 The prospect of making a theatrical film
out of a now-dated television series may have been daunting,
and possibly intriguing, to potential script-writers. It had
been over 23 years from the time the original Mission:
Impossible left the television airwaves, and nearly
a decade since a failed attempt to re-launch this Cold War-era
series when even the ramifications of that war were all but
non-existent. Thankfully, it landed in competent hands that
realized the difference between what is relevant and what
is cool, but more importantly, how to combine them.
You see, Mission: Impossible was relevant
in 1966 because the show understood the mood of the time and
how people were intrigued with the Bonds, Steeds, and later
Flints and Peels that were invading the pop-culture of the
era. But like those other famous spies, Mission: Impossible remained popular
because spies and all things espionage were, are and will
remain the epitome of that which is awesome and cool.
When it came time to create the first Mission: Impossible film, they obviously took great pains to figure out what would
and wouldn’t work very early into pre-production. In
the film, they even go so far as to mention the potential
irrelevance of the Impossible Mission Force in the post Cold
War, pre-9/11 world. But that is really a sub-plot of a sub-plot.
The story is truly an epic work of espionage. There are no
true “villains” in any sense of the word (another
possible Cold War reference), making us more wary of our own
actions than that of the enemy. It isn’t about what’s
going to happen as much as what could happen.
This made for an exceptionally smart story – and that
confused a hell of a lot of people who were prepared for a
mindless Tom Cruise actioner. There are enough twists and
turns in Mission: Impossible to make it one
of the few films to actually earn the “roller-coaster
ride” praise from critics. Along with the addition of
a beautiful, albeit questionable woman (Emmanuelle Béart)
at the center of the story, one could be forgiven with categorizing
it as Film Noir. The balance itself is beautiful, and if you
missed out on the gist of the story the first time, a second,
more focused viewing should allow you to catch all the nuances.
The story itself is a puzzle, and if you pay close attention
and study the material it gives you, you will be able to piece
things together. When compared to your average “nuclear
disarmament” James Bond film, you will be amazed at
the depth that Mission: Impossible has.
Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt character (created exclusively
for the film) is clearly the center of attention. Jon Voight
reprises Peter Graves’ role as Jim Phelps, the leader
of a squad of IMF agents. The team is sent on a mission to
find a suspected double agent trading a disc with a representative
of a foreign nation. They are to get evidence of the trade,
and then retrieve the disc, which is filled with the real
names and identities of American intelligence agents, matched
with any aliases they might be using. Sounds like a simple
game for this group, but it soon turns to tragedy when every
single member of the team save for Ethan Hunt ends up dead.
And to make matters worse, the disc wasn’t recovered.
 And
the twists keep coming. Making matters better for the sake
of foreign affairs, but much, much worse for Ethan, is the
revelation that their target wasn’t really a traitor,
and the disc itself wasn’t real. In all actuality, the
whole thing was set up in order to expose a mole within IMF.
And they believe that mole is Ethan, seeing as how he was
the only survivor. Ethan Hunt is now stuck in Prague, trying
to find out who the traitor really is/was and to clear his
own name. He recruits help from some disavowed and less than
trustworthy ex-agents, and a couple of thought-to-be-dead
comrades resurface as well. But all this only scratches the
surface of the complexity of the first Mission: Impossible film. There is a lot more fun that would be an absolute shame
to spoil, including the revelation of an enemy which is something
that stunned long-time M:I viewers and is
still a heated topic of debate in fan circles.
But an intelligent story (even about intelligence agents)
isn’t what makes a money-making blockbuster. A blockbuster
needs special effects, major stunt work, stars that can convincingly
pull the job off and a score to make it feel like the world
depends on the heroes. Mission: Impossible had that in spades. Two scenes in particular are
forever remembered as iconic masterpieces. The first is Ethan’s
acrobatic  descent
into the CIA mainframe room in Langley. He’s not allowed
to touch the floor, elevate his body temperature or make noise.
This scene has no score over it. The only sound is the constant
ambient hum of the computer and the whispered directions from
his partner (Ving Rhames). It could very well be the most
tension-filled scene in an action movie in the 1990s. The
other is the final sequence when Ethan is chasing after the
villain atop a high-speed train. The train goes into a tunnel
and, against all laws of physics, the pursuing helicopter
is able to maintain the chase directly through the tunnel
despite being attached to the train. As inconceivable as this
scene is, it is done convincingly enough. Even in the late
‘90s era of traditionally shitty CGI, it still looks
pretty damn good, even 10 years after the fact.
There have been plenty of action films since Mission:
Impossible, including two sequels, but I’ve
yet to see one that manages to be as impressive a package,
balancing tight direction, a smart script, and a stellar cast.
Presentation
Horrible,
horrible, horrible. First, it is non-anamorphic, which I believe
the Pope has recently declared a Cardinal sin. You also have
the choice of watching in Standard Pan-and-Scan. Choose your
crime wisely. Even worse, the video has quite a bit of grain,
which is even more inexcusable since the film was only two
years old when the DVD was released. The audio is quite a
bit better. I had no trouble distinguishing dialog and the
sound and score is very immersive and, in some cases, awesomely
thunderous. There is a French dub also available, and there
are subtitles in both English and Spanish. Decent audio, and
non-anamorphic video make for a pretty lame release. This
film deserves more.
 Extras
Theatrical
Trailer - (2:02) - The trailer makes a point to make
the film look like it has more action than it really delivers.
But it also makes the movie look awesome, which it was. So
it does do its job in the long run. This trailer is, like
the feature, non-anamorphic. There was a teaser trailer as
well, but it is absent from this DVD.
That's it, and that's bullshit.
The Bottom Line
Mission: Impossible is a big franchise for Paramount, and it doesn't make a lot of sense that they would release such a shoddy product. Thankfully there is a new release out - the Special Collector's Edition - that is far, far superior.
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