Directed by Brian De Palma
Written by David Koepp, Steven Zaillian, Robert Towne and Bruce Geller
Starring Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Béart, Henry Czerny, Jean Reno and Ving Rhames
Runtime: 1 hour 50 minutes

by Ashley Jane Davis, Emily Maesar, Nikk Nelson and Ryan Silberstein

The Tommy C. Appreciation Club, or TCAC, solemnly swears to watch and appreciate all theatrical performances by Tom Cruise then recap them, round-table style. In this edition, the Moviejawn crew dissects Tommy’s action packed and at times masked performance as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible.

Ashley Jane: Here we are, folks, where the Mission: Impossible film series began. I wanted to start things off by saying that this will always and forever be my personal favourite film of the series, even if they make 23 of them (knowing Tommy C., they might). Full disclosure, I am not a big action fan, and I think that is why this one may be my favourite. Sure, it has action, but it’s not “just” an action flick. It seems like it has more quiet moments than the others. I love quiet.

Ethan Hunt is a household name and surely one of Tommy C.’s best known characters. While this installment has possibly his most boring Ethan haircut of the series, it has some of my favourite Ethan moments. Eeeethannn… (to be read in Jim Phelps’ “dying” voice)

Emily: Okay, if we’re going full disclosure then I’ve got a dozy for everybody! I have officially seen three of the films in this franchise… in probably the most distressing order. It’s distressing to me, and I’m sure it’ll drive everybody else absolutely mad. I saw the second one on TV (maybe VHS, really not sure) when I was younger. I have basically no memory of it (which I’ve heard is a fine thing). Then, at the behest of my boyfriend, we saw Fallout in theaters. (It rules and I’m firmly in the camp of these films because of it.) And now I’ve seen the first one because we’re doing this Tommy C. Appreciation Club. 

So… sorry? Mostly, though, I’m saying sorry to myself because these films rule and I’m so excited to actually watch them in the proper order. One thing I adore about these films is Ethan’s true commitment to the mission (it’s what makes him such a great spy). I also love the evolution of the face masks through the films, that we go from Tom Cruise actually wearing prosthetics for a long part of a given mission, to the rubbery special effects that give the seamless illusion. It’s fun to see what was accomplishable in the mid-1990s. 

Also, probably my favorite thing in good spy movies is when characters do fake outs and Ethan Hunt has one of the best ones in this flick with the NOC list. So, I pose the question - what’s your favorite quintessentially “spy” thing that Tommy C. does in this film?

Nikk: That’s the thing. I don’t know that Tommy C does many “spy” things in the film. I guess when I think of the word ‘spy’, the word I associate most with it is ‘subtle’. Nothing Tommy C does in this movie or in any of these movies would I describe as subtle. Maybe that’s his role on the team? Is ‘point man’ French for ‘guy that blows shit up’? To be honest, I thought I had a soft spot for this movie, I watched it again just a couple hours ago, and I don’t know that it’s aged very well. Everything about it now seems really ham-fisted. Maybe it’s because it got ripped off so many times by every action and/or spy thriller movie in the last twenty-five years so now it seems like a ripoff of a thousand other things you’ve seen a million times before? I love a lot of the supporting cast, namely Emilio Estevez, but even he was getting on my nerves. The team’s banter is annoying as hell and I was glad when they were all murdered. The mastermind behind the plot decided to keep Tommy C of all people alive to essentially frame him as a mole and it occurred to me watching that he would have been the easiest one to kill. He crashes into any space, flailing about like a maverick marionette. And no, that wasn’t a pun. Jean Reno as the villain still makes me happy and the climactic bullet train sequence still holds up nicely. But, otherwise, I have to say, unfortunately, I will be leaving this entire series alone. Or, maybe not. Maybe I just woke up from a nap and I’m grumpy. By far, my favorite sequence is when Tommy C is surfing the internet for clues and you remember how small the internet was for a very brief moment in time. My question would be, what’s your favorite ‘golden oldie’ moment in the film?

Ryan: I love this franchise, and have since I saw this in a theater with my father when I was 10. Emilio Estevez, aka Coach Bombay, was one of the first people I ever saw violently murdered in a movie. I also have a lot of fondness for this movie in particular.

Emily, you’re in luck because this is maybe the most continuity light of all of the modern franchises. There’s stuff built up along the way, but one of the things that makes Fallout so great is that it picks up a few existing threads and makes Ethan’s character arc–from the moment his old team is killed in this movie all the way through the next four installments–explicit without revealing anything we didn’t already know. 

