Retrospective & Review - Mission: Impossible (1996-2018)

            Hey guys, Chuck here, and welcome to another Retrospective & Review of a popular movie franchise that I am a huge fan of. Last year, we did a Retrospective & Review of the Fast & Furious franchise, and this year I'm doing it with possibly my favorite action spy franchise: Mission: Impossible. This series, based on the television series of the same name by Bruce Geller, kicked off back in 1996 and stars Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, who is quite honestly my favorite Tom Cruise character of all time. Sorry Top Gun fans, but you guys can keep Pete "Maverick" Mitchell. My guy is Ethan Hunt. 

            Okay, so the first Mission: Impossible, directed by Brian De Palma, was released in 1996, and has Ethan working as part of a team led by veteran IMF (Impossible Missions Force) agent Jim Phelps. Unfortunately, during a mission to recover a stolen CIA NOC list, members of the team are all killed, leaving Ethan as the only survivor. Ethan meets with IMF director Kittridge, who reveals that the NOC list was a fake, the real list is in Langley, and the mission itself was a ploy to draw out a potential rogue IMF agent going by the alias "Job" (as in the Book of Job). And since Ethan is the only one of his team still alive, he's a clear and obvious suspect. Escaping from his fellow IMF agents, Ethan reunites with Claire Phelps, wife of Jim Phelps, and the two decide to work together to find the real traitor, as well as their mysterious buyer Max. 

            Recruiting two other disavowed IMF agents, Luther Stickell and Franz Krieger, Ethan and Claire make their plan to break into the highly secure vault, with temperature monitor, sound monitor, laser grid protection for the vent, and pressure sensitive floor panels. Despite some struggles, including the IMF agent manning the vault, as well as a rat in the vent, Ethan successfully retrieves the NOC list, and while calling Kittridge in an airport, learns that Jim is still alive. Upon conversing, Ethan realizes that Jim is the real traitor, killed everyone but Ethan and Claire, and both Claire and Krieger are working with him. 

            On a high-speed train, Ethan manages to get Max, Jim, Claire, and Kittridge on board, where Kittridge arrests Max, and Ethan fights Jim with Krieger flying a helicopter in the train tunnel. Jim, attached to the helicopter, and Krieger are both killed when Ethan blows up the helicopter with explosive gum. Ethan is cleared of any wrongdoing, and both he and Luther are reinstated. 

            Okay, so this movie was really edge-of-your-seat with both action and suspense.  Brian De Palma definitely made an entertaining spy thriller that I thoroughly enjoyed watching. Having TV series protagonist Jim Phelps, played in this movie by Jon Voight, be revealed to be the bad guy was a unique twist that gets me every time I watch this movie. Jean Reno, Emmanuelle Beart, Henry Czerny, Vanessa Redgrave, Emilio Estevez, and the other cast members of this movie were terrific. But, of course, both Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames we're excellent as Ethan Hunt and Luther Stickell. Overall, great start to the franchise, and I give Mission: Impossible a rating of 5/5. 

            Released in 2000, Mission: Impossible 2 is the second film in the franchise and is directed by John Woo. Both Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames return, and are joined by the likes of Dougray Scott, Thandiwe Newton, Richard Roxburgh, John Polson, and Anthony Hopkins. 

            So, in this movie, Ethan is sent after rogue IMF agent Sean Ambrose, who has frequently doubled for Ethan when Ethan was unavailable. Apparently, Ambrose killed a former contact of Ethan's and stolen a deadly viral weapon known as "Chimera." And while Ethan is given discretion to choose his team, one name he is instructed to recruit for the mission is Nyah Nordoff-Hall, who is a former girlfriend of Ambrose. The rest of the team consists of Luther, returning from the first movie, and newcomer Billy Baird, who is a pilot. And of course, throughout the movie, Ethan and Nyah become more romantic with each other, which makes Ethan having to use her to get to Ambrose more difficult. But, Ambrose is stopped, the day is saved, you get the idea. 

