Ep. 13 - Missions Impossibles! Part 2

This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] JJ: Hey JJ, what is going on? I don't know. First of all I don't like that. It reminds me of... Do you remember the show, You Can't Do That on Television? It was like a Nickelodeon... Every episode they had this thing where they would have the set of lockers and then they would come out of the locker and they'd be like, Hey Olaf, and you'd be like, Oh hey JJ.

[0:30] Olaf: And they would have this sort of like one-off conversations with each other and then they would close the lockers.

[0:35] JJ: That's exactly what those sort of, Hey, how you doing? intros feel to me.

[0:40] Olaf: But I wasn't, Hey JJ.

[0:49] JJ: No you weren't, but I almost wanted you, I almost wanted you to do that at that point.

[0:51] Olaf: All right. Well,

[0:54] JJ: Hello JJ. I am greeting you as is customary by human beings. It's fantastic. I appreciate the fact that we have not forgotten how to say hi to each other. I have a question for you.

[1:06] Olaf: Okay. If you had to choose what genre of film to exist in, what would you pick? It can be any genre.

[1:14] JJ: Okay. You have, that's what you would be stuck in. Rapid-fire action comedy.

[1:17] Olaf: Wow, that was my, that was my answer.

[1:25] JJ: Really? Yeah. I was going to say action comedy. Rapid-fire, only because as a five foot five, I've got the like funny look in terms of like my personality and things like that. But I always felt like, man, it'd be so cool to be the detective or like the dude that's on the SWAT team, even though I'd probably wouldn't be that guy, probably be like the tech guy. So action comedy, I feel would be a really fun genre, even now as an actor to be able to play in that world.

[1:54] Olaf: Well, I was just like, you're basically invincible.

[1:58] JJ: Well, because in an action comedy you're getting blown up and shot at and all those things falling down the sides of mountains and who knows what else, and you're totally fine. Right. They're gonna find a way, depending on which character you are. Now, if I'm one of the leads or I'm the character that maybe people really like, the audience is really like, I love that guy, then yes, you hope that you would not perish in some sort of way.

[2:25] Olaf: But like, now that you exist in that specific genre, it doesn't mean you're defined and you're only one character. It's just, this is the genre you are in. So I could wake up one day and I could feel like Ed Wood and be like serious and hard and animated and irritable.

[2:46] JJ: Right. But it's in a funny way.

[2:49] Olaf: Yeah, no, I always thought it'd be so fun to be able to, in a practical sort of way, like the scenes are shot, the action, the set pieces. Yeah, you're gonna fall into the, we got to do this on a blue screen, we got to do this with computers and stuff. But there are just certain things about, especially 80s action comedy movies or things that sort of predate a lot of the CGI stuff, where the car chases, the witty, hopefully witty, funny dialogue, the situations as well. That's why I was a huge fan of, and this isn't a comedy, but it's an action TV show, I was a huge fan of Alias because it was a spy show, it was an action show, and it was a world that I would have loved to have been in. And no, I did not mean for this in any way to segue a transition to what we're going to be talking about, but there it is.

[3:50] JJ: And what are we talking about today?

[3:53] Olaf: We are going to continue our discussion on the Mission Impossible franchise, and last we left off with the audience, we walked out of a theater somewhat possibly disappointed, unsatisfied with where the Mission Impossible franchise had left us when the credits rolled at the end of Mission Impossible 2.

[4:14] JJ: Oh, yes.

[4:19] Olaf: And so as an audience member for six years, we have to wait for another Mission Impossible movie to hit the theaters. And in that six-year period of time, these are the movies that Tom Cruise gave us, these are the things that Tom Cruise gave us between Mission Impossible 2 and Mission Impossible 3, because he did a movie, he did one movie every year.

[4:35] JJ: 2001 Vanilla Sky.

[4:48] Olaf: 2002 Minority Report. Fantastic. Yeah, yeah, for the most part.

[4:54] JJ: 2003 Last Samurai. To me, a very underrated film. We're not here to talk about this filmography. I think it's very underrated, though not the most original, but still very, very good.

[5:07] Olaf: Right. 2004 Collateral, which to me is a fantastic film, which we could talk about at a later time. Again, we're not talking about his filmography, but that movie, Michael Mann, is very good. 2005 War of the Worlds. That was kind of a letdown, not so much a letdown on Tom's part, but I guess I was more let down by Steven Spielberg, because I just know he can do better.

[5:35] JJ: Sure, and also, what Tom Cruise gave us in 2005 was the infamous Oprah Winfrey interview, where he jumps on the couch and makes a complete idiot of himself.

[5:44] Olaf: And I just re-watched that too, and that's a hard four-minute watch. That interview is a hard four-minute viewing, which I feel not only hurt War of the Worlds, but it also hurt Mission Impossible 3, which came out the following year, on top of some other things that he was dealing with personally in his world and in his life.

[6:09] JJ: Yeah, and it's such a shame that all of that did affect Mission Impossible 3, because to this day, I don't think Mission Impossible 3 gets the credit it deserves for what it was and what it did.

[6:21] Olaf: Right, and so today we are going to go back to the movie theater and talk about Mission Impossible 3 and Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol.

[6:46] JJ: Folks, my name is JJ. With me, as always, is my co-host, Olaf. Olaf, how are you, man?

[6:55] Olaf: Hey, JJ. Not bad. Not bad.

[6:59] JJ: That was better.

[7:01] Olaf: Hi.

[7:05] JJ: So, yes, I brought up Alias, because you did bring up a fantastic question, which is, which genre would I like to be in? And even though Mission Impossible movies aren't action comedy, they are still a type of, I mean, I would love to not only be in this sort of world, but to work with JJ Abrams, who directed Mission Impossible 3, and who also created Alias, too, by the way.

[7:30] Olaf: Yeah, and just to be clear to everybody, Mission Impossible is an action movie. That's the genre it lives in, is action. It's not an action comedy.

[7:38] JJ: No. It is an action movie that has funny moments in it.

[7:43] Olaf: More so in this movie than in the other two. Like, this is the first movie where you do get some of those sort of funny-ish moments, levity sort of moments.

[7:54] JJ: Yeah, but I would say that they actually added more levity in Ghost Protocol.

[8:00] Olaf: It was a weird thing. Mission Impossible 3 was like, we are redefining and establishing what this franchise is, why it's here, and what its mission is.

[8:10] JJ: Right. They had to.

[8:16] Olaf: Oh, absolutely. After number two, they had to come in and say, we're not that.

[8:24] JJ: Right. And JJ Abrams, who I have this love-hate relationship with, because sometimes he just absolutely wins me over, and other times he absolutely infuriates me. It's a weird balance, but he came in and he just said, here's this new world. Here is what this franchise is. This is the mission. If you, the viewer, choose to accept it, this is what you're gonna get.

[8:45] Olaf: It's amazing. It is a heart-pounding thrill ride from beginning to end, with hardly any moment to get a breath.

[8:54] JJ: And he's not even the original director. Like, he wasn't even the original choice. Like, Joe Carnahan worked on the film for almost a year, I think, or even longer, pre-production-wise, and it just wasn't what he thought it was going to be, and so he stepped away. And Tom Cruise saw the first two seasons of Alias on DVD and went, this is the guy that I want to direct the third one. And this is early JJ, so he hasn't gotten completely bogged down with his tricks, his style, his mystery, his mystery boxes, and his inability to do an ending of a film.

