Mission: Impossible (film series)

Mission: Impossible series
Mission: Impossible trilogy Blu-ray box set
Directed by	Mission: Impossible: Brian De Palma II: John Woo III: J.J. Abrams Ghost Protocol: Brad Bird
Based on	Mission: Impossible (1988 TV series)
Starring	Tom Cruise
Budget	$500,000,000
Box office	$1,982,537,318

The Mission: Impossible films are a series of action films based on the television series of the same name. The films feature Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, an I.M.F agent. The Series is the 12th highest grossing film series of all time with $1.9billion worth of world-wide sales.

Films

Mission: Impossible

Main article: Mission: Impossible (film)

In this film, set in the year 1996, Ethan Hunt is framed for not only the murder of his fellow IMF agents during a Prague Embassy mission gone wrong, but is also wrongly accused of selling government secrets to a mysterious international criminal known only as "Max".

Mission: Impossible II

Main article: Mission: Impossible II

In this film, set in 2000, Ethan Hunt sends Nyah Nordoff-Hall undercover to stop an ex-IMF agent's mad scheme to steal a deadly virus and sell the antidote to the highest bidder.

Mission: Impossible III

Main article: Mission: Impossible III

In this film, set in 2006, Ethan Hunt, retired from being an IMF team leader and now engaged to be married, assembles a team to face a ruthless arms and information broker intending to sell a mysterious, dangerous object known as "The Rabbit's Foot."

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

Main article: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

In this film, set in 2011, Ethan Hunt, as well as the entire IMF are placed with the blame of the bombing of the Kremlin. He and three others must stop a man bent on a global nuclear war.

Mission: Impossible V

In a recent interview it was revealed that Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg and Brad Bird are all interested in returning for a fifth Mission: Impossible film. Paramount is also reportedly interested in fast-tracking a fifth film due to the success of the fourth.

Tom Cruise's Salary in the M:I (Series)

Movie	Salary
Mission: Impossible	$ 70,000,000 (Gross participation)
Mission: Impossible II	$ 75,000,000 (Gross participation)
Mission: Impossible III	$ 75,000,000
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol	$ 12,500,000 + % of back end

Principal cast

Character	Film
	Mission: Impossible	Mission: Impossible II	Mission: Impossible III	Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Ethan Hunt	Tom Cruise
Luther Stickell	Ving Rhames
Benji Dunn			Simon Pegg
Julia Meade			Michelle Monaghan
Jim Phelps	Jon Voight
Claire Phelps	Emmanuelle Béart
Eugene Kittridge	Henry Czerny
Franz Krieger	Jean Reno
Sarah Davies	Kristin Scott Thomas
Max	Vanessa Redgrave
Hannah Williams	Ingeborga Dapkunaite
Jack Harmon	Emilio Estevez
Sean Ambrose		Dougray Scott
Nyah Nordoff-Hall		Thandie Newton
Hugh Stamp		Richard Roxburgh
Billy Baird		John Polson
John C. McCloy		Brendan Gleeson
Dr. Nekhorvich		Rade Šerbedžija
Swanbeck		Anthony Hopkins
Owen Davian			Phillip Seymour Hoffman
John Musgrave			Billy Crudup
Declan Gormley			Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Lindsey Farris			Keri Russell
Zhen Lei			Maggie Q
Theodore Brassel			Laurence Fishburne
William Brandt				Jeremy Renner
Trevor Hanaway				Josh Holloway
Jane Carter				Paula Patton
Kurt Hendricks				Michael Nyqvist
Brij Nath				Anil Kapoor

