Tom Cruise wants to still be making Mission: Impossible movies when he's Harrison Ford's age

Tom Cruise has already been playing Mission: Impossible hero Ethan Hunt for more than 20 years, but he doesn't intend to stop anytime soon. In fact, he wants to follow in the footsteps of long-tenured franchise star Harrison Ford, who just led Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny 42 years after first playing the title character in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

"Harrison Ford is a legend," Cruise told The Sydney Morning Herald at the Australian premiere of Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning, Part One this past weekend. "I've got 20 years to catch up with him."

Cruise continued, "I hope to keep making Mission: Impossible films until I'm his age."

Monica Schipper/WireImage; Lucasfilm Tom Cruise hopes to still be doing 'Mission: Impossible' movies when he's Harrison Ford's age

While Cruise is certainly paying Ford a compliment, the latter previously told EW in a new digital cover story that he didn't totally love being called a "legend."

"I do not know what a legend does for a living," Ford said. "I know that I consider myself to be a working actor, and I'll settle for that."

He added, "I suppose legend means that you've been around for a long time. And I think it's meant to be, uh, gracious, but it just, uh… sounds old."

Ford hasn't just been occupied with donning his iconic fedora and picking up his token bullwhip. Also starring in the TV shows Shrinking and 1923, he's as busy as ever.

Meanwhile, Cruise has already starred in seven Mission: Impossible movies, and he's hardly out of juice. In EW's new review of Dead Reckoning, Part One, Maureen Lee Lenker writes that the movie's "action and thrills are next-level," with a climactic stunt that is "quite literally jaw-dropping."

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Related content:

• Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning, Part One review: Tom Cruise hunts for franchise's action crown

• Turning back the Dial: Harrison Ford examines the legacy of Indiana Jones as he caps a historic run

• 'I want to wreck a train!': Behind the scenes of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One