“I’ve got a few more questions, if you don’t mind,” says Empire’s Chris Hewitt, about an hour into his conversation with Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation director Christopher McQuarrie. “It’s a podcast!” the director replies. “Take your time.”
And so they do. What was scheduled as a 45-minute interview becomes an almost three-hour conversation - longer, in fact, than the film they are there to discuss.
The fascinating, wide-ranging conversation combs over every detail of the film in forensic detail, from McQuarrie's close-knit creative collaboration with Tom Cruise (who apparently would prefer to keep his shirt on in his movies, despite perceptions to the contrary), to Sean Harris' reluctance to appear in the movie at all, to the writing habits of an Oscar-winning screenwriter.
As with all our Spoiler Specials – the title of which should have made this abundantly clear by now – this podcast features spoilers galore, so only listen if you have already seen Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, in full.
Clear your schedule, cancel your appointments, and put your phone on airplane mode: your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to settle in for our biggest Spoiler Special yet.
You can listen to the Empire Podcast via our iTunes page, our SoundCloud page, via this handy RSS feed, or by pressing play below.