How Tom Cruise completed changed the dynamic of Mission: Impossible

David Koepp, one of the screenwriters for the original Mission: Impossible, has revealed how the entire format of the movie had to be thrown out the window because of Tom Cruise.

The Mission: Impossible television series featured an ensemble cast of the likes of Greg Morris, Sam Elliott, Peter Graves, Peter Lupus, Martin Landau, Lesley Ann Warren, and Leonard Nimoy.

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When a movie based on the series went into production directed by Brian De Palma, the plan was to make it a team-based spy caper again featuring an array of well-known actors.

READ MORE: Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One review

However, when Cruise came aboard as a producer and won the role of Ethan Hunt, the format was changed so that it focused on him, as he was, at the time, the biggest movie star in the world.

In Mission: Impossible, actors like Jon Voight, Kristin Scott Thomas and Emilio Estevez are seemingly killed off in the opening sequence, leaving Hunt to act alone to clear his name and uncover a conspiracy.

Mission: Impossible format changes

"There's a fundamental flaw in Mission: Impossible as a movie with Tom Cruise, as a concept," Koepp said on the Script Apart podcast.

"It's an idea that should not work. It appears it has , but it is essentially an ensemble, that is its very nature. It's a team movie if it's based on the television show. So, for this ensemble movie, the one piece of casting is the biggest movie star in the world with an incredibly dominant personality.

"So, it's just not going to work, so Brian's idea was 'We have to kill everybody.' And it's a good point. That's his approach on a number of films, but in this one in particular, it really worked. He's like 'Look, it's an ensemble, so we have to start it like an ensemble, kill everybody, so we've only got one left, and he's the star, and let him put together another team. But we'll always orient it around him,' which was a brilliant idea."

The success of the first Mission: Impossible movie spawned a series of sequels; Mission: Impossible 2, Mission: Impossible 3, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation Mission Impossible: Fallout and Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One.

As the franchise has progressed, it has indeed become a more ensemble piece, with the current team consisting of returning characters played by Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg Rebecca Ferguson as well as new recruit Hayley Atwell.