Mission: Impossible
May 22, 1996 in theaters
When Ethan Hunt, the leader of a crack espionage team whose perilous operation has gone awry with no explanation, discovers that a mole has penetrated the CIA, he's surprised to learn that he's the prime suspect. To clear his name, Hunt now must ferret out the real double agent and, in the process, even the score.
Cast
Director
TRAILER
QUOTE
"Your mission, should you choose to accept it..."
DID YOU KNOW?
Director Brian De Palma deliberately avoided watching any episodes of the original TV show to make the film feel fresh.
THE VERDICT
Synthesized from published reviews
The first Mission: Impossible film is a tightly wound spy thriller that treats its audience as intelligent -- the pleasure is in the layers, the misdirection, and the accumulated tension, not the spectacle. Tom Cruise established Ethan Hunt as a different kind of action hero: resourceful and cerebral first, physical second. The Langley vault sequence remains a benchmark of suspense construction. A confident and stylistically distinctive start that the series would largely move away from.
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