Mission: Impossible (also known in the Blu-ray release as M:I) is a 1996 American action spy film directed by Brian De Palma and starring Tom Cruise. Following on from the television series of the same name, the plot follows a new agent, Ethan Hunt and his mission to uncover the mole who has framed him for the murders of his entire IMF team. Work on the script had begun early with filmmaker Sydney Pollack on board, before De Palma, Steven Zaillian, David Koepp, and Robert Towne were brought in. Mission: Impossible went into pre-production without a shooting script. De Palma came up with some action sequences, but Koepp and Towne was dissatisfied with the story that leads up to these events.

U2 band members Larry Mullen, Jr. and Adam Clayton produced their own version of the original theme song. The song went into top ten charts around the world and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. The film was the third highest grossing of the year and received positive reviews from film critics. The film marked the beginning of a film series, with sequels Impossible II Mission: Impossible II, Impossible III III and Ghost Protocol released in 2000, 2006 and 2011. A fifth film, Mission: Impossible V, is fast tracked with Tom Cruise reprising his role.^[

Plot Edit

Ethan Hunt is a member of the Impossible Missions Force, also known as IMF. It is an unofficial branch of the CIA, and part of a small team of agents. Led by Jim Phelps, the team assembles for a mission in Prague to prevent Alexander Golitsyn, an American diplomat, from stealing the Non-Official Cover (NOC) list, a comprehensive list of all covert agents in Eastern Europe, from the US Embassy. The mission goes hopelessly wrong, apparently resulting in the deaths of the entire team except for Ethan. Technician Jack Harmon is impaled in an elevator shaft, Phelps is shot on a bridge by an unknown assailant, Hannah Williams and Phelps' wife Claire are both killed by a car bomb and both Sarah Davies and Golitsyn are stabbed to death by an unknown assailant. After fleeing the scene, Ethan meets with IMF Director Eugene Kittridge at a café where they discuss the events of that night. Eventually, Ethan realizes that a second IMF team was watching his team during the failed operation. Kittridge then discloses that the operation was a setup meant to draw out a mole in the IMF. The mole has made a deal to sell the list to an arms dealer known as "Max" as part of an operation called "Job 314". As a result, the NOC list taken in the mission was a fake and the computer disk it is on is rigged with a tracking device. After Kittridge informs Ethan of his suspicion that Ethan is the mole, Ethan blows up the floor-to-ceiling aquarium with a stick of explosive chewing gum in the café and flees. Ethan returns to the IMF safe house where, realizing that "Job 314" refers to a Bible verse in the book of Job (and presumably the mole's codename as well), Ethan begins email correspondence with Max over a Biblical correspondence web site and warns Max about the fake NOC list. Ethan then encounters Claire and discovers that she has survived the mission, having gotten out of the car in which she was waiting before it exploded. Max arranges a meeting with Ethan where he offers to deliver the real NOC list in exchange for $10 million and a face-to-face meeting with the real Job. Max agrees and she and Ethan then escape moments before a CIA team, alerted by the tracking device, arrives in search of the fake NOC list. Ethan assembles a team of disavowed agents: computer expert Luther Stickell and pilot Franz Krieger. Ethan, Luther, Krieger, and Claire infiltrate the heavily fortified CIA headquarters in Langley and successfully steal the full NOC list before escaping to a safe house in London. While in London, Ethan discovers that his uncle and mother have been falsely arrested for drug trafficking in an attempt by Kittridge to lure him out of hiding. This infuriates Ethan, and he contacts Kittridge who offers to drop the charges if Ethan surrenders. Ethan stays on the line long enough for Kittridge to trace him to London and then hangs up, only to find Phelps (wounded, but alive) standing next to him. Phelps, presumed dead in the Prague operation and following Ethan ever since, tells Ethan that Kittridge is the mole and is trying to tie up loose ends. Ethan listens, mentally piecing together the operation and realizes that Phelps, having become disillusioned with his work, is actually Job and that Krieger - who uses the same distinctive make of knife that was used to kill Sarah and the American diplomat– has assisted Phelps. However, Ethan is still doubtful about Claire's place in the conspiracy. The next day, Max and Ethan arrange to meet aboard the TGV en route to Paris, with Claire and Luther aboard to provide backup. Kittridge is also aboard, having received tickets and a watch from Ethan. Aboard the train, Ethan delivers the NOC list to Max, who directs him to the baggage car to find his money and Job. Claire arrives in the baggage car to meet with Phelps, revealing her complicity as she suggests that they leave with the money and let Ethan take the blame. Phelps suddenly peels his face away, revealing himself to be Ethan in disguise. They are interrupted by the arrival of the real Jim Phelps: unhinged, armed and demanding that Ethan hand over the money. Ethan does so, but then slowly puts on a pair of glasses from the original operation in Prague, with a camera built into the bridge. The image of Phelps, alive, is transmitted to a video watch sent to Kittridge by Ethan, exposing Job's true identity. Claire tries to intervene, but Phelps kills her and climbs up to the roof of the train, while Krieger approaches in a helicopter to extract him. Ethan follows him onto the roof, impeding him and tethering Krieger's helicopter to the train, dragging it into the Channel Tunnel. In the tunnel, Phelps leaps to the helicopter. Ethan follows, climbing the helicopter's landing skids and attaching another piece of explosive chewing gum, a final relic of Prague, to the windshield. He leaps back to the train just as the ensuing explosion kills Krieger and Phelps is crushed in between the copter remains and the tracks. Now with custody of the NOC list, Max, and Job's true identity, Kittridge reinstates Luther and drops his investigation against Ethan, who resigns from the IMF. As he flies home, a flight attendant approaches him and asks, through a coded phrase, if he is ready to take on a new mission.

Cast Edit

• Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt
• Jon Voight as Jim Phelps
• Emmanuelle Béart as Claire Phelps
• Henry Czerny as Eugene Kittridge
• Jean Reno as Franz Krieger
• Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell
• Kristin Scott Thomas as Sarah Davies
• Vanessa Redgrave as Max
• Ingeborga Dapkunaite as Hannah Williams
• Dale Dye as Frank Barnes
• Rolf Saxon as William Donloe
• Emilio Estevez as Jack Harmon (uncredited)