Based on the hit television series, Brian DePalma (Scarface, The Untouchables) brings Mission: Impossible to life on the big screen with a spectacular and thrilling movie modernised for the 90's. Tom Cruise introduces us to super spy Ethan Hunt who would be the main character throughout the entire series. It also be the start of a blockbusting series of films spanning from 1996 to 2018.
Secret Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is part of the Impossible Mission Force (IMF) spy agency alongside his boss Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) and fellow team members Claire Phelps (Emmanuelle Beart), Sarah Davies (Kristin Scott Thomas), Jack Harmon (an uncredited Emilio Estevez), and Hannah Williams (Ingeborga Dapkunaite). When a mission goes wrong in Prague which sees Ethan Hunt as the sole survivor and the CIA non official list stolen, Ethan discovers that he has been framed as the traitor following a debrief at a restaurant by IMF director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny). Ethan manages to escape spectacularly with a hidden explosive device he sticks onto the indoor aquarium. Alongside Claire who later turns up having escaped the onslaught, Ethan also recruits two other disavowed agents: computer hacker Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames, another mainstay throughout the entire series) and helicopter pilot Franz Krieger (Jean Reno). Ethan goes rogue to prove his innocence and alongside his new team set out to find the real traitor.
Tom Cruise is a delight as Ethan Hunt in one of his best roles. The rest of the cast including Jon Voight, Emmanuel Beart, Ving Rhames, Jean Reno, Henry Czerny and Emilio Estevez were fantastic. Director Brian DePalma keeps the suspense tight and keeps the audiences on the edge of their seats with a clever plot and a lot of plot twists by writers David Koepp and Robert Towne.
The scene where Ethan Hunt drops into the highly secure CIA vault supported by cables would become one of the most iconic sequences of the movie. Other honourable mentions include the restaurant scene as referenced before and also the climatic high speed train and helicopter chase scene.
Mission: Impossible continues to go strong with the 7th and 8th movies due in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
Though there's plenty of action, Mission: Impossible would be the only movie in the series not to feature any shootouts, instead relying on spy gadgetry. Also, this would be the only movie in the series that Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt doesn't fire a gun throughout the whole movie.
Mission: Impossible would become of the biggest box office hits of the year and is still one of Tom Cruise's most memorable movies. I still remember my brother and I watching Mission: Impossible at the cinema during the school holidays back in 1996 and we both had a great time. Having celebrated it's 25th anniversary last year, it's still an excellent movie and easily one of the best in the franchise.
8/10.
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