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Christopher McQuarrie (born October 25, 1968) is an American screenwriter, film director, and producer. He received the BAFTA Award, Independent Spirit Award, and Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the neo-noir mystery film The Usual Suspects (1995). He made his directorial debut with the crime thriller film The Way of the Gun (2000).
McQuarrie is a frequent collaborator with Tom Cruise, having written and directed the action films Jack Reacher (2012), as well as four installments of the Mission: Impossible film series: Rogue Nation (2015), Fallout (2018), Dead Reckoning (2023), and the recently released The Final Reckoning (2025), in addition to uncredited rewrites on Ghost Protocol (2011). He was also a part of the writing and/or producing team on the Cruise films Valkyrie (2008), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016), The Mummy (2017), and Top Gun: Maverick (2022), the last of which received Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture.
Early life
[edit]McQuarrie was born in Princeton, New Jersey.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After graduating from West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South in 1986,<ref>Template:Cite news Archived from the original on January 8, 2008. Note: Name was simply West Windsor-Plainsboro High School until being renamed West Windosor-Plainsboro High School South in 1997.</ref> he worked as an assistant at Christ Church Grammar School in Perth, Western Australia, recalling in 2013, “I was offered an Interim program ... I picked a place out of a hat and ended up at Christ Church Grammar School. I lived at the school and worked at the boarding school, though I did very little work".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Fired after nine months, "I hitchhiked for three months, came home, knocked around for about a month and then immediately started working for this detective agency.... [It] was actually a glorified security-guard position. I think in the four years I worked there I did about six investigations."<ref name=cinetropolis>Template:Cite web</ref>
McQuarrie worked for four years at a movie theater in New Jersey as a security guard. Because the theater was in a violent area, he was often tasked to stand at the back of the room and observe the audience as they were watching the film, ensuring no fights broke out. He described the experience as "[his] film school" and "the single most educational experience [he] ever had," stating that it helped him "develop an innate sense of how the audience is responding" to a film.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>
Career
[edit]1993–2000: Early films and Oscar win
[edit]McQuarrie's first feature film was the 1993 thriller Public Access, directed by Bryan Singer. It won the Critics Award at the Deauville American Film Festival and shared the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize. It was not released theatrically in the United States.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, it received an approval rating of 58%.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
McQuarrie wrote The Usual Suspects (1995), for which he received Best Screenplay awards from the British and American Academy Awards, as well as from Premiere Magazine, the Texas Board of Review, and the Chicago Critics, as well as the Edgar Award and Independent Spirit Award. It was later included on the New York Times list of the 1000 greatest films ever made, and the character Verbal Kint was included on AFI's list of the 100 greatest Heroes and Villains of all time. In 2006, the Writers Guild of America voted The Usual Suspects #35 on their list of 101 Greatest Screenplays. In his third collaboration with Singer, McQuarrie did an extensive rewrite on X-Men, but ultimately removed his name from the project.<ref name="Wolverine">Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2000, McQuarrie made his directorial debut with The Way of the Gun, a modern-day Western for which he also wrote the script. It starred Benicio del Toro, Ryan Phillippe, Taye Diggs, and James Caan. The film, budgeted at US$8.5 million,<ref name=mojo-wayofthegun /> received mixed reviews<ref>The Way of the Gun critical reviews, rottentomatoes.com; accessed August 28, 2014.</ref> and grossed US$13 million worldwide.<ref name=mojo-wayofthegun>Template:Cite web</ref>
2008–2013: Further writing, producing
[edit]McQuarrie first met frequent collaborator Tom Cruise after he sought a meeting with the actor via Cruise/Wagner Productions, hoping simply to unload a screenplay in order to pay his debts and exit the film industry.<ref name="theinsidepitch">Template:Cite AV media</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> This screenplay, co-written with Nathan Alexander, later turned into Valkyrie, which opened on December 25, 2008 and would also be the first film where McQuarrie served as a producer. The film is based on the real-life July 20, 1944 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. While researching the screenplay, the writers had access to members of the Stauffenberg family; consulted a book written by Fabian von Schlabrendorff, a conspirator who survived;<ref name=suicidegirls>Template:Cite web.</ref> and spoke with Hitler's surviving bodyguard.Template:Citation needed The film, directed by Bryan Singer, received the BMI Film Music Award and the Bambi Award for Courage.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Though McQuarrie initially only took a producing credit on the film for its associated pay increase, he decided to fully involve himself in its production following a conversation with Paula Wagner, which led to him deciding against leaving the business. In this conversation, McQuarrie received the reins of being Cruise's primary creative partner from Wagner, as she could no longer fill the role due to her increased commitments with United Artists.<ref name="theinsidepitch"/>
In 2009, McQuarrie was hired to pen the script for the then-untitled The Wolverine.<ref name="Wolverine2">Template:Cite web</ref> He also co-wrote the 2010 film The Tourist with Julian Fellowes, Jeffrey Nachmanoff and director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. It starred Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie and grossed US$278 million worldwide.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It received three Golden Globe Award nominations and several other awards, among them the Redbox Movie Award for the most rented drama of 2011.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> McQuarrie then provided uncredited rewrites on the 2011 action spy film Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol during the film's production.<ref name="GhostProtocol" />
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In 2011, McQuarrie directed his second feature, Jack Reacher, an adaptation of One Shot, the ninth in the series of 21 Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child. Filming began in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area on October 3, 2011, and continued through the end of January 2012. The movie was released in December 2012 by Paramount Pictures.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2012, McQuarrie stepped in to rewrite the script for World War Z after Drew Goddard and Damon Lindelof left the film.<ref name="WWZ2">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="WWZ">Template:Cite web</ref>
2013 saw the release of McQuarrie's fourth collaboration with Singer, Jack the Giant Slayer, co-written by McQuarrie. Critical reviews were mixed, and it was a box office failure, grossing only US$198 million against an estimated US$240 million budget (excluding promotion).<ref>Jack the Giant Slayer box office receipts, boxoffice.com; accessed August 28, 2014.</ref><ref>Jack the Giant Slayer reviews, rottentomatoes.com; accessed August 28, 2014.</ref> McQuarrie co-wrote the 2014 science fiction action thriller Edge of Tomorrow with Jez and John-Henry Butterworth, based on the Japanese novel All You Need Is Kill. While the film underperformed at the box office on its opening weekend, earning only US$28.8 million, it received strong reviews and became a word-of-mouth hit, grossing just over US$100 million at the domestic box office.