[9:36] Olaf: No, because this was his first film. So, like, he, I think, and what you were saying is the love-hate. For me, and I'm gonna treat, like I did the first two movies, I'm gonna treat Mission Impossible 3 like there isn't anything else. This is like, well, here we are, it's 2006, JJ Abrams is coming off of Alias and Lost, and Lost is still on TV at this point, but he has sort of stepped away a little bit to focus on these other opportunities.

[10:03] JJ: And so, I think the love-hate comes from him walking away from things that are usually amazing, and then they sort of go by the wayside a little bit in terms of creativity. Is that what you're saying?

[10:15] Olaf: Yeah, and okay, if you want me to ignore all the other things. Well, what are we talking about?

[10:20] JJ: Oh, well, no, you can do your approach. I'm just saying at this point, I don't, I'm not upset at Star Trek because he hasn't done it yet.

[10:27] Olaf: Well, I was, I wasn't upset at Star Trek really, anyway, but like, Super 8, such an amazing movie until the end. He crafted such an incredible film that just collapsed at the end. It didn't, he didn't know how to end it, and that's a shame. And then you have Lost, which, all these mystery boxes, and granted, a lot of that isn't him. A lot of that was David Lindelof, who, he's another thorn in my side when it comes to movies and stuff.

[11:01] JJ: Sure. But, it's just, he, he's really good at creating questions. Like, look at Force Awakens. He brought all these great questions up, which Force Awakens, for me, is probably the only decent post-original trilogy Star Wars movie that came out.

[11:20] Olaf: Well, Rogue One, but that, in the timeline, that happens before. Let's get back on, let's get back on track here. We're gonna, you're gonna, you're going up in a whole different direction.

[11:31] JJ: Anyway, in my viewing of JJ, a lot of his films in his career, he creates all these great questions, and he has this whole mystery box idea with his storytelling, and it's compelling, and it's great, but then, he doesn't know what to do with it.

[11:51] Olaf: Well, and again, that's why, that's why what I love about Mission Impossible 3 is, this is, he's got two hours to, like you said, this is the franchise, this is what we're wanting to do with it, and this is where we're wanting to go with it. And, if you look at the beginning, the very beginning of the movie, I mean, you get the Paramount logo, you get the Paramount logo, and then, all of a sudden, you get Tom Cruise handcuffed to a chair, and Philip Seymour Hoffman with a countdown, and you're going, what is happening? What is happening?

[12:30] JJ: Yeah, and it's just a, it's, it's just a non-stop ride of tension and excitement, and you almost feel out of breath as you're watching the movie, because the pace is so quick, and there's just so much happening, and the kinetic energy that's just constantly in motion. But it's a testament. It's great.

[12:46] Olaf: It's a testament to the writing, too, because there are moments that you get, especially right at the beginning, like, it starts out at 11, right? I mean, you're, he's got the countdown, the big moment that happens, you know, he's, he's got this woman, who we don't even know who this person is to him, but clearly, this person is somebody of importance to Tom Cruise, to Ethan Hunt, and she gets killed, and then they, the credits roll, and then you get this sort of, sort of flashback to the party, and then, and then the movie sort of sets off where he's at. You realize he's at home, which we've never seen before.

[13:29] JJ: Yeah. He's engaged to, now we know who it's, Michelle Monaghan playing his fiancée, Julia, and we're sort of thrown into this totally different world than we.

[13:33] J.J.: We saw him in the prior two movies.

[14:03] Olaf: It all works. No one's over-defined, but no one's under-defined, right? Like he does a solid job. Abrams and his writing team, Orsi and Kurtzman, who were also writers on Alias, they almost took like the best parts of that show, of what made Alias work. Jennifer Garner's character was a spy, but she was also a college student who had a roommate, and you got to see both sides of this world. You got to see her as a spy, and you got to see her try to have this normal life at home with her friends, and you know, doing things that were not, you know, saving the world type stuff. So like you said, in these brief moments, like at the party, which is only like five minutes, I think, you're quickly thrown into that setting where you're establishing not only who they are and how they work, but then, oh, now he can read lips.

Okay, well, that's probably important, because that's a special skill that we've never seen him do before. Okay, cool. But it just, it felt like they went back to the feel of the first movie in terms of setting things up in a more grounded way. So it wasn't like, yeah, we're gonna blow up a plane, and then he's gonna be rock climbing, and then we're gonna be walking in slow motion to another action set piece. Like we sort of like care about Ethan Hunt again.

[15:22] J.J.: Yeah. Well, I also like that they've really grounded it. Like, even the first one, you watch that and you feel like you're in a spy movie.

[15:33] Olaf: Yes. Where this one, it's like, no, we want this to feel like it's happening outside your theater or outside your house. Right. Wherever you're watching this, it feels like it could be happening right in your neighborhood. Like right outside your front door, the guy next door to you is a spy. Yeah, and I love that grounded feeling where all these fantastical things could exist.

[15:58] J.J.: It's, I was in immediately. Like, I was sold on this immediately. I was like, okay, where is this going? I'm in.

[16:08] Olaf: Yeah. Well, and that's why it was interesting, because I was the same way. I was in, and so I wanted everybody to also be in. Like, I was hoping like people wouldn't still be feeling like, oh, bad taste in my mouth from the second one or bad taste in my mouth from a lot of the person, a lot of the outside noise of the things that Tom Cruise was doing outside of just going to see him as an action star in a movie, in a movie franchise that was so far been really successful. And it's always, it makes me sad. It bums me out when I hear people are like, I don't really like three. I'm like, why? And here's the thing, and I totally agree with that and understand your feeling, because I tell people like, yes, four, we're gonna get to that in a minute, sort of takes that leap and then you stay there.

But you couldn't have that, because if you had that again after two, you wouldn't care as much. Like, you watch three and everything from the jump feels personal. Because you just, in the first two minutes of the film, you see him handcuffed to a chair when he's got that one lone tear that just like rolls down his eye right before Philip Seymour Hoffman guns down the wife and you're like, what in the world is happening? And then they spend, they don't even spend that much time, I mean, they spend time setting that up before they set up the first action set piece where they go to Berlin where he's got to rescue his, you know, prized student played by Cary Russell, Lindsay Ferris, who's been sent on a mission, and then you get to get into that first action set piece, but you're getting into it. Stakes are higher because he cares about the person he's trying to save.

[17:51] J.J.: Yeah, and then the stakes just increase as the movie goes and you're right, four wouldn't exist without three. In fact, where the franchise is today wouldn't exist if it wasn't for three because three was like, this is the world that this now exists in and these are the rules and these are the players and you can go from there and this is the formula that we're going to use.

[18:16] Olaf: Yeah, and is it as polished as the ones that came after it? No, but that's because it was creating it. It's gonna have some rough edges while the other ones have the benefit of knowing they already have the foundation, they already have the formula, so now they can take that and refine it and add to it.

[18:35] J.J.: Well, and this way, yeah, I understand when people are like, oh, four is my favorite or any of the ones after that and that's cool because they're all great after, after two, but three is the one that gave them that.

[18:59] Olaf: You're right, it has to almost knock down the existing what came before to build a stronger foundation because two completely, the foundation of one wasn't strong enough to withstand what two was and so when you walk out of two, you're going, this thing's gonna fall, so let's just tear it all down. Congratulations, Ving Rhames, you get to stay on because nobody else is coming along. This is Tom and we're gonna bring in Ving Rhames and then we're going to introduce the ever-rotating team that he never seems to keep in Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Maggie Q in Mission Impossible 3. I thought they did a great job. They were fun.