            Okay, this movie is straight up ludicrous in both its plot and in just how over the top the stunts tend to get. I mean, Mission: Impossible movies all have over the top stunts, but this was early 2000's level over the top. So insane that I can't even describe half of it. The performances were decent, with both Anthony Hopkins and Thandiwe Newton turning in the best performances, but both Dougray Scott and Richard Roxburgh we're just waayy too hammy in this movie. Overall, the movie is pretty insane, and is definitely a John Woo project. Not terrible, but certainly the most ridiculous of the franchise, I'm giving Mission: Impossible 2 a rating of 2.5/5. 

            Okay, so 2006 saw the release of Mission: Impossible III, directed by J.J. Abrams in his directorial debut, and sees the returns of Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames, and features several newcomers such as Michelle Monaghan, Billy Crudup, Laurence Fishburne, Maggie Q, Simon Pegg, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. 

            So, the third movie in the franchise sees Ethan now working as an IMF trainer and is engaged to Julia Meade. Unfortunately, one of the IMF agents he trained, Lindsey Farris, was abducted on a mission, and the IMF cannot disavow her because they believe she can lead them to a phantom arms dealer named Owen Davian. So, IMF Assistant Director Musgrave gives Ethan the mission to find Lindsey and bring her home safely. Joining Ethan on the mission are Declan Gormley, Zhen Lei, and of course Luther. So, while the team does successfully save Lindsey, unfortunately a small explosive placed in her head detonates, killing her. Later, both Ethan and Musgrave are chewed out by IMF Director Brassel. Later, Ethan finds a message from Lindsey implicating Brassel's possible connection to Davian, and a dangerous object called the Rabbit's Foot. So, Ethan and his team go after Davian in Vatican City, and this is where things start to fall apart, as German speaking mercenaries rescue Davian, and Ethan realizes that Julia is now in danger, and he goes to her place of work, only to see she's already been kidnapped. Musgrave, during Ethan's interrogation at IMF, let's Ethan know that the Rabbit's Foot is in Shanghai, and Ethan goes after it. 

            After retrieving the Rabbit's Foot, Ethan goes to Davian, who threatens to kill Julia if he doesn't reveal the truth about the Rabbit's Foot. However, after Davian shoots her, Musgrave reveals himself to be the real traitor in IMF and shows that the woman Davian killed wasn't Julia, it was Davian's translator. So, Ethan goes after Davian and kills him, defuses the explosive in his head with a makeshift defibrillator, gets resuscitated by Julia, and finally kills Musgrave. Back in the US, Brassel congratulates Ethan on a job well done, and Ethan leaves to enjoy his honeymoon with Julia. 

            So, a lot going on in this movie, and clearly pretty complex. While performances from the likes of Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laurence Fishburne, Ving Rhames, Maggie Q, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and the like were fine, there was quite a bit of the movie in terms of plot and action that was well, a bit dull. While Mission: Impossible 2 was just extremely over the top in that John Woo style of filmmaking, J.J. Abrams made Mission: Impossible III just a little bit too safe and mundane. And this was around the time we got Casino Royale with Daniel Craig, so the fact that a Bond movie was seen as cooler than Mission: Impossible is a tad disappointing. One new character in this movie that I enjoyed was an IMF technician named Benji Dunn, played by Simon Pegg. Now, while his role was really small in this movie, he would go on to become a franchise mainstay in future movies. It's pretty cool. Ultimately, for his first time directing a feature film coming off of television shows like Felicity and Alias, J.J. Abrams delivered a passably decent Mission: Impossible movie. I give Mission: Impossible III a rating of 3.75/5. 

            2011 saw the release of my favorite entry of the franchise, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. Directed by Brad Bird, this film is easily the point where the Mission: Impossible franchise became a pop culture mainstay, to the point of each new movie becoming an event. Tom Cruise and Simon Pegg return,and are joined this time by the likes of Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton, Josh Hollaway, and Lea Seydoux, with appearances by Tom Wilkinson, Michelle Monaghan, and Ving Rhames. 

