Mission: Impossible (1996)

Succeeded by: Mission: Impossible II (2000)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Ethan Hunt	Tom Cruise	½
Jack	Emilio Estevez	½
Jim Phelps	Jon Voight
Claire	Emmanuelle Beart
Kittridge	Henry Czerny
Krieger	Jean Reno	½
Luther	Ving Rhames	½
Sarah Davies	Kristin Scott-Thomas	-
Max	Vanessa Redgrave
Frank Barnes	Dale Dye	-

Review

Mission: Impossible is back – stripped of deeper meaning and morals. Nothing is new here, just better, bigger and wilder. "Be clever, but not too clever" – that seems to have been the motto for the screenwriters, who are numerous and remarkably decorated. They even lured old-timer Robert Towne in to work on this. Koepp, Zaillian and Towne may sound like a case of too many cooks, but the script and film run smooth like clockwork. We're served some great high-tech concoctions and cunning set-pieces, like the one in CIA's head quarters in Langley. And there's also some brilliant action sequences, on par with what we were given in Goldeneye a year ago. That final journey by train and helicopter may just be the boldest of its kind in Hollywood history. You get what you ordered: Tom Cruise flying through the air from an exploding helicopter before catching up with a train moving away from him at 100 mph. Of course he hangs on, and saves the day. It's worth mentioning that Cruise does many of his own stunts in here – such as when he jumps through a restaurant window, which is among the least extravagant but most pleasant of the action scenes. With an inventive script which twists and turns like a spy/action story should, Mission: Impossible is a welcome energy boost in an otherwise often too stale action genre.