MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING Was Inspired by Buster Keaton's THE GENERAL and Other Silent Era Films
A couple of months ago, I wrote an article about how Buster Keaton was the Tom Cruise of the silent film era. It’s not hard to see the comparisons between Cruise and Keaton especially with the Mission: Impossible franchise. Well, it turns out that Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning was very much inspired by the films in the silent film era from the likes of Keaton, Harold Llyod, and Charlie Chaplin.
During a Letterbox promo video for Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, director Christopher McQuarrie talked about how the silent-era, slapstick comedy and stunt-driven films inspired the film, most notably, Keaton’s The General. He said:
"We start every single one of these movies going back to Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and we look at Safety Last!, Sherlock Jr., City Lights, Modern Times. The General is the big one. If you watch The General, you'll see that its influence on this movie, in particular, is absolutely evident. The fact that it's 100 years old and it's still regarded as one of the greatest films ever made is — that's another one that's high on the list of tonight's recommended viewing."
It’s really not hard to see the comparison between Dead Reckoning and The General, especially with that climatic train sequence. If you haven’t watched some of those silent films in awhile, they’re worth revisiting! It’s pretty incredible to watch the stunts that they pull off in those films.
Another movie that the director cited was John Frankenheimer's classic 1964 WWII thriller The Train. This is a film that he and Cruise "studied extensively" while developing Dead Reckoning Part One. McQuarrie admitted that he can’t even imagine trying to make that movie with no CGI to help make it happen.
"I don't know how on Earth they ever made that movie. It's truly an extraordinary achievement. Having now done a train sequence, I — if you had handed me that script, I would have run screaming. It's incredible what they pulled off in that era with that technology. It's all practical. It has no CGI. There's multiple train wrecks that — it's the original 'Mission: Impossible.' It's really an incredible movie."
Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One is now playing in theaters. You should watch it if you haven’t already! It’s Grrrrrreat!