Return to list
Mission:
Impossible
Quite
often in Hollywood, TV shows make the leap to the big screen. The
time in between small and big screen incarnations these days is
shorter (Sex and The City, Glee, Entourage) but with “Mission:
Impossible” (the movie) being released in 1996, the original
television series on which it was based ended 23 years prior.
From
1966-1973, “Mission: Impossible” (the TV show) was one of the
most popular and successful programs of its time. Receiving numerous
nominations and walking away with several wins at the annual Golden
Globes and Emmy’s, the show developed a strong following worldwide,
as viewers tuned in each week to watch the latest escapades of the
IMF (Impossible Mission Force). Distinctive for its trademark scenes,
creative writing and memorable music, the show was a huge hit. In a
post-Cold War era, anything to do with spies, secret agents and
covert operations was devoured by the entertainment hungry public.
After its original eight season run, the show was revamped for the
1980’s, and after a few stalled beginnings and an almost-movie
version, the show returned for an additional two seasons in 1988.
Bringing back key characters from the show’s original run, the
programs revival was actually filmed on location in Queensland and
Melbourne, and also included the use of some pretty far-out gadgets
of the time.
After
its TV run, Mission: Impossible was shelved, to join the thousands of
reel cans of old programs sitting in dusty, Hollywood warehouses, and
being pulled out for re-runs on cable TV.
Two
elements made the film version of the show finally happen in the
1990’s. Firstly, Tom Cruise was a huge star and rising. He’d
scored one hit after another since breaking into the movie scene a
decade earlier with Risky Business. One film after another, audiences
loved him, as he played the Everyman; someone we could all relate to
and see ourselves in, but with movie star charisma and good looks in
spades that woman drooled over and men wished they possessed…
except his limited height; keep that to yourself Cruise. Around this
time, fellow Hollywood star Harrison Ford had scored big with “The
Fugitive”, released in 1993. Showing that a movie could take the
name of a show, bringing its faithful viewers along with it and
completely stand alone as its own piece of entertainment worked
wonders for The Fugitive, positioning itself as one of the best
action/adventure films of the 90’s. As Tom Cruise was now in the
position to start selecting his projects and getting just about any
movie he wanted made, he was involved in the development of a
Mission: Impossible film from the very beginning, even going as far
as to perform all his own stunts (not as common even in the 90’s)
and sourcing a wind machine to create the effect for the films
climatic train scene.
1996
came along, and the slate of films for the year ahead looked to be
populated by Aliens, with “Independence Day” hogging the stage
for the summer and raking in millions. The only spy-related film for
the year was Mission: Impossible. The trailers made it look
promising, and back in his prime Tom Cruise could always pull an
audience in.
If
you’re like me, or almost anyone else who has seen Mission:
Impossible, you’re probably still trying to work out what the story
was about even twenty years later. Cruise and director Brian De Palma
wanted to craft a clever, sophisticated and stylish spy story from
the get go, and they did this so well, that it just confused the
bloody hell out of everyone. The tone of the film seems to exclude
viewers from what’s going on in some ways. For example, many scenes
begin with events having already started long before we, the
audience, have arrived there. Of course it’s the job of a movie
script to structure it’s scenes like a party – arrive late, leave
early – but this film took that to an extreme. Characters appear
who we don’t really know anything about, and proceedings move so
swiftly and ahead of the awareness level of the audience, that you
have to concentrate to keep up.
Saying
that though, the overall story isn’t entirely difficult to grasp.
Cruise plays Ethan Hunt, who was not a character from the original
show, but he’s the leading man in his small team of operatives, led
by Jim Phelps (Jon Voight), a character taken from the show. On
mission in Prague, the team must locate a secret list, containing the
true identities of every IMF field agent. In the wrong hands, this
list could be sold on the black-market to anyone looking to take down
the whole agency. The mission goes horribly wrong, when Hunt’s
entire team are killed in a secret sabotage. Alone and on the run,
Hunt regroups with a few extra agents from around the world, and
plots to take back the list. However, it is now being stored in a
highly guarded government facility, and the mission of breaking in
and stealing it seems completely, well…Impossible.
The
first Mission: Impossible film has a distinctive look and style all
of its own. Each film that followed would change its look (and Tom
Cruises’ hair) and go in some very different directions. The first
film holds the title of being the most Espionage-ish film of them
all, with only a few brief action scenes, but plenty of suspense,
intrigue and plot.
It
also created an ongoing moment that would be emulated in all its
sequels, which I call “The Tom Cruise Dangling from Mid Air Action
Scene”. In the first film, it is the standout action scene of the
whole movie. Upon breaking into the government facility, Hunt must
sneak into a special computer room that is guarded by two doors,
which can only be opened by the voice recognition and eye scan of one
man. Knowing they can’t borrow his voice box and eyeball, our spies
devise a way to enter the room from above. Being lowered in from the
ventilation shaft high above the floor, Hunt slowly descends by a
thin black rope to a single computer console below, to hack in and
retrieve the list of agent names. When locked, this room becomes
pressurised, and any noise or movement will trigger off the
super-sensitive alarms, locking him in and calling in half the
buildings henchman. The entire scene is expertly filmed, and
performed in total silence. I remember watching this at the movies
the first time and the whole theatre was silent too. It was an
effective scene and positioned at a part of the film, where we had
come to know and care about the character of Ethan Hunt and were
invested in him successfully completing his mission.
Although
a solid film in its own right, Mission: Impossible feels subdued and
like it was holding itself back. I don’t know if that had to do
with the budget, or the story not being fully fleshed out, but the
film left me wanting more. Four years later, we would get treated to
more, and in a completely different way than the first film.
No comments:
Post a Comment