Ep. 10 - Missions Impossibles! Part 1

This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] J.J.: I have a question for you. Okay. If you could only pick two movies to watch for the rest of your life, what would those two movies be? That's a great question. It's like the whole if you were on an island, what would you bring to the island sort of question.

[0:22] Olaf: Yeah, I just don't like sand. And where would you plug in? How would you watch the movie? So for me, one of them would be Back to the Future. That seems a little obvious, I guess, when you think about the name of our podcast, and we've kind of voiced our mutual love for that film. The other movie, it might be When Harry Met Sally. Okay, because those are two movies that I never, ever get tired of. And I've seen both movies so many times that you would think, maybe this is the time that I'm not going to want to watch it. But that has yet to happen.

[1:02] J.J.: Right. So those two movies off the top of my head, Rapid Fire would be the two movies that I would pick. Okay, now, you've picked your two movies. Great. Now you have to assassinate one of them right in front of the other. Some bad guys have come in. And they know how close you are to Back to the Future. Wow. Do you sacrifice When Harry Met Sally to save Back to the Future?

[1:33] Olaf: I would, because at the end of the day, Back to the Future came first for me in terms of when I saw it, the impact it's had universally in my life from when I saw it at such a young age to now, as much as I love When Harry Met Sally, Back to the Future is going to get the reprieve.

[1:56] J.J.: All right. Are you asking me, would I choose When Harry Met Sally over Back to the Future? I'm saying, would you sacrifice When Harry Met Sally to save Back to the Future?

[2:08] Olaf: I mean, I would do my best to try and save both of them.

[2:12] J.J.: All right, because then the bad guys kill both of them.

[2:15] Olaf: Because they ain't real and movies don't have lives.

[2:21] J.J.: Okay. All right. Well, I mean, that's a great question. And I mean, again, just rapid fire, those are the two movies. And in the end, there can be only one.

[2:34] Olaf: So Highlander was the trigger man.

[2:40] J.J.: Right, right. Yeah, exactly. And that's what it was. Highlander is the one who's holding Back to the Future hostage. So the real answer would have been, you can't keep either of those, you have to keep Highlander. Because in the end, there can be only one. Okay.

[2:51] Olaf: Yeah, it's kind of a downer of a question, though.

[2:55] J.J.: No, but it's good. It really takes a twist. But it's interesting because you kind of got me into this frame of mind of, you know, what movies don't I get tired of? Which kind of brings us into the movies that we're going to be talking about.

[3:10] Olaf: Transition!

[3:12] J.J.: Transition! It cues us into the two movies that we're going to talk about, or at least the franchise that we're going to start talking about tonight. And so.

[3:20] Olaf: Yeah, we're not doing the whole thing.

[3:22] J.J.: No, we're not doing the whole thing. For those of you tuning in, we're definitely breaking this up in sections.

[3:28] Olaf: All right. Well, then let's get back to the movie theater, because we've got a lot to talk about today.

[3:40] J.J.: Today, we are going to be talking about the Mission Impossible franchise.

[3:50] Olaf: Yes. But specifically, we're going to be talking about Mission Impossible 1, which started it all, and then we'll go into Mission Impossible 2.

[3:59] J.J.: Yes. Which didn't start anything, but it nearly finished it, that's for sure.

[4:05] Olaf: It's true. This thing almost ended before it really got off the ground. And on the heels of what will be the eighth and possibly final Mission Impossible film, who knows, like Olaf said, we're going to be starting with the first two and kind of do a nice dive into it.

[4:22] J.J.: I'm going to say right now, my approach to these first two is going to be as if there aren't any other movies in the franchise. So my take here is going to be as if the first one came out and that was it. And then they came out with a second one, and we're going to be just going off of what was presented. And I'm going to do my best not to talk about anything beyond the second movie.

[4:48] Olaf: Okay. And I will probably not do that. I make no promises, because I remember all of them.

[4:58] J.J.: Well, so do I, but I'm trying to give... This is me early on setting the table to try and do my best. And it's going to be challenging, but to do my best to give Mission Impossible 2 as much of a benefit of the doubt as I can, because it's going to be really hard to do that. But I don't want to jump ahead, because there wouldn't have been a Mission Impossible 2. Let's focus on number one first.

[5:27] Olaf: There wouldn't have been a two without a one. Let's start where it all started. Speaking of this, before we go, the first thing you had asked me about was two movies that I liked, and I never get tired of watching them. I can honestly say that I don't really ever get tired of watching the Mission Impossible franchise.

[5:43] J.J.: I can't really explain why, except that they're just so fun.

[5:48] Olaf: Well, they're all well-constructed. They're put together. The tempo is just rapid, and it's always engaging. There's not a lot of downtime in these movies for you to potentially get bored.

[6:02] J.J.: I totally agree. However, you mentioned bored as an adjective to describe what these movies aren't. However, there are a few people that I know that feel the first movie was kind of boring.

