Tom Cruiseappears ageless in his films.
ButMission: ImpossibleDead ReckoningdirectorChristopher McQuarriewas close to de-aging Cruise as a gimmick in the new films opening sequence.
The process was recently seen in the latestIndiana Jonesfilm, where 81-year-old Harrison Ford had the odometer rolled back.
Rocket K/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures
At age 61, Cruise still is safe from that.
But the sequence where it would have been used would have happened more than 30 years ago.
McQuarrie toldGamesRadarhe decided against it forMission: Impossiblebecause the process produced inconsistent results.
Worse, he was distracted by seeing a younger version of the Ethan Hunt character.
We talked about it as a cold open.
We talked about it as flashbacks in the movie.
We looked at de-aging.
Never did I find myself actually following the story, he said.
On this film, de-aging wasnt right.
But McQuarrie isnt scrapping it forever.
McQuarrie claims he is open to revisiting 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.
