MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE | A Complete Retrospective

disclaimer Scientology is cringe also this video contains spoilers for all six Mission Impossible movies there are time codes in the description if you want to jump around we all good all right now let's get this show on the road [Music] the year is 1966 and nothing is getting people into movie theaters quite like spy movies for the past four years Sean Connery has torn up the big screen across four consecutive James Bond films each more successful than the last with a fifth on the way for 1967 but the world of spycraft and Espionage didn't only have to live on the big screen and that's where television writer Bruce Geller took the stage he moved to create an all-new series that would bring Espionage and spy tactics to the small screen every week this show was none other than Mission Impossible mainly inspired by the film top Cappy most specifically it's methodical and mainly dialogue free approach to an elaborate Heist sequence Mission Impossible featured a small team of secret agents under the banner of the IMF or the impossible missions Force who together would take on daring and seemingly impossible Adventures every week thwarting the plans of evil doers by the Skin of Their Teeth the Show's first season consisted of the main team Dan Briggs played by Stephen Hill cinnamon Carter played by Barbara Bain Barney Collier played by Greg Morris Willie Armitage played by Peter Lupus and Roland hand played by Martin Landau then season two brought in new cast member Peter Graves as the character Jim Phelps who would ultimately become the show's de facto main character and as the show continued a revolving door of cast members came and went such as Leonard Nimoy as Paris in seasons 4 and 5 Sam Elliott as Dr Doug Robert in season 5 and Linda day George as Lisa Casey in Seasons six and seven lasting Seven Seasons the show was a rating success it's simple and easy to follow formula allowed audiences to tune into any given episode and be fully enraptured in the stakes of the story that was backed by perhaps one of the most iconic pieces of music in entertainment history Lalo schifrin created a fun Sleek fast-tempoed piece of music that immediately set the tone for the episode that would follow and has since become synonymous with this brand of fun exciting stealth eventually however this series would come to an end in 1973 but his legacy would live on as 15 years later in 1988 ABC revived the show for a whole new generation though the reasoning behind the Revival was far from genuine as a writer's strike it plagued the industry for many months meaning Studios quickly ran out of finished scripts or TV and as such they started plucking through the Vault to put anything they could onto the air as such the mission impossible Revival consisted of unused scripts from the first run just upgraded a bit to fit the new era but even with those upgrades Peter Graves still led the charge as Jim Phelps surrounded by a whole new team of IMF agents unfortunately however after a schedule changed during the Revival's Second season ratings dropped dramatically resulting in its cancellation in 1990. for some franchises the story might end there they gave it another shot and it didn't work out but perhaps Mission Impossible could Thrive into one place spy films had thrived for decades the big screen Paramount Pictures had had the rights to create a film adaptation for many years but nothing ever really came together that was until the arrival of one Tom Cruise who'd already proven himself a box office Powerhouse with movies like Top Gun A Few Good Men and most recently The Firm but now he in producing partner Paula Wagner had created their own production company to give Crews more creative freedom over his projects and with Tom Cruise actually being a fan of the original series it was decided that mission impossible would be the company's very first project securing roughly 70 million dollars from Paramount Pictures this is where it all began this is where a simple yet fun Espionage TV series would evolve to become perhaps one of the best action franchises of all time now your mission should you choose to accept it is to take a journey over the next 30 Years to break down how exactly this series came to be what it is today as it is now time to light the fuse and jump right into [Music] if you're enjoying the video like And subscribe it helps out a lot alright this message will self-destruct in five seconds so let's get started [Music] with Tom Cruise on board and the Machine officially rolling The Next Step was clear it was time to find a director for months after the release of the firm moves were made to get that film's director Sydney on board which would continue the working relationship between him and Tom Cruise but for one reason or another Sydney left the project bringing things back to square one that was until one of Tom Cruise's many dinners with director Stephen Spielberg yeah they just had dinner together from time to time but this particular meeting also brought along a surprise third guest none other than Brian De Palma De Palma's previous work included such box office hits like Carrie Scarface The Untouchables among many others all of which Tom Cruise marathoned in a single day after which he was completely convinced that Brian De Palma was the man to helm Mission Impossible but the search for a screenwriter did not come quite so spectacularly in fact over the course of 1994 plenty of writers came in and out of pre-production as there were plenty of proposed stories that either De Palma or Cruz were simply not happy eventually though David kep was brought in to rewrite the script Stephen zalian also became involved but ultimately would only get a story credit and then David kep eventually also had to step away from the project to direct his own film the trigger effect but he did ultimately submit a draft of the script which is where Robert Town came in to pick up where the others left off to bring the script to fruition or at least as close to fruition as possible as such the ball was now rolling and towards the tail end of the year casting began for the principal characters that would take the stage alongside Tom Cruise firstly in December was Emmanuel bayart and following that in the early months of 1995 the cast continued to expand with the addition of Henry zerny and perhaps most significantly Jon Voigt and Ving Rhames Ving Rhames was cast as a computer hacker and was specifically chosen because he looked nothing like a stereotypical computer hacker for the time and John Voight was going to be taking on the role of Jim Phillips that's right the central care character of both versions of the TV show was gonna make it to the big screen in fact he was the only character that was gonna make the jump mainly because some of the cast members including Martin Landau and even Peter Graves the original actor for Jim Phelps were not super thrilled with the pitches they'd seen for the big screen Adventure it was two different to action-packed and would have potentially seen all of the original cast members die to make room for an all-new IMF team despite the lack of support from some of the original cast though filming on Mission Impossible swiftly got underway in March of 1995. filming in the city of Prague in fact Mission Impossible was the biggest Blockbuster production to have ever filmed in Prague taking production across many of the city's breathtaking locations the production spent the other half of its time filming in London most specifically Pinewood Studios but even during filming the scripting difficulties still reared their ugly head the film actually went into production without a finished script with Brian De Palma crafting many of the set pieces is on his own which the script would have to somehow justify and form a story around and during filming David Capp was brought back alongside Robert town to write and rewrite scenes on the Fly even rewriting between individual takes but even with these hurdles production reportedly ran quite smoothly running until its conclusion in August of 1995. coming in on time and under budget which was rare for Hollywood but now with production concluded the only thing left was to start getting the word out to audiences the marketing campaign began right away as at the tail end of 1995 audiences got their first look at the big screen adaptation in the form of a teaser trailer foreign updated rendition of the Original Classic theme the teaser trailer played like an intro sequence for the original show a montage of cool action visuals glimpses of the stunts whilst giving nothing away in terms of the specifics of the story it was fast energetic fun and got audiences ready as the clock soon turned to the year [Music] which was proving to be a heavy hitter in terms of Summer Blockbusters with audiences getting excited for plenty of the big event films in the early months of the year and Mission Impossible got its hand in the ring in a big way cementing its status is one of the Summer's most hotly anticipated movies with the spring release of the full theatrical trailer good morning Mr Phelps this is your mission should you choose to accept it featuring more iconography from the original series this trailer greatly expanded what audiences knew about the story this time showing that Tom Cruise's character Ethan Hunt was disavowed by the IMF and out on his own a mystery is afoot and Hunt has to unravel the plot in an exciting adventure with action the likes of which audiences had never seen before from exploding tanks of water to a helicopter chasing a speeding train through a tunnel the movie was gonna wow audiences the world over as they were told to expect the impossible anticipation Rose to a fever pitch in the remaining weeks leading up to release a prequel comic was released by Paramount in Marvel Comics detailing Ethan Hunt's Adventures prior to the events of the movie a web Adventure was released from Apple computer which also coincided with Apple's own product tie-in with the movie itself although the product that was set to feature in the film The Power book was recalled mere weeks before the movie's release that didn't quite work out and of course you 2 was approached to create a slight variation on the classic mission impossible theme while the entire band themselves did not make the theme as they were busy working on their next album two members of the band Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen spent any spare time they could creating a hip new 90s upgrade of the iconic tune and upon the song's release it immediately topped the charts becoming one of the most popular songs of the Year audiences were pumped they were ready to jump on over to theaters for what promised to be an incredibly exciting Adventure even the premiere was filled to the brim with celebrities who were all jazzed to see what cruise De Palma and the entire crew had cooked up and all led to May 22nd 1996 where 30 years after the debut of the original series Mission Impossible had finally made its way to the big screen it was now time for audiences to take their seats and accept their new mission like the audience Jim Phelps has just been given a new Mission half of a classified knock list is in play and Phelps must ensure that it does not get out into the open he must assemble a team of IMF agents to take down the buyer the seller and retrieve the knock list all in one go and who better to take on this Mission than some of the best IMF agents around Ethan Hunt Point man Hannah Williams Eye in the Sky Sarah Davies sleuth extraordinaire Claire Phelps transport lead and Jack Harmon computer genius wait is that Emilio Estevez ah I didn't know he was in this that's pretty neat well he's not in it for long because during this pivotal Mission the entire team is suddenly killed off Jack is stabbed in the face by the roof of An Elevator Shaft Sarah is stabbed by an unknown assailant and Hannah is well [Music] foreign not even Jim Phelps survives as he's shot by another unknown assailant and winds up falling off of a bridge into the river below Ethan Hunt now remains one of the only survivors but the real twist comes when kittridge the director of the IMF reveals that the mission was a ruse there are parties interested in the completed knock list but this particular event was staged in order to weed out a mole within the IMF and given that Ethan Hunt is the only one left all suspicions Point towards him you're very upset Kittredge you've never seen me very upset which leads to perhaps one of the most impressive stunts in the movie the sudden explosion of a massive fish tank Not only was the detonation set up earlier with Jack introducing a hunt to the Stick of gum that went crushed together it'll explode in five seconds but the effect is all practical the production let loose 16 tons of water which Tom Cruise himself outran it was initially planned that a stunt guy was going to play his hunt in the scene but It ultimately looked unconvincing so either by request of Brian De Palma or even Tom Cruise himself Cruz did the stunt running away from the immense force of water behind him and let me tell you it turned out pretty good [Music] foreign but now Ethan Hunt has been disavowed from the IMF and along with Claire Phelps the only other surviving member of the team he gets himself Tangled in a web to both expose the true mole as well as find the buyer of the knock list and take them all down in one Fell Swoop which means Ethan Hunt needs a team of his own recruiting two more agents from the IMF disavowed list Franz Krieger and of course Luther stickle played by the one and only Ving Rhames all of which boils down to a Sleek fun exciting film with likable characters fun moments a solid performance from Tom Cruise an action that blew audiences away establishing plenty of the most iconic Staples of mission impossible not the least of which is the Tearaway mask reveal of which there are two in this movie almost three but that one gets cut off kind of early so the score by Danny Elfman won some points as well although his involvement came pretty late in the day as Alan Silvestri was initially set to take on the score but his stab at it was not received well by test audiences as such on a wildly condensed timeline Danny Elfman took over and provided a score that accentuated the fun heroic nature of the rest of the movie as well as in a genius move bringing back the iconic theme from the TV series but that theme wasn't the only piece of music brought back as another track titled the plot was also used a handful of times tying things back to the beginning [Music] but what really brings it home is the direction by Brian De Palma his signature is all over this movie from The Continuous use of Dutch tilt split diopter shots and especially getting up close and personal with the camera in a number of scenes but what really sticks out is the use of sound or rather the lack thereof because for a movie of this scale it is actually quite quiet rarely does anyone raise their voices every character is often calm and collected there are only two moments where Ethan Hunt gets angry enough to start yelling and that use of quiet or even silence is at the