Exclusive: Christopher McQuarrie's 12 Favorite Action Set Pieces

ComingSoon.net with the chance to talk 1:1 with director Christopher McQuarrie about his 12 Favorite Action Set Pieces. This was timed for the home video release of his blockbuster Mission: Impossible – Fallout, which is now available on Digital HD and on Blu-ray December 4. Check out McQuarrie’s incredible list of set pieces below!

Click here to purchase Mission: Impossible – Fallout on Digital HD!

The best intentions often come back to haunt you. Mission: Impossible – Fallout finds Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team (Alec Baldwin, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames) along with some familiar allies (Rebecca Ferguson, Michelle Monaghan) in a race against time after a mission gone wrong. Henry Cavill, Angela Bassett, and Vanessa Kirby also join the dynamic cast.

The Mission: Impossible franchise launched in 1966 with the original CBS television series, which ran for seven seasons and 171 episodes. Mission: Impossible returned in 1988 with a rebooted series on ABC. It failed to find an audience, however, and was canceled after two seasons. It was nearly a decade later that the Tom Cruise-led Mission: Impossible feature film would turn the small screen spy series into a hugely-successful cinematic franchise.

Christopher McQuarrie, who previously helmed Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation, once again wrote and directed the Paramount Pictures sequel. The film made over $791 million at the global box office, making it the highest-grossing entry in the franchise.

Christopher McQuarrie's 12 Favorite Action Set Pieces

To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)

Christopher McQuarrie: The car chase in “To Live and Die in L.A.” is a fantastic, fantastic car chase. One of the things I love most about it is the photography. There’s something so completely intangible and unique about it, and I absolutely love it.
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Christopher McQuarrie: The truck chase in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” is still one of the great sequences of all time. When I say the truck sequence, you’re not talking just about the truck. It’s the start of the fight at the airplane all the way through. Yeah, that’s a really phenomenal sequence.
Die Hard (1988)

Christopher McQuarrie: I want to pull something out of “Die Hard," but to me “Die Hard” IS an action sequence. From the time the shooting starts until the end of the movie, “Die Hard” is kind of the ultimate action sequence.
Mission: Impossible (1996)

Christopher McQuarrie: The Langley CIA break-in is one of the best suspense sequences I’ve ever seen in a movie.
Topkapi (1964)

(Interviewer Max Evry mentioned the similarity between the "M:I" Langley break-in and the heist in "Topkapi")

Christopher McQuarrie: You are the first person I have ever spoken to who has called it. Yes. And that’s a movie very few people know.
Rififi (1955)

Christopher McQuarrie: The other thing that it takes a lot of cues from is “Rififi," which is directed by the same director. “Rififi” has the single greatest heist ever, ever. It’s an entire reel of the movie in silence, 20 minutes long. It’ll blow your mind. It’s genius. And it’s just filled with great character.
What's Up Doc? (1972)

Christopher McQuarrie: The car chase in “What’s Up Doc?" which is probably my favorite comedy ever made, and is an absolutely underrated and really phenomenal car chase. Incredibly funny, and imminently watchable. I’ve seen that movie dozens of times and it never ceases to amuse me. And I always forget that there’s this big car chase in it in San Francisco, and god, it’s really good.
Ronin (1998)

Christopher McQuarrie: I don’t want to make them all about car chases, but “Ronin” has got a pretty great car chase in it.
The Matrix (1999)

Christopher McQuarrie: I’ll tell you what, there’s really great stuff in “The Matrix," another movie that to me feels like an action sequence all by itself. You know, “The Matrix” is an imminently watchable movie that really holds up.
Short Time (1990)

Christopher McQuarrie: An honorable mention in terms of car chases is a movie called “Short Time” with Dabney Coleman. It has this very unique conceit in that the cop doing the chasing is trying to get himself killed. And there’s funny moments in it. There’s really nice character flourishes within it.
The Abyss (1989)

Christopher McQuarrie: A great, great action sequence that I guarantee a lot of people don’t bring up is the submarine chase in “The Abyss." It’s freaking submarines. It’s like, who would even think to do that? And it’s immensely satisfying. How that sequence resolves is she drowns and he’s got to revive her and all of that. That’s a masterpiece. That’s an unbeatable reel of a movie.
Last of the Mohicans (1992)

Christopher McQuarrie: The canoe chase in “Last of the Mohicans." The fact that you could put the words "canoe" and "chase" together and actually have them be really tense.