Are you a new screenwriter? If so, there’s probably a good chance you weren’t even born 29 years ago when Tom Cruise took over the role of Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible, one of many films inspired and adapted from their TV counterparts. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is a love letter to the seven films that came before it, referencing the others as if everything Ethan Hunt did or didn’t do to save the world all came to a (wait for it) final reckoning.

If you’re new to screenwriting, it might be hard to conceive a globe-spanning epic or an action-thriller where spies and villains are using aircraft carriers, nuclear devices and AI technology. But there are lessons a beginner screenwriter can take away from an epic franchise film like Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.

1. The Mission: Impossible World is Not the Real World

When you’re writing a movie, you can have it take place in modern times in familiar settings, but don’t forget that you’re not writing the real world – you’re writing in the ‘movie world’. 

With a movie, you can do anything. The Mission: Impossible franchise blew up the Kremlin, had Hunt doing acrobatics on the outside of the Burj Khalifa, had trains fall off tracks, and car chase scenes through Paris, Rome and Marrakech.

Crafting a scene that involves the destruction of a major landmark or a chase scene through impossibly busy streets adds excitement and, as long as it fits in the context of the movie, is believable. Films like Mission: Impossible, The Bourne series and James Bond give writers the creative license to go big with their set pieces because it’s an alternate reality of the real world (which is what stories generally are).

New York, London and Paris are always getting destroyed. The White House has been the target in lots of movies, including White House Down, Olympus Has Fallen, Independence Day, Civil War and Deep Impact. Although Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning doesn’t go as big as previous films in the franchise did with urban destruction, it does provide plenty of big set pieces inside submarines, data centers, and above the foliage of Africa.

The world is your oyster, screenwriter – now blow it up.

Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell, and Greg Tarzan Davis in 'Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning'

2. Set a Clock, Create a Countdown

Deadlines are amazing ways to add suspense to a story. It’s not just a thriller either. Think about a sports movie where a team or athlete trains for a big game. We know Rocky is going to fight Apollo Creed; it’s the journey to that fixed destination that intrigues us.

But in the Mission: Impossible world, deadlines and clocks are always prevalent. In Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Ethan Hunt has 36 hours to stop The Entity (the AI villain) before it captures the world’s nuclear arsenal. Each moment on screen is leading to that final moment. But there are also other time elements throughout, such as a bomb counting down before it explodes, or reaching a certain destination in time; they are countdowns and clocks within the overall countdown.

New screenwriters can see how Mission: Impossible uses this element to create suspense and provide a sense of finality. Once the clock strikes zero, it’s over. And even though (is this a spoiler?) the good guys always win, it’s still intense to watch, every time!

Remember that a countdown works in every genre:

• Toy Story (animated) – The toys’ family is moving on a specific date.
• Anora (romantic drama) – They have to find Anora’s husband before his family’s plane lands.
• The Hangover (comedy) – Find the missing groom-to-be before the start of his wedding.
• Armageddon (action) – An asteroid is going to hit the earth.

And, even if the movie doesn’t hinge on a countdown, there can always be elements or scenes that do.

3. Writing a Scene with No Dialogue

At one point during the movie, Ethan must travel inside a submarine that had been sunk to retrieve source code of The Entity. Wearing only a mask and wetsuit, and no one to talk to, Ethan dives down deep in the frigid North Atlantic water. The movie spends nearly 10-15 minutes without more than two words spoken.

Watch a scene like this and think about how you would write it in an intriguing way, without the script getting too wordy. How can you build the story and suspense of the scene without a character speaking?

Here are some tips to keeping scenes with no dialogue engaging in your screenplay:

• Multiple Rooms and Locations: This allows for scene breaks. There are times when the film cuts to the outside of the submarine for a specific reason. These moments can keep the scene moving.
• Keep the lines short and don’t describe every detail. For example:
  
  • Ethan enters the submarine, frigid water pours in.
  • He steps slowly, eyes scanning until…
  • Two Russian sailors. Dead. No decomposition, sitting upright in the chair.
• Add dialogue. Okay, that seems counterintuitive, but you have to think of someone reading the script, not watching the movie. Dialogue is another way to make it easier to read and follow. Keep the dialogue minimal like “Yes,” “Got it,” “Oh no,” and “I’ve gotta get out of here.” Remember, this makes the long action-only scenes easier to read, and won’t need to be in the final script or movie.

Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, and Hayley Atwell in 'Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning'

4. Ethan Hunt’s North Star

There are two things that drive Ethan Hunt: saving the world and protecting his team. This has been Hunt’s North Star since the first film and his character motivation throughout Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.

While both of these ideas guide Hunt’s decisions, they are frequently in conflict with one another. In the dangerous world in which he inhabits, saving the world involves putting himself and those he cares about at risk. It’s up to him to make sure he can do both without risking either one.

Your character should have a North Star, something that guides their decision and doesn’t change throughout the film. Yes, the character will change and have their arc, but their motivation will often stay the same. Think of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. He is quite literally the defining character in a Hero’s Journey, and while he grows throughout the story, his motivation has remained the same from the very beginning: to become something more than a farmer.

5. There are Always Tropes

Every movie plays on tropes. Whether it’s the genre or a film series, tropes are used to make the story easier and more engaging; they are a play on stereotypes. 

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is no exception when it comes to action films or the franchise itself. Christopher McQuarrie has even stated that the Mission: Impossible movies must have a scene in which a character has a fake face and voice pretending to be someone else. Every film has had it, and the latest one is no exception.

A trope in an action film might be a team of outcasts who must come together, which is what the Impossible Mission Force becomes multiple times throughout the franchise. If you’re a beginner screenwriter, don’t be afraid to lean on the tropes to help tell your story.

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Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is the end of a decades-long film series made by top-notch filmmakers. Crafting a story this big can be intimidating for new screenwriters, but it shouldn’t stop you from creating something big if that’s the story you want to tell. Your big budget action script might not be made into a feature film, but it could be the sample that wins a contest like Final Draft’s Big Break Screenwriting Contest or sets you up for a screenwriting job for a franchise film series.