center of the titular sequence of the movie because after recruiting Luther and Krieger the four disavowed agents make a plan to steal the real knock list from inside the CIA headquarters in Langley Virginia now the title of this movie provides an interesting challenge for the filmmakers I mean any other movie would still have to set up a sufficient amount of stakes for a heist sequence like this but none of them are called Mission Impossible the audience isn't expecting this to be hard difficult challenging no no out of that they're expecting it to be impossible if it's not impossible why the hell are they here so do the filmmakers succeed in making this Heist seem impossible let's find out firstly the security systems in place guarding the knock list are very clearly set up the knock list is kept on a computer at the center of this room two different security doors hold back the only employee who's been cleared to enter voice recognition retinal scan the whole nine yards and when the employee isn't in the room security systems expect it to be dead silent anything more than a whisper and the alarm will sound the system expects no person to be inside so if the temperature rises even a degree above normal due to body heat the alarm will sound and finally the system expects that no one will be standing on the floor so if even a tiny drop of water makes contact the alarm will sound [Music] yeah that sounds pretty impossible to me and that clear and concise setup allows this to be the most thrilling sequence in the entire movie the entire team has to be dead silent no music plays as Ethan Hunt is lowered from event in the roof so as not to make contact with the floor the only employee allowed in has been given something that makes him puke so he'll be out for a little while but complications arise as while Ethan does successfully access the computer and download the knock list Krieger holding him up from the vent above encounters a rat what a tiny thing a tiny little creature but if it moves the wrong way the whole thing goes down it inches closer and closer as hunt downloads the file until suddenly foreign now if that doesn't make you grasp onto your seat I don't know what will but it gets worse as a single drop of sweat slowly rolls down Hunt's glasses and then another it builds and builds until it suddenly falls from the glasses and oh that was a close one too close but ultimately hunt succeeds in retrieving the knock list but on their way out Krieger drops his knife which at the last second alerts kittridge that they were inside and that they have the real list hunt and the team still manage to get away and with the list in his possession hunt finally begins to unravel the mystery just as it's revealed to him that Jim Phelps is alive but how how is Phelps alive well this leads into a really well conceived sequence which sees Phelps tell his side of the story how he got out and who he thinks the mole is but simultaneously we see hunt pieced together the real story Jim Phelps is the mole Jim Phelps killed the team of Agents with Krieger by his side a payoff that was really well set up by the continuous reminders of his knife and all of this leads into the final climactic action set piece on the speeding train it's here that all of the Pieces come together Max the buyer is on the train and she's got the knock list Kittredge knows the knock list is here and he's also looking for hunt and Hunt Hans just discovered that Claire Phelps is also in on Jim's game the walls are closing in around hunt but it turns out this was his plan the whole time he's got Phelps right where he wants him and can now reveal to Kittredge that Phelps is alive and that Phelps is the mole which leads to a nice book ending line from the beginning of the movie because that message given to Phelps at the start of the movie was narrated by kittridge where he begins by saying good morning and now with all of the cards on the table once kittridge learns the truth he says good morning Mr Phelps it's a small thing but it's a really nice little payoff now Jim Phelps is the one cornered but he's got Ethan Hunt at gunpoint so he pulls the trigger and shoots Claire yeah he shot Claire first I mean on top of being a traitor I guess the guy is also a misogynist so yeah there's that but now the action really heats up for the biggest set piece of the movie while silence was used a great effect during the Langley Heist sequence this final action scene puts everything on the table it's big exciting and explosive the visual effects combined with the Practical effects are truly incredible a life-size train car was created built against a blue screen wall to replace the background and a massively powerful fan the same kind used in skydiving simulators which can create wins up to 140 miles an hour was used to not just blow around the actor's hair but have a legitimate effect on their faces all of it comes together in a thrilling sequence where a helicopter chases a speeding train through an underground tunnel is it a little Fantastical sure but it works to close this movie out with a bang and I mean that literally as that gum that was set up earlier comes back for one final payoff as Ethan Hunt uses it to finally just destroy the helicopter killing both Krieger and Jim Phelps in one Fell Swoop and with a glorious miniature explosion the action comes to an end Max is taken in by kittridge the knock list is kept safe Luther has taken off the disavowed list and Hunt well hunt doesn't know if you'll come back to the IMF just yet but as he's heading home on an airplane he receives an all-new Mission should he choose to accept it the book ending of hunt on the plane really sends a concrete message while the original show and even the start of this movie were all about Jim Phelps we're now in the age of Ethan Hunt and it doesn't look like we'll be leaving anytime soon Mission Impossible received largely positive reviews from critics praising the action sequences Tom Cruise's performance and the fast pace the movie kept up from start to finish though some critics weren't as big of fans mainly criticizing how different it was from the original series some criticisms were drawn specifically towards the characterization of Jim Phelps you know he was a hero why would he turn traitor but questions like that quickly became unimportant as this Tom Cruise vehicle immediately lit up the box office not only debuting on a record 3000 screens but also making more money in its first six days than any other before it surpassing Jurassic Park for a monstrous 74 million dollars and across its run it grossed a massive 180 million dollars domestically and 450 57 million dollars worldwide becoming the third biggest movie of 1996 only trailing behind twister and Independence Day audiences were eating up this taste of action spycraft and once the credits roll they only had one question on their Minds when will Ethan Hunt accept his next mission but unfortunately for them the answer to that question became a little complicated up to this point in his career Tom Cruise had never done a sequel not once not a sequel to Top Gun Interview with a Vampire nothing so to jump into a sequel to Mission Impossible was an unusual Prospect to be sure and perhaps because of that unusual experience the road to getting a mission impossible sequel off the ground was a long and arduous one at Best a few months after the release of the first movie William Goldman signed on to write the sequel with Brian De Palma and talks to direct set for a release in the summer of 1998 But ultimately Brian De Palma turned down working on the sequel resetting things back to square one as such in the early months of 1997 Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner were instead pining for Oliver's Stone to write and direct Mission Impossible 2. Oliver Stone and Tom Cruise had of course worked together before on born on the 4th of July and this partnership looked like it was going somewhere for the bulk of the year the machine started moving a screenplay started being written and Oliver Stone even publicly discussed his interest and approach to the sequel things were looking up but after a while Michael Tolkien was suddenly brought in to rewrite the script maybe the script drafts that had been written weren't up to par regardless it was only a few weeks later that Oliver Stone ultimately stepped away De Palma was out Stone was out and while there were reports of Juan Carr why taking on the sequel those never really went anywhere as such it seemed that mi2 might be dead in the water that was until February of 1998 where finally a massive amount of excitement was generated when none other than John Wu signed on to direct John Wu of course had massive success making Hong Kong action movies before taking his chops to Hollywood for movies like hard target Broken Arrow and Face-Off clearly a very different voice than Brian De Palma which sent a clear message about Tom Cruise's approach to these Mission Impossible sequels each one would be a completely different Beast a new Mission a new director a new style all to keep it fresh exciting and to provide something completely unique to audiences and now with John Wu on board casting was underway in fact even before there was a script tandiwe Newton was cast as the female lead alongside Tom Cruise with her involvement a character was written for her to best utilize her strengths following that do gray Scott joined the cast along with Ving Rams that's right Luther stickle is back the only returning player from the first movie outside of Tom Cruise we do love that all of which led to the year 1999 where even Ian McKellen was in talks to join the film but despite these pieces moving forward the script still had a long way way to go with Ronald D Moore and Brandon Braga approach to write an all-new draft they of course had plenty of success writing for Star Trek both on TV and on the big screen despite this latest writing change however the machine was underway with a large chunk of production set to take place in Australia specifically the city of Sydney it was actually a rare occurrence of not only filming in Sydney but having the movie take place in Sydney following up on the first film's trend of filming in previously underused locations bought mere days before filming was set to begin news struck the crew that production had been halted for an entire month this was reportedly due to the production side of things moving too fast leaving the scripting side unable to keep up during this time Robert Towne was brought in to help write the script ultimately getting the final screenwriting credit on the film and on top of that this delay had some fairly significant casting reverberations through Hollywood originally Steve Zahn was set to take part in the film but was ultimately replaced with Australia's own John Paulson and McCann was forced to drop out instead freeing his schedule to take on both Magneto and the upcoming X-Men film and Gandalf and Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy which ultimately led to Anthony Hopkins taking on the mi2 role in his place and finally do gray Scott's commitment to mi2 meant that he could no longer take on the role of Wolverine in the aforementioned X-Men film with that role instead going to Hugh Jackman talk about some what if scenarios it was a pretty significant month in hindsight let me tell you but ultimately production did finally get underway on April 19 1999 filming across the spring and summer in Australia Utah and Los Angeles for a planned 88-day shoot but like everything on mi2 even production had some issues ultimately extending the planned 88-day shoot into a whopping 180 days once all was said and done weather issues injuries reported issues between Australian and American Crews as well as reported disagreements between Tom Cruise and John Wu were among the most significant factors that led to this wildly extended production this production extension even led to the release date being pushed back from its plan December 17 release to instead debut on May 24 2000. while unfortunate this did mean that Mission Impossible 2 was going to become one of the first Flagship summer Blockbusters of the 21st century eventually however production finally Drew to a close the long and arduous shooting process had finally concluded now it was time to get the word out to audiences around the world as such before the end of the year Paramount released the first official teaser trailer for Mission Impossible 2. good morning Mr Hunt sorry I apologize [Music] I don't think there could have possibly been a better attention grabber than spending half of this teaser with Tom Cruise climbing on 2 000 feet high cliffs in the mountains of Utah I mean just look at this it looks insane the guy even Falls at one point I mean there's no better way to get audiences to remember your teaser than to have them sweating in their seats within the first 30 seconds and following that this teaser shows off incredible glimpses of slick action impressive visuals and an overall much different feel than the first one while there were no hints at the story this teaser definitely got people excited they knew they were in for a wild ride once mi2 hit theaters in the summer of as the New Year got underway marketing really began to heat up as in March of 2000 Paramount continued to get the word out with an all-new theatrical trailer released in a rather unconventional way as Paramount released the new trailer on the website's Coming Attractions Dark Horizons and Ain't It Cool News which were at the time considered the bane of Hollywood's existence but in a slightly forward-thinking move Paramount realized they could be used for some heavy duty promotion and with that on March 9th the full theatrical trailer for Mission Impossible 2 was released online and in case you missed it the first time this trailer also begins with Ethan Hunt climbing the incredibly High steep Cliffs all before transitioning into a huge Showcase of action crazy stunts and even a little bit of romance overall this entire second trailer is filled with tons and tons of little moments that would make anyone excited to see this bigger Bolder brand new approach to the IMF and in the remaining two months prior to release promotion went full swing mi2 quick quickly became one of the most anticipated movies of 2000 perhaps being the centerpiece of the entire Summer movie season and alongside an influx of TV spots Mission Impossible once again made an impression on the music side of things Limp Biscuit got in the game with a rock cover of the classic mission impossible theme this time retitled take a look around and then on top of that Metallica came in with their own song I disappear the music video of which featured a riff on this iconic scene from Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest that song was also the Catalyst to a massive lawsuit between Metallica and Napster the repercussions of which are still being felt in the music industry today but at the time with these songs storming onto the Billboard charts and TV spots filling the airwaves audiences were all in for the return of the IMF and finally after years of development issues production issues and even some post-production issues and