This 1996 movie is a cinematic redo of the 1960's television series of the same name. The main character of Mission: Impossible is Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), an agent for the mysterious American spy agency called 'IMF.' The movie starts with an interrogation scene to establish the characters. Gradually, we learn that secret agent Hunt is in a team that also includes computer hacker Jack Harmon (Emilio Estevez) and a few female spies. One of the women is Claire, the wife of the team's leader Jim Phelps (Jon Voight). The team's latest assignment is to find a thief who has stolen a computer file that is vital to the agency's security. The file contains the names and aliases of the entire agency's hundreds of clandestine spies. This information, if in the wrong hands, could jeopardize the spy operations, and result in the spies' deaths.

The team learns that the computer file will be exchanged at a U.S. embassy reception in the European city of Prague. The team's goal is to photograph the bad guy stealing the information from the embassy, track him, and learn where he's trying to sell the disc. Hunt wears a special rubber mask that makes him look like an important U.S. senator, and enters the embassy reception along with a female agent. The operation goes according to plan. Jack, the computer specialist, causes all sorts of secure doors in the embassy to open for agent Hunt. They closely follow the bad guy and photograph him in the act of theft. The bad guy exits the building, and goes to a dark alley to exchange the computer disc for money. But it seems that another group of enemy agents had foreknowledge of the IMF surveillance operation, and began murdering the IMF team members. Computer hacker Harmon is killed in an elevator shaft, a female operative dies in a car-bomb, a second female operative dies in a dark alley, along with the thief she was following, and the team leader Phelps is stabbed to death on a river bridge outside the embassy. Of the original six team members, Hunt is the only one alive. Hunt phones his agency's chief back in the United States. But Kittridge, the IMF Director, isn't in America — he is actually in Prague. He arranges to meet Hunt in a Prague restaurant, and the two discuss Hunt's return or 'exfiltration' to the U.S.A. It is at the restaurant where Kittridge reveals that a mole within the IMF has been selling secrets to a disreputable weapons dealer named 'Max.' Hunt thinks he can go back home to America, but Kittridge (Henry Czerny) has a surprise for him. The entire embassy surveillance operation had actually been a 'mole hunt' with the goal of capturing a suspected double agent within the IMF. The computer file was actually a decoy. Kittridge wanted to find the identity of the mole trying to supply information to Max. Now that all the other team members are dead, and only Hunt is alive, Kittridge accuses Hunt of being the mole. So, Hunt flees from the restaurant, and embarks on a crusade to learn who the real mole within the IMF is, and avenge his dead friends.

To find the mole, Hunt decides to obtain the real spy-name list, located on a computer in Langley, West Virginia, USA, and then sell this computer file to the mysterious arms dealer, Max. With the help of some other expelled IMF spies he contacts, Hunt breaks into the heavily secured building, and obtains the genuine computer file. He escapes to London where he arranges to meet Max on a high-speed train going from London to France. It dawns on Hunt that the mole is actually his former team leader, Jim Phelps. Hunt suspects that Phelps had faked his own death, and killed the other IMF team members in Prague. Hunt notifies Kittridge back in America about the train rendezvous that will occur several hours later. While the train travels at high-speed, Hunt's disc is given to Max, who starts to verify the disc's quality aboard the train. The file looks genuine, and Max notifies Hunt by phone that his payment of $10 million dollars is in the luggage car. Alerted about the forthcoming train rendezvous, Kittridge had earlier flown to London and boarded the same train as Max, Phelps, and Hunt. Kittridge corners Max and her team in a passenger car. Meanwhile, Phelps finds Hunt in the rear luggage car, and takes the $10 million from Hunt. Phelps then goes through the rail car's roof and on the outside of the high-speed train. Phelps uses suction cups to stand on the train in a way that a helicopter flying at the same velocity as the train can pick him up. But when the train goes into a big tunnel, the helicopter must descend into the tunnel too. Hunt pursues Phelps on top of the train, hops onto the helicopter, destroying it in an explosion that kills both the chopper pilot and Phelps. The same explosion propels Hunt safely back to the train's rear car. Kittridge is satisfied that Hunt is not the mole, and allows Hunt to restore his good status as an active IMF agent, and the film ends.

Directing
Brian De Palma directed this film. It is a thriller with good visuals, great action, and good pacing. The movie is highly entertaining and well directed. Especially well done was the Prague restaurant scene where Hunt feels psychologically cornered by his agency's director, Kittridge. It dawns on Hunt that he can never again have a normal life in America, and faces life as a prisoner in the custody of the American authorities for allegedly killing his five agency cohorts. De Palma uses tilted camera angles to show Hunt's stress, and sense of hopelessness, while also employing a camera angle and tilt to show the dominant position of Kittridge.

