Zicoflex Mission: Impossible
(1996)
1. Before hiring Brian De
Palma to direct, Cruise
worked on the film’s
story with legendary
director Sydney Pollack,
who’s uncredited in the
final release.
2. Apple dropped $15
million for a M:I
sponsorship deal — one
that ultimately didn’t
work out very well for
the computer company.
Though Ethan Hunt
(Cruise) uses a
Powerbook 5300c in the
movie, another
character insists on
using a different brand
when they need serious
computing power. And
worse, the movie was
released only weeks
after a Powerbook
recall, meaning the
company was unable to
satisfy whatever
demand Mission might
have created for its
products. Here’s hoping
Apple managed to
rebound somehow!
3. De Palma designed
many of the film’s
action sequences
before the story
connecting them was
complete, forcing
screenwriters to
construct narratives
around them.
4. Original Mission TV
stars Martin Landau and
Peter Graves declined
offers to appear in the
film. Landau
disapproved of the fact
that the film was all
about action, while the
TV show was more of
a “mind game”; Graves,
meanwhile, was
unhappy about the fact
his TV character, Jim
Phelps, was portrayed
by Jon Voight as a
double agent in the film.
5. Phelps is only
character in both the
TV and film version of
M:I.
6. The film was one of
the first big-budget
Hollywood productions
to shoot in Prague,
where it made use of
Charles Bridge,
Lichtenstein Palace, and
Old Town Square,
where the film’s
opening scene takes
place. The production’s
experience in the Czech
capital was not a good
one, with producers
feeling they’d been
overcharged.
7. The giant aquarium
that explodes inside the
restaurant unleashed
16 tons of water onto a
Paramount soundstage.
Cruise and De Palma
were so nervous about
the scene that it was
rehearsed more than
any other in the film, in
part because Cruise
insisted on doing the
stunt himself.
8. The film was
originally going to open
with a scene that
established a love
triangle between Hunt,
Phelps, and Phelps’s
wife. De Palma
scrapped that scene
because it didn’t fit
with the rest of the
film.
9. The climactic train
sequence — which took
six weeks to shoot —
lasts seven minutes
and 20 seconds on
screen and is comprised
of 152 shots. The
majority of the action
was filmed in a London
studio, with Cruise and
Voight performing atop
a model of the train’s
roof.
10. A fan that could
produce winds up to
140 mph was used to
distort Cruise’s face
while he was riding atop
the train.
Related: Tom Cruise Is
Up for ‘Top Gun 2’ —
but Only If He Can Do It
Without CGI
11. Cruise was against
integrating the
helicopter into the train
sequence because he
thought it would be too
unrealistic. De Palma
argue that the movie
needed an over-the-top
ending and ultimately
got his way.
12. Alan Silvestri of Back
to the Future fame
originally scored the
film, but his music went
over poorly with test
audiences. Danny
Elfman was hired, and
Silvestri is said to have
re-used some of the
elements of the score
for the 1996 Arnold
Schwarzenegger film
Eraser.
13. According to
dossiers on the Blu-ray
edition, Hunt speaks 15
languages, while Phelps
speaks 18.
14. The same dossiers
claim that Hunt
developed his “talent
for disguise” by
pretending to be
different people while
playing alone a child on
his family’s farm.
15. The film features
some seriously good
hackers. According to
his dossier, Phelps can
hack though 97 percent
of existing firewalls, if
he’s “given enough
time.” Jack Harmon
(Emilio Estevez) can
hack through 95 percent
of existing firewalls and
“improvise through” the
other 5 percent.
Meanwhile, Luther
Stickell (Ving Rhames) is
capable of hacking
though 100 percent of
existing firewalls and
improvising his way
through new ones as
they’re developed. None
of them, however, can
quite hack through the
first film’s oft-strained
plot.
Mission: Impossible II
(2000)
16. The opening scene,
in which Cruise hangs
from a 2,000-foot cliff
in Moab, was the most
challenging of director
John Woo’s career.
