Exclusive: Mission Impossible cast's 9 BTS secrets — Cameos, crime and what they really think about Tom Cruise

Cue that theme tune because Mission Impossible is back! Tom Cruise and his gang have returned with even more death defying stunts, decades-old enemies, and a better-than-ever motley crew. Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning delivers all the classic MI jaunts we've come to expect and love, but with plenty of surprises still in store.

Can Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie serve up anything we haven't seen before after seven Mission Impossible films already? Well, we can neither confirm nor deny, but we will say this eighth instalment, The Final Reckoning, is another must-see.

From Hannah Waddingham commanding a US Naval ship, to an Antarctic ice-sea rescue, plus a surprise return of a familiar(ish) face, calling it action-packed is an understatement. We were lucky enough to catch up with cast stars Simon Peg, Hayley Atwell, Tarzan Greg Davis, Hannah Waddingham, and Pom Klementieff to get some BTS gossip from the newest MI movie.

Your mission, should you chose to accept it, is to check out these 9 exclusive secrets we uncovered from action cinema's hottest stars.

1. Hayley Atwell is actually a really good pickpocket in real life

About five minutes into chatting to Hayley and Tarzan, they were talking about Atwell's character Grace, the thief-turned-world saving IMF operative. Tarzan summed her up rather distinctly: “She steals!” referring of course to Grace, not Atwell.

It was at this point Hayley paused, looked at him and joked “Wait, I steal? I steal things?”, lent forward and pulled out Tarzan’s sunglasses that she had stolen from his jacket.

In disbelief and in between laughing Tarzan checked all his pockets, tapping his inner jacket where he thought he’d left them, asking how and when she managed to do that.

“What can I say, she’s a thief,” Atwell said with a shrug.

“I didn’t even notice! She’s a pick pocket! After all, what is the difference between a good pick pocket and a bad pick pocket?”

And without any spoilers for anyone yet to see the film, we'll just say it's all in the timing...

Lesson learned: keep an eye on your possessions if you’re around either Grace or Hayley Atwell, as she has clearly gone method.

2. Tom Cruise requested Hannah Waddingham for the role of Admiral Neely

We guess being starstruck is not limited to us with the Mission Impossible cast, as it turns out Hannah Waddingham had a Mission Impossible related freak out too. Whilst we let off one or two expletives when the interviews got confirmed, Waddingham had a similar reaction to her casting:

“When my team said 'Tom would like you [for the film]', I just swore, I swore for about thirty seconds,” Waddingham revealed.

“And then once I’d got myself together and sort of said what are we talking here. I just couldn’t believe it when they said he wants you to be the commander of a Naval Vessel. I just thought, does he realise that I’m a little bit of a dick? If anyone really left me in charge of a vessel it would sink. But I love the fact that he had faith in me.”

3. If there was a surprise cameo from any actor or celebrity, they would have wanted Michael B Jordan

“If we go back to that Fighter Carrier, I think he should be Neely’s second in command, that’s who I’d pick” Hannah Waddingham confirmed. He was at the premiere after all.

Could Michael B Jordan be a future IMF operative in any ongoing, post-Cruise Mission Impossible films? He'd get our vote.

4. Degas is the kind of guy who reads the terms and conditions

Degas was originally the the milk-monitoring sunday-school goodie two shoes of the film, a CIA operative paired with Briggs to track down the rogue agent Hunt. That was until he met Ethan, and ended up joining the crew. Whether he actually joined the crew or is constantly chasing after them trying to keep an eye on them, we're not sure. And it turns out Tarzan Davis who played Degas isn't sure either...

“He writes parking tickets, he’s definitely the kind of guy who writes parking tickets and complains that someone’s bumper is a little bit in their section,” Tarzan confirmed.

“Grace is the one Degas is complaining about the most - like, I think that’s the whole reason he’s chasing the gang [in the films], and gets involved, it's to complain at them for parking illegally…He is the meme of the guy on the phone.”