[19:49] J.J.: Mm-hmm. So when they don't come back, it's like, okay, but then that happens again in the next one. Well, they're very serviceable in the roles that they're asked to, in the things that they're asked to do. Obviously, they always seem to cast people who are hot off of something that they've just done, like Jonathan Rhys-Meyers was in Match Point with the Woody Allen film with Scarlett Johansson, which was a fantastic film. Maggie Q hadn't done Nikita yet, so I can't remember what she had been doing prior to this. But, I mean, you get Simon Pegg, who was hot off of Shaun of the Dead, and in an interview when Shaun of the Dead came out, they're like asking him, are you gonna try and, you know, go to Hollywood and try and break in there?

And he goes, it's not like I'm gonna be in Mission Impossible 3. Like, he said that in an interview. And, yeah, before you know it, there is. And he's that sort of comic relief that we get, we get introduced to a little bit more in this movie, because he's only in two scenes, three scenes if you count the end. But he's only really in two substantial scenes where he's actually doing anything, and they're both, it's exactly why he's there. He's there to create those very grounded, funny moments, but also set up and move the plot along, especially in his first scene. And it's a testament to how good he was in those two tiny scenes that he's been with the franchise ever since.

[21:12] J.J.: Right. Well, and he had the luxury of also then, after Mission Impossible 3, being in Star Trek with Abrams, the reboot.

[21:19] Olaf: So he stayed in that, yeah.

[21:21] J.J.: That didn't mean that they'd bring him back. Like, again, his Benji was such a small character that was serviced the plot in 3. Didn't necessarily mean that he'd show up again, because, you know, none of the directors of IMF come back, and other team members don't come back. So his could have been a one-off.

[21:45] Olaf: Sure.

[21:46] J.J.: And he was so good and so enjoyable in those two small scenes that he's been with it since. Speaking of IMF, speaking of IMF, we actually, in this movie, which I also really loved, we got to see IMF headquarters. This was actually a mission. I mean, he had IMF in the second one, but he was in Australia for the whole second movie. It's like, this was a movie that not only gave Abrams a chance to finally shoot on location, because I don't think he ever really was able to do that in Alias. She was always going to these places, but, you know, they weren't actually flying. I don't want to imagine every week they were flying to another country so she could, you know, be on a mission. Here he gets to go to Rome.

He gets to go to, I think it's Shanghai at the end. So he does get to shoot in these locations and create these settings for these things. But we do get IMF headquarters, which I thought was a nice addition to the franchise. And we get Lawrence Fishburne. He was so good in his role.

[22:41] Olaf: He was stern and tough, but he had some sass, and I was really disappointed when he didn't come back. I don't understand, like, why – maybe they're just – because Anthony Hopkins – and maybe in this case, Anthony Hopkins, it was a one-off for him. There was a six-year time period. He's like, I'm good. I'm doing something else. He was probably doing, like, 18 other projects. But when they got Lawrence Fishburne, I felt the same thing. I'm like, OK, I love his character. He's no nonsense. At first you think he's the bad guy, or they make you think he's the bad guy. Whether you think he is or not is really up to you, but they make you think he's the bad guy. But then by the end, you're like, man, if there's a fourth one, I really hope he comes back. Because not only did we get to see – one, they didn't really – they had, like, two scenes together. So it would have been really cool to see some sort of dynamic between Tom Cruise and Lawrence Fishburne.

[23:36] J.J.: Yeah, and he could have come back in the fourth one. But I could see him probably being like, I have a five-minute scene in a car, and then I die. No, I'm good.

[23:47] Olaf: Well, they may have reworked that whole character. I don't think they would have put him in the car anyway. They probably would have still stayed with what they were doing. But either way, he was another strong addition to the film. And then we get into what is considered, I think, the main set piece, which is when they go to the Vatican. And I felt like there were subtle nods to the first movie when they're talking about the Pentagon versus the Vatican. He's in the office explaining to the team. And Vin Diesel's like, well, I don't know why he's so smiling. I had to remind him that the Vatican is fortified, explaining all the difficult things. And Tom Cruise, almost like in the first movie, is like, that's not even what makes it a challenge. Or that's not even what makes it difficult. It's almost this sort of nod to the first movie when he's trying to convince Ving Rhames about the Pentagon.

[24:36] J.J.: Yeah. And what I love about this franchise going forward from here is that they have redefined who they are and how things are done. But they always have some kind of nostalgia or some kind of heartfelt nod to the first movie. They didn't erase the first movie. It happens in the world that they live in, even though watching that one versus three and beyond just feel totally different.

[25:04] Olaf: Sure. Oh, yeah. Like we said before, the first two definitely feel like standalone movies because the first one definitely was. And the second one, it was so vastly, enormously different than the first one that it did. Like we said, it didn't even feel like a mission. It was just this action movie that they slapped Mission Impossible on. And they went, yeah, see, this is a Mission Impossible movie. And one of the things I feel like they corrected from Mission Impossible 2 was Maggie Q's character. Strong woman. She's given stuff to do. And you mentioned before Tandy Newton was asked to come back to three and she said no. And I'm wondering if I read somewhere that if she had come back or when she said she wasn't coming back, they created another character for Carrie-Anne Moss that they ended up scrapping altogether.

[25:50] J.J.: Yeah. And then Maggie Q jumped on. And again, I thought she did great. She was given a little bit more to do. Again, this is Tom Cruise's show, so she's not going to be doing a whole lot. But the things that she was asked to do, she was very much on par with everyone that she was hanging with on the team.

[26:07] Olaf: Yeah. No, she was – the ensemble team all seemed to have equal parts. And they all did a great job with those parts, too.

[26:17] J.J.: Yeah, you get the –

[26:18] Olaf: It was a great team and good camaraderie.

[26:21] J.J.: You get the trademark Tom Cruise landing like you did in the first two movies when he jumps off the Vatican wall, you know, a little –

[26:27] Olaf: Yes.

[26:28] J.J.: For a split second.

[26:29] Olaf: Yeah, that was great.

[26:30] J.J.: Before he disguises himself as a priest, which Tom Cruise was wanting to be a priest when he was younger before he got into acting. So that was a little subtle nod to that because he was – that's the direction of his life he was thinking about going in before he became an actor. And then you get just an amazing performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

[26:49] Olaf: Yeah.

[26:50] J.J.: We glossed over him at the beginning because you see him and then you don't see him for like 45 minutes except by character name. Like you know who he is until the Vatican.

[27:07] J.J.: Sinister without flaunting it. Yeah, it's this real subtle dance between chewing the scenery, which that part is definitely written for, like a lot of people would have played it probably a little even more over the top. But yeah, he's very subtle. Yeah, very soft-spoken because you get that first scene where he does, he starts off like, "I put a charge on your head," and we get to see the full count. I think at the beginning of the movie he starts at one, yeah, and so you get to see him sort of do this until the final till he counts to ten. And then we get to go back to the Vatican and you get to see him. Yeah, he's super subtle, super creepy, especially because you don't know, like when they finally get him in the bathroom and they switch out.

Prior to that, we get to see Ethan Hunt turn into Owen Davian, right? 'Cause he puts the mask on, but you get to see Philip Seymour Hoffman have this sort of little fun exchange with Ving Rhames, and so he gets to be, the actor gets to be a part of the team sort of situation because it's, yeah, Ethan Hunt, which I thought was fun as well.

[28:11] Olaf: And what I love about this movie that the other films afterwards really capitalized on is it really does bring in a sense of fun. Like despite the fact that it is pedal to the metal thrill ride tension constantly building and you're like, "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God," there's still lots of fun to be had, and the other films really take that and run with it, that torch.

