Tom Cruise Receives 5-Minute Standing Ovation for ‘Mission: Impossible 8’ at Cannes

Tom Cruise reveled in the success of his Mission: Impossible franchise at the Cannes Film Festival.

Cruise, 62, received a five-minute ovation for his film Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning inside the Grand Théâtre Lumière on Wednesday, May 14, according to Variety.

Deadline shared a video on X (formerly Twitter) of Cruise walking down an aisle as the theater’s audience applauded the project. He was joined by director Christopher McQuarrie as well as fellow cast members Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, Hannah Waddingham, Angela Bassett, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff and Greg Tarzan Davis.

In a video posted by The Hollywood Reporter‘s Chris Gardner, Cruise thanked the festival crowd for their applause, saying he was “very grateful” to be a part of the franchise, which he has fronted for three decades. The actor also thanked McQuarrie, who has directed four Mission: Impossible films.

“Every step of the way, what you’ve done, how you’ve expanded it, how you just went beyond our expectations,” Cruise continued, also calling the director “absolutely brilliant.”

Cruise added that he looked forward to making other films with McQuarrie down the road before turning to the crowd and thanking them for their support.

Whether Cruise will ever return to the franchise is still a mystery — with the actor not telling fans whether or not The Final Reckoning is, in fact, the final reckoning for his iconic character Ethan Hunt.

The actor appeared at McQuarrie’s master class at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, May 14, where Cruise discussed details behind the movie’s craziest stunts and the franchise’s nearly 30 years-long journey with the film’s director ahead of its world premiere in France.

“Just let us show the movie tonight. This is like 30 years culmination of this and I think that this is – I’d rather just people see it and enjoy,” Cruise told an audience, when one reporter asked whether the franchise has any future beyond its eighth installment. “We’ve had an amazing time doing it and it’s been a lot of fun and just want you all to enjoy it, enjoy this and know everything – the culmination has come to this moment right now and it’s been a lot of fun.”

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Starting with 1996’s original adaptation of the 1960s spy series, Cruise has dazzled audiences with epic stunts and action as agent Ethan Hunt for the Impossible Mission Force. He is now gearing up for his eighth, and possibly last, installment in theaters on May 23.

The latest film picks up where the conflict of 2023’s Dead Reckoning, which was originally titled Dead Reckoning Part One, left off as Hunt and his team fight an artificial intelligence known as “the Entity.” 

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning arrives in theaters May 23.