Paramount/Skydance’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout blew up on social media when critics got their first glimpse this week, and as reviews stream in, it’s seeing some of the best notices of the franchise. With international rollout beginning on July 25 and domestic going July 27, cast and crew were on hand for last night’s world premiere in Paris. On a perfect evening in the capital, and with the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop, star Tom Cruise declared the movie a “love letter” to the City of Light.

Director Christopher McQuarrie, who here makes his 9th movie with Cruise, said he hatched the idea to shoot the majority of Fallout in Paris after the November 2015 terrorist attacks that rocked the city. “I was home and saw what happened here and my heart was broken. It was not the Paris I knew,” he told the crowd. “I immediately called Tom and said ‘I want to take the film to Paris.’ Some were concerned, worried we wouldn’t be safe. Tom said, ‘That’s exactly why we’re going, to show the world it is safe.’”

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Cruise told the audience inside the Palais de Chaillot, “We truly hope you know this is our love letter to you.”

While Cruise’s unprecedented HALO jump has made headlines over the past few weeks, it is one of a series of dazzling action set pieces. Cruise said it was “incredible” to have been able to ride a motorcycle down the Avenue de l’Opéra at 120 kilometers an hour. The chase scenes are particularly notable for their continuity. Often in films, sequences jump from one side of a city to another, but Fallout has a lot of flow-through for sharp-eyed Parisians to note.

McQuarrie added his thanks to the city and the Ministry of Culture “for being so tolerant and letting us drive motorcycles through everything nice in Paris,” and to the Prefecture de Police “for closing their eyes.”

For the portion of the motorcycle chase scene at the Arc de Triomphe, McQuarrie said they were told it would be impossible. They had two hours to shoot it and the “crew and the city came together. It was amazing.”

There are also helicopter and icy clifftop battles as well as an unforgettable bathroom brawl set in the Grand Palais — which we’d gotten a look at during CineEurope in Barcelona last month. It evidently took four weeks to shoot and even the indefatigable Cruise admitted to feeling somewhat battered afterwards.

Noting the broken ankle Cruise suffered during a stunt in London, McQuarrie said the shooting schedule had gone to 164 days after starting out at 120 and “stayed relatively on budget,” he smiled.

Cruise was asked what goes through his mind when he’s performing these wild stunts and he deadpanned, “Oh, sh*t!” McQuarrie commented he’s never seen Cruise work harder on a film, putting in his all for Fallout. As they walked off the stage, Cruise took time to note the other main event in the capital this weekend, wishing the French football team, “Good luck on Sunday.”

The movie is 96% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and looks like a box office winner mid-summer. It does not yet have a China release date owing to the July blackout, but does have Alibaba Pictures in the mix, and should score a nice slot.

The M:I 6 folks are taking the action to London tonight.