[28:37] J.J.: Yeah, yeah, this is the movie that you get the most of Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames together collectively. They're in a lot of scenes together in this movie where it gives them opportunities to actually have deeper conversations as friends and not just, "I can the first movie, I'm hiring you for a job and I don't really know you, but now I trust you." The second movie, Ving Rhames is sort of just serviceable as the guy in the van. He doesn't really do much. In this movie, he's not only the guy in the van, but he's the one that Tom Cruise goes to for like, "I don't know what to make of all of these things that are happening." It's his friend. He's his friend, and I really, that goes back to grounding this movie and making us care more about not only Ethan Hunt, but also about Luther Stickell, which is Ving Rhames' character's name. You care more about these people because they took the time and they did it in such a great way. They executed it in such a great way where you care about these people.

[29:35] Olaf: Yeah, no, it's great. This is the first time we get to see masks being made. We hadn't seen that either.

[29:41] J.J.: No, it is so cool. Masks, and now you get to see Philip Seymour Hoffman's mask getting made, which I thought was really neat.

[29:46] Olaf: Yeah, it was really cool. It feels believable despite...

[29:51] J.J.: That's impossible. It just works, yeah. Well, in this movie, I feel like when this movie came out, it's right on the cusp of technology making this huge leap forward. Like 2006 felt like it was still hanging on to flip phones. That smartphone didn't come out till the next year. Some of the tech was very, it wasn't dated. I mean, it still works. I think the mask thing is still cool. Like I watched, just rewatched this movie and I'm like, I think this mask thing is still awesome, like 20 years later, how they're doing it. I buy it.

[30:27] Olaf: Absolutely. I totally buy it. Again, there are certain things, of course, that you're kind of like, they capture Philip Seymour Hoffman, they have him on the plane, and Ethan's like threatening to dump him off the plane at a million miles up in the air. Then you sort of check your brain at the door because there's no way on this planet that Philip Seymour Hoffman could have heard Ving Rhames yelling Tom Cruise's name with the wind and all of that. He finally gets thrown back into the plane, and all of a sudden Philip Seymour Hoffman knows Ethan Hunt's name. I'm like, there's no way, but okay.

[31:03] J.J.: You could also argue that he already knew him.

[31:11] Olaf: Anyway, that's fair. That's fair, but he wouldn't have asked him, "What's your name? Do you have somebody?" He asks all of these questions before that happens. He's like, "Who?" I understand, but I think he could have also been asking those questions to get a rise out of him, to toy with him because it's very possible that the mole that is in IMF has given him all the information, right? He could have known that he was gonna get abducted.

[31:37] J.J.: And I think that's a stretch because I don't think the mole knew at this point that they were going after him. I think it was below plausible deniability. Remember, we can't let this dude know.

[31:50] Olaf: That's true.

[31:51] J.J.: So they didn't know, but again, it's one of those things I'm willing to look past because at this point, this movie is a million times better than the other two. And even though it's not action, action, action, action, everything has been constructed so well up to this point and continues to be constructed so well. You know, they get back the scene on the bridge that they actually shot in Florida. That's like a seven-mile bridge in the Florida Keys. What an action scene.

[32:11] Olaf: Oh my gosh, yeah, that's the same bridge they shot in License to Kill when they free the Robert Davies character, the drug cartel. It's the same bridge that they shot...

[32:29] J.J.: True Lies.

[32:29] Olaf: Oh, I don't know. It might be. It might be. I'll have to look at that one. But again, you get more of the lip-reading thing. You're still like, Billy Crudup, we haven't mentioned him. He was a nice addition as well. I always like him when he shows up in movies.

[32:45] J.J.: Yeah, he always seems to show up in things that are really good too. Like he's been a really good job, I think, for the most part, being in projects that, you know, you're like, "Yeah, he's bringing it every time." But no, I thought he was great. It was not a huge surprise that he was the mole, he was the bad guy because as great as he is in everything he's in, he is very good at playing that sort of slimy, off-the-beaten-path type of guy where you don't fully trust him, but you like him.

[33:20] Olaf: One of the things, which is another, when he's got to like jump from one building to another building to finally get the rabbit's foot, which we failed to mention is apparently the key MacGuffin in this movie because the rabbit's foot is the thing that everybody's after, but even by the end of the movie, you have no idea what it is.

[33:36] J.J.: And it's really, you know what I love about him getting the rabbit's foot is that we don't see him get it, right? Everything he does, we've always followed him in the heists and see what he does. All of that takes place off-screen.

[34:06] Olaf: Yeah, yeah, it's next thing we know, he's just like, "I'm jumping out of a building that's way too low for where I was supposed to be." And much like the rabbit's foot itself, we don't need to see how he got it because the rabbit's foot in and of itself isn't the important thing in the film, right? It's about saving Julia, getting Owen Davian, finding the mole. The rabbit's foot is just the thing that sort of connects all these things together, but what it actually never really seemed to matter. Now it doesn't seem to matter, so him getting it didn't seem to matter. It was how he was gonna get it, and for me, all of a sudden Ethan became Good Will Hunting, and he's doing complex math on a window with chalk, making all of these geometric, he's like, "Yeah, this could work," and he's drawing like algebraic formulas on the window to get the distance between the buildings, and I'm like, "Okay, well, I guess this is better than just doing kung fu in slow motion." So, I'm glad you've evolved in the last six years and you're doing these complex math formulas to get...

[35:12] J.J.: Exactly geometry. I was like, "Okay, awesome. Why not?" Because again, at that point, we've only got 20 minutes, 30 minutes of them. I'm like, "Yeah, man, we're good." Like you're not gonna, you could have lost me at that point, but he didn't. And then when he, we don't see him get the rabbit's foot, you're like, "Okay, well, right, it's not that important." It's about, is he gonna be able to get the rabbit's foot to where he needs to get to it on time? The constant ticking clock in this movie, it was just such a useful tool racking up the tension.

[35:36] Olaf: Yeah, well, they make his character much more, like I said, likable, much more three-dimensional. You invested him more. His skill set in Mission Impossible 2 is kung fu, then in this one, it's reading lips and picking locks because they show him pick locks like four or five times in this movie. He's picking handcuffs, he's picking in the door. Like all of a sudden, he's got every door he's got to get into, everything's got to do. He's got to pick a lock, whether it's with a ballpoint pen or with a safety pin or some sort of knot.

[36:05] J.J.: This movie feels like a soft reboot. It doesn't mean they clearly wrote to me, it feels like they clearly wrote this movie as a standalone and a continuation.

[36:14] Olaf: I wouldn't say that it was a soft reboot. I would say it was an in-your-face reboot.

[36:17] J.J.: Well, what I mean by soft reboot is when they decided to soft reboot James Bond with Daniel Craig. We're gonna take this character, we're gonna take him all the way back to his origins, like when before he's a double-oh. And the only thing we're gonna carry over is Judy Dench because the audience is gonna forgive, they're gonna buy the fact that Judy Dench is still M, even though she was introduced as M when Pierce Brosnan, you know what I mean? It's like we're gonna bring this character, but we're gonna keep M as, we're gonna keep Judy Dench's M. This one, they went, "Okay, Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, congratulations, you guys are the only two standing from this." What I consider to be a soft reboot because those two characters are still part of the heartbeat and part of the DNA of this franchise because if it's a standalone, then they've corrected a lot of the mistakes that were previously made as well as improved on a lot of things too.

And if it's a continuation, then they've left us with to care because that ending when he's walking away, he's walking down the hall with Julia like a hero walking off into the sunset. And I think that's because Tom and J.J. recognized that no matter what, if they continue on or not, everyone wants a happy ending, right? This is to me the most romantic and vulnerable movie of the series in a great way up to this point.