last minute hirings to get the movie done somewhat intact May 24th had now arrived it was now time to jump on over the theaters to witness Ethan Hunt in an all-new Wicked haircut take on his next mission to give you an idea of how different this movie is from its predecessor the opening of this movie sees Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt climbing on an impossibly High Cliff nearly falling to his death staring out in this glorious looking shot all before finally reaching the summit where a helicopter finds him shoots a missile at him that doesn't explode but instead carries a pair of Oakley sunglasses that give hunt his new Mission then before the message self-destructs hunt throws it towards the camera where it explodes right in our face transitioning us right into the opening titles and that energy that energy is carried throughout the entire two-hour run time of this movie it's not just that mi2 is different from the first it's that every single creative choice is seemingly the complete opposite to what the first one would have done where the first one relied more on silence as a way of creating tension this movie is balls to the wall everything's on the table at all times this is the kind of movie to take a meeting between two people on a pier and turn it into a mythical scene of epic portions some of that is due in part to the score this time composed by Hans Zimmer while rock and roll motifs are used quite frequently specifically in the latest rendition of the theme the score also carries this bombastic and massive energy to it every single moment feels big it makes this whole thing feel incredibly important at all times meanwhile this movie also features some crazy lines of dialogue like this one from Anthony Hopkins who plays Mission Commander swanbeck you mean it'll be difficult very well this is not Mission difficult Mr Hunt it's Mission Impossible difficult to be a walk in the park for you this stylistic approach is thanks to director John Wu who takes his signature action filming style and lays it all over this movie slow motion snap zooms and nearly constantly moving camera and of course doves I mean it's got it all along with some Hallmarks of Mission Impossible namely the Tearaway mask reveal which this movie does a total of five times totally eclipsing the number from the first move it and it all builds to a movie that while it certainly has its flaws if you were the right age when this came out I can totally see this Landing in someone's top 10 favorite movies of all time but for me this didn't land at the right time so I kind of bump heads with it a bit as different as this movie is from the first one I'm not sure it all comes together the story this time around sees Ethan Hunt face off against Sean Ambrose another IMF agent who's gone Rogue to hunt down a chemical weapon Chimera and its cure bellerophon and the only way for hunt to get to Ambrose is by teaming up with Naya nordoff Hall and Naya is not treated very well in this movie I mean the movie sets her up as this master Thief she can break into anywhere and steal anything but then the shoe drops that the reason she's been recruited for the mission is that she's the ex-girlfriend of Sean Ambrose she's got no training for this kind of thing to go to bed with a man and lie to him she's a woman she's got all the training she needs bro what but it all leads to this weird love triangle that lies at the center of this movie where Ethan Hunt and Sean Ambrose are both in love with the same woman although the idea behind Sean Ambrose is interesting he's kind of a Bizarro version of Ethan Hunt he's impersonated hunt a few times knows his every move before he makes it it serves for some pretty neat moments like how at one point he so effortlessly best taught by just anticipating all of his moves but then ultimately Ambrose's whole plan revolves around unleashing Chimera to the world so that he can supply The Cure bellerophon All in an attempt to make a ton of money and buy stock options or whatever I mean once you start getting into an ultimate plot that revolves around stock options I start tuning out because that's not very interesting we see evil rich people do evil things all the time I mean come on but despite some of the bizarre creative choices the mistreatment of Naya and the lack of a big impossible sequence like the Langley heist in the first movie there's one thing that's stands out and that's that Luther stickle is back hell yeah Ethan and Luther back together again you love to see it oh and the action too some of the action's pretty neat and this is mainly bolstered by the fact that Tom Cruise did a lot of his own stunts for this movie a fact that was highly publicized the whole movie was kind of sold on the big Cliffside sequence at the start where Tom Cruise was only Hooked On by a thin cord but other than that he's really up there he's really climbing he even jumps across at one point the fact that it's real really creates this sense of stress in the audience it's something you just can't fake you know and this goes for almost every stunt from essentially Free Falling Towards the camera before stopping mere inches above the ground to skiing on the side of a motorcycle to evade gunfire I made the last 30 minutes of this movie are probably worth the price of admission alone I mean everything here is absolutely crazy Ethan Hunt is doing crazy flips left and right cars are exploding Tom Cruise does a nose Wheelie at one point he even rides a motorcycle Through Fire it crazy not to mention moments like this [Applause] and it all builds to a scene where hunt and Ambrose do motorcycle jousting I mean there's really nothing like it all of which concludes in a final fist fight between hunt and Ambrose featuring even more spinning and what is perhaps the scariest stunt in the entire movie that is a real knife being held a quarter of an inch away from Tom Cruise's real eye the way they pulled us off was to tie the knife on a cord held by some kind of apparatus above them so that it could only go so far but imagine if the cord breaks or if Tom Cruise sits up or moves at all it's insane it's the only thing that actually makes me squirm a little bit like dude but Tom Cruise did survive the stunt was successful and it's in the movie to be seen by the entire world all of which leads to the final moment where Ethan Hunt finally takes out Sean Ambrose by kicking a gun out of the sand spinning one more time and shooting him in the chest even if this one is far from my favorite I can totally see why someone would absolutely love this movie but now with the villain defeated hunt has completed his mission the stock prices are probably not going to change much and Ethan and Naya can now spend some quality time together without the burden of an impossible mission keeping them apart and that's Mission Impossible 2. mi2 received generally positive reviews with critics praising the action scenes stunts and overall Fast Pace though they also stated it might be best to check your brain and at the door as time would go on however mi2 would go down as perhaps the weakest of the franchise a Feeling exemplified by the fact that John Wu is the only Mission Impossible director not to be asked to return for a following installment despite that mi2 was a massive financial success audiences were eating it up once again breaking records the movie debuted on 3600 screens the most for any movie up to that point making a whopping 215 million dollars domestically and 546 million dollars worldwide It ultimately became the biggest movie of The Summer surpassing other box office behemoths Like Gladiator and X-Men and became the second biggest movie of the year domestically trailing only behind Jim Carrey's The Grinch but worldwide worldwide Mission Impossible 2 was the biggest movie of the year and it was not close mi2 was bigger badder Bolder and to some better than the first movie and with its financial success mi3 was pretty much guaranteed the only question was when turns out it was gonna take a little while [Music] after two years of nearly complete radio Silence from the third mission impossible movie where it started to circulate that David Fincher who'd previously directed Seven and Fight Club was attached to take on mi3 once more the mission impossible franchise was going to go in a very different Direction new Mission new director new style until eventually Fincher backed out with plenty of quotes after the fact about some of the disadvantages of working in pre-existing franchises with his departure development on mi3 suddenly stalled at least until February of 2003 where suddenly Joe Carnahan stepped in to direct the third installment alright now we're moving the movie even tapped a screenwriter with Dean georgaras eyeing for release in the summer of 2004. that was until it was suddenly delayed because Tom Cruise signed on to starring Michael Mann's collateral meaning that mi3 was pushed back to 2005. as such the potential pattern of a new Mission Impossible movie every four years was Swift dashed it could have been 1996 2000 and 2004 but alas it was not to be but despite that delay the machine still continued rolling into the year 2004. where Dean georgerous was no longer attached to right but hey Frank Darabont was brought on board and he's written some damn good stuff and with him now on board and Joe Carnahan still slated to direct the mi3 machine finally got moving casting news started to come through with Carrie Anne Moss Kenneth Branagh and Scarlett Johansson joining the cast along with of course Ving Rhames with production expected to begin in the summer of 2004 to make a May 2005 release although there were rumors that Philip Seymour Hoffman was going to be cast as the villain but he was unable to take part due to scheduling conflicts the film started scouting locations particularly in Berlin where the production even had a brief conflict with the German government in relation to a potentially pivotal location and with filming set to begin in just a few short weeks audiences were soon going to get their first look at mi3 at never mind Joe Carnahan just left the project due to the ever vague creative differences well there goes another director meaning the mi3 crews gotta worked fast to find a replacement so they can still meet the plant production start day immediately a short list of names came forth including the likes of Brett Ratner and even Frank Darabont who was already working on the script but neither of those two names got finalized because you see one night good old Tom Cruise was binging the TV show Alias a TV show that was created by none other than JJ Abrams and upon completing the first season Tom Cruise was impressed enough with the show to immediately offer Abrams the gig to direct mi3 which would ultimately make this JJ Abrams first feature film Tom Cruise was taking a gamble on him but he was confident it was gonna pay off and soon after JJ Abrams joined with writing Duo Alex kurtzman and Roberto orsi to wipe the Slate clean and create an all new story from the ground up but that extra time rewriting coupled with JJ Abrams commitments to the upcoming series Lost meant that Mission Impossible 3 was delayed one more time now set to release in May of 2006 and because of that schedule changed the main cast members that had already joined wound up stepping away Carrie Anne Moss Scarlett Johansson Kenneth Branagh all gone the only hold out was of course Ving Rams Luther stickles always gonna stick around but on the upside because of the production delay Philip Seymour Hoffman now had an open schedule allowing him to join the cast as the new main villain which all led to the Year 2005 where with mi3 back on the rails the new cast began to be announced Michelle Monaghan Jonathan rice Myers Carrie Russell and Maggie Q all joined taking on supporting roles which all led to July 2005 where after a long and arduous development cycle a painstaking process to get something off the ground Mission Impossible 3 he had finally begun production things kicked off in Rome with images of a speedboat roaring through the city a fantastic image to see on day one of production and that great feeling continued through the rest of the shoot which despite the absolute mess to get to this point the actual production on mi3 went spectacularly well they went in with a finished script they were always on time and they flew all around the world to breathtaking locations not just the aforementioned Rome but also Naples but for returning Stateside to film across California specifically Los Angeles Fontana and Calabasas along with filming plenty of Interiors at Universal Studios all before taking a trip to China filming in and around Shanghai to reign in the massive production effort and ultimately filming wrapped under budget and two days ahead of schedule a stark contrast to the horrendous production of mi2 and with filming having come to a close on November 29 2005 it was only two weeks later that Paramount got the word out as on December 12 2005 5 the first teaser trailer was released from Mission Impossible 3. welcome back brother oh we are back and I am excited though if you were watching this in a theater you might not have known what this was at first because the first half of the teaser sees Philip Seymour Hoffman's character deliver this ominous and threatening monologue it sets a tone of dread right from the gecko all before swiftly revealing that he's talking to Ethan Hunt transitioning us straight into a barrage of action explosions effects and of course the classic mission impossible theme it's darker it's grittier it looks overall a lot more grounded than especially mi2 but the word was now out there that mi3 was on its way and the marketing efforts didn't let up as the clock turned to the year [Music] kicking off with the Super Bowl unveiling a 30-second new TV spot that featured a lot of the same footage from the teaser this time with additional looks at some of the action stunts and continuing to put emphasis on that one bit where Ethan Hunt gets thrown into the side of the car that emphasis continued soon after with the full theatrical trailer still going head first into a far more personal story with Ethan Hunt and how the villain was gonna threaten to burn it all down in front of him the action looked fast paced the visuals looked impressive the stunts looked great all signs were pointing up for this third installment and marketing didn't let up in the remaining weeks leading up to mi3's release posters were released with the tagline the mission begins despite this being the third movie an alternate reality online scavenger hunt was kicked off by the Super Bowl trailer keeping fans occupied right up until the film's release and of course like the first two there was going to be an original song Made for mi3 This Time by famous Nazi sympathizer Kanye West Not only would he make an original song with impossible but there'd also be an all-new variation on the iconic Mission Impossible theme during the end credits which all led to the film's five major premieres across the world the promotional efforts for mi3 dwarfed the efforts of the first two as Paramount was putting a lot of eggs into this basket I mean why not right mi2 was the most successful