Mission: Impossible

An artificial intelligence threatens humanity. It is the plot of the seventh Mission: Impossible and the precept of the director’s unfilmed Superman.

Christopher McQuarrie, director of the last three Mission: Impossible films and the next sequel, worked with Henry Cavill on the sixth entry in the franchise, Fallout. During the filming, the two discussed ideas on a sequel to Man of Steel. Before the release of Fallout, McQuarrie made a verbal pitch to Warner Bros. executives for the Superman film and submitted a written proposal for a Green Lantern (which would have reportedly starred Tom Cruise as Hal Jordan).

McQuarrie said on Twitter, “It (Green Lantern) tied into the Superman movie that Cavill and I were proposing. No takers. The studios have never cared for my original ideas. They prefer that I fix their broken ones.” In another post, McQuarrie wrote, “They never said no. They just never moved on it. This was just before Fallout was released. And no, I would not reconsider. There are too many other things I want to do.”

In 2018, during the promotion of Fallout, Cavill told Fandom that he wanted Brainiac to be the villain of his Superman sequel. Cavill said, “I think a great villain would be Brainiac, that'd be a good villain to play against." Brainiac is an alien or cyborg with telepathic or technopathic abilities. He has green skin, and he travels the galaxy in a skull-shaped ship, collecting artifacts and specimens from different worlds. He would be like an interstellar fanboy collector. Brainiac first appeared in comics in 1958. During the late '90s, due to the popularity of Superman: The Animated Series, Brainiac rose to fame with younger generations and became a favorite villain of Superman fans.

In 1996, Kevin Smith wrote a Superman script featuring Brainiac. Tim Burton was brought on to direct. The movie was canceled in 1998 after the script rewrites under Burton became too bizarre and expensive to shoot. Following the inaction of Warner Bros. on the Superman pitch, McQuarrie moved on to co-write and direct the seventh and eighth Mission Impossible entries; seeming to take the premise of Brainiac as a Kryptonian super computer, and applying it in a more grounded way to the spy franchise starring Tom Cruise.

In Mission: Impossible, in theaters now, Tom Cruise is up against an artificial intelligence that has become self-aware and self-preserving. It infiltrates financial systems and intelligence databases around the world, but it carries out no attacks – it simply does it to send a message about its power. Every military power in the world is trying to find its source code, so they can control the AI. That source code is locked in a vault that requires two keys. The vault is on a submarine that the AI sinks to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean in the cold open of the movie to protect itself.

Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is sent by the US government to locate one of the keys. When Hunt learns of the existential danger posed by the AI and his government’s intent to use it to control the world and wage preemptive wars, Hunt takes the key that he has captured and goes rogue. Hunt plans to use his key to locate the second key and destroy the AI. Dead Reckoning ends on a cliffhanger. The story will be continued in the eighth film in 2024.

Viewing Dead Reckoning, knowing that McQuarrie pitched a sequel to Man of Steel with a villain that is an artificial intelligence, one has to wonder how much of the plot of Dead Reckoning is drawn from the ideas for Man of Tomorrow. McQuarrie was looking to explore, as he has done with Dead Reckoning, a classic sci-fi narrative – the threat of AI.

McQuarrie has crafted, with Dead Reckoning, a modern take on artificial intelligence. Rather than the story focusing on how the AI could start a nuclear war; the fear in Dead Reckoning is the power of the AI to change the truth. It could alter intelligence databases or erase everything. It plays with the current political discussion of how AI could be used to create fake speeches or fake videos, cloning a person’s likeness and voice, and portraying them as supporting something they do not or simply creating content that damages them. What is true and what is not has become an obsessive debate in politics.

Related: 20 Movies Like Mission Impossible to Watch Next

Christopher McQuarrie’s Superman was intended to tie into his proposal for Green Lantern. The film would have set up the Lanterns and furthered the shared universe’s story revolving around the New Gods and Darkseid. The Lanterns are integral to the understanding of these other cosmic characters, and they were going to be involved in the battle against Darkseid in the Justice League sequels.

The Green Lanterns are an intergalactic peacekeeping force. The Lanterns wear rings which allow the wearers to manifest constructs from their imagination that they use to fight against evil in the universe, including other Lantern Corps. The rings themselves have artificial intelligence, and are extremely advanced technology that links directly to the minds of the Lanterns who wear them.

McQuarrie would have brought on his long-time creative partner, Tom Cruise, for the role of Hal Jordan. Hal is a pilot who is chosen to be the herald of a Lantern ring belonging to a dying Lantern named Abin Sur. The Green Lantern movie, like Top Gun: Maverick, would have certainly involved Cruise flying in real jets, as he did in 2022’s blockbuster, which earned $1.45 billion at the box office.

The image we are getting of the DCU that was not, is of a franchise that would have drawn almost two billion dollars at the box office with the Superman and Green Lantern movies. Instead, Maverick and Dead Reckoning picked up the themes and action sequence concepts that Warner turned down, and Warner has not seen a DC movie with a box office result of over $400 million since Aquaman in 2018.

Related: 13 Best Movies About Sentient Artificial Intelligence

Zack Snyder’s Justice League ends with Martha Kent moving back into her home, and Lois Lane pregnant with Clark’s child. Jumping forward a few years, as it would be a few years from now if we get to come back to Cavill’s Superman, Lois and Clark have likely moved to Smallville to raise their children. Their son would be at least five, and Lois might be pregnant again. Clark would still be wearing the silver and black Superman suit, and his hair would be long, like in the comics in the period after his resurrection.

The film would begin in the shadow of Darkseid’s inevitable attack. Clark is more vulnerable than ever before. He has a child, and a second baby due soon. He would have everything to lose to Darkseid. With this threat looming, Clark should be training to fight with Bruce Wayne. Darkseid has lived for thousands of years and has fought in wars. Superman is inexperienced at fighting adversaries who are as powerful as him. When he fought Zod and Doomsday, neither had a full grasp of their powers. Bruce could use kryptonite to depower Clark, and expose his weaknesses in his techniques and his strategies.