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 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
Finally presented in anamorphic widescreen, this re-issue is a significant improvement over the original DVD. The video still has some film grain here and there, but is otherwise artifact free. I wouldn’t call it reference quality by any stretch, but you aren’t going to be disappointed. On the audio end, I had no trouble distinguishing dialog, and the sound and score is very immersive. In some cases, awesomely thunderous. There is a French dub also available, and there are subtitles in both English and Spanish. All in all, a very solid DVD quality-wise.
Extras
Mission: Remarkable – 40 Years of Creating the Impossible – (11:25) This is a primer for anyone that is new to M:I.. It’s pretty neat, but it doesn’t mention the short-lived 1988 series at all, and seems to promote the three films over the original series, so it hardly seems balanced. Packing 40 years into 11 minutes is pretty tough. This  should have been more of an hour-long featurette.
Mission: Explosive Exploits – (5:08) A short featurette discussing the difficulties with the stunts. Tom Cruise apparently did as much on his own as he could. Nice behind-the-scenes glimpses.
Mission: International Spy Museum – (6:30) Now this is pretty damn cool! This has little at all to do with the series, but it is a walk-thru of the International Spy Museum in Washington D.C. The director of the museum shows you several cool things that the spies used throughout history. Way too friggin’ short. It did make me want to take a trip to D.C.
Mission: Spies Among Us – (8:39) This is a really cool piece that discusses the nature of espionage and being a spy and whether or not a covert team like the IMF exists in real life. Spy aficionados will find this interesting, but there isn’t a lot that relates directly to Mission: Impossible as a film or a series.
Mission: Catching the Train – (2:38) Very, very short bit focusing on the train/helicopter sequence and how it was storyboarded. I would have liked something more in depth.
Agent Dossiers – This is nothing more than your basic text feature, but it does give the background of the various agents in Phelps’ team. For the die hard Mission fans, this provides a good bit of insight into some characters that we hardly had the chance to know.
Excellence in Film: Cruise – (9:13), Acceptance Speech for BAFTA/LA’s Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film – (3:18), Generation: Cruise – (3:32), Acceptance Speech for MTV’s Generation Award – (3:40). The first and third of these four features is simply a montage of Tom Cruise clips throughout his career. The second and fourth are pretty well self-defined. Tom Cruise isn’t someone that I would call an exceptional actor. However, his output of really good films can’t be questioned. The guy simply has a great track record, and here are two ceremonies of both critical and popular opinion showing appreciation for his nearly 30 years of starring in great films. Note: I could have done with a little (or a lot) less Katie Holmes in the 4th feature though.
 Teaser (1:11) and Theatrical Trailer – (1:59), Mission: Impossible III Teaser Trailer – (1:37), 9 TV Spots – (:30-1:00 each). The teaser for Mission: Impossible did the trick in getting this reviewer’s then 15-year-old ass firmly in the theatres 10 years ago this month. It’s probably the theme, but I was ready for this Mission and I chose to accept it. Today it is less impressive, but I am glad it was included to satisfy that nostalgia bug. The television spots cover that same area. The Mission: Impossible III trailer, while cool, is useless, as it should be on that DVD when it comes out.
Photo Gallery – Last, we have a fairly large gallery of stills. I would say there are 30 or more. Not enough behind-the-scenes to make me interested, however.
There are a lot of interesting things in the extras, but there are two VERY major exclusions which require me to lower the score. First, there is no excuse to not have the most important feature, a commentary with either De Palma, or Tom Cruise, or both. This is a sad exclusion to be sure. Additionally, I know for a fact that there was a video for the Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen reworking of the classic Mission: Impossible theme song. This was played quite a bit during the release of the film on VH-1, and even on MTV when they weren’t playing Coolio videos. It should be here, and there is no fucking excuse for it not to be.
Fine
If you are a fan of the film, then you owe it to yourself to pick up this new release. You may not find the extras as thrilling as the feature, but the presentation is considerably better here than it was on the original disc. In that way it is certainly a good double-dip, but certainly didn’t live up to my lofty expectations during the eight-year wait between releases.
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