Tom Cruise was almost digitally made to look 30 years younger in the opening scene of 'Mission: Impossible-Dead Reckoning'.

Director Christopher McQuarrie has revealed he considered using the "de-ageing" process to make Ethan Hunt look youthful in the flashbacks scenes and a "cold open", however, he wasn't happy with the results.

The filmmaker told GamesRadar: “Originally, there had been a whole sequence at the beginning of the movie that was going to take place in 1989.

“We talked about it as a cold open. We talked about it as flashbacks in the movie. We looked at de-aging.

“One of the big things about [the de-aging] I was looking at while researching, I kept saying, ‘Boy, this de-aging is really good’ or ‘This de-aging is not so good.’ Never did I find myself actually following the story."

He also got "distracted" by the young Ethan.

McQuarrie said: “I was so distracted by an actor that I had known for however long was now suddenly this young person.”

That doesn't mean to say he won't try the method again.

He added: “I cracked the code – I think – on how best to approach it.

“By then, we had kind of moved away from it. We may still play with it. We never say never.”

Meanwhile, Tom amazed his co-stars with his "relaxed" attitude towards his death-defying stunts.

The Hollywood actor is back in action in the seventh film in the series, and he took his love of daredevil sequences to new heights on set - but co-star Hayley Atwell insisted Tom looked like a man who had spent a "lovely day at the beach" instead of doing 29 skydives.

In an interview with Radio Times magazine, she explained: "The thing that surprised me more than anything else is how easy he wears it all. I remember we went over for dinner at his and he comes out and he's like: 'Hey, guys, how you doing?' Sits down, we're chatting about the film, chatting about our day, what we've been up to.

"And we were like, well you know, how was your day? And he's like: 'Yeah, it was good, it was really nice actually, I had a lovely time. I did like 29 skydives I think today.'"

Hayley added that she was gobsmacked by his relaxed attitude towards it all.

She went on: "The ease with which he said that! And also I'm sat there going, you look like a man that's had a lovely day at the beach, you are so relaxed and comfortable in your own skin.

"And you've just done that! And I think it's because he's so disciplined in what he knows that he has to do in order to accomplish these stunts. And [he] has also that real understanding of how to relax and be fearless in it. And that's the thing that I find most inspiring is the lightness with which he wears this all."

The film includes high-octane stunts by Tom including the franchise's most audacious sequence yet which shows the movie star driving a motorcycle off a cliff. The actor is said to have taken part in 500 skydives and 13,000 motocross jumps to prepare for the scene.

In a behind-the-scenes video, Tom revealed how much work he had to put in, saying: "I have to get so good at this that there's just no way that I miss my marks. You train and drill every little aspect over and over and over and over again."

Stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood added: "They were doing 30 jumps a day, getting to the point where he was just a machine."