Mission: Impossible series

[Deadpool]

The trailer for the fifth Mission:Impossible movie is live! It's called "Rogue Nation" and it looks fantastic.





I'm a huge fan of this series. I've seen every one in theaters and can't wait to continue the tradition this summer (in IMAX!). I love Ethan's team this time around, too – kind of a "greatest hits" bunch: Rhames, Pegg, Renner. The only person I kinda miss is Maggie Q.

And I have to applaud Tom Cruise for being a brave producer & gatekeeper of the franchise: he's always sought interesting and diverse directors, never content with simply getting a bland hired gun. De Palma, Woo, Abrams (who made his feature directing debut on M:I3), Bird (his first live action film), and now Chris McQuarrie (Oscar winning writer of The Usual Suspects) who is exactly who I would have chosen for the current installment.

It's unfortunate that Jack Reacher (which McQuarried directed) was overshadowed by Cruise being miscast, because it is a stellar action flick. The irony about that whole debacle to me is that Cruise was chastised for being a small guy playing a towering figure (in other words a very physical presence), when Cruise is arguably the most physical working actor there is. Who else begs to climb the Burj Khalifa? Who else begs to do His physical prowess (at 52!) is ridiculous. Anyway, that's all a very long-winded way of saying that McQuarrie is gonna kill it with Rogue Nation. Full disclosure: McQuarrie is a Jersey boy like me, and he's also very, very interactive on Twitter. Even when he's not doing one of his many impromptu "McQ & A"s, he'll almost always respond to a tweet sent his way.

Anyone have a favorite Mission? Or a ranking? My fav at the moment is M:I2. It definitely borders on being overdramatic, but that's also part of the fun – the injection scene and the firefights that surround it are phenomenal (and feature ). The motorcycle chase, and the final duel hold up really well, too... but how great is the opening scene of M:I3?! Each movie has such a distinct identity (yet still fits into the bigger picture of the franchise) that it's hard to pick favorites.

[marodi]

Because I'm very old, I used to watch the old TV show. And I loved it.

Of the movie series, I've only watched the first and Ghost Protocol. I saw the first one when it came out because I wanted to see what they have done with the concept. Ghost Protocol I saw because of Jeremy Renner. The only reasons I'm going to see Rogue Nation are Jeremy Renner and Simon Pegg.

My one and only problem with these movies (which, in the end has nothing to do with the movies themselves) holds in two words: Tom and Cruise. I cannot stand him. It's a visceral reaction. I just... I can't. He's the most severe allergy I have.

I'm already stocking on Epipens so I can make it through Rogue Nation.

[sentient02970]

I think Mission:Impossible truly shines as a tv show. The movies have simply felt like your typical spy/action thriller. The TV shows were great because every episode wrapped up nicely with the team exiting the operation with the job done, no epilogue needed. The Unit sort of accomplished this but not as well and polished as MI TV did.

[Substance242]

I think Mission Impossible is one of the few "series" that keeps very high quality, all the movies are great in my opinion. I think when it started, part of U2 were doing music for 007, and other half for MI, right? Good times too. :-)

[thelastdisciple]

2 is my least favorite of the films in fact I'd just as well pretend it doesn't exist, love all the others though.

[Deadpool]

2 is my least favorite of the films in fact I'd just as well pretend it doesn't exist, love all the others though.

2 is absurd: the "romantic car fight" (don't think I've ever typed that phrase ever before in my life) w/ Ethan and Nyah, Woo's dove obsession, the "motorcycle jousting", you name it. Something about that absurdity endears me – maybe because it's played so straight. Ultimately, it's just not a safe sequel compared to the paranoid tension of the first movie, so I guess the choice to try something very different continues to appeal to me.

It's been ages since I've seen 3, though... and 3 has Keri Russell, Laurence Fishburne, and of course Philip Seymour Hoffman <3

[fillow]

Back in the day, I listened to M:I-2 soundtrack a lot.

[Self.Destructive.Pattern]

M:I-2 I believe was everyone's nightmare for the series. It was stylish, but that was all it had going for it. Jeremy Renner was a big selling point for me as well for Protocol, but I would have seen it regardless. Tom Cruise, love him or hate him, is probably one of the more consistent action actors/actors of our time.

[Deadpool]

Indeed. Half the fun of an outrageous Cruise stunt is seeing the making of it on the movie's bonus features: on Oblivion, he takes a *serious* tumble on one of the motorcycle jumps (but of course is miraculously unscathed), and on Edge of Tomorrow, there's a story about the first day of filming on the military base and all the grunts jogging in sync. After the first take of jogging (w/ the camera tracking them the whole way), it's noted that it would take another 5 minutes to reset for the next take since everyone needs to go back to the start. So, Cruise shouts to the cast: "I'm 50 years old, see if you can keep up with me" and sprints back to the beginning with everyone following. 5 minutes turns into 30 seconds.

Also, Cruise told Liman that he'd be willing to work 7 days a week on Edge, and sure enough Liman called him on that and they did full weeks... so Liman started playing tennis every morning w/ a trainer to keep up physically with Cruise for the duration of shooting. I find stuff like that fascinating.

I get that Cruise is a polarizing figure, but he's an *extremely* hard worker, and he respects the fact that people like me get a kick out of seeing him perform his own stuntwork. I don't really give a shit if it borders on self-parody. I watched Heat recently (one of my favs) and there's a horribly glaring shot where Pacino let his double do a very conservative stunt. A serious moment becomes laughable. Furthermore, when you've got the marquee name in peril on screen, it allows the editing to fucking breathe! The long takes of Cruise driving in Reacher are great for this reason.

