Throwback Thursday Review: 'Mission: Impossible'

Recently, I've taken a break from my Throwback Thursday Review series, but I'm returning to the format in order to review Mission: Impossible before the release of Mission: Impossible - Fallout next month. I realize it's not yet Thursday, but there are a lot of films I'd like to review this summer and not enough Thursdays to do so. For the time being, I plan to share Throwback Thursday Reviews of Ocean's Eleven (2001), The Incredibles, Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and Mission: Impossible II along with new reviews for Upgrade, Hereditary, Ocean's Eight, Hotel Artemis, Incredibles 2, Tag (2018), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and Sicario: Day of the Soldado this June.

'Mission: Impossible' Review

Mission: Impossible accompanies American IMF agent Ethan Hunt as he's disavowed when a mission goes awry and Hunt is framed for killing his team of fellow spies and selling government intel. Determined to prove his innocence, Hunt recruits fellow renegades to help him track down the traitor responsible and retrieve the missing intel.

Mission: Impossible was directed by Brian De Palma, featured a screenplay written collectively by David Koepp, Robert Town, and Steven Zaillian, and served as the first film adaptation of a television series from the late '60s (which was rebooted in the '80s). At the time, no other spy franchise was quite like it. The Mission: Impossible series' claim to fame has always been the elaborate, outrageous stunts performed by the star himself. Over the years, they've grown gradually in regards to ambition and scale as Tom Cruise has gone from simply being suspended in a room and blown back by a 140mph wind machine to scaling the Burj Khalifa and hanging outside an actual airplane during take off. 

As director, De Palma leans into the intensity of the stunts and ensures the audience is able to understand the stakes and consequences associated with failing the feat. Before the Langley computer disc heist, De Palma quickly demonstrates the vault's extreme security measures, so every drop of Ethan Hunt's sweat feels like it could potentially be the end of it all. Even with the foresight of the film's ending, I still find the sequence to be quite riveting. 

Another thing that De Palma did extraordinarily well was establishing the blueprints for the franchise going forward. Every Mission: Impossible film since the first has featured an intro with a fuse accompanied by the trademark theme, Hunt assembling a team of agents, and memorable set pieces intended to one-up the previous film's show stoppers. Suffice to say, the franchise's barebones formula has been fairly effective considering a sixth installment is coming just next month. On top of the aforementioned qualities, Mission: Impossible shines in regards to the inventive camera movement from cinematographer Stephen H. Burum and an exciting score composed by Danny Elfman. 

Now twenty two years old, Mission: Impossible can't help but feel dated in comparison to today's blockbusters. While the practical stunts are still stellar, the visual effects are hit and miss in regards to authenticity. Of course I'm not holding this against Mission: Impossible too much, but I felt it was worth mentioning nevertheless. Where the plot of Mission: Impossible is relatively straight-forward and easy to follow, the twists and turns along the way either don't add up or require a slight suspension of disbelief because of their inherent cheesiness. Either way, it all felt indicative of the '90s.

Beyond launching a film franchise that's still ongoing, Mission: Impossible helped Tom Cruise's career skyrocket into the movie star stratosphere (although you could make an argument that Top Gun played a big role in the initial takeoff). Pushing semantics aside, Cruise's crazy commitment to stunt-work started here, and Cruise's formidable, magnetic charisma shines through it all tremendously. It's really no wonder that Ethan Hunt is one of Cruise's most popular roles to date. However, seeing as the first Mission: Impossible was largely a star-vehicle for Cruise, the surrounding ensemble wasn't given nearly as much to work with. Jon Voight, Henry Czerny, Emmanuelle Bėart, Jean Reno, and Ving Rhames make the most of their screentime, but are ultimately impaired by lacking characterization and are unable to define themselves much beyond the simple genre stereotypes spelled out in the script.

In spite of its age, Mission: Impossible holds up exceptionally well as an action-thriller. Should you choose to watch it, you'll discover that Mission: Impossible is an exciting, occasionally over-the-top spy flick full of spirit and spectacle. 

Film Assessment: B