movie of 2000 it makes total sense to get the word out there that there was another one on the way which all finally led to May 5th 2006 where after four years of development issues followed by what is perhaps the smoothest production for the series Mission Impossible 3 had hit movie theaters it was now time to grab some popcorn sit back and accept the imf's latest Mission within the first seconds of Mission Impossible 3 this movie lets you know that you're in for a much darker ride than either of the previous two movies as we see Ethan Hunt be interrogated by the villain Owen Davion who's threatening to kill kill his wife Julia it immediately brings the tension in full force [Applause] you don't think he'll do it where is it where the hell is it look at me where the hell is it Savage but before we see the ultimate result of this scene we flash back to a few days before meaning we gotta build right back up to that moment this also means that while this movie will ultimately take us on a fun ride there's going to be this overall looming dread because we know where some of these pieces are gonna wind up until then however we're gonna at least have some fun this time around Ethan Hunt is a family man living a happy life with his fiancee and eventual wife Julia played by Michelle Monaghan on top of that Hunters retired from active field Duty instead he's a teacher instructing the next generation of IMF agents in an IMF that is surprisingly huge this is really the first time in these movies where we get a sense of how the IMF operates and they're massive maybe they're too massive but it definitely gives a sense of scale to this movie in particular but eventually when one of hunts former students is captured he's brought back into the field to take down notorious Black Market dealer Owen Davion who even before we get a formal introduction to him he continues to bring forth this feeling of dread as during the mission to free Hunt's former student Lindsey Ferris we've realized that the villains have planted a small explosive charge into her head and while hunt and the others do everything in their power to stop it from going off things don't go according to plan which means you might want to look away [Music] thank you this movie isn't holding back one bit and it immediately gives Ethan Hunt the motivation to take Davion down all of which adds up to a fast-paced explosive energetic and exciting Adventure that stands completely apart from the first two while still using some of the same tricks to firmly entrench itself into the larger series not the least of which is the rubber face masks while there's never really a big mask reveal like the first two I mean there is a partial reveal later but we do get to see the creation and application of a face mask so that's neat leading to a very fun sequence where Philip Seymour Hoffman gets to play as Ethan Hunt for a bit while a stark contrasts to some of the other stuff in this movie it's entirely welcome [Music] foreign what's up nothing what's up with you nothing the direction by JJ Abrams is also welcome here he brings an entirely new feel and approach he's got a style unto himself we're talking an active fast-moving camera we're talking whip pans long lenses and of course lens flares all of which really spices up the action I mean nowhere else are you gonna get moments like this [Music] there are some other aspects like some now Infamous Mystery Box elements specifically in regards to the MacGuffin of the movie and some questions about a potential mole within the IMF but for the most part this is a straightforward ride this is also helped by Michael jokino Who coming off of doing the music for Alias three teams with JJ Abrams to do the score for this movie bringing forth an exciting orchestral classic and yet modern take on Mission Impossible it's far closer in tone to the first movie score but it has its own themes and ideas that make it stand apart but perhaps more significantly than any of those qualities is the fact that across his entire career JJ Abrams has always been really good at casting he's always bringing the right people in people with the right energy and the right Charisma and he does it every single time here we have the returning players Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames of course who do some great stuff in this one Maggie Q especially stands out she's got tons of great stuff to do and it would be a totally welcome choice to to one day bring her back and water performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman he's not in the movie all that much but within seconds you really begin to just hate this character you want to see him taken down which builds to a pivotal interrogation scene a scene where while Ethan Hunt does his best to maintain a calm demeanor the entire time Owen Davian is in complete control from the moment he starts speaking as he immediately threatens Julia's life I'm Gonna Make Her bleed and cry and call out your name and you're not gonna be able to do do you know why what is your rabbits for because you're gonna be this close to dead and who's the fire and then I'm gonna kill you right in front of her it's no wonder he so quickly gets under Ethan's skin he makes for an incredibly imposing perhaps sociopathic and just hateful villain it's perhaps the movie single biggest achievement other than the one and only Simon Pegg who joins the cast as one Benji Dunn who's only in the movie for a couple scenes but he makes them count you can always count on Simon Pegg to give a fun light-hearted performance that contrasts nicely with the general Darkness around him and it instantly made Benji a fan favorite but this is mission impossible as great as these actors are it's ultimately about the action and boy is there some solid action in this movie firstly the combination of practical and visual effects is astounding in this movie There's A Massive Action sequence set on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge that was hardly shot on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge most of it was filmed in Calabasas on a replica of the bridge that the crew could destroy to their hearts content all the while using clever shot choices and incredible compositing on the part of ilm to make it seem like they were really there on top of that during this Massive Action set piece this happens he really was thrown into that car and combined with an explosion composited in you really feel the impact of it this movie boasts A consistently ingenious use of practical and visual effects that same kind of combination is used later to create effect during a major stunt where Ethan Hunt has to jump off of a skyscraper in downtown Shanghai a piece of the roof was built raised roughly 50 to 60 feet in the air and Via use of green screens the city was digitally added to the background to really make it look like Tom Cruise was actually up there that being said Tom Cruise did jump off falling nearly the entire 50 to 60 feet distance towards the ground that was really him and that helps sell the sequence really well [Music] foreign there's just enough that's real in the scene to make you forget that anything in the shot is actually fake that being said nothing beats the real big stunt of this movie a stunt that was entirely practical the Running Scene Tom Cruise runs a lot in a lot of his movies but in this movie when the clock is ticking and Ethan Hunt needs to get somewhere fast Tom Cruise shows off his running like no other movie of his had before he runs through this town at full speed the camera's tracking alongside him going at 16 miles an hour and it just keeps going for about 20 seconds this movie shows nothing but Tom Cruise running it's the single longest unbroken take of Tom Cruise running in film history and you can tell it's real it's genuinely thrilling and It All Leads to a final confrontation with Owen Davion this time with Julia directly involved not only is it fun to see Julia get a small little action beat to cap the movie off but a brief fist fight between hunt and Davion winds up killing the villain in pretty gruesome fashion foreign [Applause] never before in this series has a villain's death been this violent and yet this satisfying but ultimately with the villain defeated Julia's life is saved now she and Ethan can finally go on their honeymoon living out a nice little happy ending while this series of films can hardly be considered a traditional Trilogy this can serve as a satisfying Trilogy Capper I mean Ethan Hunt gets a happy ending as much as the posters and trailers said this is where the mission begins it could honestly end here critical reception to mi3 was largely positive praising the action scenes the direction the fast pace but took points back for some fairly sizable logic gaps as well as criticizing the fairly empty McGuffin grab his foot what is it overall critics enjoyed mi3 about the same as they had the first two if not perhaps a tiny bit less with some calling it more of the same and that General lack of outward enthusiasm might have had an impact on the box office kicking off the summer movie season of 2006 mi3 opened with 48 million dollars domestically about 10 million shy of mi2's opening weekend and over the summer mi3 continued to fall short of its predecessors making 134 million dollars domestically and 398 million dollars worldwide while those numbers are nothing to sneeze at mi3 was the lowest grossing of the series which began to raise questions regarding both the franchise's future and Tom Cruise's future as an action star where audiences getting sick of Tom Cruise was this actually going to be the end for Mission Impossible surprisingly enough it wasn't just audiences that were asking these kinds of questions because a few months after mi3's release Paramount and Tom Cruise had a very public very messy blowout that resulted it in the two sides parting ways after 14 years of Tom Cruise working directly with Paramount their partnership had come to a sudden end now this wasn't just because of the seemingly disappointing mi3 box office but more due to Cruz's public Behavior over the last few years including events like him jumping on the couch on Oprah to profess his love for Katie Holmes being far more open about his Devotion to Scientology as well as some press regarding his disapproval of prescription drugs all of it was beginning to run counter to Paramount's ideals resulting in the two splitting on less than amicable terms it was certainly a blow to the public perception of Tom Cruise and Paramount even planned to move on without it with rumors spelling out quite quickly that Brad Pitt might take over the mission impossible franchise and in the years that followed Tom Cruise's career would go through an awkward stage eventually long time producing partner Paula Wagner would step down leaving Cruz as a sole producer on his future projects movies like Valkyrie and lions for lambs were far from box office hits in fact Cruz's most successful outing at this time was his appearance as Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder but all things that go down must come back up because despite this recent downturn strides were made to get things back on track which led to the year [Music] after the success of JJ Abrams Star Trek reboot both he and Tom Cruise re-teamed to finally Begin work on Mission Impossible 4. JJ Abrams would only produce this time however as he was already beginning to prep for his Star Trek sequel this was followed shortly after by the hiring of two writers Josh Applebaum and Andre niemic to pen the script both of whom had written for J.J Abrams Alias and would now be working on a story created by Abrams and Cruz for mi4 but even with Tom Cruise on board as a producer the question was still raised will he still star in the movie as Ethan Hunt well that question was finally answered in the early months of [Music] where three and a half years after their messy breakup Tom Cruise and Paramount had finally reunited meaning that Tom Cruise was in fact going to return as Ethan Hunt it was a big move to be sure a pretty hefty gamble as Tom Cruise wasn't quite the same name as he was when even the third movie came out as the underwhelming release of his latest movie night and day made perfectly clear but with him officially on board it was now time to find a director a handful of names popped up including Ruben Fleischer director of Zombieland and even Edgar Wright at one point But ultimately in a rather unexpected move the role of the director fell into the hands of one Brad Bird who up until now had never directed a live-action movie but his tenure in animation made a fantastic resume I mean The Iron Giant The Incredibles Ratatouille like come on yet again Mission Impossible was going for a completely different look and feel than what had been done before but because it took so long to find a director the movie's release was push back from its plan May 2011 release to instead debut in December of 2011. For the First Time Mission Impossible wasn't gonna swing into The Summer movie season but the summer was already getting a little crowded so perhaps it was a good thing to move to the less densely packed Christmas season but now with Brad Bird involved casting was underway immediately Simon Pegg was tapped to return as Benji Dunn taking the number of returning cast members all the way up to three the other two of course being Tom Cruise and Ving Rams the latter Ving Rhames was slated to have a significant role in mi4 but reported budget cuts might have ultimately removed him from the story meaning the tenure of Luther stickle might actually come to an end despite that the fourth installment started bustling with all new Talent including Paula Patton Vladimir mashkov Michael nikvist Josh Holloway and of course Jeremy Renner Jeremy Renner in fact was reported to be getting set up as the new face of Mission Impossible it's seem that despite trusting Tom Cruise to headline another movie moves were still made to perhaps say goodbye to Ethan Hunt eventually however production on mi4 finally began in the fall of 2010 in Prague returning to where the first film shot all those years ago and this was followed by word that Mission Impossible 4 might not be called mission impossible 4. for the first time the series was going to Dawn an all-new title some even speculated that the mission impossible part of the title was going to be dropped but those fears were misplaced as eventually at the tail end of October the title was officially revealed as Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol all signs were pointing to this entry being something of a reboot for the series why have the burden of the number four on the title when a subtitle makes it seem like this is somewhat a fresh start but his eye-catching as that might have been there was one event that really got people's attention towards the end of the year because in November of 2010 production turned to the city of Dubai most specifically the Burj Khalifa the tallest building in the world I mean cool right they're filming at the tallest building in the world but people likely wouldn't see much about that yet they'd likely film some interior shots maybe you'd see a film crew in the lobby but