Dodgy puns aside, the December issue of **Empire **gives plenty of reasons to get excited. Not the least of them is the return of Tom Cruise to the front cover for the first time since May 2006. It's a big "welcome back" to a bona fide movie star and a taster for an exclusive chat with the man himself about a variety of topics, from the return of Ethan Hunt and the decision to shoot with IMAX cameras, to the controversy that's his casting as Jack Reacher.The fourth outing for Hunt and the good people of IMF (the other one) already has a seriously saucy trailer, plus a dossier's worth of pics showing Cruise dangling from a variety of improbable locations, so the presence of Pixar alum Brad 'The Incredibles' Bird, the franchise's fourth director, has clearly injected new jeopardy and fizz back into things.
Cruise certainly thinks so. "[Brad and I] talked a lot about 'popcorn moments," he tells Empire. "You know, where you want to grab your popcorn. That's what I always hoped Mission would be for an audience. And I really think we've nailed it."
**Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol **is out on December 26. Empire: Magazine - December Issue, meanwhile, is out on October 27. It won't self-destruct, although it may go a bit curly at the edges if you leave it in the damp.