Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible is one of the biggest franchises in recent times, and this does not only have to do with its popularity. Having some of the most intense, expensive, and well-thought-out action sequences, the franchise has made a reputation for itself as going above and beyond and doing anything and everything to entertain the audience. The most recent addition to the series, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, is the perfect example of this, with the production completely destroying an entire train for the film.
This was not a cheap expense, naturally, however, an interview with the director of the film, suggests that there was a scene in mind that would cost even more than this, that involved an A-list actress, and de-aging her, along with Cruise.
Mission Impossible Director Wanted To Make Tom Cruise Look Younger
Christopher McQuarrie, the director of Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, gave an interview with Empire magazine’s Spoiler Special Film podcast, where he spoke in great detail about everything surrounding his upcoming film. Along with giving insight into some of the most iconic scenes in this film, he also talked about behind-the-scenes things that never made it into the final cut.
Among this information, he confessed that the original concept of how the film was going to start was going to involve Cruise in a flashback sequence alongside another actress. The actor, 61 at the time, would not have looked quite like himself, as it was set in the year 1989, and he would have been digitally de-aged.
“I said, ‘OK, if I were doing this sequence, it would be Tom in, say, 1989,’ “ he went on, “We looked at Days of Thunder and we looked at the style of it, and we started thinking what would it look like if Tony Scott had shot this, and who would it have been?”
McQuarrie revealed that he was considering, and wondering who would be the perfect fit to play the female character in this role. His vision was to make the scene. Look a lot like the works of Tony Scott. For this, he was trying to call someone who would fit the late director’s image, which would be the breakout actress of the year.
“I looked back at who was the ingenue, who was the breakout star in 1989? And right around then was Mystic Pizza. And I was like, ‘Oh my God. Julia Roberts, a then-pre-Pretty Woman Julia Roberts, as this young woman.’ “
Thinking on it as well as doing some research, the director soon remembered that Julia Roberts perfectly fit his as well as Scott’s vision.
This Didn’t Go The Way He Wanted
Though Christopher McQuarrie’s vision looked excellent on paper, it was a little less practical when brought out into the real world. The director revealed to the Spoiler Special Film podcast, that although the thought of the scene was excellent for him when he got the bill for the digital de-aging, as well as hiring A-list actors like Julia Roberts, he realized that it was not worth the division he was trying to recreate.
“As you’re conceptually going through it, you’re like, ‘Now all anybody’s going to be doing is thinking about the de-aging of Julia Roberts, and Esai [Morales], and Tom, and Henry Czerny,’ ” the director said. “And then I got the bill for de-aging those people before their salaries were even factored into it.” he went on,“And if you put two of them in a shot together, or three of them in a shot together, it would have been as expensive as the train by the time we were done,” he added.
He confessed that though initially he was excited about everything that was going to showcase in this opening sequence, the digital de-aging, on its own cost an arm and a leg. Elaborating on this he stated that the process of filming one or two shots, with these characters, which included Roberts, Tom Cruise, and Esai Morales, who plays the antagonist in the film, the scene would cost more than the train sequence itself. By the time they were done.