            The movie opens with IMF agent Trevor Hanaway being killed by an assassin named Moreau, who steals a file from Hanaway containing Russian Nuclear Launch Codes so she can sell them to a man named "Cobalt." Meanwhile, agents Benji Dunn and Jane Carter, the former being newly promoted and the latter being Hanaway's handler, head to Moscow to break Ethan out of prison, where he also helps another prisoner named Bogdan get out, as Bogdan is an information source on Cobalt. Ethan is then given a mission to infiltrate the Kremlin and gain any information on Cobalt, with both Jane and Benji as his team. Unfortunately, an insider blows Ethan and co.'s cover, prompting Ethan to abort the mission, and a bomb is set off and destroys the Kremlin. Ethan is taken by SVR agent Anatoly Sidirov and is charged with destroying the Kremlin. Ethan escapes, and meets with the IMF Secretary, who is in Moscow along with his chief analyst William Brandt. The Secretary reveals that the blame for the Kremlin bombing was pinned on the IMF, giving the President of the United States no choice but to initiate Ghost Protocol, formally disavowing the IMF. The Secretary than gives Ethan two options: one is to be taken to Washington DC, where the DOD would label him a rogue extremist and the Kremlin bombing would be pinned on him and his team, or two: Escape and head to an overlooked IMF safehouse where Benji and Carter are waiting for him, pursue Cobalt, and stop him from inciting global nuclear war. The Secretary is, unfortunately, killed, and both Ethan and Brandt head to the safe house, meeting Benji and Carter. Ethan and Brandt then manage to identify Cobalt as Swedish-born Russian strategist Kurt Kendricks, who used the bombing to cover his escape with a Russian nuclear launch device. 

            Ethan and co. head to Dubai, where Hendricks will be meeting with Moreau to get the nuclear launch codes and plans to use cryptographer Lisenker to authenticate the codes. So, we get to easily the most famous sequence in the movie, which is in the Burj Khalifa, where Ethan scales the side of the building to access a server, and the IMF team carries out the plan. Ethan and Brandt pose as Lisenker and Wistrom (Hendricks' right-hand man), while Carter poses as Moreau in meeting the REAL Wistrom and Lisenker. Brandt, using a specially designed contact lens, sends a copy of the nuclear launch codes to Carter to give to Wistrom and Liseneker, but the copy is tagged with radioactive isotopes that Ethan can use to track Hendricks. Carter and Moreau end up in a fight, which ends with Moreau being kicked out of a window to her death. Later on, at a safe house, we learn that Brandt was once a field agent, tasked with shadowing a husband and wife, but while he followed the husband, the wife was killed by Serbians. And he wouldn't see the husband again until he and the Secretary met with Ethan in Moscow after the Kremlin bombing. 

            Using Bogdan to meet an arms dealer known as The Fog, Ethan gets information in Hendricks' whereabouts, and learns that he's in Mumbai, where he plans to use a Russian sub to launch a nuke at San Francisco using an obsolete Russian launch satellite, currently in the possession of Indian media tycoon Brij Nath, whom Carter seduces to get the override code, which Ethan then uses to attempt to stop the launch, but too late, as Hendricks sabotaged Nath's equipment. Benji eventually gets it online again, Ethan disarms the missile, and Hendricks is killed in his fight with Ethan. Lastly, Sidorov arrives and sees that the IMF was innocent of the Kremlin bombing. Ethan and the team meet in Seattle, where Ethan reveals to Brandt that the death of Julia, which Brandt blamed himself for, was a ruse to give her a new identity, and the Serbians were a means to get Ethan in prison to get Bogdan. Ethan gets a new mission from Luther, with the IMF debriefing him on a terrorist organization known as The Syndicate. 

            Wow, that's a lot to unpack, but simply put, this movie is my favorite for a reason, and not just because of the scene of Ethan scaling the side of the Burj Khalifa, which is the tallest building in the world. The idea that the entire IMF is disavowed, allowing Ethan and co. to work covertly with no support of back-up a really neat idea that, while it didn't necessarily work in Mission: Impossible III, it definitely worked here. Tom Cruise is great, once again, and I thoroughly enjoyed the expanded role of Simon Pegg as Benji. The two main newcomers, Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner, were both fantastic and I definitely love rewatching this movie just for the banter between all four of our leads. 

            The action definitely felt more intense this time around. Having come from an animation background with his work on Ratatouille, The Incredibles, and The Iron Giant, Brad Bird is an artist of cinema and clearly knows how to frame shots so the audience can see what's going on. On top of that, the writers of this movie, Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec, definitely crafted an excellent story that, in my opinion, made the best movie in the Mission: Impossible franchise. No surprise here, I'm giving Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol a rating of 5/5. 