nothing all that exciting that was what was expected anyway because instead what people saw was Tom Cruise dangling from the outside of the building and perhaps one of the most publicized stunts of the series Tom Cruise was going to perform a sequence hanging from the side of the tallest building in the world opinions immediately started to shift as a collective wait what washed over audiences perhaps some good faith could be restored in the franchise good faith the production hoped to continue as the clock turned to the year where over New Year's production moved up to Canada specifically Vancouver for the last major chunk of shooting filming in the city streets that were dressed to look like a city in India as well as redecorating Granville Island to fill in for a scene set in Seattle the production made big moves over the city all before principal photography came to a close on March 19 2011. followed by a couple of reports of second unit filming in Mumbai overall it was a hugely publicized production generating a lot of conversation and now with filming having wrapped it was time to generate even more conversation which started in March with a special press Eyes Only Showcase of some of Paramount's biggest upcoming movies including the likes of JJ Abrams Super 8 Michael Bay's Transformers Dark of the Moon and of course Brad Bird's Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol while none of this footage was made public there was plenty of talk around the pivotal sequence around the Burj Khalifa audiences could only imagine what it would look like on the big screen but they didn't have to imagine much longer as finally at the tail end of June debuting before Transformers Dark of the Moon in theaters audiences finally got their first look at Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol an hour ago a bomb blew up the Kremlin the president has initiated Ghost Protocol the entire IMF has been disavowed immediately setting the stakes for the story this teaser sees the entire IMF be taken down leaving only a small team of agents to take on a plot bigger than any other before it mixing that in with callbacks and catchphrases from both the TV show and the previous movies as well as a fast quick-cut Montage of action and spectacle this teaser immediately made an impression even building up Jeremy renner's character supporting the reports that he might take over the franchise going forward but while all of that was fun while it all looked like a solid action movie it was merely a precursor to the real showstopper which the trailer teased right at the very end foreign [Music] [Music] within 15 seconds this movie snatched the attention of audiences around the world Mission Impossible 3 might have been a disappointment to some but Ghost Protocol was going to be a fresh start and excitement for it only Built from here because as the summer went on promotion for Ghost Protocol continued with some exclusive images a teaser poster and word that the movie would debut fully on December 21st but if you wanted to see it a bit sooner the movie would debut five days earlier on December 16th in IMAX I mean come on you saw that bird sequence getting to see that early and on the biggest screens around I'm there dude all of which led to the debut of a second theatrical trailer at the end of October while largely the same as the first trailer it lightened up the tone a little bit sold some more the action revealed a little bit more of the story and of course it revealed a little bit more of the Burj Khalifa [Music] the excitement was in full force now as in the remaining two months until release screens were inundated with TV spots posters and all sorts of other ads presenting this as the must-see movie to cap off the year not to mention the fact that IMAX screenings of Ghost Protocol would also feature a six minute preview for The Dark Knight Rises that's just icing on the cake honestly promotion was in full swing and audiences were eating it up despite the disappointment of the previous entry Mission Impossible was back all of which finally led to December 16 2011 where internationally and in IMAX the fourth film in Tom Cruise's spy series finally hit theaters after five and a half years away after plenty of bad press surrounding Crews Mission Impossible had stormed back into theaters to wow audiences all over again it was now time to accept a new mission to take on an all-new adventure with the IMF [Music] whoops sorry the IMF is gone actually sorry about that after a mission gone wrong resulted in a devastating explosion at the Kremlin the president had no choice but to initiate Ghost Protocol as such Ethan Hunt Benji Dunn Jane Carter and William Branch are the only four remaining agents of the IMF and as such are the only ones capable of stopping the villain code named Cobalt from launching a nuclear missile at the United States and starting nuclear war together with the help of the only gadgets at their disposal they gotta get the nuclear launch codes defeat Cobalt take down an assassin have fun while they're doing it all within a clean concise two-hour adventure and boy do they succeed in Spades Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol is a Thrill Ride from start to finish kicking off with a fun lighthearted prison break this movie immediately sets itself apart from its predecessors as much as Mission Impossible 3 went a long way to try and humanize Ethan Hunt this movie succeeds with seemingly half the effort on top of pairing him with a top-notch team of Agents I mean it's a blast to see Benji done again Simon Pegg kills it like always Jane Carter is an incredibly welcome addition and she gets a lot to do in this movie having suffered the loss of Trevor hannaway at the start of the movie to an assassin she's on a partial quest for revenge and William Brandt is a fun addition here as well and is potentially eye rolly as it might be to see him forced into becoming the new Ethan Hunt this movie really only hints towards that outcome and those hints are kind of fun I mean he's asking hunt questions trying to understand how he operates he feels very reminiscent of hunt from the first movie he's even got the same haircut kinda which naturally makes Ethan Hunt the senior operative on this Mission you know in the previous ones one might feel that Ethan Hunt hadn't quite come into his own yet he was still learning he hadn't quite figured out the ropes but here Ethan Hunt is confident clear he's definitely the leader of this team and it's nice to see that Evolution especially since he started his part of a larger team in the first movie but despite those ties back to the previous three movies this one stands entirely on its own you can jump into this one without having seen a single Mission Impossible movie and you'll still have a great time this is largely thanks to director Brad Bird who takes his animation chops to live action to create a thrilling adventure his action direction is clear concise as well as having that kind of animated Flair that you rarely see in live action at the same time the pacing of this movie is Relentless once it hits the ground it's running until the credits roll that might sound exhausting but the pace of Direction and editing done by Paul Hirsch gives us a rhythm that makes that pace exhilarating all of which is personified in the moment when Ethan Hunt tries to outrun a sandstorm one of the movie's single best images but one of the more ingenious things Brad bird brought to the table was that since the IMF technically no longer existed machinery and equipment would naturally stop working this is evidenced right off the bat with the traditional Mission dossier which normally after it delivers its message it would self-destruct after five seconds but here on top of that this movie only contains a singular Tearaway mask reveal mainly because when the agents try and create their own for a part of the mission the machine breaks meaning they have to improvise but nowhere is this theme of malfunctioning equipment more terrifying than in the most pivotal sequence of the movie the main reason anyone paid the price of admission the sequence on the Burj Khalifa thank you it is here that hunt is given special adhesive gloves that can help him hang off the side of the building gripping him on tight this is already terrifying similarly to how the climbing stunt in mi2 was terrifying Tom Cruise is really up there he's really on the side of the building while in reality he's hooked to cables that doesn't change the fact that he's still higher than the top of the Empire State Building which gives the scene a sense of tension that cannot be fixed because you're so completely aware that that distance to the ground is real you're gripping onto your seat as hard as you can and you'll definitely start gripping even tighter when okay [Music] oh man of course one of the gloves stops working of course man I mean what a way to create tension eliminating one of the security blankets and it all builds to a big Crescendo where Hunt is suddenly dangling from a cable running down the side of the building it's genuinely one of the most breathtaking action sequences ever put to the big screen and it's not even all that action-packed it gets by purely on the adrenaline of being at those Heights knowing that it's all real and knowing that it can go wrong at any moment this is good stuff [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right [Music] but even with all the malfunctioning equipment there is one piece of technology that does work properly and that's this really cool fake hallway imager Thing Once Again following in the footsteps of the first movie this one utilizes the lack of sound in a great way as hunt and Benji have to slowly sneak closer and closer to this guard who can't see them because of the really cool hollow wall thing but they still got to be quiet oh and they also can't stand in front of the camera foreign that works really well is the music for the first time in this series a composer came back to score a second movie and that was Michael jokino The Man Behind the Music of mi3 here he takes the best aspects of that score including some of those themes and combines it with all new material specifically giving each location a distinct musical sound as different as these places all look it's great to also hear that difference musically and all of this winds up building to a massive standoff between hunt and Cobalt in this incredible automatic parking structure I think it's really interesting that even though the Burj Khalifa sequence is the selling point of the movie it's not the climax instead the climax is a smaller more mono e mono kind of fight I mean I say smaller but the logistics of setting it in this kind of structure are still absolutely massive and it makes the visuals of the sequence all the more interesting combine that with more action with the rest of the team a ticking clock because Cobalt has launched the nuclear missile and you've got a tense All or Nothing finale that leaves your palms 10 times sweatier than when the scene started but It ultimately results in every single member of the team pitching in to finally stop the missile [Music] ah you know what makes that part even better Ethan Hunt actually says you gotta love that but there's one pivotal aspect to this movie that I really like it's not an action thing it's a relatively small character and story thing because Brant as it turns out was once a field agent for the IMF but he retired from field work after his last mission went wrong he was tasked with protecting Ethan Hunt and his wife Julia that's right the same Julia from mi3 although things went wrong and Julia wound up dead yeah kind of an unceremonious end for that character but it gives Branson hunt a kind of Silent unspoken conflict throughout the movie as Brandt has to stand face to face with the man he failed but after their mission is successful and the IMF is restored hunt reveals to him the real story that as long as Ethan and Julia were together Julia would never be safe as such her death was actually faked and Ethan Hunt was sent to prison to start looking into Cobalt which is where we find him at the start of the movie it's a nice little scene that resolves a very central conflict in this movie and it also brings a heartfelt scene where once Ethan Hunt is alone he sees Julia alive and well across the pier she knows he's out there he knows she's alive and they can both live out their lives to the best that they can as such this movie becomes the first in the series to really commit to long-term continuity as much as this movie stands on its own it is also built up from the ground laid by the first three which is really nice to see considering that outside of returning players Ethan Hunt and Luther stickle the previous movies were all pretty much stand-alone Adventures but I know what you're thinking and I know what you're thinking is making you worried but let me put those worries to rest Luther stickle does make an appearance in this movie right at the very end keeping the streak alive you'll love to see it and now as Ethan Hunt walks into the smoke to take on an all-new Mission we close the curtain on Ghost Protocol Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol was a massive critical and financial success many critics praised the action Brad Bird's Direction fond performances from all of the cast and especially the Burj Khalifa sequence which proved to be mind-blowing on iMac screens and across its theatrical run Ghost Protocol made a whopping 209 million dollars domestically and 694 million dollars worldwide as such Ghost Protocol became the most successful film of the series far exceeding the box office takes of the previous three this was in part thanks to its release timing as there wasn't much competition in the month of January but regardless this was hailed as not just one of the best action movies of the year but one of the best movies of the year and thanks to its immense success critics and audiences managed to universally agree on one thing Mission Impossible had finally figured out what it wanted to be the series had finally carved out its own Niche it was no longer in the shadow of other franchises like James Bond or the Bourne films Mission Impossible was now one of the Heavy Hitters and as such fans audiences and critics alike were more excited than ever for a fifth installment because if it's anything like this we're gonna have a hell of a fun time [Music] as the dust settled following the success of Ghost Protocol one more thing became clear to critics and audiences while there were plenty of reports and moves made to eventually replace Tom Cruise as the lead of the franchise the fact that this latest installment wasn't just the most successful of the franchise but also the most successful movie of Tom Cruise's career up to this point managed to squash those plans entirely as much as Jeremy Renner would likely remain on board for future installments Tom Cruise and Ethan Hunt weren't going anywhere as such the machine immediately started moving to set the stage for Mission Impossible 5. the only downside was that Brad Bird ultimately turned down the offer to return stating that part of the series charm was that every movie