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“Mission: Impossible” is a series of action spy films based on the television series of the same name, produced by and starring Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, an agent of the fictional Impossible Missions Force (IMF).
Tom Cruise is that rare movie star who has been around since the 1980s and is stronger than ever. While he has had his fair share of flops over the years, like every actor, his blockbusters far outweigh the duds in overall quality and loftiness. His “Mission: Impossible” film series is riding higher than ever before and with Part 6, titled “Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” opening July 27th, Paramount Home Media Distribution will be releasing the first five movies on 4K Ultra HD June 26th. I made the transition to 4K last year and absolutely love the picture and audio quality that comes with every title released on this format and if there is one film franchise worthy of this distinction, it is “Mission: Impossible.” I will review each title in the series starting with the original and work my way down the list.
“Mission: Impossible” – 1996 – (4 1/2 Stars)
Director Brian De Palma is known for making supernatural thrillers and horror films like “Sisters,” “Carrie,” “Dressed to Kill,” and one of my all-time favorites, “The Fury,” starring Kirk Douglas and John Cassavetes. As his career progressed, he branched out into dramas and thrillers such as “Blow Out,” “Scarface,” “The Untouchables,” and “Casualties of War” but I was surprised when he was announced as the director of the big-budget adaptation of the ’60s TV show, “Mission: Impossible.” He had never made a movie like this before but my fears were laid to rest after seeing it for the first time and up until “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” in 2015, it remained my favorite “Mission” film of all time.
In “Mission: Impossible,” we are introduced to Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF (Impossible Mission Force) team as they prepare for a mission in Prague in the Czech Republic. When things go south quickly, and his team is killed off one by one, and Hunt is implicated in their deaths, he must go on the run to try and clear his name, while hooking up with two disavowed agents, Luther (Ving Rhames) and Krieger (Jean Reno). They must retrieve a secret list that contains the names and codenames of every one of their agents working undercover around the world in order to try and lure a traitor out into the open before it falls into the wrong hands.
Director De Palma keeps the action and tension moving at breakneck speed, culminating in one of the best finales in modern cinema, an action setpiece that takes place in the Channel Tunnel under the English Channel involving the TGV, France’s high-speed rail train, and a helicopter. Cruise infuses his character with compassion, empathy, and a few moments of tenderness, but he balances it out perfectly, when he has to, with nerves of steel and unwavering perseverance. Jean Reno, Jon Voight, Ving Rhames, Emmanuelle Béart, and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him Emilio Estevez round out the rest of the cast and by the time the film’s final credits begin to roll, the movie naturally sets up an inevitable sequel.
Available on 4K Ultra HD June 26th
“Mission: Impossible II” – 2000 – (3 Stars)
I idolized Chinese director John Woo growing up in Dublin, Ireland. I began watching his movies back in the ’80s starting with “A Better Tomorrow,” “The Killer,” and my personal favorite, “Hard Boiled.” If you want to see a truly magnificent action film that still holds up all these years later, go watch “Hard Boiled,” and wait for that shootout in the maternity ward, absolutely priceless. When Woo was announced as the director of “Mission: Impossible II,” I already had my doubts. None of them had to do with him helming a big-budget action movie, after all, that is what he spent most of his life doing, my apprehension lay in the fact that Woo’s style of directing was very stylized and elaborate, it was the action scenes in all his films that audiences couldn’t wait to see and while each “Mission” is chockfull of action, it is a part of the story, with Woo, his action scenes become the focal point of any of his movies and that is exactly what happened with this sequel.
Ethan (Tom Cruise) is informed by his superior, Mission Commander Swanbeck (Anthony Hopkins), that he needs to locate and recruit Nyah Hall (Thandie Newton), a professional thief, and take her with him on his new mission. One of Hunt’s IMF agents, Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott), has apparently gone rogue and plans to sell a new bioweapon called Chimera, to the highest bidder on the black market. Apparently, Ambrose and Nyah were involved in a serious relationship until she moved out and left him. Now she must pour on the charm and agilely make her way back into his life and try to discover who and where he is going to sell Chimera to before it is too late.
The story takes place primarily in Sydney, Australia and the filmmakers take advantage of the beautiful city and many of its locales, including the Royal Randwick Racecourse and Darling Harbour. Woo’s stylistic and almost balletic approach, while visually stunning, takes away from the focus of the story and as a result, the film exhibits more style over substance. Out of all the “Mission” movies to date, this one was the biggest misstep. While each director brings their own unique style and flair, Woo is a filmmaker that transcends most others and doesn’t need to be part of a franchise or series, his films stand on their own and make no apologies for their exaggerated and outrageous action scenes. They are, after all, what make up a John Woo movie.
