Mission: Impossible

"Expect the impossible."

1996 1h 51m EN

👍

7.0

SOLID

🍅

65%

FRESH

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

7.2

IMDB

★7.0TMDB · 10,340🍅65%Rotten Tomatoes●59Metacritic★7.2IMDB · 516,752

AdventureActionThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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.

“Expect the impossible.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Tom Cruise
Ethan Hunt
Jon Voight
Jim Phelps
Emmanuelle Béart
Claire
Henry Czerny
Kittridge
Jean Reno
Krieger
Ving Rhames
Luther
Kristin Scott Thomas
Sarah Davies
Vanessa Redgrave
Max

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Brian De Palma
Writers: David Koepp, Robert Towne, Steven Zaillian
Languages: English, French, Czech
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Mid-budget at $80M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 5.7× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

30 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, French, Czech.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Mission: Impossible Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

222+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Brian De Palma, shot by Stephen H. Burum. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Danny Elfman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Brian De Palma directs. Stephen H. Burum behind the camera. Danny Elfman scores. Paul Hirsch cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, French, Czech.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Mid-budget at $80M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.
2Made its money back 5.7× over at the box office.
330 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, French, Czech.
5Part of the "Mission: Impossible Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
6222+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
7Directed by Brian De Palma, shot by Stephen H. Burum. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
8Original score by Danny Elfman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
9Editor Paul Hirsch shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
10Tom Cruise and Jon Voight and Emmanuelle Béart carry the top of the cast.
11Marketing tagline: "Expect the impossible.".
12IMDB entry: tt0117060 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
1310,340 TMDB user ratings logged — serious cultural footprint.
14Classified under 25 themes, including "mask", "mission", "london, england", "central intelligence agency (cia)".

The technical file

Cinematography: Stephen H. Burum
Original score: Danny Elfman
Editing: Paul Hirsch
Production design: Norman Reynolds
Costume design: Penny Rose
Makeup / hair: Jiří Farkaš
VFX supervisor: John Knoll
Sound: Christopher Boyes
Stunt coordinator: Greg Powell
Runtime: 111 min · 1h 51m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $80,000,000
Box office: $457,696,391
Return: 572% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Mission: Impossible (1996)
Rotten Tomatoes: 65% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 59/100
IMDB rating: 7.2/10 · 516,752 votes
MPAA: PG-13

Awards

3 wins & 17 nominations total

Part of

Mission: Impossible Collection

Mission: Impossible is a series of a secret agent thriller films based on the popular 1966–73 television series. They chronicle the missions of a team of secret government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force (IMF) under the leadership of agent Ethan Hunt.

Also by

Brian De Palma

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Gimly2016-08-15
★ 4/10
While the sequences that Mission: Impossible is most famous for (the ceiling-descent and train-top) are truly thrilling, absolutely everything in between these scenes is obvious and uninspired. Rarely can a movie have you so completely engaged one minute, and then immediately back to checking the time the next. An important film, pop-culturally speaking, but not a very good one. Final rating:★★ - Had some things that appeal to me, but a poor finished product.
Dark Jedi2018-05-13
★ 6/10
When I first saw this movie I did not like it at all. My main gripe with the movie was (and is) that it did not feel like a Mission Impossible movie. Spoilers ahead! In the original series the team always succeeded, at least in the episodes I watched. However, the movie starts off with a big failure. Then to make matters worse we learn that Mr. Phelps, one of the original lead characters, is actually a traitor. I was so disappointed! Now when I watched it for the second time with my son I actually liked it a lot more. I still think it is sad that the script writers felt they had to introduce all these chock elements but trying to look past those this is a pretty good movie. I still do not think it is truly a Mission Impossible movie in the good old style of the series though. It is a very good action/thriller movie though. Tom Cruise is really not bad in the role of Ethan Hunt and so are the rest of the actors. He is performing quite a few spectacular stunts and there are a decent amount of high tech stuff in the movie. Sure, some of the stunts and action scenes are perhaps a bit convoluted but it provides for some good cinemagic and it is fiction after all. If this movie would not have been labelled Mission Impossible I would probably have given it another star but I cannot bring myself to completely overlook how far from the original inspiration it has strayed.
Wuchak2021-05-07
★ 6/10
Well done spy/caper thriller with Tom Cruise and an eye-rolling Scooby-Doo element The Impossible Missions Force has a mission at a Prague gala concerning a CIA non-official cover list, but it doesn’t go as planned. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and Clair Phelps (Emmanuelle Béart) then team-up with two disavowed agents (Ving Rhames and Jean Reno) to steal the real NOC list at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, before going to London for further thrills involving the TGV train to Paris. Jon Voight and Henry Czerny are on hand as leaders of IMF while Vanessa Redgrave plays an arms dealer and Kristin Scott Thomas an IMF agent. “Mission: Impossible” (1996) was loosely inspired by the TV series of the late 60s/early 70s and started the successful movie franchise starring Cruise. Expect convoluted dialogues, espionage gadgets, high society galas, foggy cobblestone streets, sudden deaths, globetrotting, double agents, capers and mind-blowing action. One thing that turned me off was the several occasions where a person’s fake face is torn off à la Scooby-Doo. Once would’ve been enough, but three times? What were the writers thinking? Other than that cavil, this is a quality spy/caper flick; it’s just too tortuous for my tastes with not enough human interest. The film runs 1 hour, 50 minutes, and was shot in Prague; London, Pinewood Studios & various other areas in England; and McLean, Virginia, & Washington DC. GRADE: B-