There was no
protection on the
ground and Cruise did
the stunt himself,
though he was
strapped into a
harness, which was
removed in post-
production. The jump he
made covered about 15
feet, with Cruise
reportedly injuring his
shoulder while doing it.
17. Woo considered
filming the romantic
meeting between Hunt
and Nyah Nordoff-Hall
(Thandie Newton) in
many exotic locations,
including Rome, Russia,
and Malaysia, before he
settled on Seville, Spain.
Related: Watch Tom
Cruise’s Most
Dangerous ‘Mission:
Impossible’ Stunts
18. In an early version
of the screenplay,
Nordoff-Hall was a spy,
but Woo thought that
wasn’t interesting
enough. He changed her
character to a thief,
thinking that would lend
a Cary Grant-Audrey
Hepburn quality to the
movie.
19. The car chase with
Hunt and Nordoff-Hall
replaced a scene in
which the two were
flirting in a room. Woo
says the car chase was
more exciting way to
introduce their love
affair. He also wanted
the cars to move as if
they were making love.
20. To pull off the finale
of the car chase — in
which the cars are
attached at the side
and spinning together
toward a cliff — a track
and a giant turntable
were built to move the
cars in sync with one
another.
21. Newton, who’s
British, was nervous
about driving on the left
side of the car, so a
stunt driver hid in the
passenger seat ready
to take the wheel and
pedals if things got
hairy.
22. Woo initially wanted
to cast Ian McKellen in
role of Swanbeck
(Anthony Hopkins), but
he wasn’t available. Not
long before production,
producer Paula Wagner
told Woo that Hopkins
was interested in the
part. Woo says he was
floored and didn’t sleep
for a couple nights
before shooting began
with the legendary
actor.
23. The scene in which
Hunt drops down inside
Biocyte from a
helicopter was filmed
on a soundstage, in
front of a green screen.
The stunt was among
the film’s most
dangerous, as it had
Cruise dropping 18 feet
toward the camera
while attached to a rig
that stopped him inches
above the camera. Woo
says he was afraid of
this scene because he
thought Cruise would
smash his face into the
lens.
24. The famous shot of
a dove flying through
the fire
, a Woo trademark, was
computer-animated.
25. When Cruise rides
through a line of fire on
his motorcycle, he’s
actually riding through
the fire. When he
appears to be skiing on
the road, he’s doing
that, too. During that
portion of the scene, his
motorcycle was being
towed behind a truck,
and he was strapped
into a harness as he
skied on the soles of his
shoes at 50 mph.
Related: Tom Cruise’s
Most Insane Stunt?
Holding His Breath
26. The motorcycle
joust between Hunt
and Sean Ambrose
(Dougray Scott)
required complex rigging
that lifted both the
motorcycles and actors
off the ground. Cruise
and Scott were
attached to cables that
pulled them upward
when they released the
motorcycles, as well as
separate cables that
pulled them backward,
so they wouldn’t crash
into each other at
deadly speeds.
27. Woo’s influences for
the film include West
Side Story (the opening
dance sequence) and
Ivanhoe (the
motorcycle joust).
28. Ambrose’s house on
the water in Sydney
wasn’t real. Instead, it
was built of
polystyrene and
demolished after
shooting.
29. The knife-near-the-
eye moment at the end
of the climatic fight
was not a part of the
scene until the day of
shooting. Woo wanted
the knife to get close to
Cruise’s face, but not
close enough to
endanger him. Cruise
insisted it get as close
as possible. A rig was
built that allowed a
cable to be attached to
the knife so that it
could be thrusted
toward Cruise’s eye and
stop less than an inch
away.
Mission: Impossible
III (2006)
30. Cruise became
convinced that J.J.
Abrams should direct
the film after watching
an episode of Alias at 2
a.m. one morning.
31. The opening scene,
in which Owen Davian
(Philip Seymour
Hoffman) tortures Hunt
and wife Julia Hunt
(Michelle Monaghan),
was originally shot with
Brownway (Eddie
Marsan) doing the
torturing. After some
consideration, Abrams
decided to re-shoot
with Hoffman’s
character at the center
of the scene.
