Mission: Impossible Became A Powerhouse By Literally Blowing Up The Past
Detonate your darlings.
Just like people, very few movie franchises resemble what they were decades ago. Maybe, to keep audiences interested, they’ve had to raise their stakes to ludicrous heights. In 2001, Paul Walker infiltrated a gang that was stealing TVs with built-in VHS players; eight Fast and Furious movies later, two stars went to space. Or maybe the sheer number of installments has produced an impenetrable tangle of lore; Saw, a lo-fi horror built around one big twist, now requires a PhD in Sawology to keep track of all its characters and reveals.
The Mission: Impossible franchise underwent both changes, leaving behind a debut film almost completely unlike everything that followed it. Based on a 1966-1973 TV show now largely unknown to younger fans, and celebrating its 30th anniversary today, Mission: Impossible is a lesson in both how to reboot a franchise, and how far a franchise can veer off into the unexpected.
Introduced as a cocky young operative, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) bears almost no resemblance to the superhuman he would soon become. He never even shoots a firearm, for a start, and while he’s certainly not afraid to leap into action, this is the only film in the franchise where his investigative smarts receive equal emphasis. This is a Cruise experimenting with action, not defined by it.
Hunt is also, unusually, subservient to Jim Phelps (Jon Voight), the only character brought over from the TV show and its late ‘80s revival (played, in both instances, by Peter Graves). Phelps is the world-weary mentor to Hunt’s eager young go-getter, so perhaps it’s no surprise that their opening mission ends with Phelps and several other agents dead, a mole running rampant through the Impossible Mission Force, and an invaluable list of undercover operatives still up for grabs.
Directed with confident flair by Brian De Palma, in what would prove to be his last great success, Mission: Impossible blends the talky, gadget-forward tone of the show with the more explosive action fare of the 1990s. Compared to the elaborate stunts and constant firefights of future installments, Mission: Impossible is practically somnambulant. But compared to the caper-heavy spy games of the TV series, its explosive finale was sacrilegious.
Phelps all but hands Hunt a literal baton as the franchise is turned over to Tom Cruise.
Before anyone knew that the movies would make $4.35 billion at the box office, it was a major point of contention among fans that Phelps wasn’t just knocked off, but transformed into a jaded villain willing to sell out the IMF for a bigger paycheck. Peter Graves declined the role because he didn’t want to turn heel, and series stalwart Greg Morris infamously walked out of the film, calling it an “abomination.” On a 1996 Usenet discussion full of anti-Cruise sentiment, one poster complained, “I've watched the show in reruns since childhood … and let me say that Jim Phelps would never, ever, EVER do that.” Unfortunately, he couldn’t pull off sick stunts either.
Critics were right that the movie toned down the TV show’s mind games in favor of more straightforward action, but when another old star, Martin Landau, griped, “Why do that? Why revisit something that stands for itself?” the answer turned out to be “because you can make a hell of a lot of money.” Mission: Impossible, with the help of brand recognition and Cruise’s star power, was a huge hit that produced one of the decade’s most iconic set pieces. Who hasn’t seen Cruise dangle from a cable mere inches above a pressure-sensitive floor?
Fairly or not, stunts were always going to win out over clever ruses at the box office.
The restrained smarts of Phelps’ TV show just weren’t destined for the big screen, no more than De Palma’s gunplay-last approach was meant to last once other directors discovered the joys of watching Tom Cruise shoot, sprint, and dangle his way across the planet. The only film in the franchise to not have apocalyptic stakes, and the only film to maintain some sense of mystery in its twists and turns, Mission: Impossible is simultaneously famous, yet largely removed from what came before and after it. As stunning as the series would get, it makes you wonder what other paths it might have taken — some modern viewers exploring the franchise’s history now, ironically, appreciate its relative restraint.
It’s all a bit ridiculous, really; imagine if every Fast and Furious movie had to employ a hot-pink 1960 Mini because it featured in the half-forgotten, half-century-old TV show that loosely inspired the first of 10 films. But then that’s what makes the Mission: Impossible franchise so much fun. Even in its most ponderous adventures, you know that someone, at some point, is going to pull a mask off their face, and that it’s going to be as silly as it is awesome. Thirty years removed from the expectations created by its source material, Mission: Impossible 1 maintains that goofy sense of joy.
Final Reckoning appears to have brought the bombastic Cruise-era of impossible missions to a belated end, but the brand is now far too valuable to leave on the shelf for long. Ironically, a reboot would do well to look back at the first film. Now that Cruise has prevented armageddon several times over, a relatively stripped-down affair might be just what the series needs. But whatever comes next, Mission: Impossible 1 is a reminder that while you can honor the past, you won’t do yourself any favors by chaining yourself to it. More franchises could benefit from risking the ire of old fans and stars if it lets them stand atop a moving train on their own feet.
Mission: Impossible is streaming on Paramount+.
