How did ‘Mission: Impossible’ turn into our best franchise?
Continuing our look at the summer of 1996.
It’s May 1996. The big release that weekend is Brian De Palma’s Mission: Impossible. It’s based on a show that was originally produced well before my time, with a 1980s revival I never watched. As a sheltered teenager, I’m not familiar with De Palma’s filmography, besides the fact that I know Carrie exists and I once watched The Untouchables on CBS with my grandparents. Going to see Mission: Impossible is obligatory; I’m doing it because Friday night is movie night and Tom Cruise is the world’s biggest star. For some reason, I have the cassette single (remember that?) of The Edge’s take on the iconic theme song, but that’s as deep as my knowledge of the franchise goes.
I like the movie just fine, I guess. I leave a bit bummed that Emilio Estevez’s character died in the first 15 minutes and I don’t want to admit that I spent much of the film confused by the script’s convoluted plotting. But the Langley break-in was fun, there was a cute girl in it and walking out to that theme song sure didn’t hurt. I think I eventually bought my the film on VHS, although I don’t remember giving it much of a rewatch. Four years later, as a 20-something who thought himself a cineaste because he’d seen a John Woo movie, Mission: Impossible 2 would be more my speed.
It’s July 2018. Mission: Impossible - Fallout is released on my birthday. This is obligatory, but not for the same reasons as the first movie. This isn’t marketing; this is all me. I simply cannot wait to see what Tom Cruise and director Chris McQuarrie have in store for Ethan Hunt’s sixth go-round. I tell my wife that it is essential that we get a babysitter and go see this opening night; I don’t want a press screening, I want to see this with a packed audience. I spend the film with a goofy smile on my face, and I burst into raucous applause and laughter about four times during the film’s insane climax. The credits roll, the theme song bursts out and my only question is when can I see this again. This is truly our best ongoing franchise.
How the hell did this happen?
An unassuming hit
When Mission: Impossible was released in 1996, it was a hit but far from a sensation. The third-highest grossing film of the year, no one could accuse it of being a bomb. It grossed $180 million domestically, which was great, but it was $60 million less than Twister brought in; it grossed $100 million less than the year’s top grosser, Independence Day, which we’ll get to in a few weeks. Critically, it was respected but not beloved. At 66%, it actually has the franchise’s second-lowest ranking on Rotten Tomatoes, only above the second installment and a far cry from the 90-percentile ratings that would eventually hit Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation and Fallout (your usual disclaimer that RT ratings actually mean very little).
So what happened? Did someone figure out the franchise halfway through, the same way the Fast and Furious movies did? Or was something seeded in DePalma’s entry that deserves to be acknowledged?
The answer is: a little bit of both.
A mess with potential
Mission: Impossible isn’t a great film, but it’s an extremely watchable one. Cruise’s first go-round as Ethan Hunt finds the character as a relatively young recruit, tossed into confusion when the majority of his team is killed during a mission in Prague that leaves him the main suspect. Hunt tries to prove his innocence by stealing a list of agent code names from the CIA vault in Langley in order to secure a meeting with the mole who betrayed him. It sounds simple, but the screenplay by David Koepp and Robert Towne makes it as complex and convoluted as possible, with twists and turns that don’t make a ton of logical sense and an emotional reveal at the end that never quite works because it’s tied to a sex scene that was filmed but then edited out.
It doesn’t quite matter. The plot may be a mess, but it dutifully propels Cruise from set piece to set piece. While the stunts are much smaller than they would eventually become, there’s a cool dash from an exploding aquarium, a suspenseful mission gone wrong, and the Langley heist, which is still one of the most exquisitely filmed sequence in the franchise. The only bit that doesn’t work is the film’s Chunnel climax, filled with preposterous green screen work, although I assume that no amount of CGI could make the sight of Jon Voight using suction cups to climb across a train believable.
From the start, several hallmarks of the series are in place. First and foremost, of course, are the masks that would show up in nearly every installment. In the first, though, I appreciate that there are several sequences where De Palma applies heavy makeup to Cruise (rather than use the regular actor until the reveal). It feels old school and theatrical, grounding to the proceedings. There’s also the high-tech gadgets which, as happens, haven’t aged the best, but they still get the job done. And then there’s the stunts. Like I said, they’re a bit low-key compared to what comes next, but it’s still a great deal of fun to watch Cruise dangle from the roof of that vault and flail around just inches from the floor.