[6:16] Olaf: Well, okay, so for the first movie, there was no real plan at that time for there to be a franchise. This is back in the 90s. This came out in 1996, and this was just a movie. They were like, hey, we've got this TV show that nobody's watched for years. They tried to bring it back, and it didn't go well. Tom Cruise had just started his own production company, and this was what he chose to be his first movie. He was a fan of the show, and all this movie was, at the end of the day, was a standalone, let's modernize the TV show to the present day, but still keep the feel of the TV show.

[7:08] J.J.: I know that they brought one of the writers from the show on. The studio was like, hey, we want you to be here to help the director, who was Brian De Palma. De Palma, on day one, was like, hey, it's nice to meet you. We'll have some pleasantries, but by the way—

[7:25] Olaf: You gotta go.

[7:26] J.J.: We're not going to be faithful to the show at all. It's going to be totally different. We're doing our own thing, and it's just going to be really awkward if you're here. The guy was like, no worries, and took off.

[7:35] Olaf: The guy was like, oh, thanks for letting me know. Bye.

[7:40] J.J.: No, I mean, you mentioned the feel of the show. Even the first shot, when it starts, you see the back of Emilio Estevez's head looking into a monitor. The way they color the scene, it still looks like the show. Even though it's present day, mid-90s, it still looks like you're watching an episode of the TV show.

[8:02] Olaf: I think that was their jumping off point.

[8:05] J.J.: Right. I agree. Give you something slightly familiar before we take off. Because at that point, they changed everything. The idea was that they had asked the original actors to come back for this movie, only to then kill the characters off. And they were like, no.

[8:22] Olaf: Exactly. They were like, I don't think we want to do that. And Peter Graves, who plays Jim Phelps, was like, I think the idea was, if Peter doesn't do it, none of us are going to do it.

[8:34] J.J.: Well, he was upset that his character ended up being the villain.

[8:40] Olaf: So did a lot of people. However, the movie came out in my uncle, he was like in his early 40s when he came out, which means he was old enough to know the show. And even he, when the movie kind of goes, I can't believe they're making Jim Phelps a bad guy. And as somebody who would watch the show for myself, I wasn't as attached to it. So to me, I was like, I don't, it's not going to bother me.

[9:00] J.J.: Yeah. But I can understand people's hesitation when it comes to that idea of seeing a hero or the main protagonist of the show. All of a sudden you're turning it on its ear. But yeah.

[9:14] Olaf: I have no memory of ever watching the show. I've watched things in the past that have talked about the show. So I have that vague education. But I can honestly say that I do not ever remember watching a show. And I used to watch, growing up, I used to watch a lot of old TV shows with my dad or just on my own. And Mission Impossible, I never, never saw. Things like this message will self-destruct in five seconds. Things like that I knew.

[9:46] J.J.: Oh yeah. But what I found interesting is, even though they weren't able to get the original actors to come back to then kill their characters off, that's exactly what they did anyway. And so you do take the idea of a team that everybody that's familiar with the show is familiar with and immediately you let the audience know within the first ten minutes, this is not what you're going to be used to. We're not only going to eliminate the team, but look, it's Emilio Estevez in an uncredited part and he's the first one to go. And you're kind of sitting there going, what just happened?

[10:21] Olaf: So fun fact with his appearance, he did that as a favor because Tom Cruise had done a small appearance on Young Guns. So he's just paying him back.

[10:33] J.J.: Which was cool. And of course they had outsiders. They were both in the outsiders years ago as well. So they had been friends for a while. But yeah, I thought that was kind of cool of Emilio because unfortunately for him at the time, his sort of star power was already on the decline anyway. Like all the Mighty Ducks movies were over. I don't think he really did much on a bigger scale after Mission Impossible.

[10:55] Olaf: Wait, were all the Mighty Duck movies over by then?

[10:58] J.J.: Yeah, that third movie came out the same year.

[11:00] Olaf: By 96?

[11:01] J.J.: Yeah, the third movie came out the same year as Mission Impossible. So, you know, he cut his hair and grew a beard and did Mission Impossible.

[11:08] Olaf: Well, I got to tell you, his short amount of time, he had so much fun with it.

[11:13] J.J.: Well, and I feel like he's kind of all over the trailer too. So you're going into the movie going, oh man, Emilio's in this too? I wonder what kind of part he's going to play in it. Oh, no, never mind. Bye.

[11:24] Olaf: The tech, which Mission Impossible definitely leaned into more of the espionage, cat and mouse idea, more than action.

[11:31] J.J.: Oh, absolutely. Tom Cruise doesn't fire a gun at all in this movie.

[11:39] Olaf: No, in fact, I believe there are only like five shots fired in the whole movie.

[11:44] J.J.: Right, like total of five shots. It's wild. I mean...

[11:48] Olaf: It's the only film in the franchise where Ethan does not fire a gun.

