What Makes the Mission Impossible Films So Good?

Tom Cruise is Back as Ethan Hunt. What Makes This Series Tick?

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning came out this week and all signs point to another big summer blockbuster for Tom Cruise delivering. Here is the trailer:

If you’ve never seen one, you can basically sum it up as “just another summer spy action movie” and yet there are some things that completely set it apart from other typical spy series like James Bond or Jason Bourne.

We at PurpleAmerica dove into what sets the Mission Impossible Series apart:

1. The set up. “You’re mission if you choose to accept it…” Going back to the 1960’s television show with Peter Graves, you always look forward to the debrief scene where a voice on a recording gives background on the basis of the plot. The way they always seem to go about getting these little recordings and the cheesy lines they give back to one another are always a source of amusement that drops you right into the middle of a story already moving forward at full speed.

2. No real love interest. Most action films (or more to the point, films in general) usually require a love interest for the hero. There has to be some level of stakes for the hero that makes it personal. With Bond, there are a long list of women that they’ve become their own genre. Aside from a plot point in M:I3 where Ethan Hunt got married, there really isn’t a love interest. Sure, there are women in M:I films, but they are more often the femme fatale type. Quite often they’re competitors to Hunt, like Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa, or a courier/seller of some kind like M:I Ghost Protocol’s Lea Seydoux.¹ They aren’t there for Ethan, they’re there as characters with their own agency and agenda meant to forward the plot. They may hint at a love interest or attraction, but nothing usually comes of it.

3. Stunt sequences. Bar none, the Mission Impossible series excels because all of the action sequences are impeccably choreographed and expertly filmed. This goes back to the very first Mission Impossible directed by Brian De Palma; an intense scene with Tom Cruise dangling from the ceiling requiring complete silence as the environment, a duplicitous accomplice and nauseous interloper constantly interrupt him remains the template for the series. Every film in the series contains an amazing action sequence that defies expectation and overdelivers. Bond and Bourne have their stunts too, but they are typically smaller in scope and imagination. Ethan Hunt hanging off the side of an airplane in flight or trying to avoid falling from the Burj Khalifa; try picturing someone contemplating that trying to convince the person playing Bond or to Matt Damon to do it.² To be sure, Bourne had some great stunts and chases too, but those were more the product of great direction, camerawork and editing. Bond is all about showing this cool, collected unflappable character working through a ridiculously convoluted situation. With the M:I films, it’s more about putting Cruise in some insane, over the top situation out of his control, and watching him improv his way through it completely on the fly. At this point it should be stressed, where most action films these days use CGI, the M:I films pride themselves in using actual live stunt coordination and Cruise relishes doing the actual stunts.³

4. The explanation. The sequence, again in every film, is always EXPLAINED before it occurs. There is an intricate plan that involves immaculate timing, precise actions and an impractical level of coordination that would overwhelm the best planners in the world. Often the explanation includes graphics and/or a depiction of the way it is “supposed” to go. This makes it very easy to follow what is going on as it is happening and pay particular attention to where deviations occur.

5. Plans ALWAYS fall apart. One of the great things about these films are watching how the plans NEVER go according to plan. Mistakes raise the tension, relationships raise the stakes, falling behind increases the speed/delivery and assumptions always end up changing the course of what you thought was going to happen.

6. Incredibly immemorable villains. Bond films are more like contests; who’s better? Bond or the Bad Guy? And to be a Bond Villain is to completely chew the scenery as a villain. Its a huge honor and actors make the most of it to make it an experience to remember. Bond Villains are often more charismatic than Bond is and the quality of the film almost entirely relies on the quality of the villain. Bourne films were about Bourne working against the shady CIA organization that turned him into an assassin. With M:I, you’re given a brief description of who the bad guy is (usually in the set up) and he just becomes this guy in the background pulling strings. Its the McGuffins in the movies that take precedence; in M:I it was the “NOC List,” in M:I2 it was the virus and its antidote, and so on. Stopping the villain, who is almost an afterthought in many of the films is less important that stopping the catastrophe. Of course, there is always an eventual confrontation; action movies have to end somewhere. However, by the time we get to that point, the major threat has been all but thwarted and getting the villain is almost anti-climactic.

