Mission: Impossible 7 director originally wanted to digitally de-age Tom Cruise

‘We may still play with it. We never say never,’ said director Christopher McQuarrie

The director of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has revealed that he originally intended to de-age Tom Cruise using CGI.

Cruise reprises the role of ace spy Ethan Hunt in the blockbuster sequel, which is out in cinemas now.

In recent years, a number of high-profile films have used digital effects to make actors appear years, or even decades, younger on screen, including Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman and the superhero movie Captain Marvel. The recently released Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny began with a sequence featuring a digitally de-aged Harrison Ford.

Filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie said he almost included a similar sequence at the beginning of Dead Reckoning, before ultimately deciding against it.

“Originally, there had been a whole sequence at the beginning of the movie that was going to take place in 1989,” he said, in an interview with Total Film. “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.”

According to McQuarrie, tests were carried out on the practicalities of de-aging Cruise, with uncanny results.

“I was so distracted by how an actor that I had known for however long was now suddenly this young person,” he said.

“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. We may still play with it. We never say never.”

Hayley Atwell and Tom Cruise in ‘Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning - Part One' (Christian Black/Paramount Pictures/Skydance)

Since being released in cinemas on Monday (10 July), Dead Reckoning has been showered with praise by audiences and critics.

In a four-star review of the film for The Independent, critic Clarisse Loughrey wrote: “Mission: Impossible is exactly the sort of franchise in which people simply roll their eyes when the bomb they’re trying to detonate turns out (of course!) to be a nuclear one. That lack of ponderousness is embedded bone-deep into Dead Reckoning, and how returning director Christopher McQuarrie chooses to operate.

“The action sequences are consistently dynamic, and always adapted to their environment: a shoot-out in a sandstorm focuses on stealth and precision, while a Vespa chase down Rome’s many staircases is all cartoon chaos. It all culminates in an absolutely insane stunt in which Cruise drives a motorcycle off a cliff and then parachutes down onto a moving train. You will leave Dead Reckoning the same way you always do: wondering how Cruise could possibly outdo himself in the next one – until, inevitably, he does.”

Dead Reckoning is out now in cinemas.