[37:40] Olaf: Yes, on a side note, it wouldn't be a Mission Impossible movie without two counters: was Tom Cruise running? Check. Was he on a motorcycle? Check. So if you're keeping score at home, the first Mission Impossible movie, he only did running. He was not on a motorcycle.

[37:56] J.J.: The second, and by running, I mean aggressive running.

[38:00] Olaf: He only was on a motorcycle.

[38:04] J.J.: He did aggressive running, but a lot of it was in slow motion. No, no, that it looked like running, but he had to. John Woo was like, "Can we make an entire movie where everyone is on a motorcycle?"

[38:26] Olaf: I walked out of the theater excited but nervous after the third movie because it was so good and I enjoyed it so much, but it didn't do well comparatively speaking. It did not do as well as they wanted it to.

[38:38] J.J.: Oh yeah, summer release. When I got out of the movie theater, I was blown away, super excited. I wasn't nervous. I was just like, "That was so freaking good." Now, I was disappointed later to see the poor reception, and to this day, people are like, "Yeah, three." I think people come around to it more because I think a lot of people skipped it and started with four.

[39:07] Olaf: Well, then they had to come around to it.

[39:09] J.J.: Everyone loves those more, but they have to come around to three to really, I think you would need to come around to three to appreciate the later one.

[39:15] Olaf: Well, they don't including them have to do any...

[39:22] J.J.: Well, they don't, but they don't. So we've talked about the shine. Tom Cruise's shine, and even after Mission Impossible 3, he went through a phase there: Lions for Lambs, 2007; Tropic Thunder in 2008, not his movie, but what a performance. But then, oh yeah, Valkyrie in 2008, that flopped. It was just bad. It wasn't good. And then Night and Day in 2010, and Night and Day on a rewatch is actually better, but it wasn't great.

[39:41] Olaf: I am a Night and Day fan. I enjoyed it the first time I saw it. I'm bummed that it flopped. I'm bummed that people didn't turn out to see it because it's so fun. It's just a fun movie.

[39:58] J.J.: Yeah, Cameron Diaz, Tom Cruise.

[40:04] Olaf: No, I agree. So funny story here because I had no idea that they were making a Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol. I had no idea this movie was even coming out. So it came out in December of 2011. I spent the entire 2011 overseas. I was still aware of things that were going on on this side of the world, you know, I had internet, I had everything else, but I didn't see a single trailer, a single advertisement for Ghost Protocol. And I was in Dubai, it was October because I just finished working overseas, and I spent like five days in Dubai, and I went to the Burj Khalifa because I was like, "You go to the Burj Khalifa when you're in Dubai."

[40:42] J.J.: And like most of these huge buildings, they have observation towers you can go up to and see. So I was like, yeah, I'm going to go. So I went up. And as I'm going up the Burj Khalifa and you're walking down the hallways and such, I see this standee with a poster, like a 16 by 20 poster for Mission Impossible. I'm like, what is this? Like, is this a new Mission Impossible movie? And sure enough, I go on the Internet and I see the trailer. I'm like, this is amazing. They clearly obviously had shot the movie because it was coming out two months later. So that's how I found out that they were making another movie or another movie was coming out because I didn't think this was happening. I was super excited.

Brad Bird had given us The Incredibles from Pixar, and that was just so good that I think when they were like, yeah, it's Brad Bird who did The Incredibles. I was like, OK. But to the extent of how good it was, considering that was his first live action movie. Yeah. Wow. I mean, incredible. Iron Giant, Incredibles, Ratatouille. Yeah. And yeah, I love all those movies. And he comes in and he takes over. He's been given the formula. He's been given the map of this franchise and the world that it exists in now. And he was like, OK, I see a lot of potential here. And he pulled every ounce of potential out of it. And it's so good. When he came on, there really wasn't much of a script either, I don't think.

Not really. And it was a weird time because they were also like, I don't know how true this was, but this is how it felt was they're already looking at when is Tom Cruise going to leave the franchise? Right. So now we're going to bring in Jeremy Renner, who they'd already tried to have him take over the Bourne franchise.

[42:26] Olaf: No, not yet. Not yet. Oh, no, that wasn't yet. Not yet. No, this was fresh off of Thor because he hadn't even done Avengers yet. He had done. OK, he was nominated for Hurt Locker, nominated for The Town, and then he had already done. He just shot Thor. So this was like they were thinking this could be. And now they're like, this is going to be our new guy because Tom Cruise can't do this forever. I think a lot of it was I think some of it was that. But I also think it was, has Tom Cruise's shine worn off? I mean, let's look at the last five movies he just did. None of them were breaking the bank. You look at the franchise and three wasn't financially ash. So they're like, if we're going to keep this going, we might have to move on without him.

Yeah, we might have to inject in some new blood, which I thought Jeremy Renner was serviceable in this movie. I thought he did a great job of playing both sort of sides of his character. Yeah. And I've always said I really like Ghost Protocol. And when I saw it, I'm like, how are they going to explain Julia? Like he was married? What's going on? He's in a prison. Why is he in jail? Like and then there's Simon Pegg. And we just mentioned, well, he may not have come back after Mission Impossible three. And not to say that this was a strategic move. I don't think he was thinking this in any way. But in between, right after Mission Impossible three, Simon Pegg's next movie was Hot Fuzz and Hot Fuzz is so great.

And it allows him to play the, you know, unbeatable cop who is the Ethan Hunt in this sort of other story. So you get to see Simon Pegg in a different light. So all of a sudden, when you see him in Ghost Protocol and he's like, I passed the field exam, I'm a field agent. And you're like, yeah, it may not work out, but I believe it because I just saw I know he can do it. He's not going to be doing it Hot Fuzz style. But the humor in Ghost Protocol is thinking that he can't do it. Right. But you're believing that he's good enough to pass the field. I buy the actor because sometimes you just can't buy the actor in something. But we already saw him and it worked. We invested in him in Hot Fuzz. So we buy it.

Whether it works or not in Ghost Protocol because of his character is a different story. And you're right. He's definitely like you said earlier, the comic relief is brought to a higher level because he's in more of it. And that's where it's coming from in the situations that are presented. None of the tech works like at a certain point in the movie, every piece of tech that they try to use, something goes wrong with the tech.

[45:10] J.J.: Yeah. Well, at this point, they're disbanded. They don't have the IMF to lean on. So now they're using old equipment. So everything fails and they've got to use their wits, which is a lot of fun. The Kremlin action set piece was great. I love that screen tech, which apparently is an actual they use it in the series. I think in the show Mission Impossible, they actually use something very similar to that where the screen comes up in the hallway and they have to move down the hallway to get into the server room. Yeah, that was such a fun little set piece. I love that they still are paying tribute to the first movie in the sense that later on in the movie, Ethan has to go meet this buyer and they give him the same black mask that he had to wear when he met Max in the first one. I love that. I was like, man, this is right. We're moving on, but we're going to let you know that the first movie, we still got pieces of that foundation built into the DNA of this franchise.

[46:13] Olaf: Yes. The revolving door of team members here. Paula Patton was the new team member. And in addition to Jeremy Renner, I thought she did great. They seem to be doing this with every movie, with every like female character. Now we're going to not only give this character a skill set and great ability, but now we're going to give her an emotional stake to fight through.

[46:28] J.J.: Well, and she's pining over Josh Holloway, who played Sawyer in Lost.

[46:37] Olaf: Yes. And it was so great to see him do something because it's not that he stopped working after Lost, but he hasn't done anything really of note since now, which is a shame because I really loved him in Lost. And it was really fun to watch him in his small role in this movie.

