Mission Impossible Series - Ranking

I had an absolute blast re-watching the previous five films in the Mission Impossible series leading up to Fallout – all of which made it easier to see which really was the best. I am more convinced than ever now that this is the best action series going – and really, one of the best we have ever seen.

 

6. Mission: Impossible III (2006) – Yes, Philip Seymour Hoffman is the best ever villain this series has ever had – and it has less overt problems than Mission Impossible II – but I’ll take flawed but going for it over less flawed, but less inventive.

 

5. Mission: Impossible II (2000) – This film goes for it, and yes, it’s all over the map, and wildly over the top, and the villain is bland – but Thandie Newton is terrific, and the action sequences in the back half are as good as they possibly could be. I don’t care if I’m the only one in the world who doesn’t rank this as the weakest entry, I’m still right.

 

4. Mission: Impossible (1996) – It’s really kind of insane that a major studio gave Brian DePalma the reigns for a blockbuster like this in 1996 – and basically allowed him to make a film that at the very least is visually very much a Brian DePalma film. It’s probably too confusing, and the love interest doesn’t work, but I loved it way more than I remembered loving it when I watched again. Not only is the Langley robbery sequence Riffifi level genius, the reveal of what really happened is Hitchcock worthy. Still, nowhere near DePalma’s best – but this is great just the same.

 

3. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015) – This probably has my favorite set piece of any of the films – the Vienna opera house attempted assassination, and I absolute adore Rebecca Ferguson more than any other love interest, apart from Thandie Newton. I think it ranks below Ghost Protocol simply because it isn’t quite as jaw dropping – or have quite as much fun. But it’s so close, who cares?

 

2. Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011) – The visual imagination on display from Brad Bird here really makes the film spectacular. This is as close to live action animation as you can get, but also has elements of silent cinema as well. And the whole thing is just so damn much fun. Truly one of the great action movies ever – and even if this series continues to be great.

 

1.Mission Impossible – Fallout (2018)

After re-watching all five previous films in the series leading up to Fallout, I wonder if the series could really top itself – or if perhaps I would be a little sick of this series. It was, and I wasn’t – as Mission Impossible Fallout really is the best of the series – the most viscerally exciting from beginning to end, with the best performances, and the film that makes you care about these characters – at least as much you need to for a film like this. One of the great action films ever made.

Mission Impossible Series: Mission Impossible Fallout (2018)

Mission: Impossible – Fallout **** ½ / *****

Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie.

Written by: Christopher McQuarrie based on the television series created by Bruce Geller.

Starring: Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Henry Cavill (August Walker), Rebecca Ferguson (Ilsa Faust), Simon Pegg (Benji Dunn), Ving Rhames (Luther Stickell), Vanessa Kirby (White Widow), Michelle Monaghan (Julia Meade-Hunt), Angela Bassett (Erica Sloan), Alec Baldwin (Alan Hunley), Wes Bentley (Patrick), Sean Harris (Solomon Lane).

 

I have stopped being surprised by just how good the Mission Impossible movies are. Preparing for this, the sixth installment in the 22-year-old series, I went back and watched the other five films – and there isn’t a bad one in the bunch. Every time you think you have the series figured out, it throws another curveball at you. With Fallout, that curveball may just be that for the first time, they have essentially made a direct sequel to the last film – and it brings back other plot elements from the previous films as well. That doesn’t mean you have to know a whole lot about those other films to get this one – you can walk in cold if you want, and you will still be knocked out by the action in the film. That is really what this series has always been about, and Fallout delivers some of the best action sequences of the series. It also has a plot that movies a mile a minute, and some genuinely good performances. This movie runs nearly two and half hours, but doesn’t feel long at all. This is the new high point in what was already the best action series going.