Available on 4K Ultra HD June 26th
“Mission: Impossible III” – 2006 – (3 1/2 Stars)
“Mission: Impossible III” marked the feature film directorial debut of J.J. Abrams, the man responsible for creating the TV shows “Alias” and “Lost,” and who would go on to direct the reboot of “Star Trek,” “Star Trek Into Darkness,” “Super 8,” and a small indie movie very few people have heard of, called “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” Before his excessive use of lens flares in both “Star Trek” movies and “Super 8,” here, he just wants to tell a story about a secret agent and his new mission, thankfully utilizing no glaring incandescent illumination.
Third time around, Ethan is no longer an active field agent, choosing instead to work behind a desk. And the reason is that he is head-over-heels in love with his new fiancée, Julia Meade (Michelle Monaghan), and he knows that if he continues to accept missions, he would have to explain his constant absence and his line of work could also put her in danger. When his old boss, John Musgrave (Billy Crudup) reaches out to him to let him know that they are mounting a rescue mission to go into Germany to save one of Ethan’s former students, Lindsey Farris (Keri Russell), assigned to her first mission, Ethan agrees to go along. After a big shootout and explosion in an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Berlin, Ethan and his team rescue Lindsey and escape in a chopper but before she can tell them what’s going on, a small explosive chip that was inserted into her head, explodes, killing her instantly. When Ethan later receives a postcard from Lindsey, one she mailed to him before her death, he discovers a minuscule microchip under the stamp and with the help of his old hacker pal Luther (Ving Rhames), they ascertain that Lindsey found the whereabouts of Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a black market dealer who is planning on selling a bioweapon nicknamed the “Rabbit’s Foot.” Now Ethan must go back into the field one more time to stop Davian, but also to exact revenge for the killing of Lindsey.
“Mission: Impossible III” is a welcome return to form after the miscalculation that was “M:I II.” Cruise is back in top form and while Ving Rhames returns as the always reliable Luther, Ethan gets a new team, made up of Declan Gormley (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), Zhen Lei (Maggie Q), and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), who is the equivalent of Q in the Bond movies. The late Philip Seymour Hoffman has got to be one of the best villains in this series, he is constantly inexorable and totally devoid of any humor or humanity and always means business. The opening of the movie has got to be one of the series’ most intense and pits Cruise against Hoffman in an interrogation scene for the ages. J.J. Abrams hit the mark with this entry and proved he was more than capable of taking on the mantle of director.
Available on 4K Ultra HD June 26th
“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” – 2011 – (4 Stars)
Back in the ’80s, film franchises like “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” “Friday the 13th,” “Halloween,” and even “Hellraiser,” got worse after each series reached number three. With each new entry typically after parts three, the movies just got ridiculous, with many stating that they should have all quit while they were ahead. Today, I have found that some franchises have actually gotten better with more films in their respective series. I did not care for “The Fast and the Furious,” or its three sequels, but with “Fast Five” and its subsequent follow-ups, I thought the movies became more entertaining. The same goes for the “Jurassic Park” series and now “Mission: Impossible.” “Ghost Protocol” seemed to reinvigorate the series and it was much needed. While “M:I III” brought back elements that were sorely missing from “M:I II,” like the story being more about the team whereas, in part 2, it felt more like a solo movie for Cruise, “Ghost Protocol” cranks up the action, the international locales, and the stunts, with Cruise actually climbing the outside of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
As the movie begins, we find Ethan incarcerated inside a Russian prison. With a little help from his fellow IMF agents, including Jane Carter (Paula Patton) and Benji (Simon Pegg), who has been newly promoted to field agent, he escapes and brings with him, Bogdan (Miraj Grbić), a person of interest who knows a lot about a terrorist organization called Cobalt. When Ethan and Benji disguise themselves as Russian soldiers so they can break into the Kremlin to try and unearth more information about Cobalt, their plan is interrupted when a bomb goes off, destroying parts of the Kremlin. Caught in the explosion, Ethan wakes up in a hospital handcuffed to a bed. With video footage showing Ethan running away from the Kremlin just as it exploded, he is accused of the bombing and the Russian government raises their alert level. Cruise manages to escape and meets up with the IMF Secretary (Tom Wilkinson) who just happens to be in Moscow on business. He informs Ethan that the President of the United States has initiated “Ghost Protocol,” thereby disavowing all IMF agents and closing down their operations. Just as the secretary tells him that he must follow all leads to try and disable Cobalt and prove that they were responsible for the Kremlin bombing, he is shot to death and both Ethan and the secretary’s aide, William Brandt (Jeremy Renner), escape. They locate a safe house where they meet up with Jane and Benji and from there, must travel to Dubai and intercept a deal where Cobalt is planning on buying nuclear codes with the intent of launching a nuclear attack on the United States.
