Believe it or not the Mission: Impassible franchise has not always been on the big screen. From 1966 until 1975 Mission: Impossible was a very successful television series which starred legendary actors and actresses such as Steven Hill, Peter Graves, Lesley Ann Warren and even Leonard Nimoy. While only one of the characters ever made an appearance in the films the franchise has since taken off to become one of the most successful of all time. With the sixth feature film being released today I wanted to take a look back at the first five and give just a taste on what the film is about and what I thought about it; I do plan on going into full reviews of the movies but that will happen at a later date. I DO NOT OWN THE PICTURE.
Mission: Impossible. Released in 1996, original Mission: Impossible character Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) gathers a team of agents of the Impossible Mission Force (IMF) for their latest mission: recovering a CIA non-official cover letter. Among the agents on Phelps team is his wife Claire (Emmanuelle Béart) and Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise). However the mission turns into a tragedy. All of the agents except for Hunt are killed by unknown assassins. Meeting with IMF Director Kittridge (Henry Czerny) Hunt learns the mission was a set up to lure out a mole in the IMF connected to an arms dealer known as “Max” (Vanessa Redgrave). Being the only survivor the IMF believe Hunt is the mole. On the run to clear his name Hunt recruits other burned IMF agents Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), a computer expert and Franz Krieger (Jean Reno). While on the mission Hunt discovers the identity of the real mole, and must come face to face with the traitor. While fans of the original series may not have liked the film (I know original cast members were greatly upset), it was still a fantastic start. Tom Cruise was already a mega star prior to this, but I think Mission: Impossible took Tom to another level. He did his own stunts which made the film even more compelling to watch; the iconic scene of Hunt in the CIA says a lot. While I do not think it has been the best of the movies the first Mission: Impossible helped kick off not just this franchise but another set of action films.
Mission: Impossible 2. Released in 2000, an IMF agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) has gone rouge and killed the scientist with a cure to a very deadly virus created by Bioctye Pharmaceuticals. As the scientist was an old friend of Ethan’s the IMF wants him to go after Ambrose. Ethan assembles a team of his friend Luther and pilot Billy Baird (John Poison) while the IMF wants him to recruit Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandie Newton) a thief with a connection to Ambrose; Ethan does and becomes very close to her. With the threat of the virus being released and Ambrose blackmailing Bioctye CEO into giving him stocks in exchange for the cure Hunt and his team need to work fast. I know this is often regarded as the worst of the Mission films due to its story, and while I agree the story is very weak the action almost makes up for it. Watching Ethan in the beginning of the film climbing is both exciting and terrifying to watch; in addition to the motorcycle chase. Mission: Impossible 2 might not be the absolute best of the franchise, but it is still a good watch.
Mission: Impossible III. Released in 2006, Ethan has since retired as a field agent and is looking to settle down with his new wife Julia Meade-Hunt (Michelle Monaghan). Julia has no idea of Ethan’s past as an agent or his current job of training others to be in the field. However IMF Operations Director John Musgrave (Billy Crudup) informs Ethan that of his students Lindsey Farris (Kerri Russell) has been taken by arms dealer Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Along with his team of Luther, Declan Gormley (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and Zhen Lei (Maggie Q) Ethan rescues Lindsey, but they are too late to stop an implant in her head from killing her. Hunt is reprimanded for this by IMF director Theodore Brassel (Laurence Fishburne). Using recovered laptops IMF tech Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) determines Davian is looking for something called the Rabbit’s Foot, and someone high up in the IMF is helping him. When Julia is captured Ethan becomes determined to stop Davian. While the story is not really memorable there is plenty of action and stunts to leave any action fan very happy. This was also the debut of one of the film’s most popular characters in Benji and the films have been a bit more light hearted since; let’s be honest most of the time when Ethan does something crazy Benji says exactly what we’re thinking. It was also great to see a more romantic and personal side of Ethan; while he did have a love interest in the previous film I felt like Tom and Michelle had better chemistry in this one. Overall I think of Mission: Impossible III as the good middle film of the franchise; not great but bot bad.
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Released in 2011 Ethan, after escaping from a prison he deliberately put himself in, teams with new field agent Benji and agent Jane Carter (Paula Patton) on their latest assignment: infiltrating the Kremlin and steal back Russian nuclear launch codes that were stolen by an assassin Sabine Moreau (Léa Seydoux) to give to someone named “Cobalt”. However the mission ends badly when a bomb destroys most on the Kremlin and Ethan is captured. After managing to get away the IMF informs Ethan they had no choice but to activate the Ghost Protocol; disavowing the IMF. Secretly ordered to continue the mission Hunt, Benji, Carter and former field agent now intelligent analyst William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) must stop “Cobalt”, identified as Kurt Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist), a nuclear strategist, from starting a nuclear war between Russia and the U.S. Meanwhile we learn why Brandt is not a field agent and what that has to do with Ethan. This is when I was starting to get into the Mission: Impossible franchise, or at least when I really started to question Tom Cruise’s sanity. For those who haven’t seen the film let me explain: at one point they are filming in Dubai and Cruise is literally climbing and hanging off the Burj Khalifa aka the tallest building in the world! I think my exact reaction was myself repeating “Tom Cruise you are crazy!” Regardless of the insanity the film was fantastic and, if I may be so bold, revitalized the Mission franchise when it came to action and storytelling.
Mission: Impossible – Rouge Nation. Released in 2015 Ethan has been on the hunt (no pun intended) for a criminal organization known as the Syndicate despite the CIA insisting it doesn’t exist. Meanwhile CIA director Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) succeeds in shutting down the IMF due to its destructive methods among other controversial issues. Hunley makes it clear to Brandt, now the Field Operations Director, that he wants Ethan back. Forced to become a fugitive Ethan along with Luther, Brandt, Benji have to prove the Syndicate is real and get the IMF back. They get help from within the Syndicate in undercover MI6 agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson). The team discovers the origins of the criminal organization and just who the leader, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) really is. When I saw the trailer for this film I once again questioned Cruise’s sanity. From him deep diving and holding his breath for six minutes to him hanging off of a plane (as. it. is. taking. off.) my thoughts were: “what’s next?” I know I should not have been surprised by Cruise and yet my jaw was on the floor; once again Benji was me throughout the movie. I think so far this has been the best Mission: Impossible to date, but we are not done yet.
The sixth film, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, is now out in theaters and I am completely excited. I’m glad to see the team of Ethan, Luther, Benji, Ilsa and even Hunley as well as returning favorite Julia. While I am a little disappointed Renner will not be in the film due to his commitment to the Avengers franchise, I am also excited to see what the new characters will bring; Angela Bassett as the new CIA director Erica Sloane and the mustached Henry Cavill as August Walker, a CIA assassin (let’s hope this was worth the freaky mouth in Justice League). Your mission, should you choose to accept it, watch the Mission: Impossible franchise.
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