[11:52] J.J.: Right, because it's the only film that's been out yet. There is no franchise. It's just Mission Impossible, right? Because they're not leaning into the action as much as they're trying to lean into the story, which I really enjoyed about it.

[12:09] Olaf: But I will say, because I just re-watched it recently just to like brush up before we talked, and there's parts of the story that even today I'm a little confused on. It's like I understand the mole hunt and I understand stealing the real knocklist to kind of complete what the mole hunt was supposedly going to do just so that Ethan could find out who set him up. But the whole story with Phelps, that one gets a little muddy.

[12:41] J.J.: Well, the interesting thing is that they didn't have a script when they went into pre-production. Brian De Palma had like designed a bunch of the action pieces, the set pieces, but they sort of molded the script around the action pieces and sort of created a story there. Because I agree with you.

[13:00] Olaf: Well, I tell you, the two action pieces are great.

[13:02] J.J.: Yeah, the two set pieces for sure are great and I definitely want to dive into those. But I want to mention something off of what you had said. There are certain pieces of the story that are kind of, there's a lot of plot holes in the final cut because there are certain things that aren't really explained. The love triangle between Ethan, Claire, and Phelps.

[13:24] Olaf: Which there really wasn't one.

[13:25] J.J.: Because they cut it out.

[13:26] Olaf: They allude to the fact that Ethan and Claire have some sort of relationship that Jim finds out about or knows about, but you don't ever see it. And so you have to kind of over multiple viewings of the film go, oh, well, there's a moment and there's a moment. In the trailer and in the opening montage of the music, there is a shot of them kissing that just is never in the movie.

[13:53] J.J.: Yeah, I guess they did film that. So you're left wondering. You do feel like there's this sexual tension between them throughout the movie but nothing ever comes of it.

[14:01] Olaf: Right, in the final cut of the film it doesn't exist. Which is fine, you don't need it. You don't, and maybe that's why they cut it out because it's unimportant. I mean, the movie's not even two hours long. It's a really tight hour and fifty minutes or something where they're going from one piece to another.

[14:17] J.J.: What I like, because a lot of times movies get burned because of age, the tech seems antiquated and out of date. But when you, again, if you look at it, you look at that first opening shot, you know it's the current day but it feels like a movie that maybe could be set in the 70s or 80s just because of how it looks and how it's shot. The opening scene when Phelps, John Voight, gets the assignment, you know, gets the mission, you know, he's got this little mini VHS tape he puts into the side of the seat. And he's smoking on the airplane. But I love how he does that.

[14:54] J.J.: To mask the detonation of the video. The whole time I'm watching the movie, I'm like, this movie has aged so well, even with the outdated technology.

[15:07] Olaf: I agree. For whatever reason, the outdated technology just comes off as just more charming than anything.

[15:16] J.J.: Right. It's not a distraction and it doesn't take you out of it because they're not completely relying on the tech. I mean, who's to say that the red light, green light stick of gum isn't a thing that could still be used today?

[15:28] Olaf: Oh yeah, that is still very believable.

[15:31] J.J.: Yeah. But like the small, thick laptops, the floppy disks, and not having any signal and AOL. I love the glasses though, because I always thought that was so cool. As someone who's worn glasses their entire life, I'm like, how cool would that be to have glasses that apparently have some sort of camera that you can't see on the glasses, but it doesn't matter because it's spy tech.

[15:56] Olaf: But even with the outdated technology, you go to the scene where they're breaking into the vault.

[16:03] J.J.: Yes. That still plays. That's a great set piece.

[16:07] Olaf: Wow. Because, one, because of how it's set up on the train before, where he's talking to Ving Rhames and Jean Reno, and he's like walking them through the impossibility of how it's going to happen. And then we get to see it. When you look at it, you go, this is still like, if you only watched Mission Impossible with fresh eyes, you're like, this is a really cool set piece. I mean, they come in.

[16:31] J.J.: Yeah. Jean Reno, his character must have been insanely strong because he's manning up there, keeping Tom steady.

[16:39] Olaf: The scene is so brilliant because you can almost find yourself holding your breath. Like, you almost feel like you're in the room and you don't want to set off any alarms either as you're watching. And it's super intense. And yeah, it's absolutely a blueprint for them going forward with future movies.

[16:58] J.J.: And it's absolutely—

[16:59] Olaf: They're like, we've got to have our vault scene.

[17:01] J.J.: Right. But it is, there are some ludicrous moments in that whole scene as well. And that's okay too. But one of them being at a certain point, the guy who's supposed to be in the vault, manning it, Don Lowe, comes back in and Ethan is basically dangling over him, maybe four feet, five feet. How do you not see him? He's right there.

[17:23] Olaf: So, you know, I was thinking about this when I was rewatching it. You got to think he's in autopilot. Like his job is just to come in here. There's nothing else in there. Why look up?

