Mission: Impossible
“Everest, man. You ready to plant the flag?”
Christopher McQuarrie recently shared a BTS image from the first day of filming Mission Impossible 7, which has gotten us in the mood for a Classic Rewatch of the first entry in the series. Brian De Palma, who turns 80 today, adapted the hit TV show for the big screen to considerable success (but turned down Tom Cruise’s request for him to work on a sequel). The film boasts some great set-piece sequences, a killer theme tune, Tom Cruise pulling off some cool stunts (natch) and enough twists and turns to keep the audience yearning for more (six more, in fact). The zip wire heist may be memorable but for our money, the stand-out moment is Emilio Estevez on top of that elevator. Eek.
But did you know…
1) The film actually started pre-production before a script was completed. De Palma had designed the action sequences first, but the team had yet to come up with a story to connect them all. Screenwriters Robert Towne and David Koepp were essential in giving the film an actual beginning, middle and end.
2) While filming the now infamous train scene, Cruise requested a machine that could produce a strong enough wind to accurately distort his features for the camera and to actually knock him off the train in the end. Cruise remembered a machine he used while training as a skydiver which could produce winds of up to 140 mph, which ended up being used for the film. They filmed almost the entire confrontation in front of a blue screen.
3) Cruise, as we know well, performed the majority of his own stunts and properly took part in the action, however, throughout the entire film he does not actually fire a single gunshot. While many high-intensity flicks follow the mantra “the bigger the guns, the bigger the action”, the very first Mission: Impossible goes down another route, and is the only film in the franchise to not feature any shoot-outs or gunfights.
