Christopher McQuarrie

Made films the shows talk about.

Wikidata Q337658: matched by corpus:resolve, told apart by the only person by that name on Wikidata.

Counted as director, the making department they hold the most credits in. The films the hosts said they directed, which the two lists below run through too: Mission: Impossible (1988); The Way of the Gun (2000); Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011); Jack Reacher (2012); Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015); Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018); Mission: Impossible (modern films). Count them as writer (10 films) instead.

Draws on

What the speakers say they, or a film of theirs, drew on. Each is a speaker's account: “the maker said so” when they report the maker's own words, “the host's read” when the read is theirs.

Mission: Impossible (1996): 2 lines

  1. lineage (callback) · through Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018), which they directed: Mission: Impossible ⇒ Mission: Impossible – Fallout (the host's read). Every later MI film calls back to the Langley drop as a hallmark.
    “I realized that they call back to that specific moment every time”
    The Rewatchables · 'Mission: Impossible' With Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey, and Jason Concepcion · 0:06:37 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. industry (franchise template) · through Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018), which they directed: Mission: Impossible ⇒ Mission: Impossible – Fallout (the host's read). Every MI film reuses the same three-set-piece structure plus a McGuffin, which is why the franchise is elastic.
    “they used the same exact structure in every single movie that came forward.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Mission: Impossible' With Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey, and Jason Concepcion · 0:11:13 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)

Valkyrie (2008): 1 line

  1. career (career step) · them, directly: Valkyrie ⇒ Christopher McQuarrie (the host's read). Valkyrie set up Tom Cruise's redemption by teaming him with McQuarrie.
    “Weirdly, the movie that then, like, sets up Tom Cruise's Redemption Arc by finally teaming him up with Macquarie”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 2:15:13 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

Drawn on by

What the speakers say drew on them or a film of theirs, marked the same way.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022): 1 line

  1. unmapped (enabling success) · through Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018), which they directed: Mission: Impossible – Fallout ⇒ Top Gun: Maverick (the host's read). Fallout's success is what lets Cruise do Top Gun: Maverick.
    “he's not in a position to do what he's doing now with Top Gun 2.”
    The Big Picture · The Tom Cruise Hall of Fame · 1:35:58 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)

What the speakers said they did

Directing (16) everyone in directing

Writing (12) everyone in writing

What was said about them, by kind

career (5)

  1. career (career): Christopher McQuarrie → Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. This movie is followed by Cruise handing McQuarrie the directing job on Mission Impossible.
    “there's a reason why this movie is followed up by him saying you're the director of Mission Impossible now”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Edge of Tomorrow · 0:22:47 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. career (career step): Valkyrie → Christopher McQuarrie. Valkyrie set up Tom Cruise's redemption by teaming him with McQuarrie.
    “Weirdly, the movie that then, like, sets up Tom Cruise's Redemption Arc by finally teaming him up with Macquarie”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 2:15:13 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  3. career (career): Christopher McQuarrie → X-Men. A speaker says McQuarrie and Ed Solomon wrote X-Men although a Singer assistant is solely credited.
    “the X-Men movie was written by Christopher Macquarie and Ed Solomon”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation · 0:04:53 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  4. career (career): Christopher McQuarrie → Bryan Singer. McQuarrie is credited with much of what people liked about Singer's films.
    “Macquarie was responsible uh, for a lot of things that people liked about Brian Singer movies”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation · 0:06:57 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  5. career (career): Christopher McQuarrie → Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. McQuarrie did much of the script construction on Ghost Protocol uncredited.
    “he was very responsible for a lot of the script construction on Ghost Pro, even though he didn't get the credit”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation · 0:09:37 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

craft (2)

  1. craft (craft): Christopher McQuarrie → Mission: Impossible – Fallout. McQuarrie brings in new tech people and a new cinematographer each time so each film feels like a different director's.
    “Like, he always, right, he's, like, brings in a new, uh, new, like, tech people, new, new, new cinematographer.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation · 0:30:40 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  2. craft (craft): Christopher McQuarrie → Robert Elswit. McQuarrie hired Elswit, who shot Ghost Protocol, then brings in a different cinematographer for the next film.
    “Who shot Ghost Protocol, but then the next one he brings in another guy.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation · 0:30:59 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

people (3)

  1. people (people): Jack Reacher → Christopher McQuarrie. At the time, giving the Jack Reacher guy Mission Impossible felt like a step down.
    “he's given the Jack Reacher guy, Mission Impossible.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Edge of Tomorrow · 0:22:47 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. people (people): Christopher McQuarrie → Edge of Tomorrow. McQuarrie joined halfway through filming, connected the dots, and became the writer on set; he then got Mission Impossible.
    “They hire Macquarie like halfway through filming and he immediately looks at what they have and starts like connecting dots and solving problems.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Edge of Tomorrow · 0:47:22 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  3. people (people): Joe Kraemer → Christopher McQuarrie. Kraemer, who scored Rogue Nation, is called McQuarrie's guy, with a question whether he did all of McQuarrie's earlier scores.
    “He's the next quarry guy. He done all Macquarie's scores before, huh?”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation · 2:08:14 · Griffin Newman or David Sims (host, unclear which) (0.40 sure it was them)

Fun items about them

  1. fun, about Christopher McQuarrie: McQuarrie reverse engineers films from trailer shots and locations.
    “tell me the 5 shots you need for the trailer, location, uh, find me 12 good locations”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation · 0:31:05 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)