THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
When it comes to doing the right thing, you gotta be prepared for the stakes before they’re prepared for you. If you don’t think that’s important, look at Mission: Impossible.PLOT
Based on the 1966 television series and it’s 1988 sequel series of the same name, the 1996 film follows a team of IMF (Impossible Missions Force) agents sent to Prague to stop rogue agent Alexander Gotisyn (Marcel Iures) from stealing the CIA NOC list. The team includes: veteran Jim Phelps, his wife Claire, pointman Ethan Hunt, survelliance expert Sarah Davies (Kristin Scott Thomas) and equipment technician Jack Harmon (Emilio Estevez). The plan appears to go well when capturing video evidence of Gotisyn stealing the list, but it quickly goes wrong from there. Jack would get impaled on an elevator after losing control of it, Jim gets apparently shot by an unseen assassin and Ethan sees Hannah killed in a car bombing. Sarah would pursue Gotisyn, only to be killed by an assassin that kills him as well. On his own, Hunt would call CIA director Eugene Kittridge of what has happened, later meeting him at cafe. When he does further explain the fallout, he deduces being surrounded by another IMF team on standby, who was present during the operation. Kittridge would reveal there is a mole in the IMF under the alias 'Job 314' and the Prague operation was meant to lure him out, meaning that the one Gotisyn took was fake. Because Hunt is the sole survivor, Kittridge believes him to be the perpetrator he's after. However, Ethan retreats with the intent to figure out how to clear his name. When returning to his safe house, he pretends to be Job 314 to reach out to the contact that wanted the list, Max. After sending multiple messages in multiple languages, he reunites with Claire who survived the operation, revealing she wasn't in the car when Hannah died. Now a disavowed agent, he get a meeting with Max who is an illegal arms dealer. He earns her trust by giving her the fake disk of the list and revealing it had a tracking device. It is proven right when they escape a raid led by Kittridge. They make a deal that Hunt would get the real list in exchange for $10 million and meeting the real Job. With the help of other disavowed agents, hacker Luther Stickell and helicopter pilot Franz Krieger, they infiltrate CIA HQ in Langley to take the actual list. Hunt and Krieger sneak in as firefighters to enter the air conditioning shaft. There, the leader hangs from a wire to avoid touching a pressure sensitive floor and keeps the noise in a certain decibel level. As Luther monitors their movement, Claire poisons a terminal to give the men enough time to steal the list. Despite Krieger briefly getting distracted by a rat he kills and accidentally drops his folding knife, the whole team escapes undetected. When regrouping in London, Hunt gives the list to Luther for safekeeping. When he later hears of his mother and uncle being falsely arrested for drug trafficking, he quickly calls Kittridge knowing it's an attempt to be lured out again. He does offer to turn himself in exchange for the fake charges being dropped, but hangs up before he can surrender his exact location. Just when he hangs up with enough time to be traced in London, Hunt reunites with a surviving Jim. The latter claims Kittridge is the true mole but due to the pointman turned leader finding a Bible he kept from a previous mission, he sees through his lies and deduces he is Job who betrayed the original team. Knowing he couldn't have done it alone, he also deduces Krieger to be an accomplice. However, he chooses to pretend believing him and arranges meeting with Max on a TGV train to Paris, while also secretly inviting Kittridge. On the day of the exchange, Hunt gets directed by Max to the promised payment, but Luther uses a jamming device to prevent her from downloading the list. Claire follows the money and reveals being in on the betrayal to Hunt in disguise as her husband. When the real Jim appears, he points him at gunpoint to take the money from him. As Claire tries to reason with him, Hunt sends an image of the traitor to Kittridge via camera lenses inside a pair of glasses. Realizing what he did, Jim subdues him and shoots his wife on his attempt to escape. The protagonist does recover quickly enough to catch up to his former mentor above the train, planning to be extracted by Krieger via helicopter. He stops them from escaping by tethering the helicopter to the train. Within the Channel Tunnel, Hunt kills both of his enemies by planting exploding chewing gum on the helicopter, which only propels him to the train in the process. It is after this incident where Luther returns the list to Kittridge, who also arrests Max. This moment allows both IMF agents get reinstated while the false charges against Hunt's family is dropped. Although the protagonist agent plans on resigning, the film ends with him being offered a new mission to lead.