            2015 saw the release of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, the fifth film of the franchise sees the returns of Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Ving Rhames, and Simon Pegg, who are joined by newcomers Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, and Alec Baldwin.

            So, the movie opens in Belarus with Ethan and Benji, with assistance from Brandt and Luther, going after a cargo plane loading dangerous nerve gas. After recovering the gas, Ethan figures that there's no way the guys who were selling it to terrorists could possibly have the means to retrieve and transport the gas, further proving to Ethan about the existence of the Syndicate. He's proven right, when the Syndicate gives him a warning in a record shop in London that is used by the IMF. Back in Washington DC, Brandt is brought before CIA Director Hunley, who seeks to completely dissolve the IMF and take assets from the organization and put them to work within the CIA. Despite disagreements of doing so by Brandt, who pleads the need for the IMF, the Senate committee overseeing the situation decides to dissolve the IMF, meaning Ethan is alone in his bid to expose the Syndicate. 

            Six months pass, and Ethan manages to get Benji to join him in exposing the Syndicate, and he manages to get help from ex-MI6 agent Ilsa Faust, who herself joined the Syndicate as well. Meanwhile, Brandt and Luther work to get to Ethan and Benji before Hunley and the CIA do, as Hunley won't hesitate to kill Ethan. Ethan manages to get a Syndicate file, which is taken by Ilsa, but is later revealed to be a virtual red box that requires the British Prime Minister to unlock. Syndicate leader Solomon Lane abducts both Ilsa and Benji to blackmail Ethan into helping unlock it. Ethan agrees, and as part of the plan, Brandt draws Hunley to London. It's also revealed that Ilsa's MI6 boss, Atlee, started the Syndicate, which was a proposed project by the British government to recruit former enemy agents, give them new identities, and put them on missions without oversight. Basically, a British version of the IMF. Ethan, who disguised himself as Atlee, unlocks and memorized the file, destroying it after it's revealed to contain access to £2.4 Billion in various accounts, serving as a means to fund the Syndicate, which the real Atlee reveals he created before Lane took control of it and went rogue from MI6.

            Ethan meets Lane outside the Tower of London, and eventually a chase leads to Lane getting captured in a bulletproof box by Ethan, Ilsa, Benji, Luther, and Brandt. Ilsa's record is wiped clean, and the IMF is reinstated with Hunley as the new Secretary. 

            Now, while Ghost Protocol is my favorite movie in the franchise, Rogue Nation was the first one I saw in theaters, and it's easily my other favorite in the series. I liked the idea that the Syndicate wasn't merely a terrorist organization, but was essentially an anti-IMF, was pretty exciting, as it set up the IMF to go against a group that is their equal in every way. Christopher McQuarrie, who also wrote the movie, was an excellent choice of director, and his working relationship with Tom Cruise on the 2012 film Jack Reacher carries over to this film as well. I thoroughly enjoyed both Rebecca Ferguson and Alec Baldwin as the new faces in this movie, and Sean Harris was easily the best villain of the series since maybe Dougray Scott's Ambrose in Mission: Impossible 2. I really enjoy villains in this series that can easily think like Ethan and can therefore outsmart Ethan at most every turn. Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, and Ving Rhames all do a great job returning from previous movies in the series, and I really enjoy the scenes between Renner's Brandt and Rhames' Luther. 

            So, just like with Ghost Protocol, I'm giving Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation a rating of 5/5. Seriously, I absolutely loved this movie, guys. It was really good. 

            So, now we get to the most recent film in the series, Mission: Impossible - Fallout. Released in 2018, this movie sees the returns of Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Michelle Monaghan, Simon Pegg, Alec Baldwin, Rebecca Ferguson, and Sean Harris, who are joined by newcomers Henry Cavill, Vanessa Kirby, Wes Bentley, and Angela Bassett, and is directed once again by Christopher McQuarrie. 

