How you feel about the first Mission: Impossible movie really depends on you feel about an espionage movie being more of a suspense and psychological thriller than a full blown action movie. There are some dazzling action sequences but many of them are predicated on the big moment. An explosion after a buildup of suspense for example. This is De Palma's trademark. He uses his signature style like zooms, low-angle close ups, dutch angles, and close-ups on specific objects to give these moments a more of a feeling of claustrophobia and angst. The first Mission: Impossible movie also establishes some of the series' long running tropes and trademarks. There seemed to be more hints toward an erotic thriller as well, something that De Palma may have wanted more of but couldn't do because of the PG-13 rating.
Synopsis: When U.S. government operative Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his mentor, Jim Phelps (Jon Voight), go on a covert assignment that takes a disastrous turn, Jim is killed, and Ethan becomes the prime murder suspect. Now a fugitive, Hunt recruits brilliant hacker Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and maverick pilot Franz Krieger (Jean Reno) to help him sneak into a heavily guarded CIA building to retrieve a confidential computer file that will prove his innocence.
The movie starts with what became one of the series' recurring moments. Ethan Hunt is wearing a mask and manages to deduce information from someone while in a setup staged area. The exposition for their first mission is quick. The exposition for their first mission sets up yet another recurring trope for the series a MacGuffin of sorts. In this case the MacGuffin is a CIA non-official cover list a rogue agent is trying to steal. I enjoy the chemistry in this sequence between Cruise, Kristin Scott-Thomas and Emilio Estevez specifically as it shows their characters have worked to together before. In yet another trope this movie sets up Jack, (Estevez) the equipment guy of team is late getting their identities into a computer so they can infiltrate. Ethan and Sarah (Scott-Thomas) then get into a natural conversation about having someone named Jack on their team who is always late. When the mission starts going awry, in typical De Palma fashion he doesn't always show people's demises or he shows it after what really happens or from a different perspective, setting up his big reveal later on.
After Ethan appears to be the only one who escapes he sets up a meeting with the head of IMF, played wonderfully by Henry Czerny. In this meeting there is a typical De Palma plot reveal where Ethan notices that other IMF agents were also at the party during the mission. This reveals to him that the operation was a mole hunt. Ethan manages to escape by using a piece of explosive gum Jack had gave him before the mission. This sequence shows off De Palma's use of low-angle close ups and frequent changes of perspective to make the viewer more anxious. It is all a build up to the explosion. After escaping yet again Ethan uses the information Kittridge gave him to track the arms dealer apparently working with the mole from the IMF. This is where the movie starts to falter a bit. A reveal happens and shows that the team leader Phelps' (Jon Voight) wife is really alive. Claire (Emmanuelle Beart) and Ethan get real handsy with each other throughout the film and it seems like they should've had more of a relationship. It seems to be something that may have gotten lost with the PG-13 rating and it makes her involvement quite unnecessary. At the same time the psychosexual chemistry between Cruise and Vanessa Redgrave as Max, arms dealer, is excellent.
The action scene in the CIA compound is thrilling and once again De Palma's use of close ups on objects makes the scene more tense. The alarms in the room will go off if the temperature rises too much, or too much sound is made, or something is touched at all. De Palma does a great job teasing this stuff. A reveal happens in the middle of the film where someone shows up you wouldn't expect to see again. More reveals ensue and in typical De Palma fashion flashbacks reveal what really happened on the mission from other perspectives or at times you didn't see before. After becoming a much bigger fan of his movies I enjoy this sequence more and more upon rewatch. These reveals setup the final action sequence involving a helicopter being tied to a train in a tunnel which is really the only true "action" sequence of the movie. What I enjoyed most about it was seeing a much more amateur Ethan Hunt. It sets up how smart he is where he always seems one step ahead of everyone and can put together a puzzle better than anyone. What does feel more real is his angst and at times nervousness, only helped by a young Cruise's acting. There is something so authentic to his reaction on the phone screaming his team is dead. While in other movies he seems to be invincible while fighting in this he seems to have a hard time fighting off anyone. It sets up the growth of a really iconic action movie character while giving him the intelligence he always had. Danny Elfman's score is much more Pino Donaggio than his typical stuff though he ramps it up for the action scenes. Not as great Giachhino's score in Mission: Impossible III but decent.
Rating: 8/10
Trivia: The producers cast Ving Rhames because he was the opposite of what they thought a hacker would look like
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