2014–present: Mission: Impossible and more
[edit]McQuarrie completed his third feature as director in 2015. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, the fifth entry in the Mission: Impossible film series, which he co-wrote with Drew Pearce. It received strong reviews, grossed over US$195 million at the North American box office, and won a Golden Tomato for Best Action-Adventure Movie of 2015.
By October 2015, McQuarrie completed a rewrite of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and spent two weeks "tightening up the story".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> McQuarrie and screenwriter Dylan Kussman were commissioned by Tom Cruise to write a new script for The Mummy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In November 2015, McQuarrie confirmed he would return to write and direct the sixth Mission: Impossible film, his third directing collaboration with Tom Cruise.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The film, titled Mission: Impossible – Fallout, was released in the United States on July 27, 2018. It received strong reviews from critics, and grossed over $791 million worldwide, becoming the franchise's highest-grossing title.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
McQuarrie pitched a sequel to Man of Steel after working with Superman actor Henry Cavill on Fallout that would have tied into a Green Lantern movie McQuarrie also proposed, although Warner Bros. rejected both ideas. <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> McQuarrie and Cruise collaborated again on Top Gun: Maverick, for which McQuarrie co-wrote the screenplay and produced the film.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Initially hesitant to return to the franchise,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> McQuarrie finalized a deal to write and direct Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning in January 2019. Dead Reckoning Part One was released on July 12, 2023, while The Final Reckoning is scheduled to be released on May 23, 2025.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Ahead of the latter's release, McQuarrie was honored with a Director of the Year award at the 2025 CinemaCon, which was presented to him by Tom Cruise.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Upcoming projects
[edit]In February 2011, McQuarrie was hired by Skydance Media to write and produce a feature film adaptation of the 1970s animated television series Star Blazers (itself an adaptation of anime Space Battleship Yamato).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2013, he was selected to direct the project, with Zach Dean being hired to write a new draft of the script in 2017.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> McQuarrie has also signed on to direct thrillers Ice Station Zebra, based on the 1963 novel and its 1968 film adaptation, Three to Kill, based on the novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette, and The Chameleon, based on a New Yorker article by David Grann about Frédéric Bourdin.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In August 2022, McQuarrie announced on the Light the Fuse podcast that he was developing a new project with Tom Cruise, to be co-written by Erik Jendresen, which he claimed would be "gnarlier" than the Mission: Impossible films and described as being "something we've talked about for a really long time. It's way outside of what you're used to seeing Tom do."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A few days later, it was announced he and Cruise were also developing an original musical as a star vehicle for Cruise, as well as eyeing a potential project for Cruise to reprise the role of Les Grossman from Tropic Thunder, though it was unknown if Grossman would receive his own film or be included in the other films.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Although the Reacher franchise has migrated to television, McQuarrie and Cruise are continuing to develop a Reacher-like thriller film.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Filmography
[edit]Film
[edit]Uncredited writing work
- Batman & Robin (1997)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- X-Men (2000)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Wolverine" />
- Ghost Ship (2002)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)<ref name="GhostProtocol">Template:Cite web</ref>
- World War Z (2013)<ref name="WWZ" /><ref name="WWZ2" />
- The Wolverine (2013)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Wolverine" /><ref name="Wolverine2" />
- Rogue One (2016)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Television
[edit]| Year | Title | Writer | Executive Producer |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | NYPD Blue | Template:Partial | Template:No | Episode: "The Final Adjustment" |
| 2010 | Persons Unknown | Template:Yes | Template:Yes | Creator and executive producer (13 episodes) / Writer (Episode: "Pilot") |
| 2022 | Reacher | Template:No | Template:Yes | 8 episodes |
Awards and nominations
[edit]References
[edit]Bibliography
[edit]External links
[edit]Template:Christopher McQuarrie Template:Navboxes Template:Authority control
- Pages with broken file links
- Living people
- Skydance Media people
- 20th-century American male writers
- 20th-century American screenwriters
- 21st-century American male writers
- 21st-century American screenwriters
- American action film directors
- American male screenwriters
- American male television writers
- American television writers
- Best Original Screenplay Academy Award winners
- Best Original Screenplay BAFTA Award winners
- Edgar Award winners
- Film directors from New Jersey
- Film producers from New Jersey
- Writers from Princeton, New Jersey
- Screenwriters from New Jersey
- West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South alumni
- 1968 births