[17:38] J.J.: This is my point. There's nothing else in there to distract him. It's not like he's walking in and there's so much to see. You walk in, there's this desk with a retractable chair. All he had to do was even peek up and you're going to see something.

[17:52] Olaf: Well, I guess it's a good thing he didn't.

[17:56] J.J.: I mean, I guess he was distracted by the fact that he was trying not to throw up because he was like poisoned. But I thought, yeah, OK. And then Jean Reno, of course, way up in the A.C. event, holding him, killing a rat by killing a mouse that at the same time. And that's what causes Ethan to be dangling in that classic moment that inches above the ground.

[18:20] Olaf: Which, by the way, they kept running that stunt and Tom Cruise kept hitting his head and he realized the way to stop that was he shoved coins in his shoes.

[18:34] J.J.: Which is, I mean, OK, yeah, it works. It worked. No, I mean, it's brilliant. But again, like another thing that is so fun about this movie is everything's practical, even the mask. Well, not everything. Not everything. Obviously, the train sequence, the helicopter, that is not. But when you look at the vault scene, when you look at the masks, this movie, they used practical masks.

[19:02] Olaf: And he's the only one still they still use effects on the masks. It's not seamless.

[19:09] J.J.: I was under the impression that at least with Mission Impossible, when he plays the senator at the beginning, because that's really the only time you when he's Jim at the end. I mean, especially a lot of mask pulls. And now you do see he's going to pull the mask off when he's the senator and then it cuts. And as he's pulling, he rips the mask.

[19:32] Olaf: Right. Well, because, yeah, it was practically put on and everything. Right. But like as far as like the just quick reveals. Well, like the one at the beginning when he like whatever he's at, he's some sort of Russian something or other at the beginning. And then he's the senator. That's just him behind a mask because he's not imitating Jim. He's not imitating John Voight like he does at the end.

[19:51] J.J.: Yeah, I'm just saying that when you see him just quickly rip that mask off, that was just so perfectly on his face.

[20:03] Olaf: That's CGI. I don't think the first one is. I really don't, because especially with the senator, he is the sent—like when he when they're like, who are we going to use? The senator is different because there's no— with the senator, there was no clean, quick mask reveal. But even with the first one, I really feel like that's just him with a mustache and a wig.

[20:23] J.J.: No, I mean, special effects. Now, that's OK, because it's done really well. It's still done amazingly. You're still looking at it in awe going, this is awesome.

[20:44] Olaf: As we move into towards the end of the movie, that train sequence, I think they shot it first or they shot it early and they did obviously blue screen that.

[20:55] J.J.: Oh, yeah. But they still had like the giant fan on him and oh, Jon Voight.

[21:02] Olaf: Yeah, absolutely. Like the whole thing looks great. I mean, you know that there's a lot of CGI as special effects going on in that scene because you can't have a helicopter in the tunnel. You can't do all these stunts in the tunnel, all of that. But you still got Tom on a train set with a giant fan blowing.

[21:20] J.J.: Yeah. You know, affecting the face. Absolutely. So that practical side of it sells the rest. What did you—

[21:25] Olaf: It's still a fun, exciting set piece. How did you feel about certain casting choices of the movie or do you even give those a thought in terms of this first movie?

[21:37] J.J.: I mean, I think at the time, Jon Voight was a good pick for Jim Phelps. It was fun having Emilio Estevez there because you're like, I know him.

[21:45] Olaf: Right. Ving Rhames, I think, was fantastic. He sat in that role so well that there's no wonder they kept bringing him back.

[21:52] J.J.: Yeah. Well, and I had read that he had worked. I didn't—I don't think I knew this until we started like we were going to talk about this, but he was in Casualties of War with Sean Penn and Michael J. Fox that Brian De Palma had directed in '89. I was unaware of that.

[22:08] Olaf: Yeah. So they did have that history. And of course, this was in '89. Ving Rhames wasn't—I mean, nobody knew who he was. He was like fresh out of Juilliard and, you know, hadn't done the things that he had done yet.

[22:23] J.J.: Going back to Jon Voight, it's interesting because I read somewhere that they cast Jon Voight because they thought people would believe that he isn't a villain. And I guess I found that a little hard to believe. And maybe that's just because I'm older now. But the movie he did right before this was Heat with Al Pacino and De Niro. And he's not necessarily a bad guy, but he is playing for the wrong side. He's on the wrong. He's on the bad guy team.

[22:51] Olaf: And he also he was very made up, too. He was. And prior to that, prior to Heat, I don't think anybody had seen Jon Voight in a long time. Like Heat was sort of his hey, everybody, remember me? And then he got Mission Impossible and subsequently had a sort of renaissance of his career, so to speak.

[23:08] J.J.: I always thought in the movie he seemed perfect for it. Like he had that older, wiser, seasoned and sophisticated air to him.

[23:15] Olaf: Yeah. But I don't—I also don't think he was given much of an opportunity to be a villain.

