Mission Impossible 1996 4k

[Rosette Allaband]

MissionImpossible is a 1996 American action spy film[4] directed by Brian De Palma and produced by and starring Tom Cruise from a screenplay by David Koepp and Robert Towne and story by Koepp and Steven Zaillian. A continuation of the 1966 television series of the same name and its 1988 sequel series (canonically set six years after the former), it is the first installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. It also stars Jon Voight, Henry Czerny, Emmanuelle Bart, Jean Reno, Ving Rhames, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Vanessa Redgrave. In the film, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) seeks to uncover who framed him for the murders of most of his Impossible Missions Force (IMF) team.

Numerous efforts by Paramount Pictures to create a film adaptation of the television series stalled until Cruise founded Cruise/Wagner Productions in 1992 and decided on Mission: Impossible as its inaugural project. Development initially began with filmmaker Sydney Pollack but most of the final screenplay was completed after De Palma, Steven Zaillian, David Koepp and Robert Towne were hired; De Palma also designed most of the action sequences, while Cruise did most of his own stunts. Principal photography began in March 1995 and lasted until that August, with filming locations including London, Pinewood Studios in England, and Prague (a rarity in Hollywood at the time).

Mission: Impossible was theatrically released in the United States by Paramount on May 22, 1996. The film received from mixed to positive reviews from critics, with praise for the action sequences, De Palma's direction and Cruise's performance but criticism for a convoluted plot. It was also negatively received by cast members of the original television series. For instance, actor Greg Morris, who had starred in the original television series, and died a few months after the film's release, called the film an "abomination". The film grossed $457.7 million worldwide, making it the third-highest-grossing film of 1996, while the dance rendition of the original theme song by Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton became a top-ten hit internationally and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. The film's success led to a long-running film franchise, beginning with Mission: Impossible 2, released four years later in 2000.

After finishing a mission in Kyiv, Jim Phelps and his latest IMF team are sent to Prague to stop rogue agent Alexander Golitsyn from stealing the CIA NOC list. However, the mission unexpectedly fails after the list is stolen and the team is killed one by one, along with Golitsyn, leaving Phelps's pointman Ethan Hunt the only survivor.

Ethan is debriefed by IMF director Eugene Kittridge in a restaurant. Hunt realizes that another IMF team was present during the mission and learns that the operation was a setup to lure out a mole within the IMF with the help of Golitsyn, who was posing as the rogue agent. The mole is believed to be working with an arms dealer named "Max" as part of "Job 314". Realizing that Kittridge suspects he is the mole, Ethan escapes by using a plastic explosive disguised as chewing gum.

After returning to the Prague safe house, Ethan realizes "Job 314" actually refers to Bible verse Job 3:14, with "Job" being the mole's code name. Phelps's wife Claire, thought to have been killed during the mission, arrives at the safe house, explaining that before his death, Phelps warned her that they were compromised which enabled her escape. Ethan arranges a meeting with Max to warn her that the NOC list she has is fake and equipped with a tracking device. Despite Max's initial skepticism, they escape a raid by Kittridge's team. Ethan convinces Max that he can obtain the real NOC list in exchange for $10 million and Job's true identity.

Hunt and Claire recruit two disavowed IMF agents, hacker Luther Stickell and helicopter pilot Franz Krieger. They infiltrate CIA headquarters in Langley, steal the authentic list, and escape to London. Krieger takes the magneto-optical disk containing the list, but Ethan tricks him into giving it up before giving the list to Stickell for safekeeping. Kittridge has Ethan's mother and uncle falsely arrested in order to lure Ethan out. After learning about the arrests, Ethan contacts Kittridge from a payphone, intentionally allowing the IMF to trace the call. Phelps resurfaces unexpectedly, recounts surviving the shooting, and tells Ethan that Kittridge is the mole. However, Ethan has already realized that Phelps is the mole after discovering that the Bible he used in Prague was taken from Chicago's Drake Hotel, where Phelps was stationed on a previous assignment. Ethan pretends to believe Phelps and arranges to exchange the list with Max aboard the TGV train to Paris, secretly inviting Kittridge to the meeting.

