Angela Bassettis no stranger to iconic roles, but one of her most enduring performances remains her fierce turn asLornette “Mace” Mason inStrange Days. Speaking with Collider’sSteve Weintraubduring press forMission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Bassett was delighted (and slightly surprised) to hear thatKathryn Bigelow’scult cyberpunk thriller turns 30this year. For Bassett, the film is a milestone in more ways than one. Directed by Bigelow and co-written byJames Cameron,Strange Daysis a neo-noir set in the final days of 1999 Los Angeles, where society teeters on collapse and technology allows users to experience other people’s memories through illegal recordings.
Bassett’s character,Mace, is a bodyguard and single motherwho reluctantly gets pulled into a conspiracy involving her ex, Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes), a black-market dealer of memory clips. The movie was widely ahead of its time, and it has only become more prescient as time has passed. When asked if the film holds a special place in her heart 30 years later, Bassett told Collider:
“Oh, absolutely. Directed by the incredible Kathryn Bigelow. Those set pieces in downtown LA. And that one night our stunt guy fell from the top of the Bonaventure Hotel. One take. Thankfully. That was pretty amazing. There were 5,000 extras, shooting all night for months. Oh my gosh, I was like, ‘Kathryn, how are you getting through it?’ That’s when I discovered B12. […] B12 and black coffee!”
Angela Bassett Returns for ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’
Now Bassett is returning to action on a very different kind of battlefield. InMission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, she’s now President Erika Sloane, last seen inMission: Impossible - Falloutas the CIA Director. While details about the plot are still locked behind IMF-level clearance, the film seesEthan Hunt (Tom Cruise) face off against a powerful rogue AI known only as The Entity— a threat that forces him to confront the sins of his past, and the existence of which poses a huge danger to our way of life. Sloane’s return suggests that global politics will once again factor heavily into the chaos, and if theMissionseries has taught us anything, it’s that Bassett’s steely presence brings gravitas wherever she goes.
The film has already been met with critical acclaim, with many hailing it as a fitting capper on one of the greatest action franchises of all time, so with Bassett back on board too, our expectations are sky-high, and we can’t wait to see how the world gets saved one last time.Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoninghits theaters on July 13, 2025. You can watch our full conversation with Bassett in the player above andread Ross' review here.
Strange Days
Strange Days is a dystopian science fiction thriller set in the closing days of 1999 Los Angeles, where an ex-cop turned street hustler sells illegal virtual reality experiences. As society teeters on the edge of chaos, he becomes entwined in an underworld conspiracy involving murder and corruption that challenges his ideals.
