Mission Impossible 7: Julia Roberts as Ethan Hunt’s girlfriend? “Dead Reckoning” almost looked completely different

Anyone who has seen “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part 1” will remember: At the beginning of the film, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) gets his new mission, he has to get two important keys and beware of the villain Gabriel. This triggers a flashback, because Ethan already knows Gabriel from his time before the IMF.

In it we get to see a younger Gabriel and Marie, Ethan’s friend who was murdered by Gabriel. We only see Ethan himself from behind because the sight of a digitally rejuvenated Tom Cruise would have pulled the audience out of the action, as director Christopher McQuarrie already revealed.

Return of the eighties stars

Now McQuarrie was a guest on the Empire Spoiler Special Film Podcast and reported there about his first plans for the flashback scene, which was actually supposed to focus much more on rejuvenated characters. The director also kept in mind that the scene takes place in 1989.

I said, ‘Ok, if I did that sequence, it would be Tom in 1989. It would be Tony Scott’s ‘Mission: Impossible’. That’s the one who would have done the movie before Brian De Palma, in that era, you know. We watched ‘Days of Thunder’ and we thought about what it would be like if Tony Scott had directed that film and who would have been in it? I looked at who was the newcomer, who was the breakthrough star in 1989? And that’s exactly when ‘Mystic Pizza’ came out. And I was like, ‘Oh my God. Julia Roberts, then before ‘Pretty Woman’ Julia Roberts, as this young woman.

Christopher McQuarrie

So McQuarrie thought through the flashback scene, which lasts less than a minute in the film, and shot it in a style similar to director Tony Scott’s. With “Days of Thunder” as inspiration, Nicole Kidman would have been the logical choice to play Ethan’s girlfriend, but McQuarrie must have realized that Tom Cruise’s ex-wife would not be acting alongside Cruise.

So he came up with Julia Roberts, who would have played the role of Marie in this alternative version of the scene. But here, too, McQuarrie ultimately feared that a rejuvenated Julia Roberts would tend to distract the audience, and the price also played a role.

I got billed for these people’s digital rejuvenation before their salaries were even factored in. And if you put two or three of them together in one shot, it would be as expensive as the train when we’re done.

Christopher McQuarrie

With the mentioned train, McQuarrie of course means the spectacular finale of “Dead Reckoning – Part 1”, which takes place in and on a train. In the second part of “Dead Reckoning”, which is currently scheduled to be released in 2024, the flashback scene should play a role again and then McQuarrie will probably not be able to avoid showing the young Ethan Hunt from the beginning.