Christopher McQuarrieEvery podcast appearance, updated as new ones drop

This week on On Story, we're joined by a titan of the action genre, Christopher McQuarrie, for a behind the scenes deep dive into Top Gun: Maverick. But before we ride into the sunset, we recommend you follow On Story wherever you get your podcasts . Sometimes finishing your screenplay can feel like trying to land an F-14 Tomcat with a blown out engine and an empty gas tank, but, armed with a wide range of experience writing across film and television, our amazing guests are here to bring you home.

They said it couldn’t be done, but we proved the doubters wrong. This is our 100th episode spectacular. And if that’s confusing, well, that’s okay, because this was from the original version of the show. All you need to know is that we are joined by Christopher McQuarrie, Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell and Lorne Balfe. Also: it’s totally unpredictable and so much fun. Join us, won’t you? This episode was originally released in May 2020. You can own “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning” on digital and 4K HD, Blu-ray and DVD now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The world is changing and truth is vanishing in our very special episode today, accomplishing a mission we’ve been hoping to make happen since the very inception of the show. Yes, this week’s guest is a true maestro of modern blockbuster filmmaking – a writer-director who won a Best Screenplay Oscar before his 30th birthday for the timeless neo-noir, The Usual Suspects. Since then, he’s leaned into action cinema of most breathtaking spectacle, without ever losing sight of the stripped-down dramatic principles that made The Usual Suspects such a gripping introduction to his work. He’s one half of a director-star symbiosis arguably up there with Ford and Wayne, Scorsese and DeNiro, Scorsese and DiCaprio and Spielberg and Hanks. And this summer, he and his close collaborator, Tom Cruise are back with a terrifyingly relevant spy thriller sequel that needs to be seen to be believed. Yes, this week on Script Apart – it’s the phenomenal Christopher McQuarrie. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One lights the fuse on a number of fascinating questions. Questions like: how do you take a series that’s already threatened the world with nuclear bombs and all sorts of other threats, and raise the stakes even further, seven films into this franchise? Christopher’s answer was to take the anxiety around artificial intelligence that’s been such a fixture of our recent news cycle and fashion those fears into a espionage adventure pulsing with paranoia. What’s all the more impressive about this is how long-delayed Dead Reckoning Part One was by the Covid-19 pandemic – meaning McQ predicted this. In the conversation you’re about to hear, the filmmaker is really articulate about the real-life threat, its overlap with his movie and how he anticipated it, far in advance. You’ll also hear how Christopher constructed the story and crucially, the emotional arc of this latest Mission movie – the journey Ethan Hunt, played by Cruise, needed to go on this time around, to make all the film’s stunts and spectacle mean something to those in the audience. Get ready to discover the rationale behind that shocking death, and how the film’s astonishing climax – a train sequence that acts as a literal cliffhanger – came together on the page and the rationale behind that shocking death at the end of the film’s second act. One thing you won’t hear much about, unlike in most episodes of Script Apart, is the film’s first draft. And there’s good reason for that – there wasn’t one. What you’re about to hear is a tale about how writing a Mission: Impossible movie isn’t all too different from what it must feel like for Ethan, surviving one of these films. There’s a lot of improvising out of tight spots – the screenwriting equivalent of Tom riding a speeding motorbike off a Norwegian cliff top into a base jump and landing on a moving train. Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek . Follow us on Twitter and Instagram , or email us on thescriptapartpodcast@gmail.com. Support for this episode comes from ScreenCraft , MUBI , Magic Mind and WeScreenplay . Go to magicmind.com/scriptapart to get up to 50% off your subscription for the next 10 days with the code: SCRIPT20. To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon . Supp

It’s part two of our in-depth chat with writer-director Christopher McQuarrie! In this episode, he takes us inside the “Rogue Nation” writers room, tells us who he would love to see make a “Mission: Impossible” movie, and spends several minutes discussing his favorite Tom Cruise hairstyles – plus much, much more! Strap in, it’s a wild ride!

Christopher. McQuarrie. What else is there to say? We got to interview the man who wrote and directed the last two "Mission: Impossible" movies and did rewrites on "Ghost Protocol." This week he tells us in detail what he contributed to "Ghost Protocol," reveals some hidden references in "Rogue Nation" and "Fallout," and much more. Part 2 coming next week!

Ringer editor-in-chief Sean Fennessey sits down with ‘Mission: Impossible — Fallout’ director Christopher McQuarrie to talk about his creative collaboration with Tom Cruise, the challenges and rewards of coming back for a second ‘Mission: Impossible’ film, and his personal reckoning with his role as a filmmaker post-‘The Usual Suspects.’ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices