Mission: Impossible

1996 "Expect the impossible."
7.2| 1h50m| PG-13| en
Details

When Ethan Hunt, the leader of a crack espionage team whose perilous operation has gone awry with no explanation, discovers that a mole has penetrated the CIA, he's surprised to learn that he's the No. 1 suspect. To clear his name, Hunt now must ferret out the real double agent and, in the process, even the score.

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Reviews

Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.
Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.
joelbrandt2 The bounty of slick dialogue (delivered well by the solid cast) and the brooding, twist-filled espionage plot make it a little hard to follow at points (see the double mole-reveal near the end) but give the film a certain class and timelessness that mask its dated effects and on-screen technology, and elevate it above other 90s action flicks (though the action of the CIA heist was certainly a highlight). Tasteful underlying humour ("Relax Luther, it's much worse than you think") rounds it out.7.5/10
tomgillespie2002 It's hard to believe that Brian De Palma's Mission: Impossible is now 22 years old. What's even harder to believe is the fact that this franchise is still going, and stronger than ever, with the sixth entry into the series, Mission: Impossible: Fallout, about to be released this very week. Despite some wobbles since, the series got off to a very strong start in the hands of De Palma who, while pissing off a few hardcore fans of the original television show with some bold character decisions, delivered a thriller that really set the heart racing. It's also aged incredibly well. While the gizmos now seem somewhat dated (the McGuffin is a floppy disk), there was always an old-fashioned broodiness about the film that has given it a timeless quality. Of course, it's all just an excuse to make Tom Cruise run, and run he certainly does.Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) and his Impossible Mission Force (IMF) are on a mission in Prague to retrieve a list of secret agents' real identities. The mission goes awry, with most of the team (which also consists of Emmanuelle Beart, Kristin Scott Thomas and Emilio Estevez) winding up dead, leaving only Ethan Hunt (Cruise) to figure out what the hell just happened. With Hunt the only survivor, IMF director Kittridge (Henry Czerny) suspects him to be the mole within the agency he has been trying to smoke out for years. Hunt flees to try and uncover the mole himself, finding a lead in the mysterious Max, a contact the mole had been communicating with using passages from the Bible. Finding himself disavowed by the government and without a team to help him, Hunt starts recruiting, finding a brand new team in fellow disavowed agents Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and Franz Krieger (Jean Reno). Their first mission is to break into the CIA headquarters in Langley and steal back the list, in the hope of finding the rat and proving Hunt's innocence.There are three key set-pieces in Mission: Impossible that perhaps no other director is better suited for. De Palma is the master of long, tension-building moments of suspense, and Hunt's infiltration of the CIA is an iconic moment for good reason. He must enter into a room from above, copy a file while dangling from a wire, and exit within a set time. Any noise above a certain decibel level will trigger an alarm and cause a total lockdown, as will any additional weight on the floor. Filmed in complete silence, it's a masterfully choreographed sequence. As a trickle of sweat makes its way to the rim of Hunt's glasses, you won't exhale until it's all over. De Palma is better known for leaning of Hitchcockian influences, but his approach here is more Jules Dassin. There are other exciting moments too, and thank God, as the plot is about as baffling as its lead stars affiliation with Scientology. The thrills also distract from some pacing issues, which normally arise when Hunt is left to mope around in a hotel room, and some revelations you can see coming from a mile off (the shifty, knife-wielding Frenchman is a baddie, really?). Mission: Impossible really only has its momentum, so it's best just to strap in and go with it.
arjunflamingfeather The moment in 'Mission Impossible' the cinema is the comprehension of what is cinema to the fourth world countries which is a set of digital footage which has been recorded to preserve a movement in two dimension and which has a sequence. The English language speaking and reading public in the fourth world countries are set to watch mission impossible: national geographical has entrepreneurs travelling to these parts. The nations at the far corners of the world are countries graded by wealth: gross domestic products but cinema halls in these parts are few. Cinema has a reach because digital media is the part of recording that is being reviewed for the movie that 'we' have seen. The proof that it is fiction is the page that opens certain movies like Mission Impossible: Fallout in the year two thousand and eighteen. The cinema which aired in the third world on Friday is Mission Impossible which with a translation to the fourth world countries is the language spoken 'here'. Please watch Mission Impossible starring Tom Cruise.
Grant Bullert "Mission: Impossible" has some great moments, lots of fantastic ideas, but quite a bit of weak execution. It has also not aged well at all.-Analysis of Notable Work- *Writing/Directing: The story is relatively engaging throughout most of the film, but the twists seem more forced than they need to be. Brian De Palma knows how to direct action, but does not do as well with drama and suspenseful twists. *Cinematography/Editing: These are two of the weaker aspects of the film. Stephen H. Burum is a capable cinematographer, but he does not prove that with this film. Much of the film looks like home video. The editing is also quite weak with many cheesy moments. *Dialogue/Acting: The entire flow of the film feels a bit off. The dialogue is classless and thinks it is much more clever than it is. The delivery does not help, either. Tom Cruise holds his own, but much of the supporting cast is less than impressive. Even Jon Voight delivers a sub-par performance. *Music/Sound Design: While iconic, the soundtrack is not powerful or helpful in the film. The main theme is recognizable, but that is about all that can be said about it. The sound design is yet another less than average part of the film. It does not feel as grounded as it should. Everything seems to be over the top. *Production Design/Special Effects: The set design, costumes, and props are all a bit boring. Some of the gadgets are interesting, but they do not make up for the poor effort of the rest of the film. The special effects are not yet mastered in this film. It all feels rather cheap.*Conclusion: "Mission: Impossible" feels like a testing of the waters for modern spy films. They have not yet figured out how to pull it off, but they are still working on getting acclimated to the water temperature.