Mission: Impossible director originally wanted to use special effects to make Tom Cruise look younger

Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible - Deadly Reckoning almost had his character rejuvenated using special effects in the movie opening, just like Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Wheel of Fortune.

"Originally, there was a whole sequence at the beginning of the movie that was set in 1989," Mission: Impossible director Chris McQuarrie told GamesRadar+ and Total Film. "We discussed having it as a cold open, we discussed having it as a flashback sequence during the movie, we considered using de-aging."

However, the de-aging effects proved to be out of character for a series that has often been known for its believability and minimal use of digital shortcuts.

"One of the things that was really important to me when I was working on [the de-aging] was that I was always thinking, 'Man, this de-aging is really good,' or 'This de-aging is not good,'" McQuarrie said of the scrapped sequence. "I never found myself really paying attention to the story of the movie."

When discussing Cruise's on-screen performance, he revealed: "I was distracted by the fact that this actor who I've known for a long time suddenly became a young man."

He added that, although it wasn't used this time, he may have found a way to use the de-aging effect in a future film: "In the process of researching it, I think I cracked the code on how best to approach it. By that point, we'd already given up on the idea. We still might try it. We're not going to say never."

Tom Cruise is no longer young, he is 61 years old this year, and he is still making action movies. After "Mission Impossible 7: Part Two" which will be released next year, he has another space movie in the works, and he will actually go into space to shoot.