One thing that the franchise had going for it early on was its auteur touch. Mission: Impossible still feels less like a Tom Cruise showcase and more like an opportunity to give De Palma his own big-budget sandbox to play in. The director’s Hitchcock love is in full swing here, and I love the way De Palma uses canted angles to suggest Hunt’s growing confusion and suspicion (a far cry from when Kenneth Branagh used them in Thor to show “hey! I know what a canted angle is!”). De Palma generates suspense in the Langley sequence with silence and closeups rather than gunfights and explosions, and it’s still a mark the franchise has rarely matched. A late sequence, where we get a glimpse into Ethan’s mind as he puts together the pieces of the conspiracy, is clever, although cuts to the film removed much of the emotional connection between Cruise and Emmanuelle Beart’s character, causing this to lack some punch.
While the film feels more director-driven than your typical tentpole, especially these days, Mission: Impossible still falls short of its potential by not exploiting the team element that made the show so memorable. Ethan’s team is dispatched early on and he’s a lone wolf for much of the remainder. Beart’s Claire is a love interest but largely a non-entity. And while I appreciate Ving Rhames and Jean Reno being brought in to help Hunt out, the former wouldn’t develop a rapport with him until subsequent entries and the latter is only there to eventually be revealed as a turncoat. For the most part, this is a Cruise vehicle, through and through.
But still, you can see the building blocks for a future. And the plan originally seemed to be to bring in big-name directors to put their personal touches on the franchise, the same way the Alien films did. But that approach almost doomed the whole thing.
Ethan Hunt returns . . . and returns . . .
Mission: Impossible 2 was one of the top grossers of 2000, but it’s an awful movie. John Woo delivers a reheated take on Notorious that lacks any chemistry between Cruise and Thandie Newton, and plods along with Dougray Scott as one of the most uncharismatic villains in blockbuster history. The film’s first hour plods; rewatching it recently, I gave in to my worst impulses and fast-forwarded through entire sections because the film is so inert. Hunt is more dude-bro James Bond superhero this time out, introduced solo-climbing a mountain before waltzing into a ball with a smarmy smile on his face. Cruise never gives less than 100%, but you can feel him straining to bring any spark to a character who is non-existent on the page. Rhames is brought back in, but it’s cursory; he’s an exposition machine, with a running gag about how his designer clothes keep being messed up. The film lurches to life in its final hour, with a motorcycle chase and beachside fistfight that are fun to watch, but the film’s shallow characterizations and bloodless battles make it feel more like a theme park stunt show than the climax to a high-stakes thrill ride.
Despite the film’s $200 million-plus box office, it was six years before we’d see Ethan Hunt again. Part of that was Paramount deciding between directors; names like Oliver Stone and David Fincher were rumored, and either would have taken the series in a completely different direction than we ended up. Plus, there was the issue that Cruise had damaged his public persona through his unapologetic praise for Scientology and bizarre antics with Matt Lauer and Oprah (the idea that we almost canceled Cruise because he yelled at Matt Lauer and jumped on a couch is really odd; but the Scientology stuff is troubling). Paramount’s response seemed to be to bring back Cruise’s big franchise with a scaled-down budget and a director best-known for his TV work.
And honestly? JJ Abrams may have been the best thing to happen to the Mission: Impossible franchise. I think the third entry has its hiccups and Abrams wasn’t quite ready to make the leap to big screen action, but he makes several key choices that help recalibrate the franchise and point it in the right direction. He grounds it; gone is the high gloss of the first two films and in its place is an Ethan Hunt ready to settle down in the suburbs, with briefings delivered through Kodak disposable cameras and rendezvouses taking place at 7-11. The team element is reintroduced and reinforced; Rhames’ Luther is no longer just a bland supporting character. He’s a friend who is close enough to Hunt to challenge him on his choices. Billy Crudup and Cruise have a casual rapport that helps sell their characters’ partnership. Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Maggie Q may not have reappeared in the franchise, but I like Abrams choice to give them some quiet moments that create a more cohesive team dynamic; the film’s final shot is Ethan being cheered on by his colleagues. And bringinging in Phillip Seymour Hoffman as the villain after the blandness of Dougray Scott definitely doesn’t hurt.
