Eisenstein salió de Moscú para atender diversas invitaciones a congresos cinematográficos en Europa. La gira lo condujo finalmente a los Estados Unidos, en donde lo esperaba un contrato con la Paramount. Era la época en que Hollywood importaba talentos europeos para satisfacer su creciente demanda de películas. Su experiencia hollywoodense fue un verdadero desastre. A lo largo de 1930, el cineasta y sus colaboradores trabajaron en dos proyectos: Sutter's Gold, un guión original sobre la fiebre del oro en California, y An American Tragedy, una adaptación de la novela homónima de Theodor Dreiser. Desanimados por el rechazo de ambos proyectos, los soviéticos terminaron aceptando la invitación del novelista Upton Sinclair, quien junto con otros intelectuales de izquierda deseaba producir una película sobre México. En 1919, el cineasta había diseñado la escenografía para la puesta en escena de la obra teatral El mexicano, de Jack London. Animado por el apoyo que le ofrecía Sinclair, el director inició la producción de ¡Que viva México! (1930-1932), una de las cintas inconclusas más famosas de la historia del cine, teniendo una influencia decisiva para la creación de una estética fílmica mexicana que tuvo a sus máximos exponentes en el cineasta Emilio Fernández y el fotógrafo Gabriel Figueroa. Eisenstein nunca pudo recuperarse de la tragedia que le significó perder el control sobre ¡Que viva México! enfermo y deprimido, el cineasta se encerró por una temporada y aunque retornó al cine para filmar dos obras maestras más, Alexander Nevsky (1938) y la primera parte de Iván el Terrible (1943-1945), su ánimo nunca pudo recuperarse. Rechazado por el régimen stalinista, el cineasta falleció sin haber visto finalizada la segunda parte de Iván el Terrible y sin haber podido realizar su ambicioso proyecto sobre el país de la primera revolución del siglo veinte.

Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein was born on January 23, 1898 and died on February 11, 1948 in Russian. He was a pioneering Soviet Russian film director and film theorist, often considered to be the "Father of Montage." He is noted in particular for his silent films Strike (1924), Battleship Potemkin (1925) and October (1927), as well as the historical epics  Alexander Nevsky (1938) and Ivan the Terrible (1944, 1958). His work profoundly influenced early filmmakers owing to his innovative use of and writings.

Eisenstein was born in Riga, Latvia but his family moved frequently in his early years, as Eisenstein continued to do throughout his life. Eisenstein's father Mikhail Osipovich Eisenstein was of German-Jewish and Swedish descent and his mother, Julia Ivanovna Konetskaya, was from a Russian Orthodox family. He was born into a middle-class family

At the Petrograd Institute of Civil Engineering, Sergei studied architecture and engineering, the profession of his father. At school with his fellow students however, Sergei would join the military to serve the revolution, which would divide him from his father. In 1918 Sergei joined the Red Army with his father Mikhail supporting the opposite side.

Strike (1925) was Eisenstein's first full length feature film. The Battleship Potemkin (1925) was acclaimed critically worldwide. But it was mostly his international critical renown which enabled Eisenstein to direct October (aka Ten Days That Shook The World) as part of a grand tenth anniversary celebration of the October Revolution of 1917, and then The General Line (aka Old and New).

In late April 1930, Jesse L. Lasky, on behalf of Paramount Pictures, offered him the opportunity to make a film in the United States. He accepted a short-term contract for $100,000 and arrived in Hollywood in May 1930. However, this arrangement failed. Eisenstein's idiosyncratic and artistic approach to cinema was incompatible with the more formulaic and commercial approach of American studios.

Eisenstein and his entourage spent considerable time with Charlie Chaplin, who recommended that Eisenstein meet with a sympathetic benefactor in the person of American socialist author Upton Sinclair. On November 24, Eisenstein signed a contract with the Trust "upon the basis of Eisenstein's desire to be free to direct the making of a picture according to his own ideas of what a Mexican picture should be, and in full faith in Eisenstein's artistic integrity." The contract also stipulated that the film would be "non-political," that immediately available funding came from Mrs. Sinclair in an amount of "not less than Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars," that the shooting schedule amounted to "a period of from three to four months," and most importantly that "Eisenstein furthermore agrees that all pictures made or directed by him in Mexico, all negative film and positive prints, and all story and ideas embodied in said Mexican picture, will be the property of Mrs. Sinclair..." A codicil to the contract, dated December 1, allowed that the "Soviet Government may have the [finished] film free for showing inside the U.S.S.R." Reportedly, it was verbally clarified that the expectation was for a finished film of about an hour's duration.

By December 4, 1930, Eisenstein was en route to Mexico by train, accompanied by Alexandrov and Tisse. Later he produced a brief synopsis of the six-part film which would come, in one form or another, to be the final plan Eisenstein would settle on for his project. The title for the project, ¡Que viva México!, was decided on some time later still. While in Mexico Eisenstein mixed socially with Frida Kahlo, and Diego Rivera. Eisenstein admired these artists as much as Mexican culture in general, and they inspired Eisenstein to call his films "moving frescoes."

With the war approaching Moscow, Eisenstein was one of many filmmakers evacuated to Alma-Ata, where he first considered the idea of making a film about Czar Ivan IV. Eisenstein corresponded with Prokofiev from Alma Ata, and was joined by him there in 1942. Prokofiev composed the score for Eisenstein's film and Eisenstein reciprocated by designing sets for an operatic rendition of War and Peace that Prokofiev was developing. Eisenstein's film, Ivan The Terrible, Part I, was followed by Ivan The Terrible, Part II

Eisenstein's health was also failing: he was struck by a heart attack during the making of this picture, and soon died of another at the age of 50. He is buried at Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.