MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

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The best argument for saying that this first film in the franchise is the best is how well it covers all the bases.

There's the iconic heist sequence in which Ethan steals whatever happens to be the MacGuffin (the NOC list, as if we care).

There's the bonkers finale, which includes a helicopter lashed to a train in the Chunnel, which only director Brian de Palma could get away with.

And if that wasn’t enough, there’s oodles of old school twisty espionage stuff including an atmospheric mission in Prague at the outset that goes shockingly wrong, in which most of Ethan's team gets killed, leaving Ethan on the run because he appears to be a traitor.

The only major failing is the lack of a strong female character.  There's Emmanuelle Béart who doesn’t get to do a lot.  She plays Mrs Phelps, and throughout the film neither we nor Ethan are sure she can be trusted.

It is heavily implied that she and Ethan sleep together, which makes no sense.  She’s meant to be a grieving widow, so if she's trying to get Ethan to trust her then this is the last thing she should be doing.  And given that Ethan still hopes she is innocent it’s not great from him either.

Ethan's reaction when she dies suggests that we are meant to think that they had feelings for each other but nothing in the film up to this point has earned this, so it falls flat.  It contrasts with how quickly Ethan gets over the death of three members of his team.  

My favourite sequence, besides the heist, is the one where Phelps is giving Ethan his version of what happened in Prague, which we see in flashback, but since Ethan (and we) know that Phelps is the traitor we also get to see Ethan's reconstruction of what actually happened, also in flashback.

But concerning the Prague mission I'm not convinced that the film plays fair with the viewer.  To do that requires that every time we see Phelps alone he is behaving as he should given that he is the one sabotaging the mission.  For example, he shouldn't look surprised or upset when a member of the team is killed.  

Whilst not quite the best of the franchise (that would be number six, 'Fallout') this opener certainly gets it off to a strong enough start that it is able to survive some missteps in the next few instalments.

RATING: ✓✓ Good Times

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