Mission: Impossible (1996) Paramount/Action RT: 110 minutes Rated PG-13 (language, violence, intense action sequences) Director: Brian De Palma Screenplay: David Koepp and Robert Towne Music: Danny Elfman Cinematography: Stephen H. Burum Release date: May 22, 1996 (US) Cast: Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Beart, Henry Czerny, Jean Reno, Ving Rhames, Kristen Scott Thomas, Vanessa Redgrave, Emilio Estevez, Ingeborga Dapkunaite. Box Office: $180.9M (US)/$457.6M (World)
Rating: *** ½
In terms of TV-to-film adaptations, there have only been three great ones- The Untouchables (1987), The Fugitive (1993) and Mission: Impossible (1996). The TV series was created by Bruce Geller and ran for seven seasons (1966-73). It chronicled the missions of a secret government agency known as the IMF (Impossible Missions Force), an unofficial branch of the CIA. In the movies, the leader of the IMF team is Ethan Hunt (Cruise, The Color of Money) and the first impossible mission is a real doozy. Basically, Hunt is forced to go rogue and flush out a mole who’s trying to sell a list of covert agents to an arms dealer.
The movie opens with a mission in Prague to prevent the sale of the NOC (Non-Official Cover) list which contains the true identities of all secret agents in Eastern Europe. The mission goes horribly wrong and results in the deaths of almost the entire team including the leader Jim Phelps (Voight, Midnight Cowboy). Hunt, the sole survivor of the slaughter, is accused of betraying his team by IMF director Kittridge (Czerny, Clear and Present Danger). It’s obviously a frame job. Somebody went to a lot of trouble making Hunt look like a traitor. Now it’s on him to clear his name by flushing out the real mole.
To do that, he’ll have to strike a deal with Max (Redgrave, Letters to Juliet), the international arms dealer who currently has the list in her possession. She knows the mole’s true identity and will arrange a meeting in exchange for the real NOC list. Hers is a fake; the real one is safely stashed away at CIA headquarters in Langley. It’s not the easiest building in the world to break into. Hunt will need some help. To that end, he recruits two fellow disavowed agents, computer hacker Luther Stickell (Rhames, Pulp Fiction) and skilled pilot Franz Krieger (Reno, Leon the Professional)- to join him on his impossible mission.
I’ve heard people complain that the plot of Mission: Impossible is too convoluted and hard to follow. I’ll grant that you have to pay attention to what’s going on. If you do, you won’t have any problem following the storyline. It’s not one of those simplistic action movies that require minimal attention span if any. The screenplay by David Koepp (Jurassic Park) and Robert Towne (Chinatown) is a complex and intelligent tale of espionage, subterfuge and duplicity.
At the same time, Brian De Palma (The Untouchables) offers up the thrills one expects from an action movie. He brings his characteristic directorial style to the table with a few bravura sequences like the CIA HQ break-in. The tension is positively palpable with Hunt doing double-duty as a hacker and aerialist in a room with multiple security safeguards. The slightest mistake could set off the alarms and blow the entire mission. It had me holding my breath the entire time. The climax, a chase involving a speeding train and a helicopter in a tunnel, is a real piece of work. Okay, the scenes of Hunt and the mole atop the train are obviously CGI, but it doesn’t make it any less exciting. There’s another great scene where Ethan starts to piece everything together in his mind while somebody tells him a completely different (and false) story. It’s cleverly done. The whole movie is a symphony of action and suspense being conducted by a cinematic maestro.
I’m not a particular fan of Tom Cruise. I think he’s highly overrated and too arrogant for his own good. Although he’s turned in a handful of good performances (The Color of Money, Rain Man and A Few Good Men), he’s usually supported by a stronger actor (Paul Newman, Dustin Hoffman and Jack Nicholson) which detracts attention from the one-note actor’s limited thespian skills. I’m not going to lie and say Cruise delivers a brilliant performance in Mission: Impossible, but I will say it’s one of his better ones. Hunt is rather one-dimensional, but this isn’t the kind of film that calls for complex characters. It’s action-driven which means the characters are little more than pieces to be moved around on a chess board. That’s not such a bad thing in a movie as good as Mission: Impossible.
The supporting cast is pretty good. Voight makes a decent stand in for Peter Graves as Jim Phelps. Rhames and Reno are both quite good as the new members of Hunt’s new team. Redgrave underplays it as one of the film’s main villains. She doesn’t tear away at the scenery like most of James Bond’s nemeses. Emilio Estevez, Cruise’s Outsiders co-star who appears uncredited, is a fun addition to the cast as the security systems specialist. He’s the guy with the cool gadgets like the red and green chewing gum that’s really plastic explosive.
There are plenty of cool spy tools in Mission: Impossible, but one mustn’t forget the trademark facial masks that allow agents to pass themselves off as other people in order to elicit information. It’s always cool to see Hunt peel off his mask to a shocked individual who just spilled his guts to an American intelligence agent.
The score by Danny Elfman (Batman) is very good with Lalo Schifrin’s original theme covered by U2 members Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. The movie and music retain the jazzy spirit of the original TV series with the inclusion of 90s technology. De Palma doesn’t stray too far from the original formula yet the movie has a fresh and updated feel to it. He is indeed a filmmaking genius when he wants to be (what happened with The Bonfire of the Vanities?). The first movie is one of the best of the series, seven entries long as of this rewrite. Perhaps Hollywood should call on him the next time they want to do another TV-to-theatrical movie adaptation. Imagine what he could do with The Rockford Files or The Six Million Dollar Man?