[46:55] J.J.: Yeah, I thought he did a great job.

[46:57] Olaf: Yeah, he was. Yeah, he did good. He was serviceable. I mean, it was a little stiff, in my opinion. But again, what he was given to do, he was great. And it was fun. You're right. I agree. It was fun to see him right off of Lost. You know, it's like he got off the island in Hawaii. He went straight got got a haircut and, you know, was in Budapest shooting the next day or something. It almost felt like that.

[47:19] J.J.: Now, this film, like we said, was Brad Bird's first live action movie. It made $693 million at the box office, and that became the highest grossing installment in the franchise. It surpassed War of the Worlds in 2005 and became Tom Cruise's highest grossing film as of 2012, because I'm pretty sure the next installment broke that record.

[47:44] Olaf: Broke that, which is when you're thinking about it, we're going to shoot this movie, we're going to bring Jeremy Renner in. And they sort of reworked his character, his story in terms of him being the analyst. But he was also an agent before that who was responsible for Julia being killed. And so he's dealing with that. I think they reworked that while they were developing the character because I don't think that was the original character arc for him. But it would have been interesting, one, if the movie hadn't done well, or two, if Tom Cruise just decided to hang it up.

[48:13] J.J.: Yeah, they did enough with Jared. They gave Jeremy Renner enough, not only for us to like him, but for us to buy into the fact that he could carry this. At this point, for me, at this point, yes, Tom Cruise is Mission Impossible. At this point, yes. But I would also say that even though they made Jeremy Renner very likable and they gave him plenty to do, watching the movie, I wouldn't have felt that he would be able to lead the franchise after that. He was a great partner. He was a great sidekick. His comedy bits with Benji and the jumping and the fan and all that were great. And his action stuff is good, but I never felt like he was in charge of anything.

[49:01] Olaf: Well, because he wasn't given that opportunity to be in charge, except the fact that he's-

[49:04] J.J.: Yeah, but if they're trying to groom him to take over-

[49:09] Olaf: Well, and I wonder, as they're shooting this movie, at what point do they keep that thought all the way through? Or at a certain point in the movie, while they're shooting it, they're going, Tom Cruise just climbed the Burj Khalifa. Because up to this point, Tom Cruise's death-defying stunts, they weren't practical.

[49:23] J.J.: They were a lot more... I would say that, minus some CGI explosions and jets, in three, he was doing a lot more practical stuff. They took this to a whole new level.

[49:35] Olaf: This is what I'm saying. Minus the rock, the free climbing, as I air quote free climbing, he did in the second movie, which is still dangerous and impressive. The other stuff was more controlled. This Burj Khalifa, he's on top of this building and he's doing all of these things that make you go, oh, maybe he is still up for it all. Because they let Jeremy Renner do the same thing where he's got to jump into the wind tunnel later on in the movie. And he does the Tom Cruise trademark spread eagle fall over the ventilation thing or whatever it was he was in. So at a certain point, were they thinking, well, maybe Tom's going to stick... If this goes well, maybe Tom is going to stick around.

[50:15] J.J.: Because then obviously...

[50:15] Olaf: Well, Tom probably came out of his trailer one day and said, I'm not done.

[50:21] J.J.: No, opening weekend happened. And he goes, I'm not done.

[50:25] Olaf: Guys, I had way too much fun.

[50:27] J.J.: And this movie made way too much money for me not to want to come back.

[50:31] Olaf: Another element I really enjoyed about this movie was the literal light the fuse to start opening credits.

[50:38] J.J.: Which was the first time we'd ever seen it. Like the first one, they just do the fuse. The second one, he throws the sunglasses. And the third one, it's the gunshot. I mean, nothing is as literal as that. You're right.

[50:48] Olaf: Yeah. And I even say light the fuse. But it was just so cool to see that. And the fuse going all through the building and everything. That was cool. I really enjoyed that.

[50:57] J.J.: Yeah. They made it part of the actual action moving on.

[51:01] Olaf: What I appreciated a lot about the Dubai stuff, in addition to the Burj Khalifa, was the sandstorm that they have to navigate through.

[51:08] J.J.: Oh, yeah. That was really cool.

[51:10] Olaf: I worked in the Middle East. I saw sandstorms from a distance come in and then completely engulf where we were. And then I actually had to... Much like he is running through the marketplace and whatever and driving in a sandstorm. One morning I went to work and I had to get out of the van and navigate the driver that was behind me to where we were going. And I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. And I did that for about a quarter mile. And it's no joke. So when I saw the sandstorm in that Dubai scene, I was like, they did a really good job with creating this idea that this is something that happens because it does. That is not an exaggeration. I don't know if I would be driving that fast. Clearly, it's an action movie, but rolling in like that and then rolling out, that's how it happens. So that is not an exaggeration in any way, shape or form. So I thought I really appreciated that as somebody who's lived through something like that.

[52:08] J.J.: That's very cool.

[52:09] Olaf: I will say that having just rewatched it, there were moments where it almost felt like Mission Impossible 2 in some parts.

[52:19] J.J.: What?

[52:19] Olaf: Where the action and the...

[52:22] J.J.: I don't remember there being any slow-mo.

[52:24] Olaf: No, there were no... You're right. There was no slow motion. There were no doves.

[52:28] J.J.: And this is true. It just felt like some of the action was a little much the plot and not like Mission Impossible 2 plot was really cut and dry. But this one did almost feel a little convoluted to where like they had to get something and then it didn't matter. And then they have to go here and then they've got to... They were trying to throw a lot at it. Now, did it affect the movie? It didn't bother me. It just was something I noticed.

[52:55] Olaf: And the villain was a little bit more cartoony to me. The actor who played him, I forget his name.

[53:02] J.J.: Michael Lindquist. He was the original reporter in Dragon Tattoo, in the original Girl with a Dragon Tattoo.

[53:09] Olaf: I thought he was fine, but we got such a better villain in the next movie.

[53:16] J.J.: And in the previous.

[53:18] Olaf: With Philip Seymour Hoffman before that. So this one was just very generic. And that was another MI2 comparison.

[53:26] J.J.: I did like that for most of the movie, it always felt like the villain was a step ahead.

[53:32] Olaf: Yeah.

[53:33] J.J.: And I did like that.

[53:34] Olaf: There were two things. I completely agree with the step ahead, all the way down to the fact that he was actually at the meeting where they get the launch codes.

[53:42] J.J.: That, I love that.

[53:43] Olaf: Yeah.

[53:44] J.J.: But I'll agree with you that he was just very underwhelming, considering that we had Philip Seymour Hoffman, who probably had just as much screen time.

[53:52] Olaf: Yeah, but I don't think it was his fault. I think it was just the writers, the plot didn't give him a lot to do. I mean, he was very active. He was running around and stuff, and he had to fight Tom at the end, but.

[54:06] J.J.: I would have preferred more of Sabine Moreau, who was the assassin, the blonde.

[54:10] Olaf: Yeah, she didn't end up doing anything.

[54:15] J.J. Gonzalez: Which is what I'm saying. I would have preferred more of her.

[54:17] Olaf Adsit: Well, they kind of built her up to be like this super assassin.

[54:21] J.J. Gonzalez: They Darth Mauled her. They Darth Mauled her.

[54:24] Olaf Adsit: Is basically what they did. Yeah, that's a shame.

[54:26] J.J. Gonzalez: We're going to create this cool character and not use her and then kill her.

[54:29] Olaf Adsit: And they ain't bringing her back because she got kicked 130 floors down.

[54:34] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, you're not coming back from that.