[23:31] J.J.: No, he wasn't. And one of the negatives I have of this film and to me, there aren't a lot of them. Like you mentioned, it ages really well. But one of the negatives—and this is being very nitpicky—is when they're in Prague and they're talking about the first sort of mission that they're going to go on, which gets this movie moving. They're all sitting around the table and Phelps is explaining everybody's assignment. And then they go on to this, what I consider to be a very clunky exchange about cappuccino machines. And Jim Phelps is on this cushy assignment. Where do they put you up the plaza? It just seemed really cheesy to me.

[24:09] J.J.: The Drake Hotel. Oh, the Drake. Oh, he's getting soft in his old age. It just seemed really bad. And maybe that's because they didn't have a script that, you know, maybe they were piecing these things together. And I can understand the attempt of trying to create this sort of camaraderie between the team and maybe a slight separation between the team and Jim because he's no longer—he wasn't there. It's just, for me, it wasn't enough. It wasn't. And it wasn't executed. I didn't care about anybody. Didn't care about any of them.

[24:14] Olaf: The Drake Hotel.

[24:37] Olaf: Yeah. Everybody else was just kind of vanilla. Expendable. Like if we get rid of them, you're not going to miss them.

[24:43] J.J.: At the end of the day, it's such a fun movie. It almost collapses under its own plot of trying to be super mysterious and espionage. But it doesn't. And because it doesn't, it works and it's fun. And you can forgive some of the plot holes and some of the confusing parts.

[25:05] Olaf: I agree. And you can, to me, you can forgive it because it's not that long. It's an hour and 50 minutes. It moves. It's tight. You go from the failed mission to the scene with Vanessa Redgrave, who was scripted to be the Max character, who I think on paper was supposed to be an actor, a male, and they cast her instead. And so they just created—she was great. I liked her so much.

[25:29] J.J.: She was great because she was able to do a lot with very little because that could be considered a real throwaway role. And with her, she gave it up. She gave it so much gravitas and so much weight that you liked her. She wasn't a villain by any means. She was just trying to make money. I loved her in that role.

[25:47] Olaf: Now we can't move on without talking about the music. So originally they had hired Alan Silvestri, who I love to death. He did all the music for Back to the Future, for Predator, and so many other amazing movies. He does pretty much all of Robert Zemeckis films. So Forrest Gump, Castaway. And he had written roughly around 20-ish minutes of music before he was taken off of the project. And he ended up recycling that music for one of his other movies.

[26:20] J.J.: Yeah, The Eraser. Was it with Schwarzenegger?

[26:25] Olaf: Yeah. Which came out that same year, I think. But then they bring in Danny Elfman, who I love him too, and all the Tim Burton movies. And oh my gosh, the music is great.

[26:32] J.J.: Yeah. The music is really good. U2 does the theme, does their version of the theme, which I was super excited about.

[26:40] Olaf: Everybody was. Everyone was playing it. It was suddenly like, when this movie came out, it blew up. It was super popular.

[26:51] J.J.: It was on the radio. The theme song was on the radio.

[26:54] Olaf: So good. Yeah. So fun.

[26:56] J.J.: So I think the majority of people are in agreement that you walk out of the first movie, Summer Blockbuster '96, going, this was a lot of fun. You don't know if there's going to be a sequel. I think you're kind of hoping there will be. And then you end up waiting, or we end up as an audience, waiting four years for Mission Impossible 2.

[27:16] Olaf: Do you feel like this movie belongs with the rest of the franchise?

[27:21] J.J.: Are you talking about Mission Impossible 2?

[27:23] Olaf: Well, I'm talking about both. One and two. Because in my opinion, you could honestly delete both of these. Because after two, they change their style.

[27:34] J.J.: Right. So like I said at the beginning, I'm going to do my best to try and keep this within the confines of the first two, and not dive into subsequent films, because we're going to do that later. With Mission Impossible 2, it's such an overcorrection from the first movie. If the first movie was very espionage, some set pieces were really going to dive into the intellectual elements of the action. They went in a completely different direction for the second one.

[28:05] Olaf: Which was actually intentional.

[28:07] J.J.: Which was completely intentional, all the way to the style of the way it was shot, and his hairstyle. Everything was a complete 180, to where I thought you were going to ask me, could you do without the second one? To me, the second one, as I think is noted, it's somewhat of a ripoff of an Alfred Hitchcock movie in terms of the plot and everything. The story in and of itself, you had mentioned the first movie, people were complaining that it was such an overcomplicated plot, the first one. That in the second one, even when Ethan is explaining to Luther, to Ving Rhames, the plot of the second movie, Ving Rhames goes, it's that simple? They create a virus and an antidote, and he goes, why not? We're just going to make it really cut and dry, everybody.

[29:05] Olaf: I would include the first one with the franchise, only because it set a lot of foundations for later, and the later franchises pay homage to the first one a lot, which is really nice.

