Mission: Impossible (film)
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Template:Infobox Film 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.
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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, 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 NOC list for real, in exchange for being put in contact with the person who set him up.
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
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 in box office gross 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 at the river.
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.