[54:37] Olaf Adsit: This is the only film in the franchise that Ethan Hunt doesn't kill anyone.

[54:42] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, I noticed that and I was starting to think back.

[54:45] Olaf Adsit: I was like, what? No, wait. No, he just beat up a lot of people in the prison.

[54:49] J.J. Gonzalez: Didn't do anything in the Kremlin.

[54:51] Olaf Adsit: Even in the final fight with the bad guy, the bad guy kills himself.

[54:55] J.J. Gonzalez: Right. You're right. He doesn't.

[54:57] Olaf Adsit: It's like Terminator 2. I promise you won't kill anyone.

[55:01] J.J. Gonzalez: I swear I won't kill anyone.

[55:03] Olaf Adsit: Well, and he didn't.

[55:05] J.J. Gonzalez: Again, what I enjoyed about this movie is where three, you did get to go to a couple places, but then you're back in the States with this movie. They're going all over there.

[55:13] Olaf Adsit: You know, they start in Russia. There's a mission in Budapest. Yeah, they're Dubai. Then they're in India.

[55:20] J.J. Gonzalez: They did. Like you said, Brad Bird did a really good job of everything. He was given a lot to work with where it could have gone either way.

[55:28] Olaf Adsit: I mean, yeah, you have to wonder, especially considering there wasn't much of a script, right?

[55:33] J.J. Gonzalez: I think he was was he talking with Abrams beforehand?

[55:36] Olaf Adsit: Well, Brad Bird says his only offer for the film came from a text message from J.J. that simply read mission.

[55:45] J.J. Gonzalez: And then he showed up and they're like, we didn't have a script.

[55:48] Olaf Adsit: Yeah. What mission did I just accept?

[55:51] J.J. Gonzalez: Because you don't want to mess this up. Because like you've said, this movie is the one where people, this is where people start at.

[55:57] Olaf Adsit: Like, yeah, I saw the first one. You know, I went to four. Three did all the heavy lifting.

[56:01] J.J. Gonzalez: So he had way more room to just play and take what had been created.

[56:08] Olaf Adsit: Right. He wasn't having to start from scratch.

[56:10] J.J. Gonzalez: Well, it wasn't like Abrams wasn't around. I mean, he has a producing credit and I'd like to believe that Abrams was around.

[56:16] Olaf Adsit: He was shooting Super 8 the same year. So Super 8 and this one came out the same year.

[56:20] J.J. Gonzalez: So he was clearly didn't direct it.

[56:22] Olaf Adsit: Well, and you also have to give credit to Tom. I mean, he's been a huge part of where this franchise has been going.

[56:30] J.J. Gonzalez: Oh, absolutely. He was a huge part of the decision-making all the way from the first one.

[56:47] Olaf Adsit: So we get to the final, like, sort of set piece with the cars. Tom Cruise has got to get the briefcase, which I think is a really cool sequence.

[56:56] J.J. Gonzalez: I don't see there's a lot of times where you have to as an when you're creating this thing. Go. Well, yeah, Tom Cruise could have taken this dude out right away.

[57:04] Olaf Adsit: But okay, we're going to create this sort of struggle. Like he would have had a harder time taking out the other guy that Jeremy Renner has to fight.

[57:12] J.J. Gonzalez: But they did a great job of creating obstacles so that he couldn't just take this guy out.

[57:18] Olaf Adsit: Yeah, but even when they were in close proximity, because there are moments where they are sort of hand-to-hand fighting.

[57:24] J.J. Gonzalez: Come on, man. Like, Tom, I mean, you're also dodging cars that are being spun around way too fast in that building.

[57:32] Olaf Adsit: True. It just seemed like you can't take this guy. Come on, like, what's the problem here?

[57:37] J.J. Gonzalez: Like, I don't understand. This dude is in a three-piece suit.

[57:41] Olaf Adsit: And I think they figured that out when they went into the next movie.

[57:45] J.J. Gonzalez: And that's the unfortunate thing about this movie is the villain, which is the irony, I suppose, because they are one step ahead.

[57:49] Olaf Adsit: And the only reason why they are one step ahead is because they don't have any backup at all, right?

[57:57] J.J. Gonzalez: They're like on their own with whatever they can take from the train car that they happen to be meeting in.

[58:03] Olaf Adsit: I get it. I understand. And what I also find interesting is Tom Cruise and Michael Nickfist are only like two years apart in age.

[58:11] J.J. Gonzalez: And Tom Cruise looks so much younger.

[58:14] Olaf Adsit: Like Michael Nickfist passed away seven years ago in 2017. But he was, what, I don't know, 51 when this movie came out and Tom Cruise was like 48.

[58:23] J.J. Gonzalez: He looks so much older than Tom in this movie, this villain.

[58:27] Olaf Adsit: Sure. But the lack of a compelling villain was made up for in all of the set pieces.

[58:33] J.J. Gonzalez: I mean, the Burj Khalifa, everyone watching is edge of their seat. And there's still moments of levity, like with the glove not working and then working again.

[58:42] Olaf Adsit: When they finally pull Ethan back through the window, like when he almost dies, and Simon Pegg walks in because he's had to change the numbers of the hotel.

[58:49] J.J. Gonzalez: He's like, I did it, guys. It was tough. It wasn't easy, but I got it done.

[58:57] Olaf Adsit: Meanwhile, you know, I love Jeremy Renner when Tom's running down the side of the building and then he runs out of rope.

[59:04] J.J. Gonzalez: And Jeremy was like, you're out of rope. You're not going to make it. No shit.

[59:10] Olaf Adsit: You're not going to make it because they don't really cuss a lot in this.

[59:15] J.J. Gonzalez: They don't in any of them. That moment was just so perfect.

[59:18] Olaf Adsit: Yeah, it was. It was. And Renner, too, like he does, he has enough moments in this film where you do want to see more of him.

[59:28] J.J. Gonzalez: And so when you get to that last scene where they all meet up, it really was a nice bow to the movie.

[59:35] Olaf Adsit: Because again, absolutely. And you got to see your Luther. He made it. He was in the movie. Because I'm like, where is Ving Rhames?

[59:43] J.J. Gonzalez: And they explain it because of the mission that went south. Like, but why weren't you rescuing him in Russia?

[59:49] Olaf Adsit: You know what I mean? Like, why weren't you on that team? Now, I read somewhere that it came down to money.

[59:55] J.J. Gonzalez: The money that he was asking for, which I think he was asking for like seven million or seven point seven million, and they didn't have it.

[1:00:02] Olaf Adsit: And so he was like, well, and so they were able to get him for a cameo at the end, which was good because it would have made zero sense for him to not be in any of the movie.

[1:00:12] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah. And I'm glad that even though it was just a cameo at the very end, I'm glad he was there because it brought us back to we'd just been on this huge adventure with all these things going on.

[1:00:23] Olaf Adsit: We've got these new people. But to have that familiar character, it tied it all together.

[1:00:29] J.J. Gonzalez: It brings it all back together. And it was great.

[1:00:32] Olaf Adsit: Yeah. Well, now I guess some weeks had passed between them saving the world and then meeting in Seattle.

[1:00:37] J.J. Gonzalez: But it was really cool to see him. And then he's like, I'll see you in Kandahar.

[1:00:39] Olaf Adsit: So you're like, OK, well, they're now they're back. They're going to be in another mission together if they make another movie.

[1:00:45] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, because who knows? Yeah. And I liked Jeremy Renner's character. I never really felt like this is the guy to take over.

[1:00:50] Olaf Adsit: But I really liked him and I enjoyed when he comes back in the next movie.

