It would have been risky business to de-age Tom Cruise for the latest “Mission: Impossible” film, according to director Christopher McQuarrie.
Despite a Cruise lookalike appearing in a series of viral deepfake TikToks with Paris Hilton, McQuarrie deemed a flashback sequence in “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” too distracting for filmgoers.
“Originally, there had been a whole sequence at the beginning of the movie that was going to take place in 1989,” McQuarrie told Total Film. “We talked about it as a cold open, we talked about it as flashbacks in the movie, we looked at de-aging.”
He continued, “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. I was so distracted by how an actor that I had known for however long was now suddenly this young person.”
However, McQuarrie teased that the “Dead Reckoning Part One” production perfected the de-aging process, and may incorporate it into the “Part Two” sequel.
“In researching that [technology], I cracked the code – I think – on how best to approach it. By then, we had kind of moved away from it,” he said. “We may still play with it. We never say never.”
Lead star Cruise recently said that he hopes to continue making “Mission: Impossible” films through his 80s, similar to how Harrison Ford as continued the “Indiana Jones” franchise until he was 81, concluding with “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.”
“Harrison Ford is a legend; I hope to be still going,” Cruise said. “I’ve got 20 years to catch up with him. I hope to keep making ‘Mission: Impossible’ films until I’m his age.”
Ford’s latest (and presumably final) turn as Indy included a flashback sequence with cutting-edge de-aging technology. “Dial of Destiny” director James Mangold told IndieWire that the flashback served as an “energetic homage” to the franchise as a whole.
“I thought there would be a way to carry the audience through Harrison’s present-day age by greeting them first with an energetic homage to the previous films,” Mangold said. “You confront the audience with a young Indy in full flower and full action, and then make a sharp turn. Take everything away and let the audience confront the difference between now and then in a brazen way. That was the cut I was most excited about for the movie.”
