Post-Viewing: Why Mission Impossible is still going strong after nearly twenty years

The roots of Mission Impossible can be traced all the way back to the sixties, where a relatively innocent American TV series gained a strong following with audiences. Pairing the inspiration of a classic TV series with a long list of dedicated filmmakers proved to be an excellent match. The Mission Impossible film series has managed to thrive even whilst its fellow action franchises such as Die Hard and Terminator have fallen well short of their respective pedigrees in recent years. Why is this? The answer is mostly down to the differing takes on the series and the production members who have stayed on from the very beginning.

The original Mission Impossible, directed by Brian De Palma in 1996 was the right film at the right time. Tom Cruise, having risen to prominence with Top Gun ten years prior was a fan of the original television series and following a deal with Paramount, the film was put into production; what made the film work from the offset was the way in which it incorporated and adapted just about every trend that made up the TV series, while spicing it up with some death-defying stunts which would eventually solidify Cruise’s reputation as one of the best stuntmen in the movie business. It was also very focused around espionage with numerous double-crossings and secret undertones. Mission Impossible went on to become the third highest grossing film of 1996, kicking off the franchise incredibly well.

MI:2, while probably the weakest of the series is still a guilty pleasure of many; it’s John Woo’s signature over the top style that carried over from films such as Hard Boiled, The Killer and Face-Off. This is made evident by the heavy metal riff placed on the series main theme as well as the sheer ridiculousness of some of the stunts. It went for straight-forward no holds-barred action, though some thought this approach strayed a bit from what made the series so memorable in the first place. Nevertheless it was no Die Hard 5 and the series wasn’t dragged through the mud to the point of no return, making it eligible for a third entry.

MI3 was the first entry I saw at the cinema in 2006 and it definitely went for a more gritty and visceral tone. JJ Abrams has always had a flashy, cinematic flair to his films and MI3’s adoption of this style resulted in some highly intense moments. The bridge attack around half-way through the film still stands as one of the best action sequences of the entire series and possibly most action films in the 2000s as well. By the time the film’s final fight between Ethan and Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s Owen Davian came about, the tension could not be any higher; when you see Ethan rise up and absolutely pummel the villain, it’s incredibly impactful and satisfying. While MI3 was a strong step up from the second, it didn’t manage to do quite as well commercially. Ironically it would be the fourth entry that would really elevate the franchise to where it is today.

As for Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, that entry marked the point where the series reached its peak in popularity; it’s the highest grossing film in the series and with good reason. Brad Bird really did up the production values and set-piece moments for the fourth film in the series; a surprising change for a director more commonly known for animated films such as The Iron Giant and The Incredibles. While Ghost Protocol did suffer from perhaps the weakest villain in the entire series, it did set a new bar for action in the series. The tense climb up the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the stealthy infiltration of the Kremlin and the final chase through a shifting car storage plant were all equally engaging and entertaining. But the film went beyond that, placing more emphasis on a lighter tone and most notably Ethan’s team and the camaraderie they share throughout the film; this is what sets the franchise apart from other similar films of its kind and it’s another major element of what made Ghost Protocol so successful in 2011.

As the twenty-first highest grossing film series of all time, Mission Impossible has definitely gone the extra mile to earn that title. All the way through the series, Tom Cruise has served as a strong driving force for the series; not only has he starred in the main role in every film, but he’s also been a producer on each of the five entries. It’s clear that he knows the franchise better than anyone else and knows exactly how to make it work; and as such, we’ve seen five successful movie-making collaborations in a row that have never gone off the rails, while keeping the spirit and quality of the series despite making use of different tones over the years. When it comes to spy franchises in films, you could say we have a trifecta of brilliant franchises to choose from; comprised of James Bond, the Bourne films and Mission Impossible. The series has made an undeniably strong mark on the genre and if all goes to plan, it should continue to do so.