was helmed by a different person and felt that it'd be best to continue that street going into Mission 5. as such the director search eventually narrowed down to the one and only Christopher macquarrie whose previous efforts included screenwriting The Usual Suspects and his own directorial debut the way of the gun on top of that he he'd even collaborated with Tom Cruise a couple times writing the 2008 movie Valkyrie as well as directing crews in 2012's Jack Reacher on top of that Christopher Macquarie also had some involvement on Ghost Protocol you see part way through filming he was brought in to help rework the script because the filmmakers were running into one roadblock after another some of the changes implemented by Macquarie included additional Clarity when it came to the Burj Khalifa sequence why all of the characters were there why they mattered and the consequences if things went wrong on top of that the original plan for Julia was that she was really going to be dead but to give the audience some emotional Relief by the end of the movie macquarrie helped bring about the new ending that Julia is actually alive serving as both relief for the audience and for agent Brandt which honestly makes for the best ending of the series so far all in all Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie already had a solid working relationship up to this point which ultimately made the choice to give him the reins on Mission 5 a no-brainer as such the machine trucked on forward into the year 2013 where Drew Pierce was hired to take on screenwriting duties having just come off the success of Iron Man 3 which he co-wrote this was followed by confirmation that Simon Pegg would once again step into the shoes of Benji Dunn and eventually the fifth film set its release date for Christmas day 2015. following in the footsteps of Ghost Protocol Mission Impossible was once again gonna take over the Christmas season well actually this time it had been met with some stiff competition as it would be releasing one week after the highly anticipated seventh episode of Star Wars it's got an uphill battle to climb but if the last one was any indication I'm sure people will tune in once more and following that pre-production continued into the year 2014. it was here that another screenwriter came on board this time will Staples who was set to take over from Drew Pierce but that stint didn't last long as at a certain point Christopher Macquarie himself took over screenwriting duties now with him in both the writing and directing chair casting news was finally afoot firstly it was rumored that Jessica Chastain might join the film as the new female lead but that eventually fell through but hey guess what Jeremy Renner was officially confirmed to return look at that the list of returning characters in this series is expanding exponentially next you're gonna tell me Ving Rhames is coming back oh look at that Ving Rhames is coming back ah Luther stickle the franchise's lucky man was gonna be back this time in a major capacity not just a cameo appearance this was followed up by newcomers Alec Baldwin as the head of the CIA and Rebecca Ferguson as the new female lead beside Tom Cruise all of which built to the start of production in August of 2014 where after seemingly no time since the release of Ghost Protocol another mission impossible was underway kicking off in Vienna with some rooftop stunts before heading over to Morocco where Tom Cruise and Simon Pegg were seen filming a car chase all before spending a large chunk of time up in London to capture plenty of the sequences for this fifth installment production was flying across the world at a seemingly record Pace but the actual process to put it together was quite improvisational you see it might be reasonable to assume that to make a movie you nail down the script first and then you cast actors for the roles and then you shoot the movie but that's not really how A Mission Impossible movie comes together the system employed by Tom Cruise and Christopher McCrory relied far more on figuring it out as they went along they of course mapped out some of the big sequences as those take the longest time to prep and film but the smaller dialogue scenes were put together as a result of what they figured out on those big sequences character motivations plot devices the specifics of what certain characters were after were laid in place as they were filming it's a daunting Prospect writing the movie as you're going but it actually helps build an incredibly Cooperative atmosphere as each of the actors have a say in where their characters might wind up going and how they impact the story and as product action went on new cast members joint particularly Simon McBurney as well as Sean Harris the latter of whom being set to play the film's main villain and the images that were coming out from production were also incredibly exciting you know ever since the Burj Khalifa sequence fans were asking how could MI5 possibly top it how could they possibly hope to even compete with it oh I'll tell you how you strapped Tom Cruise to the side of an Airbus a400 and you fly away with him hanging on from the outside why not right I mean come on as much as you might want to question the sanity it's hard to question the results as images of this popped up all over the Internet audiences suddenly got their first taste of how MI5 was going to up the ante too bad they'd have to wait all the way until Christmas 2015 to see it on the big screen for themselves although maybe that was going to change as massive news broke in the early months of 2015 where quite suddenly the release date of the movie changed now given the Precedence set by the last four you might have expected to have been pushed back summer 2016 Christmas 2016. well no because instead Christmas was coming early as Mission Impossible 5 was suddenly bumped up five months early now set for release on July 31st 2015. mainly because it was foolish to try and compete with Star Wars which was already taking up a lot of publicity but also because it allowed MI5 to debut on iMac screens while there weren't any iMac specific scenes this time there's still no beating the biggest screens around but despite this sudden and exciting move the production hit one last snag right before its end as it was reported that production halted for about a week to quote fix the ending for whatever reason the original ending put in place wasn't up to snuff but as worrying as this late stop might be some actually considered it a bit of a confidence booster you know some other filmmakers might come across debilitating problems with their endings and decide to keep pushing forward anyway but here Christopher Macquarie Tom Crews and a third unknown writer we're going to take a little extra time and get it right confidence was also boosted by the fact that 2014's Edge of Tomorrow also starring Tom Cruise went through a similar mid-production rewriting phase and that movie turned out awesome so regardless production was swiftly back on for its final stretch as it eventually came to a close on March 12 2015. as such with the July release looming and no time to waste it was time to get the word out on Mission Impossible 5. kicking off on March 22nd with a full minute long TV spot I want you to choose your next words very carefully where is hunt [Music] we've never met before right across 60 seconds this little teaser displays some incredible imagery some teases of the action some hints towards the story coupled with great little moments between Ethan and Benji as well as the spotlight new character played by Rebecca Ferguson and perhaps most significantly this spot closes out with the official reveal of the title oh boy I am ready to jump back in with the IMF and good thing too as this was immediately followed up with a full two and a half minute trailer the next day it expands on what was seen in the teaser whilst also showing incredible glimpses at some of the new stunts on display as well as a little bit of humor you got your seatbelt on you ask me that now oh hey boys what did I miss Ed but the real showstopper comes right at the end where after teasing some of the incredible looking action scenes the trailer comes to a close with the mission impossible sequence to End All Mission Impossible sequences open the door yeah I'm trying oh my God all right I'm hooked I'm gonna buy my tickets now if that's all right because I am a hundred percent on board for this and excitement only Built from there because as the clock turned to June marketing continued with a second full trailer featuring plenty of familiar footage further glimpses at the villains of the movie The Syndicate heavily marketed as an anti-imf and of course a little bit more of that plane stunt but what this new trailer shows off more of is the sequence where Ethan Hunt is underwater and racing against the clock the ultimate resolution isn't revealed in the trailer but it goes to show that this movie is not going to hold anything back on any of the sequences as much as the plane stunt might be the reason we all go see the movie the rest of It's Gonna Knock our socks off too whoa whoa whoa whoa are you okay to drive a bit a minute ago you were dead what are you talking about it's not gonna end well just followed up a few weeks later with an all-new payoff trailer showing off more footage more action getting fans and audiences everywhere ready for this late addition to a monstrous Summer movie season TV spots continued the excitement as promotion built and built putting this film on as many people's Radars as possible which all led to July 31st 2015 where after three and a half years since Ghost Protocol shot the franchise with a much needed dose of adrenaline Rogue Nation had finally arrived it was the shortest Gap yet between two Mission Impossible films and audiences were more ready than ever to jump on over to theaters for the return of the IMF from the moment the opening logos end to the moment the credits roll this movie is in a full Sprint nowhere is that more personified than in this movie's introduction of Ethan Hunt who storms into the cold open sprinting all before eventually latching himself to the side of an Airbus a400 it that's right the movie's most marketed most talked about sequence happens before the opening titles it was really just a hey this sounds fun let's make it the opening kind of choice but boy is it awesome I mean he's really up there and you can see it especially in the moment where the plane finally takes off from the ground and Tom Cruise or Ethan Hunt can't keep his feet plastered to the ground I mean it's the little moments like that that really sell it but despite being an unexpected turn putting the scene at the start makes one thing clear this sequence while the film's most visually stunning is really only the tip of the iceberg this time around after a series of catastrophic events linked directly to the IMF you know the events of the previous four movies the IMF is suddenly shut down not disavowed this isn't Ghost Protocol again the IMF is gone for good and now Ethan Hunt is on his own to track down Solomon Lane the head of a secretive terrorist group known as The Syndicate or as Benji refers to them an anti-imf working off the grid Ethan Hunt as well as Benji Dunn must stop The Syndicate whilst being hunted by the CIA led by director Hundley at the same time William Brandt teams up with Luther stickle you know a real Odd Couple situation to track down hunt before the CIA can reach him all of which amounts to another two-hour roller coaster that's thrilling from start to finish once again following in the footsteps of Ghost Protocol Mission Impossible knocks it out of the park it's fun it's fast the action is intense it looks amazing and more than any of the other movies this one's really funny [Music] I mean take this moment where part way through the movie after Brant and Luther have been tracking down hunt and Benji for like 30 minutes they find themselves in Morocco where this happens [Music] it's such an unexpected payoff to that subplot but it results in some big laughs this incredible management of tone comes from not quite serious newcomer Christopher Macquarie who takes the directorial stamps of all of the previous directors to form an all-new feel for this new installment the action is still crystal clear but there's a gruffness a grit each punch hits harder than the last this movie relies quite a bit on hand-to-hand combat and nowhere is that more prominent than in the massive Opera sequence not only are the visuals and music incredible but it's spinning so many plates at once which is incredibly difficult I mean it'd be so easy for the sequence to get lost in its own tangled web but there's a Clarity with the geography you know where everyone is at all times so you always have a read on the scene it's an aspect that seems so deceptively simple but it's immensely difficult to pull off but it makes all the difference but perhaps the movie's standout sequence is in the middle of the movie where in order to steal a vital piece of documentation Ethan Hunt must dive into a water cool security system and switch out one of the security profiles the wrinkle he can't use an oxygen tank meaning he has to hold his breath the entire time he's underwater will simultaneously exerting himself physically to switch out the profiles add on to that the fact that there is moving equipment inside and you have yourself a heart poundingly tense sequence it's not just that hunts on the clock it's that he can't breathe meaning the audience is subconsciously also holding their breath they're right there with him which is also helped by the fact that Tom Cruise actually filmed these long takes underwater in fact he can actually hold his breath underwater for six minutes which just adds even more to the sequence knowing that he's actually the one performing this underwater again it's the kind of stuff you just can't fake and the ultimate reaction from the audience coming out of it is all the better for it the score in this movie is also really good this time composed by Joe Cramer he brings a healthy mixture of classic and yet modern sensibilities the score is very orchestral there's a lot of emphasis on Horns but it's also quite heavy on the base particularly with the theme for The Syndicate on top of that the score makes the ingenious move of consistently working in the Mission Impossible theme in Prior installments the theme might show up at the start at the end and maybe one sequence in the middle but here's some of those major chords are plastered all over this movie from Big reveals like this movie's two mask reveals to the tense action sequences it is the theme and this movie knows it but perhaps the most inspired Choice made by this movie is the introduction of one ilsa Faust played by Rebecca Ferguson within seconds of her introduction she immediately becomes a fun foil for Ethan Hunt on top of that she has her own motivations clouded by the larger conspiracy at hand which gives her character and the movie a whole new dimension to play with she's never overly sexualized she's an integral part to the story and best of all she can kick ass like no other it's amazing how well this character came together