Mission: Impossible 1996, a movie that appears to be one way but isn't.

Mission impossible the Final Reckoning is coming out and I liked the trailer so I want to watch it, now unlike the Final Destination franchise I have not watched an infinite amount of YouTube videos theorizing and explaining all the important stuff in the films before, my only exposure to this Franchise has been my dad gushing about that one scene where he stops a bead of sweat with his hand so that it doesn't fall on the floor, of course that is the scene I lead with in this Blog Post.

So now like before Daredevil Born again I am on a bit of a Marathon to watch all Mission Impossible films before the Final Reckoning and I wonder whether I will actually be able to do that in this instance unlike Daredevil Born Again whose Marathon still technically continues.

I mean this is but a group of Seven films which put all together form less than a single season of Television even by Disney Plus Standards... no wait Disney Plus has six episodes a season doesn't it, nearly the same length no?

Anyways, getting to the actual thing, what is up with the Original Mission Impossible and exactly how Impossible is it?

Well this movie begins with a misdirection, a misdirect that makes you think that this is yet another Generic spy action espionage movie the likes of which are based on James Bond, where there is a generic McGuffin that the hot shot main character must secure from the hands of a certain evil Genius or bad things may happen.

But while it is most definitely a spy espionage thriller, it is most definitely not a generic one, it is in fact quite different from them, and it very much earns its name Mission: Impossible.

For starters the very first mission that the main hero Ethan Hunt goes on is actually a severe bust where his entire team gets massacred and he is the sole survivor(so it seems initially), as an insult to injury, it turns out the operation that got his entire team killed wasn't even that important, it was a molehunt.

You see Ethan Hunt is a member of the secret intelligence of CIA but the CIA is compromised by someone with the code name Job, which later turns out to be a biblical reference.

And since Ethan Survived this supposed molehunt, his superiors believe him to be the mole, which is all good and all, except he isn't.

A truly impossible mission with impossible odds, where he has the entire weight of the CIA against him for a crime he didn't commit and he must find the true criminal and clear his own name with the help of his only other surviving team member Claire.

To the uninitiated it would seem that this member would eventually develop a romantic relationship with the main Hero Ethan hunt, but then that is why they are the uninitiated, you see like all good spy movies this one complicated matters by bringing back Claire's husband from certain death.

Jim Phelps faked his death and escaped certain death at the hands of the other IMF team, and it appears that the plot has gone of the rails since Claire and Ethan have grown closer to each other and while that is a problem, Ethan will need Jim to fight against the mole, which by this point is believed to be the one who accused Ethan A.K.A. Kittridge.

Who makes these names?

Anyways.

So they set up a final operation to catch Job and clear Ethan's name with the help of the hacker Luther and Job's original buyer named Max, but what do you know, Jim is Job

And Claire is WITH HIM!!!

WHY CLAIRE? WHY??? WE TRUSTED YOU!!!

Yeah I am pretty sure every man in the theatre was stunned that the pretty lady is a traitor.

So what is mission: Impossible.

Is it an excuse for Tom Cruise to do crazy stunts like the one discussed in the beginning of this blog while setting up a thrilling story concluding with nail biting tension on espionage that ends in a wild helicopter chase over a fast going train?

Yes.

But it is also a lot more, Mission impossible may be known for its amazing high concept thrilling sequences like the stopping sweat with your palm while an inch close to the floor without touching the floor sequence, but history has shown time and time again that it isn't simply possible to have a lot of amazing sequences and have no substance behind it.

To build proper tension you need to care about the characters on screen, hopefully beyond the usual oh shit that is also a human thing.

And Mission Impossible definitely achieved that.

As for me? I am happy to finally understand the reference to mission Impossible masks that can apparently change your facial bone structure and your height and weight.

In a different world this would have been a horror scene, here it is just spy shit and potential comedy.