On the train, Ethan directs Max to the list, and she sends him to the baggage car where the money and Job are located. Meanwhile, Stickell uses a jamming device to prevent Max from uploading the list to her servers. Claire goes to the car to collect her share of the money from Phelps, only to realize that he is really Ethan in disguise. When the real Phelps arrives and takes the money at gunpoint, Hunt sends a live video of the confrontation to Kittridge, exposing Phelps as the mole. Claire tries to reason with her husband, but Phelps kills her. Phelps also subdues Ethan in the process. Phelps climbs to the train's roof, where Krieger is waiting with a helicopter. As Phelps attempts to climb onto the helicopter using a tether, Ethan hooks it onto the train, preventing Krieger from flying away and forcing the helicopter into the Channel Tunnel. He uses another piece of explosive to blow the chopper up, killing Phelps and Krieger. Kittridge takes Max into custody and recovers the NOC list from Stickell. As he and Stickell are reinstated back in the IMF, Ethan is unsure about returning to the team. On the flight home, an attendant approaches him and covertly offers him the chance to take on a new mission as team leader.

Additional cast members include Karel Dobr and Andreas Wisniewski as Max's henchmen, Annabel Mullion as an IMF agent posing as the flight attendant on Ethan's plane, Olegar Fedoro as an IMF agent during the Kiev sequence, Dale Dye as IMF agent Frank Barnes who assists Eugene Kittridge hunt down Ethan Hunt and Morgan Deare as Ethan's uncle Donald Hunt.

Paramount Pictures owned the rights to the television series and had tried for years to make a film version but had failed to come up with a viable treatment. Tom Cruise had been a fan of the show since he was young and thought that it would be a good idea for a film.[5] The actor chose Mission: Impossible to be the inaugural project of his new production company and convinced Paramount to put up a $70 million budget.[6] Cruise and his producing partner, Paula Wagner, worked on a story with filmmaker Sydney Pollack for a few months when the actor hired Brian De Palma to direct.[7] While working on Interview with the Vampire, Cruise met De Palma during a dinner with Steven Spielberg. Already impressed by his filmography, when he went back home, he re-watched all of De Palma's films and convinced himself to have De Palma hired to direct Mission: Impossible.[8] They went through two screenplay drafts that no one liked. De Palma brought in screenwriters Steve Zaillian, David Koepp and, finally, Robert Towne. When the film was green-lit Koepp was initially fired with Robert Towne being the lead writer and Koepp being brought back on later.[9] According to the director, the goal of the script was to "constantly surprise the audience."[7] Reportedly, Koepp was paid $1 million to rewrite an original script by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz. According to one project source, there were problems with dialogue and story development. However, the basic plot remained intact.[10]

Principal photography took place between March and August 1995 mainly in Prague and England's Pinewood Studios,[12] but some scenes were shot in London, Scotland and the United States.[13] The film was one of the first Hollywood features to be both set and shot in contemporary Prague with extensive filming throughout a number of recognizable places including Charles Bridge, National Museum or Old Town Square.[12]

The filmmakers delivered the film on time and under budget, a rarity in Hollywood, with Cruise doing most of his own stunts.[5] Initially, there was a sophisticated opening sequence that introduced a love triangle between Jim Phelps, his wife Claire and Ethan Hunt that was removed on the advice of George Lucas because it took the test audience "out of the genre," according to De Palma.[7][15] There were rumors that Cruise and De Palma did not get along. These rumors were fueled when the director excused himself at the last moment from scheduled media interviews before the film's theatrical release.[5]

The film uses Lalo Schifrin's original "Theme from Mission: Impossible". Alan Silvestri was originally hired to write the film's score, but his music was rejected and replaced with a new score by composer Danny Elfman.[16] According to some sources, Silvestri had written and recorded some 20 minutes of music, and the decision to replace him was made by producer Tom Cruise during post-production.[17] Elfman had only a few weeks to compose and produce the final score, which used Schifrin's "The Plot" theme in addition to his main theme, as well as new themes composed by Elfman for the characters Ethan Hunt, Claire and the IMF.[18]

U2 bandmates Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton were fans of the TV show and knew the original theme music well but were nervous about remaking Schifrin's theme song.[19] Clayton put together his own version in New York City and Mullen did his in Dublin on weekends between U2 recording sessions. The two musicians were influenced by Brian Eno and the European dance club scene sound that informed the album Original Soundtracks 1 that U2 had recently recorded with Eno. They allowed Polygram to pick its favorite, and they wanted both. In a month, they had two versions of the song and five remixed by DJs. All seven tracks appeared on a limited-edition vinyl release.[19] The song entered the top 10 of music charts around the world.[20][21]

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