considering that it was one of those aforementioned figure it out as we go along aspect of this movie because at a certain point during production it was realized that the pivotal motorcycle chase in the middle of the movie became way more interesting if it turned out Ethan was chasing ilsa instead of the main villain as a result there now needed to be a reason for ilsa to turn against Ethan and so this entire tangled web was added where she had to answer to both Chief Atlee of MI6 who wants her as an undercover operative for Solomon Lane who wants her to help him take down Ethan Hunt A Simple Choice a not so simple solution and yet by the end of it all the character is not only one of the most interesting aspects of the movie but she almost steals the show from Ethan Hunt the villain Solomon Lane is also great in this Sean Harris plays him as this very cold very calculating character he never raises his voice which makes it feel like he's in complete control from the moment he's introduced the move goes a long way to set this guy up as Ethan Hunt's ultimate foil which brings us to what is perhaps my favorite aspect of this movie Ethan Hunt himself now throughout this series Ethan Hunt's always been a pretty fun character but with the exception of mi3 there hasn't been a lot to him he's really only carried by the seemingly effortless Charisma of Tom Cruise and believe me that carries it a long way but here this movie gives him a piece of characterization that makes him stand out in the sea of spy Heroes because in this movie Ethan Hunt is crazy now stay with me because this is a good thing throughout this series we've gotten hints that Ethan Hunt can never turn off the Spy part of himself he just loves this too much but here it becomes something of an obsession he has to take down Lane he has to stop The Syndicate it's like it's his life's Mission which makes Lane's seeming invincibility all the more devastating and I think Hunt's craziness here is best exemplified during the massive 30-minute stretch of action in the middle of the movie following the underwater Heist Hunt's heart actually stops until of course he's revived with a defibrillator but you might think man this guy's had a tough day he technically died it's time for a rest but no Ethan Hunt immediately finds himself in a high-speed car chase through the streets of Casablanca but if that's not enough once the car chase ends in a horrific accident hunt swiftly gets on a motorcycle to continue the high-speed chase I mean he's crazy and this movie is all the more fun for it which ultimately builds to a massive monologue given by director Hundley before the movie's climax which takes all of these crazy Antics and puts it into words creating what is perhaps one of the hardest lines in cinema history he has most likely anticipated this very conversation and is waiting to strike in whatever direction we move her Hunt is the living manifestation of Destiny and he has made you his mission Hunt is the living manifestation of Destiny I mean come on dude that's awesome and it all builds into the ultimate climax of the movie which surprisingly isn't all that big of a climax you know most movies in this genre or of this scale would always be escalating you start with something small and build up to something big that's just what makes the most sense right but this movie makes the interesting choice to start with the biggest and flashiest sequence the plane stunt and end with a climax where Ethan Hunt remembers a series of numbers what this movie does do however is raise the personal Stakes as Benji's life is in danger during this finale and that Stokes fear right into our core we like Benji we don't want to see him go but ultimately Benji does survive leading to a final foot chase a little hand-to-hand combat and finally a face-to-face meeting between hunt and Lane and this is where those last minute rewrites came into play as the original ending to this movie might have seen Lane get killed presumably by decent hunt but the longer things went on the more the filmmakers became aware that that conclusion never quite felt right so instead mirroring a scene earlier in the movie hunt Benji Luther ilsa and Brant all Trap Lane in a glass box gentlemen this is Solomon Lane Mr Lane meet the IMF and this is why we need the IMF this is why this agency exists because of this team God it's so good and ultimately with Lane capture the IMF is officially reinstated with Hunley as the new secretary welcome to the IMF secretary and that's Mission Impossible Rogue Nation critical reception to this fifth installment was incredibly positive in fact if it weren't for Mad Max Fury Road releasing the same summer it might have been hailed as the greatest action movie of 2015. critics cited the performances set piece and surprising humor as some of the film's best qualities and audiences responded in kind as following in ghost protocols footsteps Rogue nation became another massive hit taking all it could in the last weeks of the summer movie season garnering an impressive 195 million dollars domestically and a spectacular 682 million dollars worldwide while falling mildly short of its predecessor it showed that mission impossible was a truly unique franchise unique in the sense that weirdly enough it was getting better the longer it went on it seemed impossible to catch lightning in a bottle twice but it happened and Rogue nation was a huge success as such audiences were waiting on the edge of their seats for when lightning would be caught for a third time and faster than any franchise installment before the machine immediately started rolling on Mission Impossible 6. in fact word circulated so fast that Tom Cruise announced that they'd make a sequel two days before Rogue Nation even came out so and following that in record Pace the sixth installment search for a director had also come to a close a close that would actually Buck tradition you see each Mission Impossible movie up to this point has featured a different director each with their own distinct visual style and sensibilities but now for the first time in the series someone was going to come back and it was none other than Christopher macquarrie That's right The Man Behind Rogue nation was coming back for the sixth installment clearly there was a winning formula at play with the partnership between Cruz and Macquarie and what better way to continue making good stuff than to re-team for the next adventure and what else can you do to help solidify that winning formula bring back Rebecca Ferguson as ilsa fast much to the excitement of fans she was the first confirmed returning member of the MI6 cast and the first female lead to take on a significant role in two Mission Impossible movies which all led to the year 2016. where the original Mission Impossible movie celebrated its 20th anniversary with plenty of Articles coming out celebrating its release and the still ongoing series at spawned unfortunately though there wasn't much news to cover on the next installment itself as Tom Cruise spent most of the year working on the Jack Reacher Sequel and the mummy reboot but towards the end of the year news did come forth as pre-production was suddenly halted due to contract disputes yeah there were disagreements about how much money Tom Cruise was going to make yada yada it's a bunch of weird Hollywood accounting stuff but ultimately it all wrapped up nice and neatly and pre-production continued right into the year 2017. where in lead up to the spring production start casting news was abound starting with the new edition's Vanessa Kirby and perhaps most publicized of all Henry Cavill and this was followed by the announcement of all of the returning players including the already confirmed Rebecca Ferguson as well as Simon Pegg Alec Baldwin Sean Harris the villain of the last movie interesting enough and of course Ving Rams but there was one person missing from this returning crowd and that was Jeremy Renner and kind of an unfortunate turn seeing as he was brought in for Ghost Protocol to potentially take over for Tom Cruise but now largely due to his schedule being jam-packed by the upcoming Avengers duology he was no longer going to be involved in Mission Impossible now this doesn't discount a return entirely but after two bouts as agent Brandt he was going to take a back seat this time around in any case MI6 got off the ground running as in April of 2017 production kicked off in Paris beginning with a bang as on one of the first days of production people got a glimpse of Tom Cruise getting thrown off of a motorcycle plenty more stunts were seen across the city streets as the sixth installment spent a lot of time in Paris filming some of the movie's biggest action set pieces all before taking the jump down to New Zealand where the cast wound up expanding even further adding Angela Bassett as the new director of the CIA and Michelle Monaghan turns out the next adventure for the IMF was going to bring back one of the series most important characters even after it seemed that that story was over in Ghost Protocol it looked like there was going to be a little bit more eventually with a couple group shots released as production concluded in New Zealand the film headed north to London for some more action some of it was even caught on camera like this clip you know this one's been going around a lot lately let's check it out yeah that looks like what you think it looks like during the production on MI6 in London Tom Cruise wound up breaking his ankle during one of his many stunts ultimately production had to be delayed or rather reorganized to allow Tom Cruise time to recover but the story surrounding the actual stunt is pretty neat as Christopher Macquarie said in interview shortly after that Tom Cruise knew the instant he hit the wall that his ankle was broken but still completed the shot and exited frame as planned before Calling it Quits I mean that's crazy right you break your ankle and you still power through and finish the shot I mean it's no wonder that Macquarie would later make it very clear that he was going to stop at nothing to make sure that that take made it into the movie ultimately after around seven weeks of recovery Tom Cruise was back on set once again flying a helicopter so you know there's really nothing that can damper his spirit and following his return production move to the pulpit Rock tourist site in Norway where audiences gotta look at Henry Cavill in costume along with his mustache that might seem like just an ordinary mustache but that is the mustache the one that had to be digitally removed for the Justice League movie since the Joss Whedon reshoots took place at the same time as the filming for Mission Impossible 6. in perhaps the most bizarre way mission impossible 6 now had one more thing for audiences to get excited for they'd finally get to see the mustache they'd heard so much about which all led to the year 2018 where after a little more filming in London where Tom Cruise was seen running his heart out once again it was time to really begin the promotional cycle for MI6 which kicked off on January 25th starting with this image of Tom Cruise holding onto the side of a flying helicopter which came in conjunction with the official reveal of the sixth film's title Mission Impossible Fallout but as exciting as it was to get an image and a title all of it paled in comparison to when promotion really kicked off on February 4th the night of the Super Bowl it was here that marketing for Fallout kicked off with the first 30 seconds of footage but as exciting as that was it was only the beginning as it merely LED right into a full two and a half minute trailer that debuted online your mission should you choose to accept it I wonder did you ever choose not to this trailer shows off a far more Bleak tone than its predecessor as the stakes have been raised to new heights and Ethan Hunt's prior actions could have a devastating effect on the present Mission all the while we see plenty of new and familiar faces as well as the mission impossible brand of incredible action some of the key moments are a quick sequence where Ethan Hunt takes over a helicopter and nearly flies it into a truck followed by the infamous moment where Tom Cruise actually breaks his ankle clearly in view in the trailer by the way that footage also debuted on The Graham Norton Show only a few days earlier adding some additional promotional buzz but perhaps the most exciting and pulse pumping moment is this um that's Henry cavill's character reloading his arms before beating the piss out of a bad guy and it rules despite having been around for two decades Mission Impossible had no plans of stopping anytime soon and Fallout instantly became one of the most anticipated movies of 2018 and that excitement only Built from here because as the weeks continued and production finally wrapped in March of 2018 some more information started to unfold including the reveal of a death-defying stunt in which Tom Cruise dropped out of a plane 25 000 feet in the air footage of which debuted at cinemacon in April absolutely blowing away everyone in attendance unfortunately none of that footage was made public at least not until the release of the second theatrical trailer in May across another two minutes this trailer continues to show off the impressive action a little bit of humor but overall darker tone as well as hinting at some deep-rooted conflict between Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt and Henry cavill's August Walker all before revealing the highly publicized 25 000 foot jump and while there isn't much of that in this teaser a featurette came out not long after breaking down how incredibly difficult and intricate the stunt was all signs pointed to one inevitable outcome no matter how good Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation were Fallout was gonna try its damnedest to blow them out of the water and in the final weeks leading up to release TV spots posters and new featurettes debuted keeping fans and audiences excited for this late addition to the summer movie season all of which finally led to July 27 2018 where 22 years after the original film debuted after a series of largely disconnected and distinct sequels Mission Impossible was back on the big screen after its shortest break yet and after early reviews were already praising this latest installment it was time to jump on over to theaters for not just one of the most anticipated movies of the summer but the imf's most daring Mission yet [Music] Ethan Hunt starts this movie by making an incredibly difficult choice to save the life of his friend Luther or allow plutonium to get out into the open potentially resulting in the deaths of millions in this instance hunt saves Luther but the consequences of this hang over the entire movie that follows including the ultimate moral question of whether it is better to choose to save the one life or the millions all the while Ethan Hunt's past comes to haunt him as Solomon Lane is brought back into play this combined with nightmares of his wife Julia really give this movie A much darker tone to play with as much fun as Rogue nation and Ghost Protocol were the smart decision was made to not follow down that path for a third time in a row