 

The plot is simple enough to describe – a group known as The Apostles want to get their hands on nuclear weapons, because their theory is that peace will only come from pain – the greatest the pain, the greater the peace. Their leader is Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), the villain from the last film that Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and his team captured instead of killed. Since then, he has been shunted from one government to the next for interrogation purposes. Hunt and his team had a chance to secure the nuclear material the Apostles need early in the film – but Hunt chose to save his teammates rather than the material, which has now fallen into the wrong hands – so now they need to get it back. Hunt is joined by Benji and Luther (Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames) who have been around for a while now, and Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson) who joined last film. They are also saddled with August Walker (Henry Cavill), a CIA agent they don’t really want. As Sloan (Angela Bassett), the head of the CIA says early in the film, Hunt is a scalpel, Walker is a hammer.

 

From there, it’s one great action set piece after another – and one double cross after another. I will fully admit that when I found out that McQuarrie was doing the fifth installment, I wasn’t sure if he’d be able to maintain the high level of action the series had always had – and he proved me wrong with Rogue Nation. With Fallout, he proves he is one of the best directors of action working in the world right now. The sheer volume of action sequences in Mission Impossible Fallout is amazing. The fact that they are so varied and different from each other is even more so. There are hand-to-hand combat scenes, a car/motorbike chase, shootouts, perhaps the best sequence of Tom Cruise running ever captured on film (and THAT is saying something), and of course the helicopter climax. The action direction here is clear and clean. This series has never relied on shaky cameras or rapid fire editing to goose the tension, nor has it relied on too much obvious CGI. The only special effects this series has ever needed is Tom Cruise. I half expect that he’s going to kill himself one day working on these films, because he really seems to be throwing himself into these roles. While I really do wish he would take on more roles than just action movies – he isn’t the best actor in the world, but his performances in films like Eyes Wide Shut and Magnolia are as good as they get – but I’m still grateful he goes for it each and every time in these films. In a way, he’s the only one who could pull these roles off – so perhaps it’s good he concentrates on them.

 

The supporting cast is also great. Sean Harris was a decent bad guy in Rogue Nation – he’s far better this time around, as he’s got more to work with. Ferguson has become my favorite leading lady in this series so far – she matches Cruise’s intensity, and works well with him. Best of all is probably Henry Cavill, who is perfectly cast as a hammer.

 

Mission Impossible Fallout joins the ranks of the best action films of the 21^st Century so far – alongside films like Mad Max Fury Road, and both Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation. As pure entertainment, these films are tough to beat. This is one of the best films of the year – action or otherwise.

Mission Impossible Series: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011)

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011)

Directed by: Brad Bird.

Written by: Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec based on the television series by Bruce Geller.

Starring: Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Jeremy Renner (William Brandt), Simon Pegg (Benjamin "Benji" Dunn), Paula Patton (Jane Carter), Michael Nyqvist (Kurt Hendricks), Anil Kapoor (Brij Nath), Léa Seydoux (Sabine Moreau), Vladimir Mashkov (Anatoly Sidorov), Samuli Edelmann (Marius Wistrom), Ivan Shvedoff (Leonid Lisenker), Josh Holloway (Trevor Hanaway), Pavel Kříž (Marek Stefanski), Miraj Grbić (Bogdan), Ilia Volok (The Fog), Tom Wilkinson (IMF Secretary), Ving Rhames (Luther Stickell).

 

I’m not quite sure I fully appreciated exactly what a massive accomplishment Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol was back in 2011 when it came out – even if I certainly did think at the time that it was far and away the best in the series. Part of that comes from the fact that they released the film during Oscar season – a welcome bit of counter programming to be sure, but it sometimes makes films like this released around that time seem inconsequential. Yet, seven years later, I have to admit that this film has lasted – and stuck with me – a lot more than most of those Oscar films have. It truly is one of the best action films of the 21^st Century – the easily the best Mission Impossible made up to that point.