[telee.kom]

It is increasingly harder for me to be indifferent to Cruise's personal life. Recently I saw Going Clear, HBO doc about scientology and holy fucking shit this guy. At first I almost felt sorry for him as they really used him as their marketing puppet, but at the end of it, you would have to be literally brain dead to not see what fucking pieces of shit these people are. They broke up his marriage, wiretap his wife; David Miscavige is a puppeteer of his life and he either doesn't care or doesn't want to admit it.
Anyway, I always liked M:I series and especially Ghost Protocol was excellent, Cruise is great, hard working actor, but I just don't think I can support his movies anymore with all this scientology crap.

[Deadpool]

Not to derail the thread too much, but yeah: Going Clear is a VERY intense film. Jaw dropping even. I'm still kind of recovering from it. It's an incredible documentary and I highly recommend it. As a fan of Cruise the actor, it's definitely confronting to reconcile that with Cruise the person. Miscavige comes across as unambiguously evil, while I don't really know what to make of Cruise's position in light of everything you listed above.

Anyway... I'm looking forward to seeing Alec Baldwin come into the fold. It looks like his character could be a cross between Voight and Fishburne's characters from previous entries.

[marodi]

@Deadpool makes very good points. As an actor, I have nothing to reproach to Tom Cruise. By all accounts, he's very professional and hard working. And he can even be very very funny like in Tropic Thunder.
@telee.kom made my point for me.

Anywho: Simon Pegg and Jeremy Renner, yay!

[october_midnight]

The 6th entry is officially called Mission Impossible: Fallout

Tom Cruise released the first picture on his IG today and it's him hanging off the side of a helicopter as it's flying through the air haha...

[marodi]

The 6th entry is officially called Mission Impossible: Fallout

Tom Cruise released the first picture on his IG today and it's him hanging off the side of a helicopter as it's flying through the air haha...

Yeah, we've never seen something like that before... *roll eyes so hard they almost fall of head*

Wait a minute: when did they loose Jeremy Renner? Screw that!

Wait another minute: Simon Pegg, Michelle Monaghan, Angela Bassett and Henry Cavill... damn it; I will have to endure Tom Cruise after all.

[october_midnight]

Yeah it's the movie that Cavill was in the middle of when they did his Justice League parts, and thus the insane porn 'stache they had to [poorly] CGI away.

[marodi]

Now that is one awesome porn 'stache.

[Bachy]

[thevoid99]

Boring!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sonic_discord]

*Shrug* Looks good to me. It does look exactly like what you'd expect to see from a Mission: Impossible movie, but I have always enjoyed these movies (and any spy movie, really).

[thelastdisciple]

Is anyone here a fan of the TV show? I'm a few episodes into season 2, I've really been enjoying it.

[october_midnight]

Boring!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nah, Fallout was the shit. Also, the next two M:I movies are being filmed back to back.

[Self.Destructive.Pattern]

Nah, Fallout was the shit. Also, the next two M:I movies are being filmed back to back.

I fell asleep towards the end, followed by waking up thinking I I saw the entire thing. Went back and couldn't believe I did lol... I can dig it.

[Haysey_Draws]

I really couldn't get into Fallout, for all the good practical stunts i just...didn't care about anything that was happening, or any of the characters. Though they are pretty well received overall, so it doesn't surprise me they'll be more...i just doubt i'll have the motivation see them after the last one

[MrLobster]

It felt like paint-by-numbers (or greatest hits without a bonus track) to me.

[october_midnight]

Seventh entry delayed half a year to May 2022.

[sonic_discord]

And M:I 8 is delayed to July 7, 2023. Fuck.

[thelastdisciple]

Is anyone here a fan of the TV show? I'm a few episodes into season 2, I've really been enjoying it.

I got this box set for Christmas, the whole original TV series on blu-ray.

I started watching episodes on dailymotion a few years ago when i could find them so my progress with the show has been pretty slow going. (my last post about this was from 2018 lol)

Now i finally have all the episodes at my fingertips and making headway on Season 3, really having a lot of fun seeing all the creative ways they have of manipulating a variety of situations to go in their favour.



Rollin Hand played by Martin Landau has to be my favorite charaacter and I'm sad that his time in the series ends after Season 3 but then Leonard Nimoy joins the cast so I will be very curious to see what his character is going to be like, i think he is supposed to fill the same role on team "master of disguise" and such. I'm not sure that I've ever actually seen him as anyone but Spock before so this will be different.

[Wretchedest]

Man... 46 discs is a compelling case for digital though lol

[thelastdisciple]

Man... 46 discs is a compelling case for digital though lol

Yeah, it's a bit insane I will say although i understand why they did it this way. By only putting 4 episodes per disc they can maximize the quality of each episode both in picture and sound (if a person cares about that sort of thing), giving them room to breathe whereas the more episodes crammed on a disc would cause them to take shortcuts and sacrifice some of the quality. Obviously with digital VOD/streaming they wouldn't have these finite physical media restrictions but i like not having to depend on my internet connection or a streaming service, having to watch it all at a pace relative to how long the availability contract lasts before they remove it all. Then there's the data caps to worry about if you have them (thankfully i don't at the moment but i have before and they are a massive headache), if you're connection is slow (mine isn't the fastest out there) downloading all those episodes is a waiting game and then you have to store it all somewhere on a hdd/ssd unless you burn your own media. Considering all of that and what might cause some potential conflicts, getting up to swap a disc every 4 episodes is not such a big deal for me and at least everything is just there and ready to go.

[MrLobster]