[29:10] J.J.: You also don't actually need them.

[29:13] Olaf: You don't, but I think you'd be doing the franchise a disservice if you took away the first one.

[29:17] J.J.: The first one very much is a standalone.

[29:20] Olaf: It is. It is, because like you said, they didn't know what it was going to be. The second one, if you think the first one is a standalone, the second one is on an island all by itself.

[29:31] J.J.: So my thought on the second one, even when I just rewatched it, it's a totally different movie, and it's almost like somebody was like, we just finished shooting this movie, it's just a generic action movie, and then at the last minute we decided we want to make this a Mission Impossible.

[29:49] J.J.: So they did a week of reshoots to include Mission Impossible elements just so it would pass because I'm watching this movie and I'm thinking how ridiculous it is, how over-the-top it is, how silly it is, and I'm like, this is nothing like any of the other movies. And I realized that that was partially intentional. But I mean, they clearly realized their mistake afterwards. Well, and so I'm trying again looking at it in the lens of okay, Mission Impossible was really good, and I really enjoyed it. I wonder what the second one's gonna be. Okay, and it's all action. The plot is very simple. Yeah, they like I said, it is like this overcorrection in the sense that even Tom Cruise says originally the credits were going to start when the plane crashes at the beginning, but he didn't want that.

So they went directly from the plane crashing to the rock climbing scene, which was the scene of the second movie. Let's not, we won't even talk about what I think is the coolest set piece, which is when he's breaking into the bio site lab. To me, that's a cooler set piece overall from beginning to end, but it's all about that rock climbing scene because he's doing it like he's almost free climbing it. Tom Cruise almost did die, of course, right? He almost died, fell to his death. John Woo couldn't even watch him do the scene, which I think he did seven times because it made him nervous. Now, he is attached to a wire. I mean, they digitally remove the wires and stuff, and it is a very cool scene, and I still love that scene. In fact, well, because that scene is done practically, whereas the other one is a scene you mentioned, it's not as clear CGI.

[31:36] Olaf: Yeah, no, I agree. And so I know I said earlier that I'm really trying to, I was really gonna try and take this defense of this movie, and my first defense, your honor, would be that opening scene. They're swinging, they're letting you know right out of the gate, this is what Ethan Hunt does now. He is a free climber on his vacation. He is clearly, because at the end of the first movie, he wasn't sure if he was going to go back because Ving Rhames asked him, "You're gonna go back?" He goes, "I don't know why I would." And then he's on the plane. Yeah, they give him a mission or whatever. So you don't know, but he's got long hair now. He clearly had time to get an amazing tan. Boy's out there, he's bronzed out this whole movie, and this is who Ethan Hunt is now.

Okay, and at the beginning, I'm okay with it. I'm okay with it because we haven't gotten deep into the story yet at this point of the movie. I'm okay with where we're at. After he throws the sunglasses at the camera and lights the balls up and goes into the opening credits, after that, it's all downhill because the movie is awful. It really is bad. John Woo makes it so hard to defend. He does, and I like John Woo movies. I did Face/Off. Love it. Love Face/Off. This is his first movie like this. He had already had like three U.S. hits, right? Hard Target, Broken Arrow, which I consider to be a moderate hit. I also enjoy Broken Arrow. That to me is a guilty pleasure, but it was a moderate. And then Face/Off, you're right.

So we had those three, and I've been Tom Cruise hand-picked him to direct this movie. Yeah, Tom was very adamant he wanted Wu's style for this movie and nothing else, and the goal was to have each movie be like an episode in a different style from a different director for any subsequent films. And it's also funny because John Woo is the only director of a Mission Impossible movie that was not invited back.

[33:50] J.J.: I know because the Palmer was right. He was asked to do the second one, and he turned it down. And it's just kind of sad knowing that because I don't dislike John Woo at all. It's just a shame because the style just did not work for this movie. And well, it's like you said, not even get it. Well, it's like you said when we were talking about it. It's almost like this was an action, they shot an action movie, and then they went, "Okay, how can we make this a Mission Impossible movie?" Yeah, that's a great way of describing it. They really shoehorn in Mission Impossible elements to remind you, right, you are watching Mission Impossible because I think it's easy for the audience to forget that because it's just so generic and so removed from.

Well, and they, like I said, I feel like there's some overcorrections. It's like, this is how we're gonna give him his mission. We're gonna give him some cool Oakley sunglasses that no one is gonna ever be able to buy because we modified them strictly for this movie, and they're not even available. And then he puts the sunglasses on, and who do you hear on the other end? Anthony Hopkins. And I was like, freaking okay, and I already know you're in it because of the trailer, but I'm super excited because who doesn't love Sir Anthony Hopkins? And now you're gonna be in Mission Impossible. Let's go. And I think he's the only one to ever say the title of the movie.