[1:00:58] J.J. Gonzalez: I have actually kind of missed him in the other movies, but because he doesn't come back after the next one.

[1:01:04] Olaf Adsit: But, you know, that doesn't mean that he won't. He could still come.

[1:01:07] J.J. Gonzalez: He could. He could. I was disappointed that none of them. I mean, well, Simon Pegg is a carryover, but like that, even Paula Patton doesn't show up.

[1:01:16] Olaf Adsit: That's for another time. What I did love about the final scene of the movie is that they didn't kill Julia because originally they were going to.

[1:01:24] J.J. Gonzalez: Oh, yeah. They were going to. And well, they make you believe that they did right throughout the whole movie.

[1:01:29] Olaf Adsit: Like even Jeremy Renner's character thing. Right.

[1:01:32] J.J. Gonzalez: She's been I heard that Christopher McQuarrie came in to do some punch ups on the script.

[1:01:36] Olaf Adsit: And he's the one who is like, we need to not kill her because that would have changed the trajectory of the movies moving forward.

[1:01:42] J.J. Gonzalez: Oh, absolutely. Keeping her alive, though. I loved that and I loved how they did it.

[1:01:47] Olaf Adsit: Like he's not he doesn't look ever look at Jeremy Renner when he's explaining that she's alive.

[1:01:53] J.J. Gonzalez: Like they're having this conversation and all he's doing is looking at her coming in on the ferry.

[1:01:58] Olaf Adsit: And he's like, did you ever see the body? He's like, no, I didn't see the body.

[1:02:00] J.J. Gonzalez: So then how did you know it wasn't it wasn't your job to protect her? It was mine.

[1:02:04] Olaf Adsit: I mean, he explains that he went to prison because he had to keep her. And then they acknowledge we're good.

[1:02:10] J.J. Gonzalez: And then he walks off and then they have this great moment from afar. They play the Michael Giacchino's theme.

[1:02:16] Olaf Adsit: They're like theme music from the third movie. And it's just really it was a very satisfying ending to what was a really great movie.

[1:02:25] J.J. Gonzalez: And you walk out of there going, there's no way they don't make another movie.

[1:02:29] Olaf Adsit: And there's no way that Tom Cruise does not come back because just in case we're going to introduce the syndicate as the last thing before he disappears in a cloud of smoke and set you up for what could be a possible fifth movie for a lot of people.

[1:02:44] J.J. Gonzalez: This was their favorite Mission Impossible and I get it. It's so fun up to this point so excited up to this point.

[1:02:51] Olaf Adsit: And even after until Fallout 3 has always been my favorite of the franchise.

[1:02:58] J.J. Gonzalez: Fallout changed everything.

[1:03:01] Olaf Adsit: Yeah, no, we I'll definitely express my opinions on the next to the next time.

[1:03:06] J.J. Gonzalez: We do have a running and a counter and a motorcycle.

[1:03:08] Olaf Adsit: He does run quite a bit in this movie in Dubai.

[1:03:12] J.J. Gonzalez: So when he's chasing into the sandstorm and he's not on a motorcycle though.

[1:03:17] Olaf Adsit: He's not on a motorcycle. I don't think he was on a motorcycle.

[1:03:20] J.J. Gonzalez: I think you're right now because the sandstorm is running the whole and then he gets into a car.

[1:03:24] Olaf Adsit: He's in a car. No, I do want to mention Tom Wilkinson as a secretary who is in the movie for about five minutes.

[1:03:31] J.J. Gonzalez: And maybe this would have been Laurence Fishburne in three if he had come back from three.

[1:03:36] Olaf Adsit: I think if Laurence Fishburne had come back, they would have found a different way or maybe they bring him back just to kill him because we love them from the third movie.

[1:03:45] J.J. Gonzalez: But I think that they were still in this idea that it'll always be a different person.

[1:03:50] Olaf Adsit: But in this particular case, this is the secretary. This isn't like the director of the IMF.

[1:03:55] J.J. Gonzalez: He's like the Secretary of Defense or Secretary of State that is true.

[1:04:01] Olaf Adsit: But whether he's the secretary or the president or the governor or the mayor he's fulfilling that right? He is he is he.

[1:04:10] J.J. Gonzalez: And he's apparently very expendable as most of these characters are and it gives us an opportunity to you get introduced to Jeremy Renner's character as the analyst.

[1:04:18] Olaf Adsit: He does give the line your mission if you choose to he does.

[1:04:21] J.J. Gonzalez: But he also already got that in when he got the mission for the Kremlin.

[1:04:25] Olaf Adsit: So I mean, you know or we don't hear that because they cut away to Simon Pegg and Paula Patton talking about where Ethan's been this whole time.

[1:04:34] J.J. Gonzalez: But yeah, no, I mean I thoroughly enjoyed four I walked out of there super jazz super pumped super excited about the franchise like it was back.

[1:04:44] Olaf Adsit: Oh, it was that was so good. It was so and so you kind of left going. Okay. Well, they're going to make a fit.

[1:04:49] J.J. Gonzalez: It's not a matter of if it's a matter of when the fifth one's going to come out because like you've said this is where the series really takes off.

[1:04:57] Olaf Adsit: And they now they've now decided we're going to start connecting these films. We're going to start creating a through line to where they're not one-offs, you know, you'll appreciate it more if you go see the third one and then see the fourth one and then that sort of happens as they move forward.

[1:05:13] J.J. Gonzalez: You sort of commit to the series as opposed to just making these one-off movies.

[1:05:18] Olaf Adsit: Yeah, so that does it for Mission Impossible 3 and 4. They're so good. This is when we really get the wheels on the ground and we've got the direction and we know what we're doing and we have a defined image of what this franchise is and it is great and we are off to the races.

[1:05:39] J.J. Gonzalez: I know I've tried my best to talk about these movies as they were coming out as if nothing has come after them, but I will say that for me moving into these next two this like these two movies that we're about to we're going to talk about next are ones that I love.

[1:05:56] Olaf Adsit: I loved Rogue Nation and Fallout.

[1:05:59] J.J. Gonzalez: And so as much as I enjoy and like the ones that came before minus two it only gets better and on my appreciation and love for them only grows stronger.

[1:06:10] Olaf Adsit: Yes, absolutely. I totally agree. I cannot wait for our next episode when we take on those two movies because they are so good.

[1:06:17] J.J. Gonzalez: And as I've already said Fallout is my favorite of the franchise just amazing.

[1:06:25] Olaf Adsit: So look forward to getting to those but we hope you guys enjoyed listening to us talk about these two today.

[1:06:31] J.J. Gonzalez: I'm sure we missed some cool stuff. But hey our job is to remind you of how good a movie is and hopefully you go check it out.

[1:06:37] Olaf Adsit: If you haven't seen it watch it if you've seen it, but it's been a while check it out again because you won't be disappointed.

[1:06:45] J.J. Gonzalez: That's right. And if you do check it out be on the lookout for a great cameo by Aaron Paul in Mission Impossible 3.

[1:06:51] Olaf Adsit: He plays he plays Julia's brother pre Breaking Bad.

[1:06:57] J.J. Gonzalez: I'm surprised he hasn't come back yet.

[1:07:01] Olaf Adsit: He still could well guys. Thank you so much for listening as always to be continued.

[1:07:15] J.J. Gonzalez: Back to the movie theater is hosted by JJ Gonzalez and Olaf Adsit produced by me Johnny Clay JJ Gonzalez and Olaf Adsit theme song and incidental music by The Dimes.

[1:07:28] Olaf Adsit: Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at back to the movie theater and find us on YouTube at back to the movie theater with JJ and Olaf.