The Big Picture
- Ving Rhames earned a whopping $7.7 million for just two days of work in the film Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, making him the highest-paid actor for the smallest amount of screen time.
- Rhames plays the important role of Luther Stickell in the Mission: Impossible franchise, acting as the audience surrogate and providing a sense of sanity amidst the outlandish escapades.
- Despite initial uncertainty about his involvement in Ghost Protocol due to budget issues, Rhames negotiated a lucrative deal that reflected his worth to the franchise, solidifying his place in its history.
If there’s one thing actors love, it’s an outrageous payday. If you’ve spent an evening rummaging through the lists of highest-paid actors in Hollywood, then you’ll understand the eyewatering amounts that a talented performer (and a talented agent) can earn for even a single production — certainly enough to make anyone hop on the next flight to Los Angeles and start over with the most publicized career choice in the world. To some extent, these numbers are justifiable. Getting to a point where your name is a brand in and of itself is a commodity no gifted performer should allow to go unexploited, but when your role is little more than a glorified cameo, such wages become fairly indefensible. Stories of actors receiving huge lumps of cash for just days of work are legendary on the internet (Robert Downey Jr. in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Mark Hamill in The Force Awakens, and Marlon Brando in Superman being amongst the most cited examples) but the greatest of all comes from an unlikely source: Ving Rhames in 2011’s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.
Despite appearing in only one scene, Rhames netted an incredible $7.7 million for his two days of work, making him the highest-paid actor for the smallest total screentime. How he was able to wrangle such an extraordinary deal isn’t clear, but seemingly his importance to the wider Mission: Impossible franchise made his omission (no pun intended) impossible, effectively allowing him to command whatever price he wanted. The secretive nature of Hollywood accounting — combined with various competing factors such as days on set and potential backend arrangements — makes it hard to determine which actor has scored the largest paycheck for the least amount of work, but if we’re talking on a purely salary-by-second basis, it’s hard to think of anyone who achieved a better deal than Ving Rhames in this certified action classic.
Ving Rhames Is One of the Most Vital Elements of the ‘Mission: Impossible’ Franchise
If you were to describe the main selling points of the Mission: Impossible franchise, you’d probably come back with two closely intertwined answers: Tom Cruise as the seemingly invincible Ethan Hunt, and death-defying stunts that put all contemporary action films to shame. To be fair, it’s not an incorrect summarization. One only had to glance at the marketing campaign for the most recent entry, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, to have the image of Cruise motorbiking off a cliff with the swashbuckling glee of someone on a crusade to single-handedly save cinema ingrained into their head, but there’s more to this franchise than just two elements.
For starters, the Mission: Impossible films have continually proven themselves to have one of the strongest ensemble casts in an ongoing series (even if it does exist in a state of constant flux), with Ving Rhames’ world-class hacker Luther Stickell being the clear standout. If Ethan is the world’s greatest daredevil who’s continually five steps ahead of both his adversaries and his spectators, then Luther is the audience surrogate providing a welcome ray of sanity amidst these increasingly outlandish escapades. His laid back attitude and proclivity to a good old-fashioned one-liner has made him an effective pit stop between the more dramatic beats of the plot, but at the same time, his believable friendship with Ethan (gradually established over decades) has allowed for some genuinely emotional moments that affirms why he is such a crucial part of this franchise. Rhames is the only actor other than Cruise to appear in every Mission: Impossible film — a testament to Luther’s popularity. One hopes that that will forever remain the case.
How Much Did Ving Rhames Make For His ‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’ Cameo?
But as fans of the series will already know, it almost didn’t. Despite featuring in a prominent role in the previous three entries of the series, Rhames nearly didn’t return for the fourth installment, Ghost Protocol. And as is often the case in such matters, money was the deciding factor. In an interview with MovieWeb in 2010 (roughly two months after Ghost Protocol had begun filming), Rhames explained why he wouldn’t be returning: “I will just say that the budget changed dramatically and I’ll leave it at that.”
