Derbyshire pub landlord offers Tom Cruise pint as Mission Impossible wraps up

As previously reported, local sightings over the weekend of returning cast members Simon Pegg and Hayley Atwell seem to confirm rumours that had been circulating for some time that production on the eighth film in the series was happening somewhere nearby.

The whispers grew loudest in Middleton-by-Wirksworth, on the southern edge of the Peak District, where the arrival of heavy machinery and temporary production facilities were hard to miss and where schoolchildren are said to have received an exclusive behind-the-scenes assembly.

On Wednesday, March 6, Steve Thomas, landlord at the Rising Sun, on Rise End, said: “It started manifesting itself about three weeks ago with signs going up around the village, then about a week later there was some heavy construction and site offices delivered.

“We’ve not seen Mr Cruise, Simon Pegg or any of the other big cast in the pub, but lots of the workers building the set came in to have a drink and something to eat. We were glad to have them. They’ve been model customers, but very much kept to themselves. I don’t know if they were under orders but they weren’t open to interrogation.”

He added: “The activity ramped up to Friday and Saturday last week. It’s all packing up now, but there were still a few people in at lunchtime today.

“A picture appeared online yesterday of Mr Cruise so we think he must have been here at some point. The filming was done at night, probably to minimise disruption, with the main cast spirited in and out.

“One of my bar staff saw a very large chauffeur-driven car on Saturday, so we like to think that might have been him. All I can say is that if he’s ever in the area he’s very welcome to pop in for a pint.”

Despite the secrecy around the set, Steve, his staff and regulars have picked up some clues about what was happening down the road at Tarmac’s Middleton Mine.

Steve, who took over the pub with wife Debbie in 2020, said: “There have been some modified off-road vehicles and skeletal Jeeps delivered, so it’s not a huge stretch of the imagination to think it was a car chase scene.

“It was the biggest limestone mine in the country. The galleries down there are huge and the roads wide enough to fit two dumper trucks side by side.”

The title of the film is yet to be confirmed, but it is slated for release in 2025 as a direct sequel to last year’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, which and featured a memorable stunt sequence filmed a few miles north near Stoney Middleton.

Steve said: “I’ve seen the last film and though I’m not sure where this new scene is set, geologically it might make sense to use the same part of the country.

“I’m not a huge fan of Mission: Impossible, but I’ll certainly be making the trip to the cinema next year.”

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