Acting
Tom Cruise did an excellent performance and anchored the film. But the supporting cast helped raise the quality of the film too. Vanessa Redgrave played the mysterious arms dealer Max. We are surprised to learn the 'Max' is not a man, but a woman. Redgrave ably portrays the power woman Max and is well cast in the role of an upper-class wealthy arms dealer with a shady undertone. Jon Voight acted well as Jim Phelps, the film's major villain. He conveyed an air of innocence and propriety early in the film, then switched to an evil greedy double-crossing persona later in the film. Despite his character being killed off early in the film, Emilio Estevez acted well as a supporting actor, adding some humorous moments to the movie that established the dynamic of the IMF group. Then there was the beautiful actress Emmanuelle Béart as IMF agent Claire Phelps, Jim Phelp's wife. There was obvious onscreen sexual tension between Claire and Hunt, and Béart ably played the role of a good girl who becomes a double-crossing seductress.      [continued . . . ]

Editing
The editing was fast-paced when necessary, and lingering when needed too. Editing was by Paul Hirsch.

Sound
The sound quality was good. At the opening credits, a match lights a fuse leading to an explosive. The sound effect of the match lighting up establishes the audio quality early on.

Music
The music was by Danny Elfman. The original 1960's Mission: Impossible TV show score was revamped in this 1996 movie. The music was enhanced with electric guitar and synthesizers. Elfman adds a more modern tone to the original theme that supports the action film style. Elfman also composed some incidental music that characterized well the tender moments of the movie when Hunt is troubled or pensive.

Pros
The film was action-packed, and allowed everyday folks to pretend for a day that they were along for a ride with some secret agents in high-speed trains and faraway locations — but without any danger of getting shot or killed.

Cons
In the scene where Hunt breaks into a high security, well-guarded computer room with tons of features to detect unauthorized intruders, one wonders why there isn't a video camera inside the room? Besides that, the laws of physics are heavily suspended in this movie. One of Hunt's secret spy tricks was a powerful explosive that was in the form of a stick of chewing gum. If Hunt mashes the two reactive parts of the explosive together, the gum will explode five seconds later. So far so good. Hunt uses the explosive in a Prague restaurant when he meets Kittridge, the IMF agency's director. To escape from Kittridge's people, Hunt throws the explosive 'gum' at a huge glass fish tank. The tank explodes, the water flows out in a deluge that breaks the restaurant windows, and in the ensuing panic, Hunt escapes Kittridge. However, if the explosive can destroy a fish tank, and create many glass shards, why doesn't the blast also destroy the people in the restaurant? The other restaurant customers are flung away from the explosion, but aren't killed. The most unrealistic part of the film was the high-speed train scene near the film's end. Hunt gets onto the roof of the train and hangs on only with his hands. Despite the massive air turbulence created by a high-speed vehicle, Hunt somehow doesn't get blown off the train. Later, Hunt attaches a cable dangling from Phelps' getaway helicopter onto the outside roof of the train. The random strain caused by a helicopter flying to and fro through the unpredictable air doesn't shear off the cable. Then the aircraft descends into a tunnel while following the high-speed train. However, the helicopter miraculously doesn't hit the tunnel ceiling or walls! Later, the helicopter approaches the train very closely, and Jim Phelps jumps onto one of the skids beneath the helicopter. Hunt, also on the train's roof, jumps onto the helicopter's other skid. Hunt plants his explosive on the outside of the helicopter. Five seconds later, the chopper explodes, crashing to the ground, killing Phelps and the pilot. During the explosion, the explosive's shock wave mysteriously pushes Hunt back onto the rear of the speeding train, where he grabs on, unharmed, to the train's outside. However, if the helicopter explosion was powerful enough to destroy a sturdy metal helicopter, why didn't the shock wave also destroy a soft fleshy human being like Hunt?

Trivia: Actor Jon Voight is the father of actress Angelina Jolie.

Memes
As far as I know, the first time I heard the phrase "go secure" was in this movie. So I will tentatively say that the meme started in this 1996 film. Another classic feature resurrected from the TV series was when the high-level spies played a tape from IMF headquarters, the recording says things like "your mission, should you choose to accept it," and "...this tape will self-destruct in five seconds." These quotes are memorable and now part of pop culture.

Modern perspective
It's funny how they handled the then brand new concept of 'e-mail' in this film! To be fair, when the movie was made in 1996, the Internet was brand new, so audiences had to be shown an exaggerated screen on Hunt's computer display. Also, floppy discs and tube computer displays were common back then, but not so much now. Viewers who saw the film in 1996 had the lingering fears of the end of the Cold War that made the specter of enemy covert actions even scarier.

Summary
The 1996 film Mission: Impossible was enjoyable. Ignoring the implausible violations of physical laws, the film's special effects were top notch, and in the hands of director De Palma, actor Tom Cruise, and the other cast members, the first Mission: Impossible movie was an action-packed fun time.