 

For the fourth time in a row, the series changed directors from the last installment –and yet again, it works. Brad Bird was coming from animation – three triumphs in a row with The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille – and seemed to want to prove he could work wonders in live action as well. He proves it, and then some, in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

 

The film pretty immediately jettisons much of what JJ Abrams brought to the third film – which tried to ground the emotions of Hunt into the series, and does what this series does best – jump from insane action sequence to tense set piece to insane action sequence and back again, without pausing to waste times with things like emotion or character development. The film opens with Hunt in a Russian prison, but he is broken out with the help of Benji (Simon Pegg, returning for comic relief) and Carter (Paula Patton). The sequence is wonderfully entertaining – set to Dean Martin’s Ain’t That a Kick in the Head – with much of taking place on security cameras, the scene becomes chaotic, with dozens of people fighting, but Bird keeps everything clear. The plot gets a little more complicated from there – as the team has to break into the Kremlin – which, of course, doesn’t go according to plan. They pick up another team member – Brandt (Jeremy Renner) – and head to Dubai.

 

The Dubai sequence truly is spectacular, as it piles one great sequence on top of each other, and yet all of them are different, unique accomplishments. The defining image of the movie is, of course, Tom Cruise on the outside of the tallest building in the world - Burj Khalifa – which is thrilling in one way. From there, the team has to conduct two simultaneously meetings – one with the assassin (Lea Seydoux) with nuclear launch codes, and the other with the men who want to buy them. These are brilliantly intense thriller set pieces, full of tension and sleight of hand. From there, it has to go immediately into a chase sequence during a sandstorm. All three of these set pieces would be a highlight in most movies – but stacked on top of each other like they are makes them even better.

 

It also does, admittedly, make the climax look a little weak by comparison. I loved everything with Paula Patton and Indian billionaire, but as Bird tries to crosscut it with Renner’s big action sequence involving a giant fan and magnets, it just isn’t quite as thrilling as we’ve seen before. And like all of the Mission Impossible films save for III, the villain here is kind of generic, Eastern European madman.

 

Still, Ghost Protocol truly is a remarkable achievement for Brad Bird – and the series itself. It has the most memorable action sequences, which truly is all that is required of this series. I do think Abrams contribution to the series – to make it more grounded – helped a little bit, because it allowed it to go bigger and better than ever before with the fourth installment. A truly great action film – that brought this series to an entirely new level.

Mission Impossible Series: Mission Impossible III (2006)

Mission Impossible III (2006)

Directed by: J. J. Abrams.

Written by: Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci and J. J. Abrams based on the television series by Bruce Geller.

Starring: Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Owen Davian), Ving Rhames (Luther Stickell), Billy Crudup (John Musgrave), Michelle Monaghan (Julia Meade), Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Declan Gormley), Keri Russell (Lindsey Farris), Maggie Q (Zhen Lei), Simon Pegg (Benjamin "Benji" Dunn), Eddie Marsan (Brownway), Laurence Fishburne (Theodore Brassel), Bahar Soomekh (Davian's Translator), Aaron Paul (Rick Meade).

 

In retrospect, Mission Impossible III represents what would become pattern for director JJ Abrams. This was his first feature as a director, and since then he has gone on to direct the first (and second) films of the rebooted Star Trek and the first film in the reboot of Star Wars. Abrams, it seems, is the director you bring into a seemingly dormant franchise to make a solid, respectful reboot of the franchise to gets fans interested again – before handing the reins to someone who is going to take the franchise to greater heights. It took six years – the longest gap in the Mission Impossible series – to make this third film, and its clear from the start that Abrams goals are much more modest than either of the films that came before it. The film pretty much jettisons the overly complicated plot of the first film, and the operatic excess of the second film. It tries to ground the film in a more relatable emotional register than the previous films, and also return the series to more of the team style rather than it being the Ethan Hunt show – which is basically what the second film was. The film is solid and entertaining from beginning to end – it also has the most memorable villain of any of the Mission Impossible films. And yet, looking back at it 12 years later, I do have to wonder if anyone would remember the film all that fondly had it not been a part of this franchise – and if that franchise had not achieved the heights it did with the subsequent films. In a way, Mission Impossible III feels kind of like those filler episodes in serialized television – necessary to get where you’re going, without being the best the series has to offer.

