Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is here, and, judging from numerous critical reviews, it’s the perfect sendoff for Ethan Hunt and his team. With an estimated budget of $300-400 million, it is one of the most expensive films ever made, so it’ll need to perform extremely well at the box office to make Paramount executives happy. This will be quite a challenge, considering that it’s a sequel to an installment that wasn’t watched widely since it had to compete with Barbie and Oppenheimer.
No matter what the final box office figures look like, fans will forever be grateful for this franchise. Tom Cruise and his team always outdid themselves. Of all the installments, only John Woo’s work can be singled out for criticism, but it’s still highly entertaining. However, not every story, actor, and director we’ve seen was the intended one all along. There were a few scrapped ideas. Whether that was good or bad is up to the fans to judge.
Here’s every Mission: Impossible movie that was never made, and what caused them to be abandoned.
5
Oliver Stone’s ‘Mission: Impossible II’
Following the first film’s success under Brian De Palma’s stewardship, the studio decided to structure the franchise as a directorial showcase. Oliver Stone, who had previously worked with Tom Cruise on the biographical war movie Born on the Fourth of July, was tapped to direct. Stone described his version of the movie as “a vehicle to say something about the state of corporate culture and technology and global politics in the 21st century”. He also expressed optimism that the film’s blockbuster nature and Cruise’s star power would “give him some camouflage” when delving into overtly political themes. David Marconi went on to write a complete script, only for Stone to back out.
Stone Wanted To Explore AI, Too
Stone’s Mission: Impossible movie was reportedly about Ethan Hunt and the IMF taking on a villainous supercomputer, so it was basically Dead Reckoning and The Final Reckoning. It’s unclear if Marconi’s script was re-edited for the latest installments. Well, the story sure sounds better than what John Woo came up with when he came on board, and with Stone’s expertise on political affairs, the movie might have been intellectually superior to all installments so far. But it’s a good thing that the AI storyline was executed in the 2020s and not the 2000s. Today, the threat of AI is a major fear among the public, so the story feels more relevant now than it would have then.
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4
Ben Trebilcook’s ‘Mission: Impossible III’
J.J. Abrams did great work as the writer and director of Mission: Impossible III, but he hadn’t been the first choice all along. In an Essex Film blog post, screenwriter Ben Trebilcook revealed that Tom Cruise noticed his work in the 2000s and asked him if he had anything that would fit the Ethan Hunt character, something that would possibly gestate into a third Mission: Impossible movie, since work on the second film had already begun. He thus reworked a previous script, but then 9/11 occurred, and his work just happened to have a major storyline reminiscent of what took place on that fateful day. The idea was thus shelved.
Script Impossible
Hollywood can be harsh, and, sadly, Trebilcook was never allowed to rework his script into something more acceptable. The movie would also have been his big break, since he had never worked on a blockbuster. Would his movie have been better? Probably! But J.J Abrams’ version is celebrated to this day, and at the time of its release, it was seen as a return to form for the franchise. The movie grossed $400 million, an impressive figure for an espionage-themed movie at the time. Most critics also gave it favorable reviews, resulting in a 71% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
3
Edgar Wright’s ‘Mission: Impossible IV’
Despite the massive success of Mission: Impossible III, J.J. Abrams wasn’t interested in returning, so the hunt for another director began. In 2010, it was announced that Edgar Wright was offered the chance to direct a fourth Mission: Impossible movie, with Andre Nemec and Josh Appelbaum writing the screenplay. For unknown reasons, Wright pulled out, but the screenwriters remained. Brad Bird thus took over, making what would become Ghost Protocol.
No Tears
Like Tarantino, Wright makes way fewer movies than his fans would like, but magic happens whenever he gets to work. It would have been great to see him working with Simon Pegg again. However, it’s hard to label this “what if?” a missed opportunity since Ghost Protocol is one of the most critically acclaimed spy movies of the 21st century. Brad Bird was outstanding, presenting a film that not only ticked all franchise boxes but also offered incredible stunts, notably the Burj Khalifa climb. Additionally, the storytelling and character development were perfect. Many commentators agree that this is when the franchise truly moved to the next level.
2
David Fincher’s ‘Mission: Impossible III’
After his success on Se7en and Fight Club, David Fincher was sought out by Tom Cruise to make a third installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise. According to The Guardian, he was excited and was looking to make the film “really violent.” Unfortunately, he was forced to pull out due to creative differences. During a 2008 MTV interview, he laid everything bare, confessing how he hated third movies and that “people who are financing them are experts on how they should be made and what they should be.” He hated how they “want to get rid of any extraneous opinions,” declaring that he wasn’t “the kind of person who says, ‘Let’s see the last two, I see what you’re going for.”
Ethan Hunt’s Fight Club
Fincher made it clear that he cannot be controlled. It’s either his way or he won’t do it. Still, it’s hard to see how he would have fit into this particular franchise, given that he has never made a pure action movie. Fincher likes dark and artistic thrillers. So, as gifted as he is, his version might not have been received too well by fans.
During an appearance on the Light the Fuse podcast, Tom Cruise took some time to address the Fincher issue, admitting that there are plenty of people he looks forward to working with, only for them to end up not grasping what the franchise is about. About Fincher’s script, he said that it basically “wasn’t kind of embracing what Mission is.” We bet Fincher and Cruise could make a good movie, one that isn’t about Ethan Hunt. But given how things ended up between them in the 2000s, this is unlikely to ever happen.
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1
Joe Carnahan’s ‘Mission: Impossible III’
After Tom Cruise helped Joe Carnahan get Paramount distribution for his crime thriller Narc, he wanted the filmmaker to also scratch his back by directing Mission: Impossible III. According to JoBlo, Carnahan hated John Woo’s Mission: Impossible 2, feeling it was more of a spy movie parody, so he thought of making something that was more “punk rock” and a contemporary version of Marathon Man, only with a little more action. He also wanted it to be set in Africa, with military themes. Unfortunately, he, too, had to quit over creative differences.
The IMF as the A-Team
Part of Carnahan’s frustration stemmed from the fact that there were so many rewrites. When The Shawshank Redemption’s Frank Darabont was also brought in to make more changes, Carnahan felt he had had enough. However, Darabont defended his script, saying it was “much more in line with certain things that are going on in the headlines.” It’s hard to scream “Justice for Carnahan,” considering he hasn’t made many blockbuster movies in his career, but he isn’t a bad director, and he’d likely have made something that was on par with J.J. Abrams’ version in quality.