With “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” Brad Bird, who had directed “The Iron Giant,” “The Incredibles,” and “Ratatouille,” makes his first live-action feature and does a commendable job. Making the switch from animation to live-action is no easy feat but he makes the transition seamlessly. With the overly serious tone of “M:I III” now gone, there is more room for much-needed humor and now that Simon Pegg is a regular member of Ethan’s team, those moments of levity fall squarely on his shoulders, which he pulls off with great aplomb. Tom Cruise seems livelier and more enthusiastic as he ages but that does not slow him down in any way. In fact, as he grows older, he performs as many of his own stunts that he possibly can, putting to shame, many of today’s so-called action stars who use stunt doubles all the time (cough cough Bruce Willis). One of the most hair-raising scenes involves Cruise having to scale the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, using nothing but magnetic gloves to keep him secured to the building. Obviously, Cruise was extended from wires but if you watch the behind-the-scenes making of the film, you’ll see that he actually scaled the outside of the structure, and even though he was connected to wires, it was still a nailbiting experience.
Available on 4K Ultra HD June 26th
“Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” – 2015 – (5 Stars)
For the longest time, the original 1996 “Mission: Impossible” was my favorite film of the entire series. While each of the movies were fun, overall, Brian De Palma’s opus was almost untouchable (pun intended). That is until writer-director Christopher McQuarrie came along in 2015 and managed to knock De Palma’s masterstroke to second place. “Rogue Nation” is, by far, the very best the series has to offer, to date. Everything from the dialogue, the action, the locales and setpieces, and the plot twists elevated this to the top of the pile. As it stands, it is now my personal favorite but “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” is released July 27th and while it looks amazing, something tells me that “Rogue Nation” will wind up being my prized possession.
Towards the end of “Ghost Protocol,” Ethan hears rumors about the Syndicate, a criminal organization that IMF and even the CIA deny exists. The opening of “Rogue Nation” has Ethan trying to intercept a plane taking off from Minsk which is carrying nerve gas. The operation is a success but when Ethan turns up at London to accept his next mission, he is captured by the Syndicate. Just as he is about to be tortured, he is freed by the beautiful and mysterious Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), a woman who appears to work for the Syndicate but obviously has her own agenda and even though Hunt escapes, he is determined to uncover Ilsa’s motive. When IMF are taken over and dissolved by the CIA, the new secretary, Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) is determined to locate and bring Ethan in for questioning as he is now considered a fugitive. When Ethan uncovers the identity of the man at the top of the Syndicate, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), and that he will make an appearance at an opera in Vienna, he enlists the help of his old pal Benji but instead of Lane turning up, Ethan sees Ilsa, who tries to shoot the Austrian Chancellor. With the opera house going into lockdown, Ethan grabs Ilsa and they manage to escape from the roof.
She discloses that she is an MI6 agent, deep undercover trying to work her way into the Syndicate to prove their existence with the intent of exposing them to the world. She states that Lane wants a flash drive that was hidden by a former Syndicate traitor, full of secret files but that it lies deep within a Moroccan power station. After Ethan and Benji help her retrieve the flash drive, she double-crosses them and returns to Lane in London. It is revealed to Ethan and his team that Ilsa was actually disavowed by MI6 and with everyone upset that they were betrayed, Ethan feels that there is more going on which Ilsa could not reveal but as each passing event suggests that she could quite possibly be a triple agent, Ethan and his team must head to London for one final mission, one that will decide their fate, and indeed their lives, once and for all.
The opening scene of the movie, in which Cruise hangs onto the side of an A400M Atlas Airbus, was filmed for real. I remember sitting in a theater when the trailer for “Rogue Nation” came on and I heard someone behind me say that it was green screen. I turned to them and told them it wasn’t, that Cruise actually hung from the side of the plane and that he did. Granted, he was secured by cables, just like his climbing stunt in “Ghost Protocol” on the Burj Khalifa but he literally hung on the outside of the plane while it took off and landed an estimated eight times. Say what you will about Mr. Cruise and his personal life but when it comes to making movies, he always brings his A-game and never disappoints. On all of his action films, he performs as many of his own stunts as humanly possible and even then, he goes above and beyond. How many other actors do you know would willingly climb the tallest structure in the world, or hang onto the side of a military airplane just so the shot would look authentic? With all five titles coming out on 4K next week, I would highly recommend upgrading to 4K and surrounding yourself with a top-notch sound system, that way, you’ll be able to view them exactly as they were meant to be seen. And if that opening scene with Cruise on the side of the plane doesn’t give you goosebumps, you might want to check your pulse.
Available on 4K Ultra HD June 26th
I would to win these!