5. Tom Cruise is a Hype Man

Speaking about her co-star, Waddingham praised Cruise, saying: “He is an incredible hype man, he really emboldens you… that’s been the greatest privilege.

“Him and Chris are incredibly encouraging, positive, inspiring people. Regardless of being in the fighter carrier, being in the movie, being on the junket, meeting those two human beings who love what they do, who are constantly thinking about the audience - more than any other director, creative, I’ve ever met - that's been the most incredible part of this experience. Those things are really inspiring and you leave their orbit absolutely better for it.”

6. Hannah Waddingham missed dinner in the Captain’s Mess on the Fighter Carrier because she was geeking out

Again, it turns out everyone has weak spot - or should we say geek spot. Whilst we were being charmed by Hannah Waddingham, she was busy fangirling over all movies real life aviation gadgetry.

“We were meant to be going for dinner in the Captain’s Mess and I wasn’t there because I’d lost track of time,” Waddingham confessed.

“I was constantly taking videos of the F18s landing and taking off, whether they were hitting the hook or not. Completely geeked out - I totally would have paid thousands to be there, I’m not even exaggerating.”

7. Hayley Atwell is a much better driver than Grace

Shortlist are almost infamous for asking the serious, hard-hitting questions, the deep investigative journalism that really gets to the bottom of what the people are asking. So of course when we were chatting to the Mission Impossible cast, we asked them which character was most likely to fail their driving test.

We started off asking about Ethan which was met with (understandable) scoffs. "Not Ethan," Atwell shook her head: "He invented the driving test." Which given everything else he achieves throughout the franchise, we wouldn't be surprised by.

Benji was put in prime position for most-likely-to-fail-their-driving-test, with Atwell and Davis both convinced he would bore the driving instructor into a fail.

"He would just get excited about all the different parts of the car, and then be able to give you a running commentary about the history of each of them," Atwell supposed.

"Yeah, he's too much of a multi-tasker," Davis agreed. As for Paris, they were fairly certain that she would just kill the driving instructor, pass herself, and drive off with the car, which we could totally see - in fact, we're not entirely convinced that won't come up in the next Mission Impossible film at some point.

As for Grace?

"I'm a really good driver (if i say so myself), in comparison to Grace...at one point she's just going round in circles," Atwell said.

Referring back to a memorable scene in the last film, Atwell revealed: “I had to be very trustworthy to be handcuffed to Tom and driving him and drifting around the streets of Rome.”

8. Simon Pegg can do a really good impression of Ving Rhames AKA Luther

Is there anything Simon Pegg can't do? He gave us the Cornetto Trilogy, he's appeared in Dr Who, he's even publicly fought for gender equality and against climate change. Well, it turns out he can do a pretty impressive Luther impression too. The only downside is you can't really get it across in a written interview, so you'll just have to use your imagination:

“He [Luther] would be great to sit next to on a long-haul flight!” Pegg confirmed. “Because he’s got that lovely deep voice

[*Simon Pegg does impression of Luther’s deep voice*]”.

Shortlist: He's kind of like a vocal sleeping pill?

“Exactly!” Pegg agreed.

Does this mean Pegg could likely do a one-man rendition of Mission Impossible, doing all the parts himself? Quite possibly, yes. Will he ever do it? Debatable...

9. Some of the cast think Tom Cruise should get a mullet

Tom Cruise - or rather Ethan Hunt - has gone through a whole range of hairstyles across his many Mission Impossible outings. We've seen him with desert-dishevelled long hair, the closely cropped city-slicker style in the early IMF days, and somewhere in between for the middle films. Final Reckoning sees a return to those long shaggy locks for Cruise once again - but what do the cast reckon?

“I could see him with a Karen haircut," Atwell said. "A little kind of fringe going on."

"He looks good with it all grown out," Tarzan agreed.

"If he swept it to the side and had a bit sticking up on the side, maybe grew it out the back a bit… I can see that," Atwell said.

Conclusion: Tom Cruise could rock any hairstyle.

• Love getting the celebrity insider gossip? Stanley Tucci spilled the beans on his new show Tucci in Italy