Mission: Impossible (1996)
Average Rating: 5.9/10
Reviews Counted: 49
Fresh: 30 | Rotten: 19
Full of special effects, Brian DePalma's update of Mission: Impossible has a lot of sweeping spectacle, but the plot is sometimes convoluted.
Average Rating: 5.4/10
Critic Reviews: 20
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 9
Full of special effects, Brian DePalma's update of Mission: Impossible has a lot of sweeping spectacle, but the plot is sometimes convoluted.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 795,003
Movie Info
After he is framed for the death of several colleagues and falsely branded a traitor, a secret agent embarks on a daring scheme to clear his name in this spy adventure. Though it drew its name from the familiar television series, director Brian DePalma's big-budget adaptation shares little more with the original show than the occasional self-destructing message and the name of team leader Jim Phelps (Jon Voight). The film focuses not on Phelps but his protégé, Ethan Hunt (a reserved Tom Cruise),
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Cast
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Tom Cruise
Ethan Hunt -
Jon Voight
Jim Phelps -
Emmanuelle Béart
Claire -
Henry Czerny
Kittridge -
Jean Reno
Krieger -
Ving Rhames
Luther -
Andrzej Borkowski
Kiev Room Agent -
Ion Caramitru
Zozimov -
Garick Hagon
CNN Reporter -
Helen Lindsay
Female Executive in Tra... -
Vanessa Redgrave
Max -
Michael Rogers
Large Man -
Ricco Ross
Denied Area Security Gu... -
David Schneider
Train Engineer -
Kristin Scott Thomas
Sarah Davies -
Richard Sharp
CIA Lobby Guard -
Pat Starr
CIA Agent -
Tony Vogel
M15 Agent -
Andreas Wisniewski
Max's Companion -
Dale Dye
Frank Barnes -
Emilio Estevez
Jack -
Sam Douglas
Kiev Room Agent -
Valentina Yakunina
Drunken IMF Agent -
Morgan Deare
Donald Hunt -
Graydon Gould
Public Official -
Carmela Marner
Kiev Room Agent -
Rolf Saxon
CIA Analyst William Don... -
Jirina Trebicka
Cleaning Woman -
Marek Vasut
Drunken IMF Agent -
Ingeborga Dapkunaite
Hannah -
Oleg Fedorov
Kiev Room Agent -
Marcel Iures
Golitsyn -
John McLaughlin
TV Interviewer -
Karel Dobry
Matthias -
Randall Paul
CIA Escort Guard -
Melissa Knatchbull
Air Stewardess -
Laura Brook
Margaret Hunt -
Maya Dokic
Kiev Room Agent -
Susan Doucette
CIA Agent -
Bob Friend
Sky News Man -
Mark Houghton
Denied Area Security Gu... -
Annabel Mullion
Flight Attendant -
Nathan Osgood
Kittridge Technician -
Rudolf Pechan
Mayor Brandl -
David Phelan
Steward on Train -
Mimi Potworowska
Kiev Room Agent -
David Shaeffer
Diplomat Rand Housman -
Gaston Subert
Jaroslav Reid
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All Critics (52) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (30) | Rotten (19) | DVD (24)
The most dour, sexless piece of escapism in memory.
Top CriticDespite the snags, De Palma remains a virtuoso puppet-master, pulling the strings taut in a nail-biting robbery sequence, switching from micro to macro with Hitchcockian panache, and finally letting rip with a hell-for-leather climax.
Top CriticHumorless, charmless and flat.
Every effect is so calculated that only the conscious minds of filmmakers and viewers are engaged--and not by very much or for very long.
Tom Cruise looks cool and holds our attention while doing neat things that we don't quite understand.
Destined to satisfy the thrill junkie and the sophisticate alike.
What used to be an IMF team effort turned into another star vehicle for Tom Cruise.
Sensational, implausible, irresistible to teens.
De Palma has a choppy, episodic sense of story, and he crafts individual scenes rather than telling a single unified story.
It's a mission De Palma shouldn't have chosen to accept.
Nimble, expertly contrived summer entertainment that doesn't insult the intelligence.
Unlike most action films, Mission: Impossible's distinct appeal operates not so much on suspense but on improbability.
Mission: Impossible helps remind us why the 1990s was such a powerhouse decade for great movies.
...succeeds in offering up several exciting and suspenseful sequences, though one can't help but wish that the dialogue-based moments packed the same sort of punch.
Each scene in and of itself plays very interestingly, even if they don't always logically lead one into the next scene.
An incredibly boring and confusing espionage thriller...So inept on so many levels that it could easily be called The Bonfire of the Secret Agents.
Unfortunately, two scenes and a screwed up script, plus a big plot disappointment, do not a recommendation make.
A solid piece of summer escapist entertainment.
Check your brain at the door, wallow in the special effects, and ride it out until September when good old-fashioned action will once again prevail.
I was riveted.
A non-stop fun run through Europe and the CIA headquarters.
Great start, but the movie keeps fighting its own internal logic.
Audience Reviews for Mission: Impossible
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Luther: Are you sure we can do this?
- Ethan Hunt: We're going to do it. *Main theme plays*
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- Ethan Hunt: One, two, three, toast. TOAST!
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- Ethan Hunt: Red light, green light.
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- Ethan Hunt: [Realizing Jim is the mole] Why Jim? Why?
- Jim Phelps: Well, you think about it Ethan, it was inevitable. No more cold war. No more secrets you keep from yourself. Answer to no one but yourself. Then, you wake up one morning and find out the President is running the country without your permission. The son of a bitch, how dare he. Then you realize, it's over. You are an obsolete peice of hardware, not worth upgrading, you got a lousy marriage, and 62 grand a year.
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- Ethan Hunt: I don't communicate very well through a shroud.
- Matthias: If Max doesn't like what you have to say, you will be wearing that shroud indefinitely.
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- Ethan Hunt: Well, my mom was a little confused how the DEA could mistake her and Uncle Donald for a couple of dope smugglers in the Florida Keys.
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Foreign Titles
- Mission: Impossible (DE)
- Mission: Impossible (UK)