 

When this film opens, Cruise’s Ethan Hunt has not retired from the IMF – but he’s no longer on active duty. His job is now to train the agents before they head out into the field. He’s engaged to a nurse – Julia (Michelle Monaghan) and wants to settle down. But he’s called back in because one of the agents he trained – Lindsey Ferris (Keri Russell) has gone missing in Brazil – they think she has been taken by the man they assigned her to monitor, arms dealer Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman) – and she is their only connection to him. They want her back – and because Hunt loves Lindsey like a little sister, he agrees to come back. And once he’s back, he’s back all the way – Owen wouldn’t let him walk away if he wanted to.

 

In many ways, the plot of Mission Impossible III is the simplest of any of the movies. Owen wants something called the Rabbit’s Foot – and will do anything to get it, including of course kidnapping Julia to force Ethan to get him what he wants. What is the Rabbit’s Foot? Well, it’s basically a McGuffin – the movie never even bothers to explain what it is, what it will do, or why anyone would want it. It doesn’t matter – everyone wants it, so it’s important. Abrams jettisons the rest, keeping things relatively simple – which works. What doesn’t work as well (spoiler alert, although I’ll try to be vague) is that the film essentially repeats what happened in the first film in terms of Hunt’s superiors (in this case Laurence Fishburne and Billy Crudup), trying to shock you by revealing which one is really the bad guy – and this time it doesn’t much work. It also would have helped a little bit more if the film had taken time to do something more with Monaghan’s Julia instead of making her yet another wife/girlfriend of the male protagonist whose role is to be put in jeopardy to motivate the hero. It’s a rather tired plot trope in action movies in general – and in no way is Monaghan given the same level of action to do as Thandie Newton had in Mission Impossible II (nor is her chemistry with Cruise anywhere near as good – although that could be a function of how little time they spend together.

 

Still though, all that feels like nitpicking a movie that in general is highly enjoyable. Hoffman is a huge upgrade over every other Mission Impossible villain to this point in the series – he exudes menace and malevolence, and seems to be having a great time in the role. Perhaps this was a merely a paycheque role for him – lord knows he did enough stage work and indie film work to merit taking a big payday once in a while – but it certainly doesn’t seem like it. I also appreciated that he didn’t seem to have a big complicated goal here – he wanted it because he could sell it and make a lot of money.

 

Besides, this series has always been at its best in the action sequences – and this film has some great ones – from the raid to try and rescue Lindsay, to the bridge action sequence, to – of course – the big break-in in Shanghai to steal the Rabbit’s Foot, Abrams generally does a good job with them. I’m not sure any are as jaw dropping as the best in this series – but all are technically proficient, and a hell of a lot of fun.

 

Overall, like Mission Impossible II, I think Mission Impossible III is a notch below the other films in this series. It’s good, it’s fun, it well made, it features Cruise at his determined best, and Hoffman as the series best villain. But it isn’t particularly memorable. It’s a fun, good action movie – and not a lot else.

Mission Impossible Series: Mission Impossible II (2000)

Mission: Impossible II (2000) 

Directed by: John Woo.

Written by: Robert Towne and Ronald D. Moore & Brannon Braga based on the series created by Bruce Geller.

Starring: Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Dougray Scott (Sean Ambrose), Thandie Newton (Nyah Hall), Ving Rhames (Luther Strickell), Richard Roxburgh (Hugh Stamp), John Polson (Billy Baird), Brendan Gleeson (McCloy), Rade Serbedzija (Dr. Nekhorvich), William Mapother (Wallis), Dominic Purcell (Ulrich), Mathew Wilkinson (Michael).

