I’ve got to be honest, I really enjoyed ’Mission: Impossible 2’. At times, I feel like I was the only one – it received an almost universal panning from film critics, and the general public at large, for having a ’’confusing and implausible plot’’, and for having ’’infeasible technology’’. Often these comments came from exactly the same people who enthusiastically praised the recent Pierce Brosnan Bond films, which seems odd because if anything, the plot of ’Mission: Impossible 2’ is more plausible than that of recent Bond films. The villains of the piece are as lunatic as those of Bond films, but at least they’re not unrealistic in their goals – where Bond villains almost always seek world domination, the villains of this film merely seek financial rewards. Also, at least as far as I’m concerned, the direction of ’Mission: Impossible 2’ is vastly superior to that of the Bond films, having been directed by the incredibly talented Hong Kong director John Woo.
So, the plot basically concerns a pharmaceuticals company by the name of Biocyte, based in Sydney, Australia, which is seeking to develop a cure for influenza. In order to produce an effective cure, the company splices together the genomes of numerous strains of the virus, which ultimately leads to their production of not only an extremely virulent strain of the disease (’’Chimera’’) but also a cure for it (’’Bellerophon’’). When Doctor Nekhorvich (Rade Serbedzija), a researcher at Biocyte, learns of his company’s plans to release Chimera into the population at large, and then sell Bellerophon to produce massive profits, he contacts the Impossible Mission Force to shepherd him safety to the Centre for Disease Control, where he can provide them with samples of both the virus and its cure. In order to carry the virus, Nekhorvich has to inject himself with a sample of it, as it can only be maintained in a living organism. Unfortunately, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) isn’t available to chaperone Nekhorvich on his flight to Atlanta, Agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) doubles for him. However, Ambrose incapacitates the crew and passengers, steals the sample of Bellerophon from Nekhorvich, so he can blackmail Biocyte, and escapes with it, leaving the plane to crash.
It is at this point that the new head of IMF, Swanbeck (Anthony Hopkins), contacts Ethan Hunt to come in and sort out the whole mess, telling him to recruit the beautiful thief, Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandie Newton).
Now, I’ve provided quite a lot of detail of the story of the film. Arguably too much, but I haven’t given away anything that isn’t explained in the first 20 minutes of the film. I’ve also provided this much detail because many people claim that the plot is confusing, and doesn’t make any sense. I can’t see any great problem with the plot, but there is a lot of exposition in a very short period of time and it does assume a small amount of knowledge of pharmacology, so I can see why the difficulty might occur.
One of the many criticisms levelled at the film is that the Chimera virus should infect everyone that anyone infected with it comes in contact with. I don’t have any great problem with this aspect of the plot. Like any other disease it has an incubation time, during which the infected person would not be infectious. Even more compelling is the fact that the Chimera virus had been genetically engineered – so it’s plausible that they might have somehow engineered a delay on the infectivity of the virus.
Another oft-heard criticism concerns the frequent use of masks which not only change the bone structure of the faces of those wearing them, but also their body shape, height, and eye colour. This isn’t a new problem – ’Mission: Impossible’ had exactly the same fantastic masks, and it’s really not such a ridiculous conceit to have to accept in order to watch the film.
The stunts in the film are absolutely superb, and have been superbly directed by John Woo. There’s an extraordinary car chase between Hunt and Nordoff-Hall near the beginning of the film, which ends with the cars spinning out of control towards a cliff edge. There’s an impressive descent by Hunt on a rope similar to that featured in the first ’Mission: Impossible’ film. But, most impressively, there are some incredible motorbike stunts towards the end of the film, which are truly exceptional. Again, from some quarters, these have received criticism because the bikes used ’’wouldn’t be capable of the stunts they are used for in the film’’, specifically travelling along on the rear wheel only. Quite apart from being a trivial and inconsequential criticism of the film, this is also inaccurate – there is a group of American bike enthusiasts who regularly perform this stunt.
Yes, it is Woo doing all the things Woo’s done before. But he does it well, and ’Mission: Impossible 2’ is a clear testament to this. I also can’t help thinking that if it hadn’t been for John Woo in the director’s chair, Tom Cruise would never have agreed to being involved in the dangerous stunt near the end of the film involving a knife! Woo has a great eye for detail, and the quality of the effects and direction throughout the film reflect his skills brilliantly.
The acting is even pretty good, supposing you can stomach Richard Roxburgh’s Sout Efrican ecksent and John Polson’s overenthusiasm. The dialogue’s functional – nothing special, but since when has dialogue been important to an action movie? I even enjoyed the music, including the work of Metallica and Limp Bizkit. At two hours, I can accept that some might think the film was a little overlong, but it didn’t ever seem to drag to me, and the pacing is pretty good on the whole.
I can’t understand why there has been so much negative criticism of ’Mission: Impossible 2’, it almost seemed that critics were out to condemn it for the most trivial of reasons. It has to be said that overall the film is fantasy – there has to be a certain amount of suspension of disbelief on the part of the viewer, just as there was with the television series, and as there is with the Bond films. It seems odd that so many people who were quick to support the latest incarnation of Fleming’s hero seem so eager to criticise such a similar premise. As far as I’m concerned, ’Mission: Impossible 2’ is a very good action film, with some incredible direction, and some truly astonishing stunts.
I watched the Paramount Region 2 DVD release of ’Mission: Impossible 2’, which is one of the most incredibly well presented DVDs I have yet encountered. The first thing that impressed me with the disc was that I didn’t have to sit through a tedious and unskippable series of production company logos before being presented with the menu. The animated menu was well presented, and the extras on the disc were superb. These included a documentary on the making of the film, a short featurette focussing on the film’s stunts, a series of 11 short films about the filming of each stunt, a commentary on the film by John Woo, the Metallica music video (’I Disappear’), and an alternate title sequence. However, the highlight of the disc is unquestionably the parody ’Mission Improbable’ featuring comedian Ben Stiller as Tom Crooze, an incompetent stunt double for Tom Cruise, who has followed his career and turns up at the making of all of his films.