Original 'Mission: Impossible' 'never had a script,' actor Rolf Saxon says

Rolf Saxon said the original 1996 “Mission: Impossible” was made without a conventional full script, describing a production in which actors were not permitted to see the entire screenplay. In an interview published by Polygon on May 24, 2026, Saxon said the first film was “one of the first scripts where we were never allowed to see the whole thing,” and added, “There was never a script.” Saxon played CIA analyst William Donloe in Brian De Palma’s first “Mission: Impossible,” the character whose stomach illness repeatedly pulls him away from the secure Langley vault Ethan Hunt infiltrates during the film’s signature wire-heist sequence. Polygon said the interview was conducted for the film’s 30th anniversary, and Saxon also reflected on reprising Donloe in 2025’s “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.” (polygon.com) ### What did Saxon say about how the first film was made? Saxon told Polygon that the production withheld the full screenplay from performers and unfolded in fragments. “That was one of the first scripts where we were never allowed to see the whole thing,” he said, according to the interview. The Polygon interview said Saxon’s role in the 1996 film was brief, with only a few minutes on screen and limited overlap with Tom Cruise during filming. (polygon.com) Saxon said many of his scenes involved him alone at a computer screen, which meant Cruise often was not physically present for those setups. ### Why does that matter for the Langley vault scene? The 1996 film’s most remembered sequence centers on Cruise’s Ethan Hunt descending by wire into a CIA vault protected by sound, temperature and floor sensors. (polygon.com) Polygon described Donloe as the analyst moving in and out of the room because of a stomach ailment, a detail that raises the tension of the heist. Saxon told Polygon he watched Cruise perform the suspended-wire stunt himself. “I saw him do it,” Saxon said, adding that a stuntman was used only while the crew was setting lights, according to the interview. (polygon.com) ### Who is William Donloe, and why is he back now? William Donloe was a minor character in the 1996 film, but his fate became a long-running franchise footnote after Henry Czerny’s Eugene Kittridge orders him sent to a radar post in Alaska. (polygon.com) IndieWire wrote in May 2025 that “The Final Reckoning” brings Donloe back 29 years later, when Ethan Hunt’s team heads to Alaska-adjacent territory in search of the Entity’s source code. IndieWire said Donloe and his wife become active participants in the later stages of “The Final Reckoning,” turning what began as a callback into a larger supporting role. Polygon likewise described Donloe’s 2025 return as a surprise for fans of the original wire-heist scene. ### How did Saxon react when he was asked to return? (indiewire.com) Saxon said he initially thought the approach was a prank. Polygon quoted him saying he believed “a friend of mine” was winding him up after his agent relayed inquiries about his availability from a film company in Europe, followed later by word that Skydance was involved. IndieWire reported the same reaction in its May 27, 2025 interview, saying Saxon assumed the offer to reprise a small role from nearly three decades earlier was not real at first. (indiewire.com) ### Where can readers find the interview and what comes next? Polygon published Saxon’s interview on May 24, 2026 under the headline about the wire heist and the line “There was never a script.” The piece looks back at the first film and at Saxon’s return in 2025’s “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.” (polygon.com) The next concrete milestone in the story is the franchise’s 30th anniversary framing around the 1996 original, which Polygon used for the interview, while “The Final Reckoning” remains the latest film in which Saxon’s Donloe appears. (indiewire.com) (polygon.com)