 

Even as the reputation for the Mission Impossible films have taken an upswing in recent years, the only film that really gets left behind is John Woo’s over-the-top, operatic Mission Impossible II. In a way, it’s easy to see why. Even by the standards of these movies, the plot is completely ridiculous and even silly. The film overuses the whole masks devices to absurd degrees. The villain is just plain boring. And Woo himself almost seems to be doing self-parody at times in the film – as if he read a bunch of reviews that mention the doves in his film, and decided to double down on them – even hinging on action sequence on a reveal that is caused by the doves themselves. Yet, in spite of all of this, I have a soft spot for this film. It isn’t great – it probably is the weakest of the series – and yet it’s still very entertaining, full of insane action sequence in which Woo tries to outdo himself. It’s also one of the only times I can remember that Tom Cruise has real live chemistry with his onscreen love interest in an action film – played by then newcomer Thandie Newton, who is so great it’s a real shame they didn’t use her again in this series. In retrospect, it was also the beginning of the end of John Woo as an Hollywood filmmaker – he’d make just two films in Hollywood after this one – Windtalkers and Paycheque – neither were very well received, and then returned to Hong Kong, where he hasn’t made a lot – and has mainly tried to do different types of films, up until this year’s Manhunt anyway. In short, Mission Impossible II is completely and totally ridiculous – but knows this, and fully embraces the ridiculousness at its core.

 

The plot this time involves Cruise’s Ethan Hunt being called in from his vacation to tackle another impossible mission. A Russian doctor invented both a horrible disease and the cure for that disease (why, I never really did figure out) – but as he was transporting it to America, he is double crossed by IMF Agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott), who had disguised himself as Hunt, in order to steal the cure for the illness – as the first step in a very long, complicated scheme to become a pharmaceutical billionaire. Hunt’s first step is to recruit Ambrose’s ex-girlfriend Nyah Hall (Newton) – a master thief – to use as bait, and then build the rest of his team to get the cure back from Ambrose, before he can also get his hands on the illness, which would be catastrophic.

 

The screenplay to the movie is by the great Robert Towne, and you have to kind of assume it was a paycheque gig for the Chinatown master. His challenge was amplified by the fact that Woo already had in mind the action sequences he wanted to do, so Towne had to work a screenplay around those. In a way, the film reminded me of the Hitchcock classic Notorious (1946) – where the hero (Cary Grant) convinces the woman he supposedly loves (Ingrid Bergman) to get back together with the Nazi criminal who loved her (Claude Rains) so that they can get information about his network. Mission Impossible II doesn’t go as far as Notorious did – which makes the hero into an asshole, and the Nazi into a sympathetic character - but it shares some of the same elements.

 

One thing that Mission Impossible II certainly did establish, which has become a franchise mainstay, is the prospect of Tom Cruise doing insanely dangerous stunts for our amusement. The biggest one is certainly the first one, where he goes rock climbing without a rope – a sequence that admittedly has nothing to do with anything else in the movie, except that it looked cool, and showed Tom Cruise was willing to risk his life for us. The other action sequences in the film seem to mainly be designed to be bigger than the ones in the previous film. The standout sequence in DePalma’s original was the Langley sequence, with Cruise dropping down from the ceiling on a rope to hack a computer. Woo seemed to take that as a personal challenge, and designed a bigger sequence that also required Cruise to drop down – but to do so in a much bigger way. The sequence cannot touch the mastery of DePalma’s – which was more about suspense than action – but it’s still spectacular in that John Woo kind of way. The film also heavily uses guns this time around – which the previous film didn’t, but is a hallmark of Woo’s, and while it cannot rival the best work in say Hardboiled, it’s still significantly better than most people can do. Is it all ridiculous? Of course, but in a way only John Woo can pull off.

 

What I think makes Mission Impossible II more than just a series of crazy, over-the-top action sequences really is Thandie Newton as Nyah Hall. From the first time we see her – trying to rob a necklace from a billionaire – she is captivating. That sequence also establishes her chemistry with Cruise as they have to hide in a bathtub on top of each other – and then gives way to a lengthy foreplay sequence as they chase each other in very expensive cars. In Cruise action movies, there is almost always a love interest – but they are rarely very interesting – take poor Emmanuelle Béart in the first Mission Impossible film for example. Here, Newton more than holds her own, and actually becomes the emotional centerpiece of the movie. To a certain extent, she is a damsel in distress, but she is more than that – not a helpless victim, but an active participant. It’s odd, because Woo isn’t really known for that in his films (there’s more homoerotic subtext in his films, than heterosexual text, but it works here – and helps the film a great deal.

