Mission: Impossible
Directed by	Brian De Palma
Produced by	Paul Hitchcock Tom Cruise Paula Wagner
Written by	David Koepp Steven Zaillian Robert Towne
Starring	Tom Cruise Emmanuelle Béart Jon Voight Jean Reno Ving Rhames
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Released	1996
Running time	110 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$80 million
Followed by	Mission: Impossible II
IMDb profile

Mission: Impossible (1996) is the first film based on the television series Mission: Impossible. It was directed by Brian De Palma and starred Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. The film was the third highest grossing of the year.

Plot summary

Ethan Hunt, the point man in Jim Phelps' team of IMF agents, is framed for murdering most of his team and attempting to steal and sell the CIA "NOC" list to an arms dealer named "Max". The NOC list is a list of every IMF agent in Eastern Europe - their codenames and their real names. He goes rogue and, along with Claire Phelps (the only other surviving IMF agent), offers to steal Max the full world NOC list for real, in exchange for 10 million dollars and being put in contact with the person known only by a codename as Job who set him up. He steals the NOC list from the CIA headquarters with the help of Luther Stickel and Krieger. They both are disavowed. It turns out Job is Mr. Phelps. He and Claire plotted this so they could steal the money and kill Ethan. Jim had faked his death and killed the others. Ethan figures this out before Jim tells him on a train where he shoots Claire and runs with the money. Ethan eventually blows Jim up with "Red Light, Green Light Gum" (which blows up 5 seconds after you squeeze the Red to the Green) while Jim is boarding a helicopter.

Filming locations include: Prague; Langley, Virginia; and London.

Cast and characters

• Tom Cruise — Ethan Hunt
• Jon Voight — Jim Phelps
• Ving Rhames — Luther Stickell
• Jean Reno — Franz Krieger
• Emmanuelle Béart — Claire Phelps
• Henry Czerny — Eugene Kittridge
• Vanessa Redgrave — Max
• Emilio Estevez — Jack Harmon

Crew

• Directed by: Brian De Palma
• Written by: David Koepp, Steven Zaillian
• Produced by: Paul Hitchcock , Tom Cruise
• Composed by: Danny Elfman

Box office

• Budget - $80,000,000
• Marketing cost - N/A
• Opening Weekend Gross (Domestic) - $45,436,830
• Total Domestic Grosses - $180,981,886
• Total Overseas Grosses - $275,512,947
• Total Worldwide Grosses - $456,494,833

Reaction

The movie was the third highest grosser at the box-office for the year. Despite the large revenues, the film was criticised for being unfaithful to the original television series Mission: Impossible by focusing more on the star (and also producer) Tom Cruise's character Ethan Hunt rather than emphasizing teamwork. At the same time the film made the central character of the television series, Jim Phelps, a traitor in the CIA. The script was also criticized for being too complicated, a twist on the usual complaints that summer blockbusters are too lowbrow and simple. Most of the actors' performances were viewed as flat. To the film's credit however, it was regarded as much more faithful than its sequel Mission: Impossible II.

Inaccuracies

• One sequence in the film takes place on the roof of a speeding train in open countryside. The train is identifiable as a French TGV. TGVs require overhead power cables to operate, which are clearly not present in the sequence. During the same sequence the TGV enters the Channel Tunnel. However SNCF TGVs do not operate through the tunnel. High-speed rail services between London and Paris are operated by Eurostar using British Rail Class 373 trains, which are close relatives of the TGV. Also, the structure of the tunnel is incorrect as the actual Channel Tunnel is a system of three tunnels, not a single one as depicted. The train sequence was filmed on the Glasgow South Western Line in Scotland (hence the landscape not appearing much like Kent) using a normal British train with the image of the TGV overlaid using CGI, indeed in a few frames the real diesel locomotive at the front of the train is visible.
• In the film, the building of the US Embassy in Prague is the actual building of the National Museum. Moreover, the building is shown to be at the riverfront of the Vltava. In reality, neither the museum or the embassy is by the river.
• The "Aquarium" restaurant, where the meeting between Hunt and his supreme officer takes place, is located at the Old Town square (Prague). There is no such building there. Special effects were used to cover the actual buildings by this completely fictious restaurant.
• In many parts of the film, people have to move between parts of London which, although many miles apart, they reach in record time.

Trivia

• Peter Graves, who played Jim Phelps in the original series, declined to reprise his role in the movie after learning his character was to die at the film's conclusion.
• Diehard fans of the original TV series were upset by the treatment of the Jim Phelps character in this film, and by the decision to turn much of the focus onto one character.
• While filming the famous scene in which Tom Cruise drops from the ceiling and hovers inches above the ground, Cruise's head kept hitting the floor until he got the idea to put coins in his shoes for balance.
• It was the first film to be shown simultaneously at over 3,000 theatres in the United States.
• Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton of U2 wrote the remix of the theme song for this movie, but all of U2 has been given credit by the public.

See also

• Mission: Impossible II
• Mission: Impossible III

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Mission: Impossible (film)

• Mission Impossible at The Internet Movie Database