Mission: Impossible IV - Tom Cruise and J.J. Abrams reunite -2011

Peter Graves did for obvious reasons. But Nimoy - who wasn't an original cast member, he came in after Martin Landau left (ironically, Landau was on the shortlist to play Spock and then Sarek) - said last year that he would consider doing so if asked by Abrams.

 

And hey, they could have a throwaway line in M:I IV where Paris reveals that the "Jim Phelps" in the first movie was an impostor.

 

^Everyone's a winner!

 

Meh. First one was good. The second two not so much. Plus I'm much less of a fan of Tom Cruise than I used to be. I won't be seeing it.

 

My friend suggested once that Jim Phelps was the codename for the team leader, but I told him it couldn't work because before Peter Graves's Jim Phelps there had been Dan Briggs (played by Steven Hill). Moreover, Tom Cruise's Ethan didn't take up the "codename" in the next movie when he became team leader.

And I agree with Christopher the M:I movies have yet to capture the original concept of Geller's show; although, the third came close with the Vatican sequence. The original was centered around the Big Con, usually getting the villain to orchestrate his/her own downfall.

The George Clooney/Brad Pitt Ocean's 11 was closer to the original M:I series than the Cruise movies. It nearly even had the beat of the original pilot episode: the mission (vault robbery); team gathering/selection; the apartment scene (or, in this case, hotel scene) discussing how to accomplish the heist; and finally, the complication of the heist and how it nearly goes wrong.

 

It's been a long time sense I've seen any of the MI movies, but the third's Vatican sequence I recall reminded me a lot of the first movie's server room sequence.

 

Except the server room thing was basically Cruise being the sole hero. M:I is supposed to be about the team (although there were a couple of first season episodes that were just Landau or just Landau and Bain).

 

All very true. But it's been a long time since I saw the third movie, only saw it once in the theater.

I'm just so over Tom Cruise. This franchise is a dog with a sequel coming out one a decade, how about a reboot? New cast, all potraying the original characters, and doing it more in the style of the series (something else I've not seen in a very long time)?

 

The first Mission: Impossible was wonderfully atmospheric if a little uneven and wooden. There wasn't much excitement, and I certainly didn't feel any danger in the proceedings, but it was still a relatively smart film. Danny Elfman's score was pretty snazzy, too.

I hated Mission: Impossible 2. It was just pure John Woo. I mean, does every film he do need to have flying doves coming out of the woodwork, especially during explosions? Does he just love to fry doves? Possibly. He might have a fetish. Someone needs to work with him on that. Even Hans Zimmer churned out a completely mediocre and listless score, and I'm typically a fan of Zimmer.

J.J. Abrams' Mission: Impossible III was definitely the best. It was the only film besides the first film to an extent to really capture the team dynamic (as mentioned, in the Vatican sequence) and it was an exciting and fun film all at the same time. There was jeopardy, there was stakes, and as Christopher said it was the most character-driven of all the films, which makes for a much more engaging and satisfying film. Michael Giacchino's score was great, as well.

I'm a little hesitant over the writing team for M:I-IV since their credentials are a little underwhelming. Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec are writing the film. They've contributed to such endeavors as the TV show October Road and Life on Mars, both shows I found lackluster. They joined Alias during the final three years, which a lot complain are the show's worst. They're also masterminding the TV show Happy Town which Televisionary deemed "ridiculous and insipid".

However, J.J. Abrams and Tom Cruise are involved and like I said I consider Mission: Impossible III to be the best in the series so I have relatively high hopes. I hope Michael Giacchino returns to compose the score once more.

 

I would like to see a reboot more in the vein of the series. What I think would be an interesting approach would be to capitalize on the potential in the familiar opening catchphrases. Consider: A man goes to a secret drop and gets a recorded message telling him about a dangerous situation that can't be dealt with by conventional means. It's described as "Your mission, should you choose to accept it" -- meaning it's a volunteer mission. According to a line spoken only in the pilot episode, the man is given carte blanche as to team composition and methods. If any of his team are caught or killed, the Secretary (probably of Defense) will disavow any knowledge of their actions.

After accepting this assignment, the man goes to his home and selects a team consisting, not of career agents, but of professionals from ordinary life who have the necessary skills for the particular mission -- an engineer, a master of disguise, a strongman, maybe a safecracker or a man with an eidetic memory or a high-wire walker as needed. These people are also volunteers. They meet in the man's apartment to plan their mission.

Does this sound like a major spy operation? No. It sounds like an off-the-books, deniable mission, something the government is staying as far away from as possible. It's basically a con game with implicit but unofficial government backing. These people are doing things that are technically illegal and unauthorized, and they're on their own if they get caught. It's possible that the Secretary and the guy on the tape are the only ones who actually know about the team and their missions.

At least, that's the impression I had at the start. The show didn't really follow this pattern, since there were plenty of episodes where the team was working with official support and had access to any government resources they needed. It wasn't so much that they were operating sub rosa as that they were able to do things by unconventional means and solve problems that nobody else could solve. But if that was so, why even bother with the secret message drop? Why the implied volunteer nature of the missions and the threat of disavowal? There's a lot of potential in that opening voiceover that I don't think has ever really been explored.

The movies to date have treated the IMF as a massive government organization, even a sub-branch of the CIA itself. That's kind of a logical progression from the original series (where they increasingly had all the government support they needed) and the '88 revival series (which postulated a larger IMF organization with multiple teams). But I'm intrigued by the idea of the IMF as just one guy, perhaps a retired CIA agent who still unofficially does favors for the Secretary, running a sort of garage-band spy operation out of his apartment, recruiting civilian friends and colleagues to help him out on extremely off-book missions that are too sensitive or too illegal for the government to undertake officially. That's what I'd like to see in an M:I reboot.

 

M:I-I's score was great. I bought the CD for it and I loved the use of the theme during the opening credits and the cues it took on going to MIF/CIA headquarters and during the TGV/Chunnel chase. (Which was just a wonderfuly silly OTT action piece.) I really need to get that movie on DVD as I'd peg it as my personal favorite in the movie series and Cruise is at least tollerable in it. (Though I loved in 2 when the villain made a crack about Cruise's grin.)

Two was just a mess, and three, feh. I think the thing that stuck out to me in that one was the very silly pseudo-defibrillator scene at the end of the movie.

But, I'll say again it's hightime to reboot this movie franchise or kill it and do a new series.

Oh, and in all three movies am I wrong in thinking in all of them Hunt is tracking down to stop a rogue MIF agent? Sort of suggesting they wouldn't need an MIF if there wasn't an MIF?

 

I am just now listening to that track again ("Zoom B") and I agree it's an awesome piece of music and I love how Elfman incorporates the M:I musical theme.

I wouldn't mind seeing a new series. I was surprised Abrams, known for his television series, didn't suggest that route rather than producing a new movie. I think Paramount still thinks this is a viable moneymaker and wants to continue to exploit it financially.

 

Doesn't the first part of the first M:I movie capture the team aspect just as well as the Vatican sequence does in the third film? I'm surprised no one has brought that up.

 

IIRC the "defibrillator" scene in MI-3 isn't the "defibrilation" done with a couple wires pulled out of a lamp or something like that? Oy!

 

That's exactly what I was suggesting...

Didn't one of the guys actually *walk out* of the film premiere? I think it was Peter Lupus.

 

Well, yeah, in dogs!.

 

I don't know why they just didn't have Cruise playing Phelps. Rhames would be Collier. Maybe Thandie Newton could've been Carter. Voight or Hopkins could've been Briggs.