 

I’m not trying to say that Mission Impossible II is a misunderstand masterpiece. It isn’t. But it’s a misunderstood fine action film from a master of the form, who has been given a lot of money to do what he does on a large scale. Yes, it’s still probably the least of the series – but it’s still a hell of a lot of stupid fun.

Mission Impossible Series: Mission Impossible (1996)

Mission: Impossible (1996) 

Directed by: Brian De Palma.

Written by: David Koepp and Robert Towne and Steven Zallian based on the television series created by Bruce Geller.

Starring: Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Jon Voight (Jim Phelps), Emmanuelle Béart (Claire), Henry Czerny (Kittridge), Jean Reno (Krieger), Ving Rhames (Luther), Kristin Scott Thomas (Sarah Davies), Vanessa Redgrave (Max), Ingeborga Dapkunaite (Hannah), Rolf Saxon (CIA Analyst William Donloe), Karel Dobrý (Matthias), Emilio Estevez (Jack Harmon), Marcel Iures (Alexander Golitsyn).

 

It was fairly early in my re-watch of Brian De Palma’s Mission Impossible that a realization struck me as to how different blockbuster filmmaking has become in the 22 years since the film was made. This had nothing to do with the so called dated aspects of the film – but they are certainly noticeable when they break out what is considered top of the line technology that looks positively antiquated now, or the way they use this thing called “the internet”. It has more to do with the style of the film altogether. No studio today would hire a director as idiosyncratic in terms of style as Brian De Palma to make a film this today. While my memory of the film is that it was an impersonal film for De Palma – a paycheque film if you will – the reality is there are quite a few stylistic hallmarks of De Palma on display in the film. I’m not going to argue that the film is as personal to him as some of his others – it isn’t – but it’s still a Brian De Palma film, just one that also meets the demands of the summer blockbuster.

 

This is noticeable fairly early in the film. After the first mission at a big party goes horribly wrong – and Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) watches as his entire team is killed, there is a meeting between him and Kittridge (Henry Czerny), in which De Palma employs some bizarre angles to goose up their conversation. They are disorienting and strange, adding visual interest to a scene that is just the two of them talking, even as we know Hunt is planning something, and Czerny doesn’t (those angles allow us to see exactly what he is doing under the table, without the boring insert shot that would normally be required.

 

There are two, even better, sequences where this is even clearer. The first is the most famous scene of the film – Hunt breaking into a secure room at CIA headquarters in Langley to steal the NOC list from a computer. This isn’t really an action sequence per se – it’s much more of a heist sequence like the infamous one from Riffifi – which outdoes even this most quiet sequence in that it has no dialogue for a full half hour. This is why you hire De Palma for a movie like this – as it is a visually complex scene, with many movie parts and logistical challenges that have to pulled off effortlessly, and you have to build the tension purely through those visuals – and CGI isn’t an option. It’s one of the more complicated set pieces of De Palma’s career – and he pulls it off effortlessly. Even better, although simpler, is a scene late in the film in which a character (I won’t spoil) tells Hunt his version of events – but as we listen to what is being said, we see what Hunt is thinking – as he puts together the reality of what happened, and exposes the lies he is currently being told. It’s a perverse reveal that Hitchcock would envy.