THOUGHTS
Like a lot of people in my generation, I never saw either show in advance to seeing this film. I see a benefit out of this because it would have prepare for what was definitely an unpredictable viewing. Years after first seeing it, it holds up very well on its own. Director Brian De Palma set the bar in what was such an exhilarating film. The second you hear the iconic theme composed by Danny Elfman, you just know you're in for a ride. Each scene go can go from intense to exciting and it leaves you hooked no matter what. Whether your eyes are glued to the tunnel chase or analyzing the second heist, you already know you're in awe of all of it thanks to impressive cinematography by Stephen H Burum. While many fans favor over the sequels that excel, this one still deserves its respect for teaching viewers an essential lesson: If you know something is wrong, don’t stop yourself in fixing it to make it right. The world is filled with mistakes, but it never means they should be left as is. This code connects to our minds thanks to an ecstatic performance by Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. If you didn’t think he’d maintain commitment as an actor after Top Gun, guess again because from here on, he would maintain such respectable status for such efforts. In modern times, not every actor would want to be hanging on a wire all day for one scene. Being aware of that commitment arguably reflects the same attitude his character is all about. Hunt is a fearless man who shows nothing but determination to do what is necessary to succeed. He joined the IMF because he felt he can make a difference and has been able to prove that exponentially beyond people’s expectations. It was the mission of his life at this point when it came to clearing his name because it took time for him to get all the needed answers to undo the damage. Nevertheless, he still got to once he figured out who betrayed him. He had good intentions to leave because he couldn’t stand the disrespect that was done to him, but he couldn’t help it to keep going because the thrill was coming to him and it kept doing so for years to come. It is very easy to hate Kittridge due to being very single minded on how to handle the situations around him. However, I do believe Henry Czenry still reminded us throughout he is still another who cares for the greater good and is also willing to do the absolute necessary. It was very cold of him to lure out Ethan by framing his family, yet it still worked. If those two respect each other for anything, it will be for their relentless Will to succeed. In the life of being a spy, it didn’t seem likely to gain friends. After losing his last team, Ethan was lucky gain a new one out of Luther. Ving Rhames has made him just as memorable as Ethan for not just intelligence, but truly off of having a similar risk taking spirit. Every time he chose to hack something he shouldn’t, it put him in the thrill of a lifetime, hence being disavowed in the first place. He still chose to be by Ethan’s side at the end because he was able to reboot his morals. And for that sparks the franchise’s most iconic friendship. The reason that it sounds unlikely to gain friends as a spy is because you can never know people’s true intentions until it’s too late. That is what you witness with each set of Ethan went through here. Jon Voight fooled us big time in having us believe Jim was through & through a respectable figure when noting he’s the most experienced. Those feelings vanish when it’s revealed he betrayed his last team. In a certain case, you can look at him as a broken veteran because it seemed those feelings were not reciprocated by the agency he dedicated his life to. And from there, he was able to take people under the wing of no return. It’s easy to see Claire as straightforward as she would sound, but it doesn’t mean it’s not interesting. Emmanuelle Béart showed her as a pleasant yet manipulative agent who chose to solely respect and support her husband’s point of view. Although she saw how innocent Ethan was and actually reconsidered her intentions, she should’ve known before being shot she couldn’t undo her betrayal. Jean Reno made clear Krieger was bad from the get go. He was a greedy guy and was reckless the whole time, hence being disavowed as well in advance. It was easy for Jim to recruit him because he didn’t care who it would affect as long as he got his pay cut. Ironically, neither of them were prepared for Ethan’s wrath that ended their trail of blood with their own. Last but not least, the most interesting thing that can come from being a spy is being capable of taking advantage of your surroundings. Ethan did just that and made an unlikely cooperation with Max for the time being. Vanessa Redgrave made her a standout character for being more playful than cautious in her environment. Being an illegal arms dealer is her own set of thrills and choosing to go along with Ethan’s deal was only part of it. Had she been a little more careful, she would’ve lasted a little longer in her line of work. This film has aged well in my eyes, but there are a handful of things that haven’t added up upon re-watching. For instance, it’s smart of the CIA to have a decoy of the NOC list, but why have it in a Prague embassy? I feel like any agent should have a little concern on my put it somewhere outside the states rather than within. It’s even cool when they have messages that self destruct, which is a cliche for the franchise, but how is that even possible for an analog tape? If there is a timer within the player, it would be cooler for that to be clarified. Another cliche I like is the mask reveal, especially when Ethan fools Claire, but how did he still have a mask making machine after being a disavowed agent? It wasn’t even lying around in the room, so it’s weird how we never saw it in advance to even foreshadow the use of it. And wasn’t it a little odd for three different camera feeds to zoom in at once? I can buy it for Ethan and Hannah, but I really don’t think Jack needed to in comparison. It’s even subtle upon noticing two members of the second team, but it’s crazy Ethan didn’t say anything until it was too late. Since it’s basically part of the job for spies to be observant, he should’ve gave a hint to somebody when they looked right at them. It honestly bothers me more than him not suggesting for Jack to do his beforehand in order to make the job slightly easier. It comes together very well for Ethan when the knife confirms Krieger was align with Jim the whole time, but why the hell would he leave the knife? I know it implies he’s reckless, but it only shows he shouldn’t be qualified for the job of making rookie mistakes like that. And he does it again when pulling it out during the CIA heist yet he had no reason to have it at that moment. It was smart of Ethan to put a lot of time in writing multiple languages when contacting Max, but it’s off brand of Max to end up replying because she should be afraid someone going that far to contact her. I found it dumber than her choosing to trust Ethan when he changes plans at the last minute. It’s even insane how Kittridge was basically in the area when Max tries out the disk because he gets there fast as hell once she does. It’s an amazing scene when Ethan hangs onto a wire as he steals the list, but it’s baffling how the vault had everything except a set of cameras. It’s even confusing that he is able to catch that drip of sweat when his arms are too close to the floor for him to catch it in the first place. The CIA should on top of themselves for shit like this. And if there is one set of lasers blocking the air conditioning shaft, I believe the whole thing should’ve been filled with them to narrow down options for thieves. Kittridge was actually smart to let the firefighters to handle the situation when the fire alarm goes off, but even the fire (real or not) were to be isolated, he should’ve not taken the chance because he couldn’t have guaranteed it being dealt with. It is a great buildup for Jim to be revealed as the traitor when Ethan finds the Bible from Chicago, but what good reason would he take it anyway? That’s basically evidence against him because he can’t guarantee he’d kill Ethan once he finds out the truth. Also, was it really smart for Jim to shoot Claire instead of finishing Ethan? The guy was basically half-assing the work for not dealing with his only true obstacle. Ignore these issues, and you’ll still be in for a ride. In short, 1996’s Mission: Impossible was an impressive action film for intriguing you with nonstop suspense, a investing plot and a memorable protagonist to root for. If you action thrills you in the best ways imaginable, this film is meant for you.
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