Josh Holloway's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol Death Was Almost Way More Gruesome

It might not have been proven with exact science, but it's a safe bet to say that the "Mission: Impossible" franchise has run purely on the adrenaline coursing through Tom Cruise's veins. Dancing with danger in every chapter, the close calls his impossible-mission-completing hero, Ethan Hunt, has experienced have raised enough pulses to make smartwatches check if you're okay. Even with all these death-defying antics, however, there has been a surprisingly small amount of gore for those who didn't quite make it. Emilio Estevez got kebab'd and Henry Cavill took a propeller to his almost $3 million mustache, but one character that nearly had what might've been one of the worst deaths in the franchise was Josh Holloway's as one of the briefly seen IMF agents, Trevor Hanaway, in "Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol."

In a recent interview, the former "Lost" star explained that the exit of his character in the fourth film was going to be far more cold-hearted, mainly because his was fully exposed. Appearing on "The Julia Cunningham Show," Holloway revealed, "In the original script, Paula Patton comes out and finds me dying, but I'm not dead yet. And then I start to whisper her the codes and I die. So she has to cut me open, put her hand up in my heart, re-pump my heart, and make me come back alive. Then I tell her the codes, and she lets me die again." Sounds grim, right? That's precisely why Holloway's double-offing didn't make it to the final cut.

While the franchise has certainly had flashes of blood and gristle, Holloway's breakdown clearly shows that seeing his character die, live, and then die again might have been pushing things just a little too far. According to the ex-IMF agent, though, the scene was entirely shot, and a "full body cast" was even made to shoot with.

"We filmed it," revealed Holloway. "We did that and, after they watched it, they said, 'It's just too harsh,' and, 'The audience is going to hate Paula because she revives you to get information, and then lets you die again, and you're supposed to be in love.'" It was a view that even the star that was set to endure the big screen exit admitted might've been too much: "Right. Thanks a lot. Revive me just to get the information, you know?"

It certainly feels like a smart move from director Brad Bird, who, by making calls like this, inadvertently set the tone for what would send the "Mission: Impossible" franchise in the direction it is now. There's no room for bleak and bloody instances with makeshift heart surgery, especially when it would take up valuable time needed to get Tom Cruise hanging off the Burj Khalifa and breathing new life into the star's already incredible career. Quite frankly, that was heart-pumping enough.