Mission: Impossible (1996)
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An IMF agent must navigate a web of betrayal to uncover who framed him after his team is decimated during a high-stakes mission.
The story
After a mission in Kyiv, IMF agent Jim Phelps and his team are sent to Prague to stop a rogue agent from stealing a sensitive CIA list. However, the mission goes awry when the list is stolen and the team is decimated, leaving Jim's pointman Ethan Hunt as the sole survivor. Ethan must navigate a labyrinth of conspiracy to determine if the attack was a setup to expose a mole within the organization. As he realizes the scale of the betrayal, Ethan must work with unlikely allies to recover the list and identify the traitor before the organization's secrets fall into the wrong hands.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Following a mission in Kyiv, IMF agent Jim Phelps and his team are sent to Prague to stop rogue agent Alexander Golitsyn from stealing the CIA's NOC list. The mission turns into a trap; the team is killed, leaving Ethan Hunt as the sole survivor. Ethan discovers the operation was a setup to find a mole, potentially working with an arms dealer named Max. He learns that Jim's wife, Claire, survived and warns him that the list they have is a fake. Ethan recruits disavowed agents Luther Stick11 and Franz Krieger to infiltrate the CIA and steal the real list. They flee to London, where Ethan realizes that his mentor, Jim, is actually the mole. During a high-stakes exchange on a TGV train to Paris, Ethan uses a series of decoys to expose Jim's betrayal. In a final confrontation, Ethan defeats Jim and Krieger, while Kittridge recovers the list. Ethan is eventually offered a new mission as team leader.
- First release year
- 1996
- Runtime (minutes)
- 110
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Brian De Palma
- Writers
- David Koepp · screenplay; Robert Towne · screenplay; David Koepp · story; Steven Zaillian · story
- Cast and characters
- Tom Cruise · Ethan Hunt; Jon Voight · Jim Phelps; Emmanuelle Béart · Claire Phelps; Henry Czerny · Eugene Kittridge; Jean Reno · Franz Krieger; Ving Rhames · Luther Stickell; Vanessa Redgrave · Max; Kristin Scott Thomas · Sarah Davies
- Genres
- spy thriller; action
- Themes
- betrayal; espionage; identity
- Tone and mood
- tense; action-packed
- Premise and plot tags
- spy_thriller; heist; action_adventure
- Source material / true-story basis
- 1966 television series
- Franchise connections
- Mission: Impossible
- Reception
- The film received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for the action sequences, De Palma's direction and Cruise's performance, but criticism for a convoluted plot.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 65% · scale: percentage · review count: 183; Metacritic · score: 59 · scale: 100 · review count: 29
- Awards and nominations
- Grammy Award · Best Pop Instrumental Performance · nominated
- Production trivia
- The film was one of the first Hollywood features to be both set and shot in contemporary Prague.; The film was one of the last major Hollywood films to be released on Betamax.; The film's success led to a long-running film franchise.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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