Tom Cruise Can Stand Proud Knowing His Mission Impossible Inspired the Best Splinter Cell Game

Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell franchise is one of the best stealth action-adventure video game series of all time. The series started with 2002’s Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell but undoubtedly, the most important game for the franchise was 2005’s Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory as the game featured new mechanics and improved graphics.

Not just technical improvements, but the game’s sound design and music were also highly impressive for its time. Amon Tobin, the Brazilian musician and composer, explained in a past interview that the game’s music was inspired by the music of Tom Cruise’s 1996 movie, Mission: Impossible.

The Music Of Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Was Inspired By Tom Cruise’s 1996 Hit

In June 2022, PCGamer reached out to Amon Tobin to understand the process of creating the score for 2005’s Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. Tobin explained that the game’s music was inspired by 1996’s Mission: Impossible,

The motivation was to write music that was not typical for a game at the time, in that it took its influence from both vintage film scores (like the work of Mission: Impossible theme composer Lalo Schifrin) and what I was playing at clubs, namely d’n’b – The idea of music intensity adapting to gameplay was also not something that had been technically achievable to the degree we wanted at that moment.

It drew out technical innovation from Ubisoft along with creative challenges, such as making sure individual layers of a composition were as musically compelling as the sum of their parts.

Many segments in the game often felt like a Tom Cruise movie but who can blame Ubisoft? At the time, Cruise was one of the biggest Hollywood stars in the world and the influence of his films was quite evident in video games.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Was A Massive Hit

The game’s director, Clint Hocking, explained in the same interview that he often worked 80 hours a week to make sure the game turned out the way he wanted it to be. For him, it was all worth it as he said,

I’d only been making games for three years. I didn’t realize how much trouble I’d put myself in – I sometimes question whether it was really worth it. In the end, I feel like it was. I’m very proud of it and it’s something I’ll be proud of for the rest of my life.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory took three years to develop but the efforts of developers at Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Milan paid off as the game was a commercial success, selling 2.5 million units across all platforms within a month of its release. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest video games ever made and it also played a key role in laying down the foundation of the franchise.