It’s no secret that Ghost Protocol didn’t have the smoothest production — future overseer Christopher McQuarrie was enlisted to perform a script overhaul when filming was already halfway completed, while Paramount spent much of its production keen to make it the last with Cruise in the starring role — but electing to forego Luther entirely would have been a grave mistake. He’s a core tenet of the Mission: Impossible franchise for good reason, and trying to sweep him under the carpet would have left it without a vital ingredient.
That said, Rhames did tease that he “may be doing something very small” for Ghost Procotol if a deal could be agreed upon, and as anyone who has watched the final film can attest, Luther Stickell does indeed make an appearance during a post-mission catch-up with Ethan. True, the end credits may be fighting for the limelight the entire time he’s onscreen, but good things come to those who wait. After mocking Ethan for his hokey “mission accomplished” line that preceded his saving of the world a few days earlier (Ethan’s obliviousness to his own corniness continuing to be one of his finest strengths), Luther discusses his role within the IMF before telling Ethan that he will see him “in Kandahar,” hinting that their partnership has a long road ahead of them. If one were to measure his screentime, you’d come back with a figure of roughly 39 seconds. Considering that Luther is the most eminent secondary character in these films, that’s a shockingly low number, especially since Ghost Protocol is often listed among the best in the series.
The scene in question required only two days of filming, and there’s no doubt that Rhames was handsomely rewarded for his participation. His asking price was $7.7 million, according to the man himself, with Rhames stating that he felt his worth to the franchise was greater than the $3 million they were offering (which was already a downgrade from the $3.5 million he had earned for Mission: Impossible III). As he made abundantly clear in an interview whilst promoting Death Race 2, “There’s no misunderstanding – it’s $7.7 million or no!” Given how many news organizations have since repeated what a phenomenal payday Ghost Protocol was for the actor — plus how no one involved with the film has denied it — it seems that he got his wish. Being invited to reprise your most famous role in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo seconds before the end credits might feel like a downgrade, but the infallible chemistry between Ethan and Luther transforms it into one of the most memorable conclusions in the series, once again reinforcing the significance of his character. And besides, who would honestly turn down $7.7 million to say a few lines and drink a beer with Tom Cruise?
Ving Rhames Continues To Play a Major Role in the ‘Mission: Impossible’ Series
Whatever the issues that prevented Rhames’ full involvement with Ghost Procotol were, presumably they had been solved by the time Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation came around. As the franchise continued its evolution from hit-and-miss exercises in auteur experimentation to the most technically proficient spectacle in modern filmmaking, Luther returned to his rightful position as Ethan Hunt’s most trusted ally. It might be reading too much into things that Luther’s first appearance in Rogue Nation came less than a minute after the opening logos — almost as though Christopher McQuarrie (now operating as both writer and director) was intentionally making a grand statement about the character’s importance at the earliest possible opportunity — but his enhanced presence served to bolster the excellent team dynamic of the film either way. Luther has remained an immovable part of the Mission: Impossible furniture ever since, making him as indispensable to this series as the fearless maverick headlining them. If Cruise is serious about his recent commitment to keep making Mission Impossible films until he’s eighty, then hopefully Rhames will be right alongside him the whole way.
Rhames’ salary for the post-Ghost Protocol films has never been revealed, although considering that there’s never been a repeat of the fuss that dominated all discussions of his attendance in that particular film, it’s likely he now receives a wage more befitting to his overall contributions. It’s still a mystery how he was able to muster such an impressive amount for what must have been the simplest days of his professional career — perhaps a contractual obligation that he must make some kind of appearance gave him the ideal hand for the negotiating table, although that’s purely speculation — but it cemented him to the history books regardless. Numerous actors have pocketed more for a single film (lest we forget, Cruise scored over $100 million for Top Gun: Maverick), but it’s hard to think of someone else earning so much whilst simultaneously doing so little. In a strange way, it’s rather commendable. Mission accomplished, Ving Rhames. Mission accomplished indeed.
