended towards the more naked side of things in recent years, with Kanye West’s wife Bianca Censori famously wearing a completely see-through dress to The Grammys this year.
Even the Cannes red carpet has featured some rather daring outfits in the past raised some eyebrows, which could be why the organisers thought it was time to lay the law down.