Christopher McQuarrie (born June 12, 1968 in Princeton, New Jersey) is an American screenwriter, director and producer.
McQuarrie is best known for his frequent collaborations with actor Tom Cruise, which began with the 2008 historical drama Valkyrie, and later included films such as Jack Reacher, Edge of Tomorrow, and The Mummy.
After writing and directing 2015's Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, he became the first director in the Mission: Impossible franchise to return with a second entry in 2018's Fallout. In 2019, it was announced that he'd write and direct the seventh and eighth Mission: Impossible films. McQuarrie also took part to the writing of sequel to Top Gun, Top Gun: Maverick.
McQuarrie has also worked frequently with director Bryan Singer, having written the aforementioned Valkyrie, as well as The Usual Suspects (for which he won an Academy Award), Jack the Giant Slayer, and uncredited rewrites of the 2000 X-Men film.
Selected filmography:
As writer-director:
- The Way of the Gun (2000)
- Jack Reacher (2012)
- Mission: Impossible film series (2015 — present):
- Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)
- Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
- Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (2023)
- Mission: Impossible 8 (2025)
As writer:
- NYPD Blue (1994)
- The Usual Suspects (1995)
- X-Men (2000, 2013): note
- X-Men (rewrites; 2000)
- The Wolverine (first draft; 2013)
- Valkyrie (also producer; 2008)
- The Tourist (2010)
- Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) note
- Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)
- Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
- The Mummy (2017)
- Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
As producer:
- Persons Unknown (also writer & showrunner; 2010)
- Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)
Tropes associated with this creator:
- Art-Shifted Sequel:
- As requested by Tom Cruise, he deliberately changed his directing style for Mission Impossible: Fallout.
- And again for Dead Reckoning Part One, which has a lot of Dutch Angles, possibly a retraux move in homage to the first film of the franchise.
- Artist Disillusionment: McQuarrie once admitted in an interview in the late 2010s that making a Star Wars movie was one of the things he'd always wanted to do, but the prospect of having to deal with the Star Wars fandom had killed his youthful enthusiasm.
- Creator Thumbprint:
- He loves to show his work regarding firearms and their use; Jack Reacher and especially The Way of the Gun are just two examples.
- Also, the constant Surprisingly Realistic Outcome moments, almost to the point of Deconstruction.
- And at this point, Tom Cruise is starting to be one as well; see Production Posse below.
- Production Posse: He and Cruise have collaborated on nine films together.
- What Could Have Been: McQuarrie pitched
a Man of Steel sequel and a Green Lantern proposal to Warner Bros. In his words, he wasn't outright rejected, just ignored and he wasn't impressed by what he described as the studio wanting him to "fix ideas" rather than present original ones.