7. Double crosses. A common theme from the very first MI has been the use of masks that magically transform anyone so they can look like anyone else. It’s a nice gimmick. You can never be too sure the person talking is the person you assume it is, and can always be surprised when it turns out that it isn’t.

8. Ving Rhames. Rhames is the most underused actor on the planet. Everything I have ever seen him in I have enjoyed. Just that voice— if they sold Arby’s at the concession stand I would buy a double roast beef sandwich half way through every Ving Rhames movie. Going back to the original Mission Impossible, he’s sarcastic, cynical and still likeable in the role.

9. The other supporting actors. Bond always plays off the prescribed partner in the formulaic scene, whether it’s M, Moneypenny, Q or most likely, the villain. Bourne doesn’t really interact with anyone much, its everyone else talking ABOUT Bourne that draws you in. The one time they tried to do a Mission Impossible film without interesting support (M:I2) it was the weakest outing. You need interesting characters to play off of Cruise’s Hunt. Ving Rhames’ Luther Stickel was always a more quiet character but a helpful one. In Ghost Protocol, the series added Simon Pegg as excellent comic relief. That one also included great outings for Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner and the result was one of the strongest outings. Recent movies have included Rebecca Ferguson which added a layer of intrigue. The more interesting people you put around Hunt, the better the movies get.

10. Tom Cruise. You may think of him as an odd couch-jumping, self indulgent scientologist but he’s still the biggest action movie star on the planet and still charming as hell. Based on the huge results of Top Gun: Maverick last summer people still want to see him too, even at the age of 61 (although he barely looks 40). He brings a real personality to the role and whereas most action stars go through the hoops of an action movie as unstoppable forces of nature, Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is more flawed, prone to mistakes and improvising on the fly after something goes wrong. It all makes him more relatable in the role. In addition, when you visually see Cruise doing all of the stuntwork, there are real stakes that you can’t help but get roped into (admittedly, they can just CGI his face onto a stuntman, but it wouldn’t feel the same as watching him hang on by his fingernails on the side of the worlds tallest building). All in all, the Mission Impossible films wouldn’t be much without Cruise, and he is still a big reason to watch them.

PurpleAmerica Cultural Corner

In terms of the quality of each of the films, here is the order I would put each of the Mission Impossible films (new film not included).

1. Mission Impossible: Fallout. It’s great fun and the culmination of a multi-film plot. Henry Cavill (Superman!) also made a GREAT bad guy.

2. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Did I tell you about that scene at the Burj Khalifa?

3. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. Sean Harris may have been the best mastermind of the entire series, but its the constant chases and traps that you can’t take your eyes off of.

4. Mission Impossible. The original was a little confusing at first, but that CIA sequence De Palma filmed was amazing. On repeated viewings, when you have time to soak in what is actually happening it made much more sense and was much more enjoyable. Still loses points for the helicopter in the chunnel though.

5. Mission Impossible 3. This was the film that changed the trajectory of the series for the better. Each one after that has been excellent.

6. Mission Impossible 2. Too convoluted a plot and only Cruise’s Hunt to root for.

PurpleAmerica’s Obscure Fact of the Day

Of the six Mission Impossible movies released to date, none have grossed less than $134 million and half of them have grossed over $200 million.

The most successful? The most recent, Mission Impossible: Fallout. That was also the best of them.

PurpleAmerica’s Final Word on the Subject

Well, we have to give it to Tom on this one.

https://m.facebook.com/officialtomcruise/videos/855484715653205/

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Footnotes and Fun Stuff

1. Who would go onto star in two James Bond films, Spectre and No Time to Die.

2. Matt Damon has a great anecdote about when he asked Tom Cruise how the studio OKed him to do that stunt scene in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

3. Which don’t always work in his favor. While filming Mission Impossible: Fallout, he broke his leg in a stunt jumping from one building to another.