Two other choices Abrams makes are crucial. For one, he shows that the work of the IMF team is not easy. Whereas Woo waved everything away with a smile or quick reveal, Abrams focuses in on how close the team’s efforts come to failing. The film’s centerpiece, an extraction from the Vatican, dwells closely on just how hard it is to get those masks made and voices duplicated; like the Langley heist, it depends less on fireworks and more on suspense and timing, and it’s a great sequence.
Abrams also increases the stakes. Hunt’s nearly superhuman; we know he’s not going to get hurt or killed. And so Abrams finds another way to generate danger by making Hunt’s quest one of protection. He fails to save Keri Russell’s agent, which creates greater suspense when Hunt’s wife is in danger. Where Woo’s film turns Hunt into a flippant Bond clone, Abrams locates his humanity. Hunt is driven to save lives; the danger hanging over every subsequent Mission: Impossible is not that he will die, but that someone else will.
Every following Mission: Impossible film has taken that formula and elevated it, with each director bringing their own contribution. Bird’s Ghost Protocol generates tension by focusing on the idea that not only is impossible missioning hard work, but the tools are often completely unreliable. Nearly every set piece in that film finds Hunt battling technology that is too slow or just flat-out doesn’t work, and it brings a welcome dose of suspense and humor. This is also when Cruise started doing his own daredevil acts; the sequence on the Burj Khalifa is not just the high mark of the franchise, it might be the best action sequence of the 2000s. Chris McQuarrie brought in the idea of Hunt having a foil/partner in Rebecca Ferguson, along with increased roles for Rhames and Simon Pegg. Fallout brought back Michelle Monaghan as Ethan’s ex-wife to goose the tension in its final act. McQuarrie’s films also reintroduced a slick European gloss and sense of style, marrying the best of the additions to the franchise with the spy sheen De Palma introduced (in Fallout, he also reintroduces the first film’s idea of Hunt visualizing a heist to come).
Six films in, and the Mission: Impossible movies are still the most fun in Hollywood. And that’s something I would not have anticipated watching that first film as a 16-year-old.
Previous summer of 1996 entries:
The Digest
As I said last week, I’ve been out and about for much of March. We had a family vacation at the beginning of the month and a family wedding last weekend. So podcasts and blogging have largely been on hold.
BUT!
I’ll have the second entry in my Sundays With Spielberg column up this weekend. And starting Tuesday, I’ll be undertaking a new writing adventure that goes in a different direction than what I’ve been doing the last few years. I’ll write more about that next weekend, and I’m thrilled to introduce you to it.
Chrisicisms
The pop culture I’m enjoying
The Mitchells Vs. The Machines: I don’t think I had a chance to write much about this Netflix animated comedy, which came out at the beginning of the month. Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The Lego Movie, Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse) produce this very funny family flick, which finds the titular clan trying to overcome their dysfunctions when a robot apocalypse interrupts a family vacation. I laughed quite a bit at a lot of the gags (the giant Furby is wonderful), and there’s a great deal of heart in this story of a family embracing its flaws and learning to look up from its screens. My kids may have liked it even more; they watched it at least once for five straight days.
The Mighty Ducks - Game Changers (Disney+): I’ve mentioned this one before, but I just wanted to remark how charming its become. Each week, it’s a highlight to watch this with my son. Sure, the beats are predictable for anyone who’s watched a sports film. And yes, there are times with the tween humor feels like a Disney Channel sitcom. But the kids are fun to watch, and later episodes have really worked when they focus on giving each team member an obstacle to overcome. Lauren Graham elevates the material beyond what’s on the page, and it’s a lot of fun to watch Emilio Estevez lace up his skates as Gordon Bombay again. The season finale drops this weekend, and I’m really hoping the show gets a second. It’s good family fun.
That’s it for now! Have a great Memorial Day weekend. Keep your eyes out for Sundays with Spielberg in two days!