instead what we get is an intense pulse-pounding and utterly Fantastic action movie it might have seemed like an impossible mission to try and top the last two movies but this movie succeeds in more ways than one and it makes it look easy in the process despite every single aspect of this no doubt being some of the most difficult cool things to pull off a lot of this comes down to returning writer director Christopher macquarrie who despite being the first and so far only director to return strides were made to keep this one distinct even from his previous outing while there's still a knack for geographical Clarity the color grade has been significantly muted almost given a noir-like look to this movie as there's lots of Silhouettes some lens flares which gives it this foreboding Terror this is also accentuated by the new score this time composed by Lauren bounce who brings forth an almost dark knight s kind of sound the music has a lot of bass a lot of percussion a lot of Bongo drones as well as a nice piano theme that runs through the whole thing at the same time the score follows in Rogue nation's footsteps by continuing to work the Mission Impossible theme into the main score most specifically during a major exchange scene it's funny because the Mission Impossible theme is really fun you know it's fast it's light it brings up the mood but here this scene is built for maximum tension so instead the main theme to slow down a little bit and continuously builds and builds the longer the Scene goes on it's crazy how those changes turn this fun theme into a theme of ripe with tension on top of all of that the cast new and returning are great Simon Pegg brings a great deal of levity as Benji done Ving Rhames is the much needed rock that keeps the whole thing grounded being Hunt's closest friend Rebecca Ferguson of course steals the show as Ilse Faust once again Tangled in a web that dangles around the entire story then we have the newcomers Vanessa Kirby as the Elusive and mysterious white widow Angela Bassett as the new CIA director Erica Sloan and of course there's Henry Cavill as August Walker who's immediately introduced as a counter to Ethan Hunt you use a scaffold I prefer a hammer and that conflict lies at the center of this movie as these two characters are constantly at odds which just makes it all the more thrilling when Walker turns out to be the film's main villain working with returning villain Solomon Lane who played by Sean Harris is once again super menacing here and all of this serves some of the best action in the entire series it's rare to have a franchise going on for this long that's still trying to top itself and do better with each outing because while the previous movies all had that one big set piece that one major sequence that displayed all of the best tools and was likely also the center of the marketing this movie doesn't do that this movie doesn't have that one major sequence because instead every single sequence is like that each and every action scene is built up to create maximum tension move the story forward and of course include some insane stunt work it all starts with this halo jump right out of the gate where hunt and Walker have to dive out of a plane and deploy just above the City of Paris Not only was was the entire jump done for real with Tom Cruise falling mere feet away from the camera but the way the scene is staged is incredible I mean it's constantly putting these wrinkles in the way of hunt and Walker's Mission all the while we see the ground moving closer and closer making for a really unique ticking clock the music builds and builds as they quickly get closer and closer to the ground until hunt suddenly pulls both of their shoots and they land on the ground safely giving this huge sense of relief but then it swiftly transitions into the bathroom fight which is just an amazing display of hand-to-hand fight choreography performed insanely well by the stunt team Henry Cavill Tom Cruise and of course Liang Yang without all of them this sequence doesn't come together the way it does but the action doesn't stop there you then have this enormous set piece in Paris which already has so much tension going in before the thing even starts because in order to impress some villains Ethan Hunt is told that he must freeze Solomon Lane and their plan as we see in a Flash forward slash dream sequence is to kill literally everyone and we know that this doesn't sit well with hunt not only has this been established in this movie but by the previous movies as well particularly mi2 he'll undoubtedly engage in some aerobatic Insanity Before He'll risk harming a hero on a security guard's head but then as the tension builds and builds and the pivotal moment approaches we know what they want hunt to do we know what he doesn't want to do and it all leads to the moment when foreign this time with Luther and Benji sneaking Lane away which is fun and then of course in order to get away from the cops hunt winds up on a motorcycle racing through the streets of Paris because you can't have a movie like this without Tom Cruise riding a motorcycle on his own without wearing a helmet and you can tell he's really there too not just in the fact that you can see his face but it allows the shots to open up there's no cheating going on and you can just see it on his face he's not just riding the motorcycle through the city he's performing as Ethan Hunt it's crazy but it doesn't end there as it then transitions into a car chase with tons of crazy stunts like driving backwards over a small series of stairs [Applause] foreign [Applause] there's a massive scene where Ethan Hunt runs to chase after August Walker not only does the sequence provide a nice dose of humor thanks in large part to the ever great Benji oh sorry I had in 2D good luck but it also shows off a Tom Cruise Running Scene that can rival the moment in Mission Impossible 3. mainly because it also contains the moment where he breaks his ankle [Music] yeah that one hurt you can see it but where this movie really shows off is during the final sequence of the movie where hunt and the IMF team now including Ilse Faust have found the plutonium they've been looking for the plutonium of course has been armed by Lane and Walker meaning the team only has a certain amount of time to defuse the two bombs and they have to defuse them at the same time after the countdown starts and after the Fail-Safe pin is pulled from The Detonator if they cut the wires before the Fail-Safe pin is pulled from The Detonator the bombs go off we got a ticking clock we got Stakes we have several pieces going on at once so everyone has something to do but even though the threat of millions dying is certainly a daunting one the movie makes one ingenious decision that flips everything on its head foreign [Music] this is where Julia turns up Hunt's wife as important as the millions of lives are the one life is just as important not just to Ethan Hunt but also to the audience we have a character here that we care about and even if you've only seen this movie you still understand why Ethan cares about her and just by putting this one person In Harm's Way the stakes rise exponentially for the action that ensues the action of course sees Ethan Hunt grab onto the bottom of a helicopter fall off the bottom you know of course then climb back up to then take over the helicopter to then take down the other helicopter that Walker is in the hell is he doing I find it best not to look it all builds and builds as each of these pieces get closer and closer to disarming the bombs and yet the closer the clock ticks to zero the further away they seem from Victory but hey at least Julia gets to be a part of the action helping Luther to disarm one of the bombs wire strippers I'm a doctor non-electrician sorry the thing with the Green grip got it the Y in my left hand the black one my left hand that's your left hand sorry the other wire the red one yes the red one in my right hand just checking it oh I like her and boy is the helicopter stunt insane again because it's actually Tom Cruise flying the helicopter the cameras can capture the environment around him you see the landscape fly by and did I mention that Tom Cruise is actually flying that helicopter and acting at the same time because he is that's entirely true and it makes for an exhilarating sequence and it all builds to a final confrontation between hunt and Walker on the side of this Cliff a confrontation that cleverly continues to remind the audience of this chord that's barely hooked onto the ground all the while a fight with Solomon Lane keeps ilsa and Benji from disarming one of the bombs we got all these spinning plates all of these moving pieces yet the goals are clearly established as are the consequences as such the tension builds as the clock ticks more and more thankfully ilsa and Benji do ultimately take down Lane and they do finally get to the wire that will defuse the bombs but they have to wait they don't know if Hunt's got the Fail-Safe key of course Hunt is hanging off the side of a cliff climbing further and further up towards the Detonator and Walkers right on his tail he's so close yet so far so what does he do [Music] but even with Walker down the clock's still ticking they're getting closer 10 seconds 5 seconds can they do it they gotta cut those wires is it gonna work out I don't know but they gotta cut cut the wires now [Music] right at the last possible moment Ethan Hunt managed to get the key allowing Benji ilsa and Luther to disarm the bombs safely and with that the tension releases and everyone in the audience sits back realizing how tightly they were gripping their seats that's the kind of stuff that sets this apart from the pack there's a clear setup of objectives obstacles and wrinkles as well as the looming ticking clock that gives everything this sense of urgency this movie is absolutely fantastic at that during every single sequence but now the mission is complete Lane is taken to MI6 ilsa is no longer in a tangled web and the IMF will live on to fight another day and as for Julia she'll sleep better at night knowing Ethan Hunt is out there to save the world because saving the one life is just as important as saving the millions and that's Mission Impossible Fallout critical reception to Fallout was the most positive it had been for any of these movies critics and audiences were Blown Away by the set pieces the characters and even the twisty mask pulling Espionage story of which there are two Mass pulls on this one which manifested in the best box office hall for the entire franchise as Mission Impossible follow raked in a massive 220 million dollars domestically and 791 million dollars worldwide with such positive reviews Mission Impossible Fallout wasn't just named the year's best action movie but one of the best action movies of all time rivaling that of Fury Road in 2015. across six movies the mission impossible franchise has outdone itself time and time again it started as a fun Sleek spy movie then became an over-the-top action Thrill Ride then it decided to ground itself into a darker more serious story all before exploding into this series of increasingly insane stunts that keep the audience guessing at every turn and because they're all done for real it gives audiences an experience like no other there's a winning formula here especially with the partnership between Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie together they took a franchise that was already on its way up the ladder and made it one of the best action franchises out there and audiences couldn't wait to see what they would cook up next [Music] you're fighting to save an ideal that doesn't exist never did you need to pick a side [Music] which brings us to the present day after five years away Mission Impossible is going to return to the big screen this summer for the imf's seventh Adventure this time ominously titled Mission Impossible dead reckoning part one with part two slated to follow in 2024 both of which might potentially bring the entire series to a close and both of which are once again under the Helm of Christopher macquarrie retaining him with not only Tom Cruise but Rebecca Ferguson Simon Pegg and of course Ving Rhames the only other person to have a role in every single one of these movies and they're all going to be joined by new players Haley Atwell and palm clementieff but perhaps the most exciting addition to this next installment is none other than kittridge that's right one of Ethan Hunt's main foils from the first movie is coming back to maybe ruin his world in part 7. not much is known story wise about the next installment there's going to be crazy stunts crazy Easy Action the teaser sees Tom Cruise ride a motorcycle off the side of a mountain a feature read about that even premiered before iMac showings of Avatar 2. showing off once again how insanely difficult it is to pull these stunts off and to make them look as good as they do but it all begs the question how are they going to top Mission Impossible Fallout the ironic thing is that we've asked this question on all of these recent movies and they've all managed to pull through for something spectacular Mission Impossible is that rare franchise that the longer it goes the better it gets it'd be unfortunate if the series came to a close but Tom Cruise isn't going to live forever actually I don't know that for sure but either way if this series comes to a massive and climactic close it'll most certainly go down as one of the best series of films in history from the action to the stunts to the characters and stories this franchise does it like no other and I myself am totally strapped in for the imf's return this summer dead reckoning looks really cool so far and I am game to see what they've cooked up this time before I go though I do have to thank one major source of information that I genuinely could not make this video without and that's the light diffuse podcast an entire podcast dedicated exclusively to Mission Impossible hosted by Drew Taylor and Charles Hood these guys know everything there is to know about Mission Impossible they've interviewed tons of the people who've been involved with this series including Christopher Macquarie on a number of occasions and recently they even got Tom Cruise their episode specifically on the behind the scenes of these movies were an invaluable resource for me in getting this video made so I'd like to thank them for being a great source of information and I'd like to thank you for taking this journey with me for watching this entire video all the way to the end and who knows maybe after this upcoming two-parter comes out I'll come back to talk about how they might bring this whole thing to a close before that happens though I'm sure to be back with another retrospective this time on something a little more until then however this message will self-destruct in five seconds and I will see you guys later [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you

Channel: Prime's Theater

Views: 1,476,018

Keywords: Prime, of, Grammar

Id: y9DqpHJs7ws

Length: 124min 42sec (7482 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 14 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/dr_henry_jones]

Great video!