Tom Cruise has seemingly done it all in the Mission: Impossible movie franchise, though it seems he was planning on doing a de-aging scene.
The technology for de-aging has advanced rapidly in recent years, with even Harrison Ford being de-aged in the opening sequence of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has been earning rave reviews, with Cruise making headlines for showing up to some of the first screenings himself.
The film is on track to debut with a franchise record $90 million at the box office this weekend.
While promoting Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One – which hit theaters on Wednesday, director Christopher McQuarrie opened up to GamesRadar about an alternate opening scene that would take Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt back to 1989.
De-aging: Tom Cruise has seemingly done it all in the Mission: Impossible movie franchise, though it seems he was planning on doing a de-aging scene
Tom shows up: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has been earning rave reviews, with Cruise making headlines for showing up to some of the first screenings himself
‘Originally, there had been a whole sequence at the beginning of the movie that was going to take place in 1989,’ McQuarrie said.
‘We talked about it as a cold open, we talked about it as flashbacks in the movie, we looked at de-aging,’ he confirmed.
Still, McQuarrie – who had worked with Cruise on Valkyrie (2008) and Jack Reacher (2012) before directing the last three Mission: Impossible movies (2015’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Dead Reckoning) – wasn’t comfortable with the de-aged image.
‘I was so distracted by an actor that I had known for however long was now suddenly this young person,’ McQuarrie admitted.
Still, McQuarrie believes he has found a way to introduce de-aging into some of his future movies.
‘In researching that, I cracked the code – I think – on how best to approach it,” McQuarrie explains.
‘By then, we had kind of moved away from it. We may still play with it. We never say never,’ he teased.
Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt, with Hayley Atwell joining the franchise as Grace, though there were rumors that Atwell and Cruise had become romantic off-screen, which Atwell recently debunked in a recent interview with The Independent.
Cold open: ‘Originally, there had been a whole sequence at the beginning of the movie that was going to take place in 1989,’ McQuarrie said
Not comfortable: Still, McQuarrie – who had worked with Cruise on Valkyrie (2008) and Jack Reacher (2012) before directing the last three Mission: Impossible movies (2015’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Dead Reckoning) – wasn’t comfortable with the de-aged image
Code: Still, McQuarrie believes he has found a way to introduce de-aging into some of his future movies
Sequel: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two is currently set for release on June 28, 2024, with McQuarrie recently confirming that film won’t mark the end of the franchise
‘I would be like, “Ooh, there’s some weird rumors, and it feels base, it feels a little dirty, it feels grubby, it’s not what I’m about”, she said.
‘Why are things being assumed or projected onto me about my relationship with my work colleague and boss? It’s upsetting.’
‘When I’ve talked to him about it, he’d be like: “You know exactly who you are. You know what you’re about. And that is the only thing that matters. It doesn’t matter what people think of you, if you are in integrity with yourself, if you know what your value system is.’
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two is currently set for release on June 28, 2024, with McQuarrie recently confirming that film won’t mark the end of the franchise.
