Christopher McQuarrie Biography

Born in New Jersey, Christopher McQuarrie set off after high school to learn more about the world. He hadn't yet decided that film was his calling.

His first job was in Perth, Australia, where he worked as an assistant at Christ Church Grammar School. Fired after nine months, he hitchhiked for three months before returning to the States, where he landed a job with a detective agency. He stayed with the agency for four years, but decided it wasn't what he wanted as a career.

He moved to Los Angeles and began writing. In 1993, his first screenplay, titled Public Access, was directed by Bryan Singer, a friend from his New Jersey childhood. It was made on a small budget, but gained some attention for the friends.

In the early 1990s, he wrote an episode of the TV series NYPD Blue, followed by his second full-length screenplay, titled The Usual Suspects (1995), which was again directed by Singer. The Usual Suspects starred Kevin Spacey and Benicio Del Toro, and McQuarrie won several awards for his work, including an Oscar and a BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay.

For his next major motion picture screenplay, The Way of the Gun (2000), McQuarrie decided to direct it himself. Having had several "dismal" meetings with studio executives, he met with his old friend Benicio Del Toro, who asked him why he didn't write another crime film. He did, and cast Del Toro with Juliette Lewis. The film made a small return at the box office, but received mostly poor reviews.

In 2006, following the disappointment from his directorial debut and another earlier disappointment when a project he pitched that would have involved Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio, didn't get a green light, McQuarrie and his wife Heather discussed getting out of the business so he could spend more time with their children. Just as he'd decided to quit, Bryan Singer asked him to write the screenplay for Valkyrie (2008).

The script found its way to Tom Cruise, who had hit a rare dry spot in his career, following a public firing by Paramount boss Sumner Redstone. Cruise contacted McQuarrie and they immediately hit it off. Soon, McQuarrie was co-producing the picture with Cruise, which grossed $200 million worldwide. It marked the beginning of many collaborations for the two.

McQuarrie would go on to write and direct Jack Reacher (2012) starring Cruise, followed by two of the best Mission: Impossible installments to date: Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) and Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018), both, of course, starring Cruise.

A prolific writer, McQuarrie has penned several more screenplays, many of which also starred Cruise: Edge of Tomorrow (2014), The Mummy (2017) and Top Gun: Maverick (2021). He and Cruise will also be filming two more Mission: Impossible films back to back.

McQuarrie lives in London with his wife, Heather. ~Alexandra Heilbron

Filmography (director):

Mission: Impossible 7 (2021)
Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)
Jack Reacher (2012)
The Way of the Gun (2000)