Long before the development of a Splinter Cell movie starring Tom Hardy got greenlit and subsequently shelved, there was a haphazardly stitched together CGI trailer tucked inside the menus of the 2005 classic, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory.
Prepare to be blown away
At the time, Splinter Cell was at the top of its game, and Chaos Theory was the most ambitious entry in the series to-date. Graphically, it was an exemplary showcase of the original Xbox's power. In terms of multiplayer, it featured an online co-op and versus mode that were both fantastic in their own right, and despite broadband internet being fairly unreliable at the time, managed to deliver a unique experience that really set it apart from the online games of the day. All of this to say, 2005 was when Splinter Cell was in its best position to make the transition over to the big screen.
In seemed highly plausible that a Splinter Cell movie could be in the works. There had already been several movie-adaptations of Tom Clancy novels, and Splinter Cell seemed to have enough substance to provide an engaging action movie experience. Between the games and novels was plethora of source material to tap into, and the character of Sam Fisher was and still is multi-dimensional enough to make for a charismatic action hero. It was definitely looking like they had everything needed to move forward. So what went wrong?
Well, nothing came of it, and as time went on it became more clear as to why. In hindsight, the original teaser trailer should have been a red flag that Ubisoft did not actually have a plan, especially since the only recognizable on-screen performance was of a very CGI Sam Fisher, rather than an actual human acting in front of a camera. The cringe-worthy dialogue paired with its student-film level of quality had me originally thinking that development was too early on to provide any details, but now I'm fairly convinced that they were simply putting out a teaser for a teaser for a film that had not been thought out in the slightest.
While the Tom Hardy-led Splinter Cell movie carried some legitimacy, having had at one point a director and writer attached to it, that didn't seem to be enough to move it forward and prevent its inevitable damnation to development hell. Perhaps a Splinter Cell movie is just not meant to be. Though if I'm being honest, it's probably for the best. I would hate to see yet another hail-mary attempt at resuscitating a game franchise's movie aspirations at the expense of my childhood.