Nikk, I am going to have to completely disagree with you. I don’t think it’s nostalgia talking, either. One thing Brian de Palma brings to this film is his love of Hitchcock. While intrigue, double-crosses, and Ethan being disavowed are staples of these movies, this one is so much more a mood piece. To echo Ashley Jane, de Palma puts as much emphasis on the atmosphere–those foggy Prague streets are sublime–as he does on the action. All of it is strung together with tension, both moment-to-moment, like in the Langley setpiece, and also over the course of the entire film as Ethan tries to figure  out who is pulling the strings and who he can trust. While Tommy C dangling from a harness into a room below has become iconic, it also sets the template for what this franchise would become. In that moment, Ethan isn’t fighting a bad guy, he’s doing a heist. He’s fighting against a security system (designed to keep guys like him out), the laws of physics, and the limits of the human body. Mission: Impossible isn’t about guys with guns pointing their guns at other guys, it’s about deception, gamesmanship, and believing in your team to pull off the impossible. 

Both this M:I film and the previous year’s Bond film, Goldeneye, reinvented the spy film for a post-Cold War world. The entire genre up to that point was set against World War II or the Cold War, and both use the new landscape to their advantage. Those Prague streets? M:I was the first Hollywood blockbuster to ever shoot in the country, impossible before the collapse of the Soviet Union. It lends the film an ‘exotic’ European air, as Prague doesn’t look like western Europe. I could go on and on about what makes this movie special, but I will leave it there for now.

Ashley Jane: Ooh, Ryan’s description makes me want to watch this movie...again! My favourite golden oldie is any moment including a floppy disk. And when Ethan receives a message sent to Job @ Book of Job. Please reach me there from now on. 

If I had to choose my favourite scene, it has to be when Ethan sees Jim in the phone booth. First of all, if I saw Jon Voight’s mug glaring at me from a neighboring booth, I would be downright chilled - and that is without the whole “hey, I thought you were dead!” thing. I love when Jim “explains” what happened that night in Prague and we watch Ethan put together the truth in his head. It cracks me up now when a couple of the characters look at the camera, but when I first saw that as a kid, with the dramatic music accompaniment, I was blown away. “Why, Jim? Why?” Ooh Tommy C. is SO intense. But come on. Who does this Phelps fella think he is? Does he really think he can trick Ethan? Nah. Ethan’s got some tricks up his sleeve (like literally, he does a magic trick… with his sleeve).

Emily: Ryan, I think that’s a great point, and some really good context for the genre as a whole. That this and Goldeneye really changed how we make and interact with spy thrillers in a more modern context. Also, I love a continuity-light film franchise. (In all honesty, it’s what makes the MCU work in phase one. It’s not like that now, obviously, but other than Iron Man 2 the films kind of exist on their own with some “that’s neat” references until The Avengers brings everything together.) I like I think franchises like this because you need very little context and they’re fun.

I think the bit with the floppy disk is probably my ultimate favorite part, in all honesty. Both because it’s a fun spy cat-and-mouse bit, but also because the way De Palma builds the tension is so damn good. We’re in Krieger’s shoes for the scene. Unsure, ourselves, if what Ethan’s saying is true. And then the reveal at the end that Krieger did actually have the NOC list in his hand? Absolutely outstanding work on everyone’s part. It’s the kind of thing I live for in these kinds of flicks. There’s probably no reason for him to have two floppy disks at all, but I’ll let it slide because the tension is so dang delicious.

Nikk: I bought the blu-ray collection awhile back because I was nostalgic for the original and wanted to give the rest of the series another try. And I will. Maybe if I watch them all more or less in a row, I will come to appreciate some of the elements that Ryan discussed. I think loving a show like The Americans made me have less appreciation for M:I--and you can plainly see the parallels. I think that show owes a lot to De Palma and M:I. But going back to that source, it felt like watching a first draft. A movie that could have been great, was almost great, but ultimately got in its own way. And I don’t think the franchise did itself any favors with things like a trailer (I think this is M:I III) with Ving Rhames holding a grenade launcher and saying, ‘Oh, I’m mad now...’ The franchise, in my opinion, did become an almost straight up action movie franchise with a lot of the espionage elements presented in that same way. We don’t get De Palma’s mood or atmosphere in any of the later installments and John Woo doing the first sequel, stylistically, certainly gave me whiplash. But I don’t deny that I’m being unfair. It’s sort of like reviewing the foundation of your house and saying, ‘It’s just a concrete slab’. Zero stars. 

Ryan: If anything, seeing these elements done so well here makes me appreciate this movie even more. Especially as Hitchcock’s influence over popcorn fare seems to be fading away in favor of Stan Lee’s, I am so glad that this franchise exists. It is honestly my favorite set of films ever, and I love them all more or less equally (II and III being weaker than the rest, but still movies I love watching). Cruise is one of the few Hollywood stars that is vocal about being a cinephile, and I love how he brings this to this franchise. There’s no mistaking this film as directed by anyone else than Brian de Palma, and it merges his sensibilities with some key aspects of the television show and the time in which it was made. Mission: Accomplished.