Tom Cruise says he'll keep making Mission: Impossible movies until he's 80

Good news for fans of the Mission: Impossible movie series: not only is the upcoming Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One not the beginning of the end of the franchise, as previously teased, but franchise star and producer Tom Cruise is teasing that the series could continue for another 20 years or so.

Talking to the Sydney Morning Herald at the premiere of the latest installment in the series, Cruise spoke about his admiration for Harrison Ford, who has just returned to the role of Indiana Jones at the age of 80 for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. “Harrison Ford is a legend; I hope to be still going; I’ve got 20 years to catch up with him,” Cruise said, adding, “I hope to keep making Mission: Impossible films until I’m his age.”

Cruise turned 61 years old on July 3, meaning that — if he’s to be taken literally — he’s potentially promising another 19 years of Mission movies.

The two-part Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning had been rumored to represent the final onscreen adventures for Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and the current cinematic incarnation of the franchise, which launched originally as a television series back in 1966. That rumor was laid to rest last month, with director Christopher McQuarrie not only saying that the series wasn’t nearing its end, but that ideas were already starting to emerge about what would come next, even though filmmakers haven’t quite figured out the end of the eighth movie yet.

While the 80-year-old Ford conducts himself admirably in the new Indiana Jones feature — not that many people have seen it — the idea of Cruise continuing to make Mission: Impossible movies through his 70s raises the obvious question: just how fast can a septuagenarian run, anyway?

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning opens July 12. Buy tickets on Fandango or Atom Tickets.

That wasn’t all Cruise was telling the Sydney Morning Herald; he also revealed what order he’d be watching Barbie and Oppenheimer this summer.