Mission: Impossible - original series vs. the films
6I’m a huge fan of the original Mission: Impossible series of the '60s and '70s. The teamwork, the intellectual approach, the elaborate and detail planning, the (sometimes suspend-what-you-know) technology, the getting the bad guys to create their own demise, was its appeal to me. I’ve seen trailers, reviews, and synopses of some of the films–I have no interest in seeing the films after that–and they seem to be to be a nearly-complete discarding of the concept of what Mission: Impossble was. The films seem to be a Tom Cruise action movie show, featuring daredevil stunts and a one-man (Tom Cruise) focus. Am I alone is thinking this way, to the point of almost being disgusted at the misuse of the name of the series?
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Put Tom in a slightly more colorful costume, give him a nickname, and it could be a Marvel movie.
The movies are generic action films, nothing at all to do with Mission: Impossible.
Well, they do use the magic mask tech a few times.
@blaineg By magic mask tech, I’m guessing you mean the master of disguise skills that Paris had in the original series, right?
@blaineg @ItalianScallion I disagree that they have nothing to do with Mission: Impossible.
I’m a fan of both.
The first movie is about what happens when an operation fails and an agent finally gets disavowed. The surviving agent(s) form a new team with other disavowed former agents, make elaborate and detailed plans, fun technology to pull off a caper to find out who betrayed them. Plot twist highly likely to tick off fans of the original series.
Second movie is John Woo’s worst action film (at the time). Skip it.
Third movie and beyond all feature a somewhat consistent team of agents working together, making elaborate and detailed plans using technology to get the bad guys. Said bad guys only sometimes orchestrate their own demise. Sometimes members of the team can’t be trusted.
There is a focus on Tom Cruise’s character, Ethan Hunt. Most of the rest of the team is generally in support of getting him where he needs to be to do what he needs to do. Stakes are often very personal to Ethan Hunt, which is pretty much par for the course for big-budget movies. The Daniel Craig Bond films did the same thing, acknowledging that there were sometimes personal stakes in the older Bond films.
@blaineg @ItalianScallion @Limewater
I’ve never seen any of them because of I heard something about the plot of number one that really pissed me off
But Tom Cruise is great in these sorts of films so someday I’ll probably watch them
@Limewater, your take on the movies as a fan of the original series is just what I was looking for to understand how the movies have been faithful to the series and gone wrong. Thanks!
@f00l Yeah, it was hearing about the first one that pissed me off too. The plot, as described by @Limewater, doesn’t seem like a betrayal of the series, but the action film bent of it and those that follow are what drove me away from the movie francise from the start.
@blaineg @ItalianScallion Rollin Hand before Paris. Both SF stars one before one after.
And yeah. the movies suck. I did watch part of the first one. Just a venue for TC to be in. And I dun like the bastich
I loved the series as a kid and did enjoy the movie, I THINK I saw the second one… Holy crap, there have been SEVEN OF THEM?!?
@ItalianScallion @Limewater
If what I heard about the plot of the first Tom Cruise MI film is true, it totally did betray some key things about the tv series.
At least to me it did.
And was also the reason none of the original tv cast would do roles or cameos in that film.
I heard the cast crew and writers of the tv series were all upset.
Not about the change from being “a clever group hack of reality” to action/adventure
Another kind of betrayal was the prob.
(If what I heard was true about the 1st movie plot.)
But … It’s been umpteen decades now. Would watch one of the films if it were playing at s friend’s house.
@f00l @ItalianScallion I appreciate that we’re still carefully talking around spoilers for a movie that is thirty years old.
But yeah, the thing you’re alluding to is a pretty big deal and, as I mentioned, highly likely to tick off lots of fans of the original series.
My understanding is that no members of the original series were asked to be involved in the film, and some were disappointed to not be invited to the premier. But I think the choice not to invite them was intentional and none of them knew about it.
I’m honestly not real happy about it, either, but I’m more generally open to adaptations making major changes to the source material than some. I liked the 2016 Ghostbusters better than the more recent Ghostbusters films, and I liked both the novel Starship Troopers and the film adaptation, despite the film being a mockery of the book.
@blaineg @ItalianScallion Speaking of masks, check out The Naked Gun 2025.
@ItalianScallion @Limewater
I heard they filmmakers talked to Peter Graves about being in the first film and he said No Way.
But as you mentioned this is 30 years ago or something and maybe my memory is wrong on some of the stuff I do know that he and some of the other original cast and writers and producers were terribly pissed off
But it’s been so long I have no clue anymore
@blaineg @ItalianScallion @sammydog01
OMG!
I used to think the original series was boring. But I started watching it when, I think, the Decades Channel first started (which I think is now Catchy Comedies), and fell in love with its absolute absurdity. It felt like The Avengers without a sense of humor and with a lot more people. So the appeal to me seems different than the appeal to you, but YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT AND I TOO HAVE ZERO INTEREST IN THE MOVIES. If there is no chance of seeing Cinnamon disguised as as sexy German girl again, or Jim in a jet-black wig, if I’m not understanding Paris’ weird traumatic circus backstory or whatever it was, it’s NOT Mission: Impossible. End of story.
But I’m still mad about the Disney treatment of Mary Poppins, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
@mossygreen
How did Disney mess up Mary Poppins remake?
(Besides not starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke?)
@mossygreen Yeah, there certainly was absurdity, especially in describing the technology. A coin battery sized transmitter that had kilowatts of power? A combination of something added to food and/or drink and a special bulb in a shower/bathroom light fixture that would turn someone’s skin from white to black? Now they require quite a suspension of disbelief.
And yes on Cinnamon, but YES on Dana Lambert. Too bad Lesley Ann Warren was gone after only one season.
@ItalianScallion @mossygreen The TV show was definitely better. Now can we talk about The Man from U.N.C.L.E.?
@ItalianScallion @mossygreen @sammydog01
illya kuryakin
such a 1960s take on a Russian, sorta like Mr. Checkov.
@mossygreen @sammydog01 Sure! Maybe you would like to start a new thread for that or maybe a general series-vs-movies thread (like I should have here)?
@f00l Oh, I didn’t mean the remake. I grew up on the books before seeing the movie when I was about 6 years old, and I was very disappointed. There are many things I like/love about Disney, but they have always dumbed everything down to what they think is the lowest common denominator and sometimes it guts the original property. Similar to Mission: Impossible!
@f00l @mossygreen I agree about Disney dumbing it down, but as a kid, I LOVED Julie Andrews, so I’m grateful to them for that.
@Cerridwyn @ItalianScallion @mossygreen @sammydog01
Ilya Kuryakin.
Once upon a time everyone in elementary school was in love w him.
@mossygreen
I liked the MP book. Was soft as a kid on the first film as Mary Poppins.
But … Julie Andrews and DVD are just so appealing on screen. I loved the film for them. Still do.
(Not because the first film connected me to the book.)
@Cerridwyn @f00l @ItalianScallion @mossygreen I showed my daughter an episode and said ‘That’s Ducky from NCIS”. She didn’t believe me.
I went to see the movie last night. It was 2 hours and 49 minutes plus 25 minutes of ads and trailers. WHY IS IT SO LONG I COULD HAVE WATCHED SO MUCH PETER GRAVES IN THAT TIME.
Although every time I see him I think about gladiator movies.
@sammydog01
I so loved the original TV show cast.