            So, in the wake of Solomon Lane's arrest, remnants of the Syndicate have formed a new terrorist organization calling themselves the Apostles, and a being led by the mysterious John Lark. Ethan, who allows them to get away with three plutonium cores in order to save Luther's life, goes to capture nuclear weapons expert Nils Delbruuk, and tricks him with a fake newscast of CNN's Wolf Blitzer, who is really Benji in disguise, to unlock a phone that Delbruuk uses to contact John Lark. CIA Director Erika Sloane, furious at Ethan's failure, tasks Special Activities Division agent August Walker to work with Ethan to get the cores back before the Apostles can use them. Ethan and Walker break into a nightclub in Paris, where Lark is set to meet arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis, who is the daughter of Ethan's former adversary Max. Ilsa Faust, who is working for MI6 once again, is also at the club and kills a man that Walker and Ethan are fighting. 

            The movie progresses with Ethan being tasked with pulling jobs for Mitsopolis in exchange for the plutonium cores. This includes springing Solomon Lane from prison. It's later revealed that Walker, himself, is the mysterious John Lark, who plans to use the plutonium to create three bombs that will be set off at a medical camp located at the Siachen Glacier, where the resulting explosion would contaminate the water supply for China, India, and Pakistan. Walker kills IMF Secretary Hunley, and takes Lane to the glacier, with Ethan, Ilsa, Benji, and Luther in pursuit. Oh, and by the way, Julia is at the glacier working as a medical volunteer, along with her new husband Erik. The team locate the three bombs to disarm them, while Ethan chases Walker to get the detonator, which also acts as a fail-safe, guaranteeing detonation. Ethan retrieves the detonator, Walker is killed in a helicopter crash, and the bombs are defused with the cores retrieved successfully. Sloane turns Lane over to MI6, commends Ethan and IMF on a job well done, and Ilsa is exonerated, ending the movie.

            Okay, so admittedly, I didn't enjoy this one as much as Ghost Protocol or Rogue Nation, but I still prefer it over 2 and III, Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, and Alec Baldwin were all terrific once again, and I thoroughly enjoyed both Vanessa Kirby and Angela Bassett in this movie. Wes Bentley was really good as Erik, and I loved seeing the return of Michelle Monaghan as Julia. I also liked Henry Cavill as Walker, and yes, his facial hair in this movie is the reason we got CGI yuck mouth Superman in the theatrical cut of Justice League (and I swear this is the LAST time I talk about THAT version of that movie). However, I was a bit disappointed by the absence of Jeremy Renner as Brandt, who didn't return in this movie due to scheduling conflicts with the Marvel film Avengers; Endgame. 

            Storywise, I liked that this movie continues a couple years after the events of Rogue Nation. Christopher McQuarrie was smart in basically having this movie serve as a continuation of the previous film, which is something that most of the Mission: Impossible movies before didn't do. Heck, even Rogue Nation followed up on a plot thread introduced at the very end of Ghost Protocol. The action, like all of the Mission: Impossible movies, is fantastically over the top. I especially loved the helicopter chase between Ethan and Walker. I also liked how the arms dealer in this movie, Mitsopolis, has a connection to a character from the first movie, which is a neat way to tie the franchise together in a way outside of just having Ethan and Luther in every movie in the series. 

            Overall, a really terrific outing in the series, I give Mission: Impossible - Fallout a rating of 4.85/5. Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that Brandt, who became one of my favorite characters in the series during the previous two films of the series, being absent, I would have given it a perfect score. 

            Honestly, I thoroughly love the Mission: Impossible series, because every director from Brian De Palma to Brad Bird, from J.J. Abrams to Christopher McQuarrie, and even John Woo, brought a unique visual style and filmmaking style to each movie. Even in terms of music score by the likes of Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer, Michael Giacchino, and most recently Lorne Balfe, has been unique and gave each movie something unique. Hell, I am probably one of the few who enjoyed the song "Take a Look Around" by Limp Bizkit from Mission: Impossible 2. And I'm not even that big of a Limp Bizkit fan. And of course, there's Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. When it comes to the most famous spies in cinema, Ethan Hunt is definitely my favorite. Some guys prefer James Bond, some prefer Jason Bourne, and others prefer John Wick. I, myself, prefer Ethan Hunt. 

                Thank you for enjoying my Retrospective & Review of the Mission: Impossible series. That'll wrap the series up until next summer with the release of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning: Part One. This is Chuck signing off, and I'll see you guys next time.