Mission: Impossible

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1:50

Mission: Impossible

PG-13

1996

1h 50m

Action

Adventure

Mystery & Thriller

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

67%

Tomatometer

166 Reviews

71%

Popcornmeter

250,000+ Ratings

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.

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Critics Consensus

Full of special effects, Brian DePalma's update of Mission: Impossible has a lot of sweeping spectacle, but the plot is sometimes overly convoluted.

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Rick Groen

Globe and Mail

Oct 8

2.5/4

Although the attendant cast acquit themselves well enough... the money-in-the-bank star seems somewhat distracted.

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Philip Wuntch

Dallas Morning News

May 13

The movie has too much vitality to allow itself to be overly analyzed; so just participate in the magic carpet ride.

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David Denby

New York Magazine/Vulture

May 6

The screenwriters, David Koepp and Robert Towne, barely sketch in relationships among the characters.

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Matt Soergel

Florida Times-Union

Jan 13

3/5

It is routinely mind-boggling.

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Nov 13

3/4

Character development counts for naught in this movie, and what they do with Jim Phelps, held over from the TV show, is blasphemous. But most viewers won’t mind as the film hurtles from one impressively staged sequence to the next.

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Alan Jones

Radio Times

Aug 31

4/5

It's best to forget the complicated plot - something about Cruise clearing his name and proving to the CIA he's not a treacherous mole - and simply enjoy the epic rollercoaster ride that De Palma brings to life with his customary brilliance.

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Anita M

Jan 7

Exciting, suspenseful.

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kyle

Jan 7

Peak cinema take me back to these days

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rjerrycaldwellmsncom

06/25/2021

I enjoyed watching it but I have seen it before.

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Michael J.

@MilesJoesph069 2d

Honestly, if any of the other characters except Tom Cruise were memorable, then this movie would be 4 stars.

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Brian W

Dec 1

Wow!! A must see that left me on the edge of my seat the entire time!!

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Adam C

Nov 28

The best Mission Impossible by far. Typical popcorn eaters can’t fathom the complexity of the plot. The original MI doesn’t stoop to the mediocrity of today’s theater goer. The last MI that came out had no subtlety whatsoever. Just big heads telling you the plot so you don’t have to think. Brian de Palma never considered hand-feeding his audience, as reflected in the general score of this film, and sadly movies nowadays follow conventional storytelling and network notes literally beg writers to dumb their scripts down, to allow people watching to simultaneously scroll Instagram instead of pay attention. The OG MI is a masterclass in keeping you guessing and I wish the franchise had followed suit.

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Brian De Palma

Director

Tom Cruise

Ethan Hunt

Jon Voight

Jim Phelps

Henry Czerny

Kittridge

Ving Rhames

Luther

Kristin Scott Thomas

Sarah Davies

Movieclips: Mission Impossible's Best Scenes

32:30

Mission: Impossible: Official Clip - Is He Serious?

0:59

Mission: Impossible: Official Clip - Tunnel Chase

2:12

Mission: Impossible: Official Clip - High-Speed Train Ride

2:12

Mission: Impossible: Official Clip - Master of Disguise

2:11

Mission: Impossible: Official Clip - Out of the Vault

1:33

Mission: Impossible: Official Clip - Into the Vault

2:13

Mission: Impossible: Official Clip - Close Call

2:13

Mission: Impossible: Official Clip - Mission Gone Wrong

2:07

Mission: Impossible: Official Clip - A Mole Hunt

2:13

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Mission: Impossible II

58%

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Mission: Impossible III

73%

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Mission: Impossible III

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Mission: Impossible: Trailer 1

1:50

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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.

Director: Brian De Palma
Producer: Tom Cruise, Paula Wagner
Screenwriter: David Koepp, Robert Towne
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Production Co: Paramount Pictures, Cruise-Wagner Productions
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Adventure, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): May 22, 1996, Original
Release Date (Streaming): May 2, 2008
Box Office (Gross USA): $180.9M
Runtime: 1h 50m
Sound Mix: Stereo, Dolby Digital, DTS, Surround, SDDS
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

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