Tom Cruise Wants to Keep Making ‘Mission: Impossible’ Movies Until He’s 80

Tom Cruise has found his most important mission: Releasing a Mission: Impossible film in 2042.

If you thought the upcoming Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One was the beginning of the end for Cruise's signature franchise, you'd be mistaken. Attending the Australian premiere for the seventh installment in the action juggernaut, Cruise gave a shoutout to Harrison Ford, calling the star of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny a "legend." And in talking up the 80-year-old icon, Cruise revealed the destiny of his own legendary character.

"I've got 20 years to catch up with him," said Cruise, coincidentally, on his 61st birthday. "I hope to keep making Mission: Impossible films until I'm his age."

Now, at first blush, that seems pretty ambitious and unlikely. And yet, Dead Reckoning Part One is earning strong reviews, with The Messenger's Jordan Hoffman even declaring, "If you told me Tom Cruise will continue making these movies well into the next century, what evidence is there to suggest he won't? Everything about him seems impossible."

So let's plot this hypothetical out. The first Mission: Impossible premiered in 1996, so they've knocked out seven films in 27 years, with Dead Reckoning Part Two currently slated for next year. With 19 years to go before Cruise's target date of his 80th birthday in 2042, at the current rate, he'll probably be at least 13 Mission: Impossibles in, which sounds crazy, but keep in mind that Vin Diesel has already made it to an 11th Fast & Furious. And if there's a movie star we should never underestimate or doubt, it's Cruise. This is the same guy who just went 35 years between Top Gun installments and saved Hollywood's ass!

All that being said, Dead Reckoning is a fitting title because the most challenging obstacle to Cruise's mission is death itself. And not anything related to his rising age, but the fact that Cruise seems determined to put himself in as much potential harm as possible. He's climbed the tallest building in the world, hung from a plane at 5,000 feet in the air and most recently, jumped a motorcycle off a cliff in what is being called the biggest stunt in film history. Oh, and there's also Cruise's plan to shoot an upcoming film in actual outer space.

If he pulls that off, consider making a Mission: Impossible movie at 80 to be a walk run in the park. And just imagine how good the de-aging technology will be by then! Mission: Impossible — I'm Not Too Old For This Sh--, coming to a theater near you... in 19 years.