[35:03] Olaf: He is, and he does it so great too. He is one of the bright spots of this film, and he's only in two scenes. Well, this isn't mission difficult, Mr. Hunt. Mr. Hunt, this is Mission Impossible. Difficult should be a walk in the park. Yeah. Well, and there's that, and there's a sort of this tongue-in-cheek joke. He goes, "You want an espresso or cappuccino?" Which sort of throws you back to the first movie when he's asking Phelps, "Can we get a cappuccino machine in here?" And you can feel, and again, like I said, this is who Ethan Hunt is because when he goes to see Anthony Hopkins, he's almost like has this armor up. Not only did you disrupt my vacation, but I still don't trust the organization.

Like you guys burned me however many years ago, and now you're calling me back on my vacation. Thanks for the espresso cappuccino. Why am I here? Yeah, why am I here? Which I liked. This is the only movie where Ethan doesn't go rogue and is on the run from his own company for the IMF. He's not. Yeah, all the resources are at his disposal. Boy, do they hammer home throughout the movie. I don't know, I should have counted how many times they mentioned, "Next time let us know where you're going," and the other person saying, "Well, it really wouldn't be a vacation if I did." Yeah, they say that several times, and I'm like, I think we got it. I think we know how vacation works. You're sorry, and I'm sorry. And you know, it's wild is as bad as this movie is, it was the highest-grossing film in the Mission Impossible series until 2011's Ghost Protocol.

[37:44] J.J.: Well, there was only one other movie, and we, and I will talk about the third one later and why it didn't do as well because there's obvious reasons that have nothing to do with the movie, right? But it was also the highest-grossing movie of the year 2000 when it came out, which is crazy because Gladiator came out there. Yeah, that was like second. That was, but it was a distant second because nobody knew what Gladiator was gonna be. Okay, so I had to look this up because the whole time I'm like suffering through watching this, I'm listening to the music, and I'm like, man, this must have come out shortly after Gladiator because it's got the Gladiator music. Well, yeah, you got the woman chanting and singing, and it's like, oh boy, we're really riding that thanks to Gladiator.

Well, it's both. They're both Hans Zimmer. Yeah, Hans Zimmer was working on both soundtracks, so I was like, oh, well that makes sense. But I'm like, and I think he really couldn't, you couldn't do two separate movies. He and John Woo sort of leaned into that, the lady singing, and we haven't even talked about the slow-motion John Woo trademark, which so at the time of viewing was a, why do we need to see Tom Cruise walk through the streets of Seville in slow motion? It is unnecessary.

[38:15] Olaf: So I had to look this up too. The movie is two hours and three minutes. The first cut of the movie clocked in at three and a half hours. Paramount Pictures was like, absolutely not, and told John Woo that the final length could not exceed two hours. So that would explain some plot holes, but it really didn't matter. So he comes in at two hours and three minutes, and I honestly, I think if you cut out all of the slow-mo, our 45 got maybe a 45-minute movie because everything is in slow-mo. So much, so much. Well, apparently it was Tom Cruise's idea when he and Tandy Newton, Naya Nordoff Hall, the character, see each other across during the flamenco dance. It was his idea for them to lock eyes because he liked this idea of seeing somebody across a crowded room, and I'm like, well, he always wanted to do like that boy meets girl moment.

And yeah, so that's that one. But in the only time I would have been okay with the slow-mo, and they did the slow-mo there, it was just entirely too long. It was too long. It was way over-stylized. Well, the whole movie is. It's ridiculous, and then they slow-mo all the fights. Okay, there's a scene where Tom Cruise has got to break into this fortress, and it's kind of an island, and he sees this guard walking on a grassy knoll, and he runs up to him and he hits him, flips him over his shoulder onto the ground, and then the slow-motion like hammer kick drop down onto his chest, stomach, and then just kicks him away, and the guy just rolls away, and I'm like, really unnecessary that. Well, but I'm also like that guy is still awake. Nothing you did knocked him out. If anything, he's like, I'm trying to catch my breath, but give me a sec.

[40:16] J.J.: Well, what he does right after that is he gets in through a grate, but to get to that grate, he does this sort of like unnecessary barrel roll. Oh, absolutely. Completely unnecessary barrel roll just to get to the gate, and then drop in, and it's amazing he wasn't caught because he had to get up awkwardly, run back because he dropped a bunch of stuff. Yeah, he did the barrel roll, and he's like, yeah, trying to pick up some of his gear in the grass. Well, and he's looking over his shoulder to see the guard who still has not noticed him. And this is why I say it, John Woo makes it so difficult to defend because he says he wanted this movie to have this human element as opposed to being all about action and stunts, and that to me is all Mission Impossible is.