Principal crew

Role	Film
	Mission: Impossible	Mission: Impossible II	Mission: Impossible III	Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Director	Brian De Palma	John Woo	J. J. Abrams	Brad Bird
Producers	Tom Cruise Paul Hitchcock Elias Badra Paula Wagner	Tom Cruise Paula Wagner Michael Doven	Tom Cruise Paula Wagner	Tom Cruise J. J. Abrams Bryan Burk
Writers	David Koepp Robert Towne Steven Zaillian	Robert Towne Ronald D. Moore Brannon Braga	Alex Kurtzman Roberto Orci J. J. Abrams	André Nemec Josh Appelbaum
Music	Danny Elfman Lalo Schifrin	Hans Zimmer Klaus Badelt Lalo Schifrin	Michael Giacchino Lalo Schifrin
Cinematographer	Stephen H. Burum	Jeffrey L. Kimball	Dan Mindel	Robert Elswit

Reception

Box office performance

Film	Release date	Box office revenue			Box office ranking		Budget	Reference
		United States	Foreign	Worldwide	All time domestic	All time worldwide
Mission: Impossible	May 22, 1996	$180,981,856	$276,714,503	$457,696,359	#121 #141(A)	#87	$80,000,000
Mission: Impossible II	May 24, 2000	$215,409,889	$330,978,216	$546,388,105	#81 #149(A)	#56	$125,000,000
Mission: Impossible III	May 5, 2006	$134,029,801	$263,820,211	$397,850,012	#241	#115	$150,000,000
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol	December 16, 2011 (Limited) December 21, 2011	$203,264,874	$391,171,106	$594,435,980	N/A	N/A	$145,000,000
Total		$733,279,837	$1,254,128,777	$1,987,408,614	N/A	N/A	$500,000,000	N/A
List indicator(s) (A) indicates the adjusted totals based on current ticket prices (calculated by Box Office Mojo).

Critical reaction

Title	Rotten Tomatoes	Rotten Tomatoes Cream of the Crop	Metacritic	Yahoo! Movies
Mission: Impossible	60% (47 reviews)	75% (18 reviews)	60 (17 reviews)
Mission: Impossible II	57% (141 reviews)	63% (30 reviews)	60 (33 reviews)	N/A
Mission: Impossible III	70% (218 reviews)	63% (43 reviews)	66 (38 reviews)	B (16 reviews)
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol	93% (186 reviews)	97% (34 reviews)	74 (36 reviews)	N/A
Average	70%	75%	65	N/A

Reaction

Some fans of the TV series were upset that Jim Phelps, team leader in the series, became a traitor in the first movie, selling the details of government agents to an arms dealer. Actor Greg Morris, who portrayed Barney Collier in the original television series, was so disgusted with the film's treatment of the Phelps character that he walked out of the theater before the film ended. Martin Landau, who portrayed Rollin Hand in the original series, was equally negative concerning the films. In an MTV interview in October 2009, Landau stated: "When they were working on an early incarnation of the first one – not the script they ultimately did – they wanted the entire team to be destroyed, done away with one at a time, and I was against that," he said. "It was basically an action-adventure movie and not 'Mission.' 'Mission' was a mind game. The ideal mission was getting in and getting out without anyone ever knowing we were there. So the whole texture changed. Why volunteer to essentially have our characters commit suicide? I passed on it. The script wasn't that good either."

Change to theme song

The television version is in a rarely used 5/4 (5 beats to a measure) time and is difficult to dance to, as was proven by a memorable segment of American Bandstand in which teenage dancers were caught off-guard by Dick Clark's playing of the Lalo Schifrin single release.

The opening theme music for the first three films are stylized renditions of Lalo Schifrin's original iconic theme, preserving the 5/4 rhythm, by Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer, and Michael Giacchino respectively by the films' chronology. Most of the versions included in the score also retained the 5/4 time signature.

However, for Adam Clayton & Larry Mullen Jr.'s remix featured on the first film's motion picture soundtrack, the time signature was changed to standard pop 4/4 (4 beats to a measure) time to make it more dance-friendly, although the intro is still in 5/4 time. Also, the Limp Bizkit song "Take a Look Around" from the soundtrack to the second film was set to a similar 4/4 modification of the theme, with an interlude in 5/4.^{[citation needed]}