Uncharted 2 Director Calls Out Mission Impossible 7 for Copying Game

One of the directors behind Uncharted 2 had some choice words about Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 copying the hit PlayStation game. 

The Tom Cruise-led Mission Impossible 7 is now playing in theaters, earning near-universal acclaim from critics and audiences alike. 

The film present het another globe-trotting adventure, built on the back of some eye-popping set pieces for Cruise's Ethan Hunt to maneuver. 

At the heart of this adventure is the much-talked-about motorcycle cliff jump (which Cruise actually did) and a nail-biting climb up a dangling train car that may seem familiar to fans of Naughty Dog's Uncharted series.

Uncharted Director Calls Out Mission Impossible 7

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves game director Bruce Straley called out Mission Impossible 7 for copying the famous dangling train sequence from the 2009 PlayStation 3 game. 

Straley took to Twitter, posting a few images comparing Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt hanging from the train car seen in the film to Uncharted's Nathan Drake doing the same. The Uncharted co-director accompanied the pictures with the caption, "the sincerest form of flattery" with an assumed wink and a nod. 

This is a play on the turn of phrase 'imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,' as the former Naughty Dog employee called to attention just how close the sequence from the film and the sequence from the game played out. 

This is not the first time the two franchises have been tied up together. Mission Impossible (MI) 5, 6, and 7 director Christopher McQuarrie previously said (via Eurogamer) the Uncharted games were an inspiration for the modern MI films.

While promoting 2015's Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, the director cited Uncharted 3 as a primary influence for the plane scene in which Tom Cruise hung from the outside of a jet that opens that film. 

Uncharted 3 co-director Justin Richmond responded positively to this mention, tweeting a simple "you just made my month" in response to McQuarrie's shout-out. 

Why Did Mission Impossible Copy Uncharted?

Fans of the Uncharted franchise will find this Mission Impossible back-and-forth quite funny, as the Naughty Dog-developed treasure-hunting quadrilogy prides itself on taking influence from some of the biggest names in big-screen entertainment. 

So, to see the tables turn now and have a movie franchise as beloved as Mission Impossible take some cues from the world of Nathan Drake, is quite amusing. 

While it remains unknown if, in fact, Tom Cruise and Cristopher McQuarrie actually pulled this Dead Reckoning Part 1 tain scene from Uncharted 2, it is hard to deny the similarities between the two. 

Why not riff on such a sequence? The Uncharted 2 train setpiece became iconic after that game's release in 2009. So, the Mission Impossible 7 team could have done a lot worse when it came to inspiration when they were developing their new film.

 And with an Uncharted 2 film starring Tom Holland potentially on the way, it would be interesting if that movie did this train sequence yet again on the big screen, as Sony Pictures could bring the Among Thieves story to life for moviegoers everywhere. 

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 is in theaters now, and Uncharted 2 can be played by way of the Uncharted: Nathan Drake Collection on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.