Simon Pegg: ‘We sang the Mission Impossible theme a lot in the cast. Whenever Tom walks on set!’

23 May 2025, 13:16

Actor Simon Pegg speaks to Jonathan Ross on Classic FM about filming Mission Impossible 8, singing the catchy theme on set, and his love for John Williams.

There are a handful of film scores that are instantly recognisable, from the Batman theme and Jurassic Park, to the unmistakeable Mission: Impossible theme.

Actor Simon Pegg, who stars alongside Tom Cruise in the final instalment of the franchise Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, spoke to Jonathan Ross on Classic FM at the Movies about the impact a great musical score can have on a motion picture.

Pegg first fell in love with film music after hearing John Williams’ score for Star Wars, which “came at a time when the classical score was sort of slipping out of fashion,” he tells Jonathan Ross.

“I’d loved movies before Star Wars and subliminally understood the importance of score,” he says. But it was that opening brass fanfare, played by the English trumpeter Maurice Murphy, that cued “a complete awakening” for the actor.

“The Empire Strikes Back particularly is, I think, my favourite film score of all time. They took a real risk with that movie, in that most sequels are just iterations of the first film,” he says. “A lot of that score is really infused with pathos and tragedy, and it’s so stirring and beautiful.”

Read more: 15 most epic film scores

John Williams is considered one of, if not the greatest living film composer. His brilliance, for many listeners, comes down to his frankly supernatural ability to create a ‘hummable’ theme.

“I remember coming back from Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1980 and singing that tune, that march,” says Pegg, who encountered Williams’ music closer to home in 2011, when he starred in Spielberg’s Tin Tin.

“He’s so good at themes, like he’ll create a theme for every character. And then the score becomes this kind of patchwork of all those themes.”

Indiana Jones ‘Raiders March’ blasts through Royal Albert Hall | Classic FM Live

Among the actor’s favourites is Jaws, arguably one of the most important pieces Williams ever composed, in which a two-note semitonal motif becomes cinema’s most famous villain theme.

“It’s so iconic,” Pegg says. “I remember I was on the set of Ready Player One, which Steven Spielberg was directing and joking with him that John Williams had won an Oscar for two notes.”

Jonathan Ross adds at this point, “Yeah, but it’s those two notes. It’s the order. I mean, the classic Morecambe and Wise sketch – ‘I’m playing the right notes just not necessarily in the right order’.”

The director-composer relationship held by Spielberg and Williams is one of a kind. The pair have been making movies together for over 50 years, in a decades-long partnership that has produced some of the greatest movies and soundtracks of a generation.

“I’ve never been disappointed by John Williams,” Pegg says. “I think Spielberg just understands, as do many filmmakers, how important that relationship is between picture and score. Score is often probably 60 to 70% of the movie’s overall effect, because if you don’t have it, if you’re not guiding the audience through their emotional journey, the images can fall very flat.

“There’s a very funny clip on YouTube of the throne scene in Star Wars without music, and it’s just the noise of their feet and people coughing.” (Watch below)

Star Wars Minus Williams - Throne Room

The main theme of Mission: Impossible, composed by Lalo Schifrin, is unmistakeable. Some have suggested that Schifrin used the Morse code as a starting point for his composition, as the two dashes followed by two dots exactly matches the underlying rhythm of the theme, but Schifrin has never confirmed it.

His theme is now indelibly linked with the motion picture, and Pegg paints a great picture of the cast of the new instalment, who couldn’t help but sing it on set to get them in the mood.

“We sing it a lot. Whenever we’re like walking from our trailers to set,” he says. “And I love what our various composers have done with that theme. Particularly [Scottish composer] Lorne Balfe, who’s done some really clever stuff with it because you basically have a little palette to play with, that bit of music, and you can weave it in different ways and play it at different tempos.

“And it’s always in our heads, always whenever Tom walks on set, it’s just always in your mind.”

Hear the full interview on Classic FM at the Movies with Jonathan Ross on Saturday 24 May at 7pm. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is out now in cinemas.

Watch the trailer for Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning