Review of Mission Impossible

Introduction

A relatively recent phenomenon has seen various dusty franchises being resurrected for the large screen, with new casts, new stories and updated for modern audiences. There is a veritable goldmine of material, as the sixties was a period of great innovation in television programming. Cartoons, thrillers, westerns and sci-fi were genres that simply exploded in variety, and film companies in the eighties and nineties saw the possibilities in exploiting these. The Flintstones managed two movies and Mel Gibson breathed new life into Maverick, but one of the bigger franchises was the re-imagining of Lost In Space, and in the spy thriller genre, the Avengers may have fallen flat but the biggest franchise of all is arguably Mission Impossible. Mission Impossible in the sixties was a spies and gadgets television thriller where Peter Graves and a varying assortment of team members would attempt the impossible (naturally) in a varying assortment of scrapes. This concept on the big screen, with a nineties twist could potentially be a Bond beater; it all depended on the cast. With Tom Cruise they could hardly go wrong.

Ethan Hunt`s IMF team is assigned in Prague to contain the escape of a NOC list, which contains the identity of all deep cover agents. They must allow the theft of the precious data and tail the thief so they can discover his contacts and then recover the disc. However matters fall apart when the team members including the team leader and Ethan`s mentor Jim Phelps, are picked off one by one. Ethan escapes alone and contacts his superior Kittridge for help. It transpires that Kittridge is also in Prague and in fact is heading a second IMF team that has been tasked to observe Ethan`s group. One of Ethan`s team is suspected to be a mole, and is selling secrets to the other side. The whole thing has been a sting, with a fake NOC list as the bait. Since Ethan is the sole survivor, Kittridge naturally assumes that he is the traitor and makes it clear to Ethan that the game is up. Ethan realises that he has been set up, and makes his escape so that he can clear his name. On the run and disavowed, Ethan must turn to the wrong side of the law for help. The only way to find the real traitor is to steal the real NOC list and sell it to the traitor`s contact, and smoke the real traitor out.

Video

Mission Impossible is presented on this Paramount disc in an anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer. It`s the standard quality transfer that you would expect from a 1996 movie. The picture is always sharp and clear, not to mention colourful. There may be a slight hint of grain and if there is the occasional fleck of dirt on the print, it`s barely noticeable. Brian De Palma directs this film and from his talent emerges the archetypal spy thriller. The action is frenetic and the moments of subterfuge are suitably spine tingling. The set pieces are fantastic and memorable with some great stunts thrown in for good value, until the implausible ending that is.

Audio

The sound is DD 5.1 English, with subtitles in various Scandinavian tongues as well as English. This is a good expansive surround track that thrusts you into the middle of the action. Explosive stunts aside, little things like the muffled sound when Ethan is speaking inside the call box are well reproduced. The music by Danny Elfman is a brilliant reworking of the original theme to epic scale for the big screen. As soon as the fuse is lit and those familiar chords begin to weave their magic, you are assured that this is the way that the music always was. It`s a bit of a shock to return to the original series afterwards. U2 escapees, Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton (The other two) get to do their stuff with the theme tune and the remixed version made it to #7 in the charts in 1996, long before Limp Bizkit produced their petulant, whiny brat in a supermarket version.

Features

A trailer, this is Paramount after all.

Conclusion

For a summer blockbuster event movie, Mission Impossible breaks the mould to a certain extent, in that it has a semblance of an intelligent script. The events of the late eighties are by and large forgotten as this spy thriller creates an almost nostalgic us versus them scenario, with agents of various sides stealing and selling secrets just like in the good old days of the Cold War. The script changes pace and direction without warning as Ethan Hunt is thrown into the deep end, not knowing who to trust as allegiances change and shift, double crosses become triple crosses and back stabbing is the order of the day. On occasion it`s hard to keep up, and as a result Mission Impossible practically demands a second and even third viewing. What you find is a carefully constructed and watertight plot that only the most diligent of movie minutiae geeks can poke holes in.

Tom Cruise is perfectly cast as Ethan Hunt, and is eminently watchable as he sees his world fall apart around him, and he takes the law into his own hands to clear his name. (No one mention Minority Report Ok) He also makes it through the whole movie while grinning like a gormless idiot, and I`m paraphrasing from the sequel here. Jon Voight is workmanlike as Jim Phelps, but Emmanuelle Beart adds class as the sultry Claire. Brilliant in support are Ving Rhames as master hacker Luther, and Jean Reno as Krieger. There are also brief appearances from Kristin Scott-Thomas, Vanessa Redgrave and an uncredited Emilio Estevez.

Complicated plot aside, Mission Impossible is still an event movie and in the final analysis will be judged more by the strength of the thrills and visuals rather than how thought provoking it is. Fortunately it doesn`t disappoint in this department. The staples of classic Mission Impossible are still here, the disguises and most importantly the tape that self-destructs in five seconds. But this film also sets a few landmark images itself. Ethan Hunt`s escape from the Prague Café is one enduring image from this film, but the standout scene from this film has to be the Langley Vault break in sequence, which has been much imitated and parodied since. However the climactic train sequence raises the most quizzical eyebrows. The unrealistic Channel Tunnel aside (in reality, two tunnels, one in each direction instead of the single tunnel of the movie) as well as the physics defying train top battle, the sheer unlikelihood of a train exceeding, let alone approaching 100 miles per hour on the British mainland is laughable to say the least. But by this point, the film has been so much of an enjoyable experience that I was willing to forgive this final flight of fancy.

Mission Impossible is a great popcorn movie that rises above the competition by virtue of having an intelligent script. Good performances from the cast also make repeat viewings something to look forward to. It`s a shame that Brian De Palma`s witty and intelligent direction was ditched for the sheer action oriented John Woo for the sequel. The flashy imagery and choreographed action of MI: 2 is no match for the original, and having recently endured Die Another Day in the cinema, the original Mission Impossible stands as a shining example of how spy movies can be done well. This bare bones Paramount offering is hardly conducive to an impulse purchase, but careful searching will no doubt find it at a bargain price. It`s well worth two hours of your time.

Anyway the remake bandwagon rolls onto the seventies, which sees the second Charlie`s Angels movie in production, as well as a Starsky and Hutch feature in the pipeline. A grand opportunity for a Man From UNCLE movie seems to have been missed. Oh Well, Dukes of Hazzard anyone?