De acordo com esta entrevista com Robert Towne ele teve uma boa relação de trabalho com Tom Cruise (eles já trabalharam juntos antes, no primeiro Missão Impossível e Dias do Trovão ).
Em relação ao roteiro, ele disse:
... by the time I got involved, there were certain action pieces around
which the story had to be written, or, at the very least, the story
couldn’t interfere with the action pieces ...
... [John Woo's] action sequences are carefully choreographed. They were there. And the story, at the point that I came along, was not there to support the action.
mas
It took three drafts. The first draft was creaky because trying to make the action look as if it flows from character is very hard. It didn’t work the first time, and it didn’t work the second time.
But for some reason the third draft, I remember getting about twenty-five to thirty pages into it and thinking, “Well, I don’t know where we’re going but I know that, at least from my point of view, this is going to work.” And we all felt that this draft worked.
It had a level of—I really don’t want to say reality— but it seemed organic, it started happening. And then suddenly it was fun, and I felt good about it.
Ele e Tom Cruise realmente conversaram sobre ideias para uma sequência quando fizeram a primeira Missão Impossível juntos. Clique no link acima e este , para mais informações.