 

Those scenes, in a way, stand out in the film because for the most part, no matter how expertly executed the film is, it does meet your expectations for action filmmaking from the 1990s. The action climax – involving a train, a helicopter and a tunnel, has justly become famous (even if, watching in 2018, you can more readily see the seams in the visual effects that you probably would have in 1996). Cruise is in full movie star mode here – and he does it quite well. Hunt is missing a little bit of the cynical edge he would gradually get – but that’s understandable, because here he’s an idealist who has yet to become disillusioned – it will happen by the end though. It’s a little disappointing how the rest of the cast is used though – as none really stand out. The most egregious example is poor Emmanuelle Béart, who is supposed to be the wife of Hunt’s mentor (played by Jon Voight) – although the 25 year age difference between the two is apparent, and even if it was done to also make her a believable love interest for Hunt, it’s still distracting (also distracting in 2018? The way Beart superficially resembles Voight’s daughter, Angelina Jolie). In many ways, so much of the story hinges on her character, and yet the movie gives her nothing to work with. Henry Czerny’s Kittridge, who the movie expends so much energy convincing you is the bad guy you know he cannot possibly be the bad guy, is also too one note. Jon Voight himself fairs better – although I do think his big speech is way too obvious.

 

Still though, I was surprised by how good I thought the majority of Mission Impossible was. I had it in my mind that it was minor De Palma – a brainless action film, but it’s a stylish, muscular entertainment that has more patience than any film of its size today would even dream of having. It makes me a little sad that De Palma almost immediately squandered whatever cache the film gave him with Snake Eyes (which brilliant opening shot aside isn’t very good) and Mission to Mars (which would be the worse film of De Palma’s resume if Redacted didn’t exist). I sometimes think we can be too hard on modern blockbusters – thinking that the die had been cast decades ago, and it’s just following on its path. Seeing this film though, you realize just how far most of them have fallen – how visually uninteresting they are - how they mistake rapid fire editing, shaky cameras and CGI for style. De Palma knew better in 1996 – and I wish more blockbusters would follow his example.

Mission Impossible Series: An Introduction

When did the Mission Impossible films become the best action franchise Hollywood has going right now? For me, it was a slow dawning realization that these films are consistently top quality, action blockbusters of the kind that Hollywood doesn’t really make that often or that well anymore – but it probably took until the fourth film in the franchise – 2011’s Ghost Protocol – for that to really sink in. Part of that is because while the series is about to release it’s sixth film – it’s done so over 22 years, with multiple year gaps between each, and because the series has mainly gone against the currently popular trend of making them all interconnected. Yes, there are some things that carry from one film to the next – but nothing that you really need to know to watch and understand and enjoy any single film all by itself.

 

Those gaps were crucial in my thinking – because for a long time I was able to dismiss the first two films in the franchise as entertaining, but minor (or disposable) entries in great director’s resumes. Sure Brian De Palma’s, the first film is fun, but it’s not Blow Out or Body Double or Scarface or Carrie or Femme Fatale or (insert a dozen other titles here). Mission Impossible II has some great moments, but it’s really when it started to look like John Woo was almost getting into self-parody with all those doves. JJ Abrams third installment worked hard to ground the series to some kind of recognizable emotion – and contains a great bad guy performance by Phillip Seymour Hoffman, but also felt like what it was – a TV director coming to the big screen for the first time, and not being wholly comfortable with all the room he had to work with. The last two installments were my favorites – Ghost Protocol because, in part, director Brad Bird embraced the size of the screen and the action, and made as close you can get to a live action animated film without it becoming overwhelmed with CGI. Christopher McQuarrie’s Rogue Nation scaled down a little bit, but was perhaps an even better film – harsher, leaner, and meaner with great set pieces. I’m torn about my feelings towards McQuarrie coming back for Fallout – I like it because Rogue Nation was my favorite, but I don’t like it because I think part of what makes the series special is because it’s let five different directors come in and put their own unique stamp on things. Maybe that is the key to this series still feeling fresh and new each time after 22 years – it really does not repeat itself.

 

I also realized though that I don’t think I’ve seen any of the films twice – which means I haven’t seen any of them since they were first released. Leading up to the release of the sixth installment then, I decided to go back and watch the other five – to see if my memories of the films matches the reality of them. I’ll do a fully ranking at the end (next week, after I see Fallout).