Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Director Considered De-Aging Tom Cruise for Opening Sequence

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning director Christopher McQuarrie toyed with the idea of de-aging Tom Cruise for an alternate ’80s-set opening sequence.

Dead Reckoning almost went the Dial of Destiny route with a de-aged lead star in its opening sequence. However, McQuarrie told GamesRadar he decided to scrap the idea because the process produced inconsistent results, and he found he was distracted by seeing a younger version of the character.

“Originally, there had been a whole sequence at the beginning of the movie that was going to take place in 1989,” McQuarrie revealed. “We talked about it as a cold open, we talked about it as flashbacks in the movie, we looked at de-aging.

“One of the big things about [the de-aging] I was looking at while researching, I kept saying, ‘Boy, this de-aging is really good’ or ‘This de-aging is not so good.’ Never did I find myself actually following the story,” he added. “I was so distracted by an actor that I had known for however long was now suddenly this young person.”

Mission: Impossible is a franchise that prides itself on authenticity, and the team prioritised practical filmmaking on its latest installment, leading to some extremely dangerous stunts, including a fight atop a real-life moving train built from scratch, and a motorcycle cliff jump they filmed on Day 1 in case of fatalities.

While these stunts are practical rather than VFX-heavy, McQuarrie is open to using visual effects and may utilise his research to revisit the de-aging process again in the future. “I cracked the code – I think – on how best to approach it,” he said. “By then, we had kind of moved away from it. We may still play with it. We never say never.”

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is now playing in theaters, but it’s only the first half of the story so you can expect it to also set the stage for the sequel. The two-part movie reportedly serves as a send-off for Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, with Part Two scheduled to hit theaters on June 28, 2024.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.