Caffeinated Clint
A key scene in “Mission Impossible : Rogue Nation” was chopped from the film at the last minute due to pacing issues.
In the sequence, which sounds rather amusing, Simon Pegg got to play Alec Baldwin…
Writer/Director Christopher McQuarrie told SlashFilm :
In the ten-minute chunk of the movie that we cut out, [Benji got to wear a mask]. And he shows up very unexpectedly. It was really richly rewarding. He showed up as Alec Baldwin [playing CIA chief Alan Hunley, who wants to disband the IMF]. And it was this really fun moment, and he pulls off an Alec Baldwin mask as Benji, and you’re like, ‘F–k!’ And that’s how they escaped from Alec Baldwin.
And you cut back to the embassy and you see Alec and everybody come out of the embassy and leave, and then you see Alec Baldwin come out of the embassy alone, and you’re like, ‘Did I just miss a reel or what’s happening?’ Alec Baldwin realizes it before you do, and you cut back to the car and Benji pulls off the Alec Baldwin mask and then reaches under his sleeve and pulls this tab and his Alec Baldwin bodysuit deflates, cause he’s so much bigger than Simon.
[The performance] is Alec Baldwin at his absolute finest. He’s so good in this scene. It’s Alec taking a monologue and just chewing it with his back teeth and just loving every minute of it. He has great zingers, and it’s Tom Cruise just being torn apart by Alec Baldwin. And Tom – I said, ‘I’m sorry, does this feel weird, that you don’t have anything to do in this scene?’ And Tom goes, ‘I got a front-row seat, man. This is like the greatest.’ He’s just sitting there in handcuffs with Alec Baldwin just destroying him.
McQuarrie says that the scene didn’t ultimately work in the movie’s favor.
We loved it, and it was a big laugh, it was great. [But] all of the elements that made the scene work were also things that led the audience down a path that they didn’t want to go, and confused them with information they didn’t need.
“Mission Impossible : Rogue Nation” is now in cinemas.
