The Secret Behind Mission: Impossible's Winning Formula
Tom Cruise is still delighting moviegoers into a four decade long career.
What do you think of this quote?
“No one could have ever dreamed the numbers we’re getting…Also, Tom Cruise is a major, major, major movie star, arguably the biggest draw there is.”
Can you guess what film this Paramount executive is talking about?
No. It’s not Top Gun: Maverick.
The quote is from a 1997 New York Times movie review attributed to Sherry Lansing, the then chairman and chief executive officer at Paramount Pictures.
The film–Mission: Impossible.
Twenty-six years on, Tom Cruise is still a major star and one of the final draws for people to disconnect from the comforts of streaming and buy a movie ticket.
Last year’s legacy sequel of 1987’s Top Gun proved that Cruise’s death-defying cinematic antics are profitable and unanimously beloved.
Cruise is a modern-day Evel Knievel. Like traveling trapeze artists or Nitro Circus on tour, Cruise’s cinema continues the tradition of American spectacle through the force of physical risk. Cruise one-ups himself with each new installment of M: I. And it all started with 1997’s Mission: Impossible.
Cruise Bets on Cruise
Before the reboot of the 1960s procedural television show, Cruise had already established himself as a Hollywood stalwart in both dramatic and action roles. But with Mission: Impossible, Cruise ventured into a new position that would define his legacy–producer.
Cruise/Wagner Productions went bold for their first picture:
They rebooted a studio intellectual property and made its only carryover character the villain.
They were one of the first Hollywood movies to film in Prague, less than a decade free from communist rule.
They gave command of the production to Brian De Palma, an auteur director with mostly R-rated movies on his resume trying to bounce back from box office blunders.
And most importantly, Cruise deferred his $20 million fee for a percentage of the box office.
Cruise bet on himself. And won.
Mission: Impossible opened on Memorial Day weekend, 1997. That weekend you could have seen movies like Twister, Flipper, or The Craft.
It would gross $75 million in its first six days, surpassing the previous record holder, Jurassic Park, and make a total of $180 million. If you adjust it for inflation, it is still the highest-grossing of the series.
But the franchise’s longevity is even more impressive than the debut.
1997’s Mission: Impossible added to an already stacked catalog of Tom Cruise action and drama pictures.
The Impossible Formula
The M: I films have only gotten better with age. Rarely can a tentpole studio franchise progressively improve profitability and critical acclaim over twenty years. And just like an all-star closer warming up in the bullpen, Cruise’s final inning as Ethan Hunt will seal the deal on a win.
That’s partly due to the real-life Luther to Ethan Hunt–Christopher McQuarrie.
McQuarrie’s collaboration with Cruise goes back to 2008’s WWII drama Valkrie as a writer, but his impact in the director’s chair began with Jack Reacher in 2012. Although the film received criticism from fans of its source material, McQuarrie showed the ability to produce a realistic yet thrilling action epic.
While competing studios were going all-in on blue CGI villains and spandex heroes, McQuarrie was able to heighten the best parts of Cruise’s stardom. McQuarrie’s gritty action is contained and compelling. Plus, it doesn’t require the audience to watch a YouTube recap to understand the story’s universe implications.
McQuarrie and Cruise are a modern version of the director/actor relationship that made Guy Hamilton and Sean Connery create the original action film franchise, James Bond. And, just like Bond, M: I has a formula:
Create a fast-paced story around two to three innovative stunt sequences.
Write witty, clear, and memorable dialogue.
Use the structure of a fantastical spy world to create terrifying scenarios for the hero.
Surround the lead with an entourage of supporting characters and villains.
Presto chango and you have a bonafide summer blockbuster.
Simple, right?
The difference between a Connery and a modern-day Vin Diesel is that Cruise is insane. And as a producer, he can write checks his body can cash.
Just like Knievel, Cruise’s contract with the audience is that he’ll do anything to entertain you. Meanwhile, we’ll look away at whatever’s happening in his personal life. It’s a relationship common in entertainment but rare in our modern culture.
But damn, the guy sure knows how to sell it. Just watch this tease of what’s come to theaters near you.
Instead of spending three days in front of a green screen, like most competitors in the genre, Cruise and McQuarrie committed to the biggest student in cinema history.
It took:
30 jumps a day
500 skydives
13,000 motocross jumps
6 jumps off a motorcycle on an actual cliff in Norway
All for 20-30 seconds of thrill—for you.
Cruise’s Reckoning
This summer, theater-goers will embrace part one of the simultaneously created double billing of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning. It’s the beginning of the end of a series that’s subtly captivated generations of fans and has surpassed even the high expectations set by the original in 1997.
So, before seeing Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, take some time to revel in the franchise. Unless Cruise has figured out some age-defying concoction, we’re probably entering the twilight of Cruise’s action-movie career and the end of the modern Mission: Impossible movement that McQuarrie has ushered.
I wonder if Cruise knew what mission he was signing on for in 1997.
Most people would have thought he was crazy to make eight films into his sixties where he held onto the side of a plane during takeoff, jumped across rooftops, scaled the tallest building in the world, and base jumped off of a motorcycle.
But for Cruise, and thankfully for us, his mission is to make the cinematic impossible possible.
Listen to Our Mission Impossible Podcast
Get ready for the next Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One by listening to Podcast: Impossible, a rewatch miniseries from Least Important Things.
In this Mission Impossible podcast, Luke Ferris and Mike Wynne will accept the mission of watching every Mission: Impossible movie leading up to the seventh installment in the series.
Our task is to investigate the improbable influence of this franchise on culture, cinema, and Tom Cruise’s legacy.