The idea of the central plot device for the latest Mission: Impossible movie had its genesis five years ago, according to writer/director Christopher McQuarrie. When deciding where to go next, they knew they were running out of options. He tells Collider:
“We’ve done nuclear threats, we’ve done chemical threats, biological threats, you did the Rabbit’s Foot, and God knows what threat that was. In trying to keep it fresh, we were looking outward, and the big conversation I had with Tom [Cruise] very early on was about technology, information technology, and what, now, everyone is talking about is AI.”
He said memories of the Cold War helped inform on the feel for the movie, recalling how the threat of nuclear annihilation was very real, and you could feel the impact on society.
McQuarrie likens this to the current situation with AI and its potential threat:
“I felt, in the zeitgeist, this anxiety about technology and what and how technology was beginning to influence our lives, and how do we take that anxiety that the audience is bringing to the movie and give them a release? That’s really what the movie boils down to.”
He says by the time the second part of the story rolls around in Dead Reckoning – Part Two, they will touch on things that have lately become prescient, stating they:
“…will freak you out”.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One lands in theaters on July 12th.
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