32. Hunt’s house is
modeled after
Abrams’s own home.
When Hunt gets a
phone call during the
party at his house, it’s
Abrams on the other
line.
33. The idea of proving
mission information via
a disposable camera
came from Steven
Spielberg.
Related: What Happened
to Tom Cruise’s Stunt
Double Tom Crooze?
34. Lindsey Farris’s (Keri
Russell) death was
originally much more
gruesome than it is in
the final cut, which
didn’t include her eye
popping out of her head
and squirting blood on
to Hunt’s face.
35. The hands shown
pulling a bullet out of
Keri Russell’s head
belonged to Abrams.
36. Former MMA fighter
Buster Reeves was the
fight coordinator and a
stunt man on the film,
making several
appearances, playing
different characters.
Since M:I 3, Reeves has
served as Tom Hardy’s
stunt double and as the
stunt coordinator in the
first season of Game of
Thrones.
37. Downtown Los
Angeles subbed for
Shanghai during some
of the car chase set in
the Chinese city.
38. Still, some of the
scenes set in Shanghai
were actually shot
there. At least one
required government
permission to leave the
city’s buildings lit up at
night so they would
look more dramatic in
the film.
39. In the scene in
which Brownway
shoves a gun up Hunt’s
nose, it’s actually
Cruise’s hand holding
the gun. And later,
when Hunt bites John
Musgrave’s (Billy
Crudup) hand, it’s Cruise
biting his own hand.
Abrams said he thought
it would be weird to ask
Cruise to bite Crudup.
40. Tom Cruise was
holding cue cards for
Crudup in the scene in
which Musgrave reveals
that he’s a villain. The
scene was only written
that morning and
Crudup didn’t have time
to learn his lines.
41. Maggie Q, who plays
Zhen Lei, hadn’t driven
before shooting the
film, a fact that
became clear when she
accidentally drove her
character’s Lamborghini
into another car during
shooting in Italy.
Mission: Impossible
— Ghost Protocol
(2011)
42. Early on, the film’s
title was expected to
omit the words
“mission” and
“impossible.” According
to a Variety report at
the time, Paramount
was considering the
movie along the lines of
a reboot, and wanted
to differentiate it from
the previous films.
Ultimately, though, they
opted to keep the
Mission title intact.
43. Jeremy Renner, who
plays William Brandt,
said he signed on to do
the film with the
understanding that he
may one day take over
the franchise when
Cruise decides to step
down. Paramount later
changed its mind.
44. The production crew
built a glass wall on a
soundstage so Cruise
could practice climbing a
surface similar to the
Burj Khalifa, the world’s
tallest building. The wall
was heated with giant,
bright lights to simulate
the hot desert sun.
Cruise spent months on
this wall, building his
endurance.
45. Once filing relocated
to the UAE, the
production had
tremendous access to
the Burj Khalifa. They
took over whole floors
in the building and
removed 26 of its giant
plate-glass windows.
46. The spot on the Burj
Khalifa where Cruise
performed his stunts is
higher than the top of
the Empire State
building. Cruise
performed the stunts
himself, while wearing a
harness that was
digitally removed in
post-production.
Related: Tom Cruise
Reveals the 'Mission:
Impossible’ Stunt That
Was Even Hairier Than
That Airplane Ride
47. The code Ethan
punches into a pay
phone to get his
mission is 07362, the
date of Cruise’s
birthday.
48. The parking garage
used for the fight
between Hunt and
Hendricks (Michael
Nyqvist) was built in
giant ship hangar that
could house the 65-foot
structure.
49. Actor Dermot
Mulroney plays cello on
the film’s soundtrack;
he also provided music
for M:I 3.
50. Bird included a
common Easter egg
that he often drops in
his films: the code
“A113.” It’s the number
of an animation
classroom at the
California Institute of
the Arts where he and
John Lasseter studied
and it appears in Ghost
Protocol on Hanaway’s
(Josh Holloway) class
ring.
Watch a behind-the-
scenes look at ‘Rogue