There is no love triangle. There's more of a love triangle in the first movie that we don't even see with Jim, Claire, and Ethan than this sort of love triangle between Ethan, Naya Nordoff Hall, and Sean Ambrose, played by Dougray Scott. There is no love triangle there. Yes, infiltrating because she's doing the job. She has no, like, she wants to be with Tom, right, not with her abusive ex-boyfriend, right? So it sort of blows me away when I read that statement where I'm like, John, were things lost in translation here? Because you clearly made a movie that is all about action and stunts, and you tried by doing every Tandy Newton, Tom Cruise scene in slow motion where they meet, the car chase at where they're spinning out of control.

[42:52] Olaf: Oh, so at this point in the movie, I'm like, okay, well, maybe the chemistry is sort of there. It's interesting. We never really, like, when you think of Tom Cruise, you never really think about chemistry with the leading lady because they didn't have enough time. They didn't because all of a sudden, and maybe it's because we didn't see it in the first movie, we're seeing Ethan Hunt's character sort of like emotionally trying to attach himself to somebody or get involved with somebody, and all of a sudden he cares that she's gonna be in danger. Yeah, there was no real human element. It was too hyper-stylized, and then the amount of times they do a fake mask reveal in this movie, there were a lot out of control.

Now, the first one, which is on the plane when Dougray Scott plays Sean Ambrose, is imitating or doubling for Ethan Hunt on the plane. Yeah, that scene does look really good as the first man, but as soon as he takes the mask off, you realize, wow, none of his facial features are anywhere remotely close to Tom Cruise's. Like, he's got a wider, bigger jaw than Tom Cruise.

[43:00] J.J.: Oh sure. Well, I like, I would have noticed that. There's a moment where Anthony Hopkins is saying he's doubled you a few times, and they put both faces next to each other on a computer screen and sort of like explain how it would work. Like, see, it totally makes sense that this guy would be able to double you, and maybe that's John Woo hoping that the audience brings our Face/Off brain to the theater, I guess, because we could totally buy that Nicolas Cage and John Travolta could easily double each other, you know, with the right amount of time and surgery that maybe this is also plausible because it's just the mask, right? You know, it was great that Ving Rhames came back. Yes, and they didn't kill him.

That I'm glad that helped. Honestly, that helped ground us in the world of Mission Impossible. I think if he hadn't been there, like this is not remotely close, right? Possible. I think he was probably one of the better parts of it. The overdramatic emotional through line was too much. It was like you're really trying to make us feel something so much that now it's having the opposite effect.

[44:13] Olaf: Well, and I guess in John Woo's defense, he didn't shy away. Like, he went at it a hundred percent. He didn't go 50-50. He didn't like swing. He didn't do any half measures. He took a big swing and lived with that decision from beginning to end. I mentioned the middle set piece where they have to break into BioSite. What I loved about that scene is them sort of becoming so self-aware with Tom Cruise and his character when...

[44:43] J.J.: Welcome back to the show! Today, we're diving into the Mission Impossible franchise.

[45:13] Olaf: That's right! We're starting with the first two films, Mission: Impossible from 1996 and Mission: Impossible 2 from 2000.

[45:43] J.J.: Let's kick things off with the original. What were your first impressions of Mission: Impossible?

[46:13] Olaf: I remember being blown away by the action sequences and the plot twists. It was such a game-changer for spy movies.

[46:43] J.J.: Absolutely! The iconic scene with Tom Cruise hanging from the ceiling is unforgettable.

[47:13] Olaf: And the music! That theme is just so recognizable. It really sets the tone for the entire franchise.

[47:43] J.J.: For sure! The way they built suspense throughout the film was masterful.

[48:13] Olaf: Speaking of suspense, the plot had so many layers. It kept you guessing until the very end.

[48:43] J.J.: Right? And the character development was solid too. Ethan Hunt really became a character you could root for.

[49:13] Olaf: Definitely! And the supporting cast added so much depth to the story.

[49:43] J.J.: Let's talk about Mission: Impossible 2. How did you feel it compared to the first one?

[50:13] Olaf: It was a bit more action-oriented, which I think some fans loved, but it also strayed from the espionage elements.

[50:43] J.J.: I agree. The stunts were incredible, but it felt like it lost some of the intrigue that made the first one so special.

[51:13] Olaf: Exactly! The motorcycle chase scene was epic, though. You can't deny that.

[51:43] J.J.: True! And the chemistry between Tom Cruise and Thandie Newton was great.

[52:13] Olaf: For sure! They had a dynamic that really worked on screen.

[52:43] J.J.: Overall, both films have their strengths and weaknesses, but they set the stage for the franchise to grow.

[53:13] Olaf: Absolutely! I'm excited to see how the series evolves in the later films.

[53:43] J.J.: Me too! And we’ll be diving into those in the next episode.

[54:13] Olaf: Don't forget to follow us on Instagram and TikTok at BackToTheMovieTheater.

[54:43] J.J.: And find us on YouTube at BackToTheMovieTheater with J.J. and Olaf.

[55:13] Olaf: Thanks for joining us today!

[55:43] J.J.: Until next time, keep enjoying those movies!