SPOILER!
Too bad that they killed off Alec Baldwin, who was great, and instead kept Angela Basset.
As usual these days, she's the castrating female executive whose sole purpose is to cut the boys down to size, even if she herself is beyond incompetent.
See Laura Dern's movie-stopping character in "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" for the all-time most perfect example of this.
I would've liked to see Hunley survive, but Alec Baldwin himself proposed Hunley's death.
The "Mission Impossible" franchise team is apparently dedicated to raising stakes and outdoing themselves, and that was Baldwin's own contribution
Guess he didn't like the paycheck every few years, huh? ;-)
shareMaybe, but more like one-upmanship. Despite his many faults, Baldwin seems to have a good sense for the dramatic.
Renner, on the other hand, didn't have time to commit to the entire film because of that other franchise he's involved in. But when Cruise & McQuarrie proposed bringing Brandt back at the beginning just to kill him off, Renner turned them down.
They also considered killing off Benji and/or Luther, but they knew the fan backlash would be lethal to the franchise.