A television series with a self-destructing tape
MISSION Impossible began as an American television series in 1966, created by Bruce Geller. Each episode opened with the team leader collecting a secret recording that set out the week's mission and ended with the famous warning that the message would self-destruct in five seconds, before the tape went up in smoke. It ran for seven seasons. The first film, directed by Brian De Palma, came out in 1996.
The theme tune, written by Lalo Schifrin, is in an unusual rhythm with five beats in each bar instead of four, which gives it its restless, hurrying feel. It is one of the most recognisable pieces of television music ever written and is used in every film.
Tom Cruise does his own stunts
Tom Cruise, who plays ETHAN HUNT, is famous for performing his own dangerous stunts. In Ghost Protocol, released in 2011, he climbed the outside of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest building in the world, held on by cables that were removed digitally later. In Rogue Nation, in 2015, he hung on to the side of a huge military aircraft as it took off, several times.
For Fallout, in 2018, he learned to fly a HELICOPTER to perform a mountain chase himself, and broke his ankle jumping between buildings — the take where it happened is in the film. For Dead Reckoning, in 2023, he rode a MOTORCYCLE off a cliff and parachuted to the ground, after hundreds of practice skydives and thousands of motorcycle jumps.
The vault from above
The best-remembered scene of the first film, in 1996, has Ethan lowered on wires into a white, silent VAULT at the headquarters of an American spy agency, where any sound, change in temperature or touch on the floor will set off the alarms. A drop of sweat nearly gives him away. The scene has been copied and spoofed ever since.
Stunt performers and stunt co-ordinators plan every one of these moments for months, working out the rigging, the safety lines and the camera positions. Our TV and film jobs page covers the people who make scenes like this possible.
Masks, gadgets and the team
The series' favourite trick is the MASK: a lifelike face made of latex that lets one character DISGUISE themselves as another, peeled off at the moment of the big reveal. Real masks cannot do that, but the idea is so central that almost every film includes at least one.
LUTHER, the computer expert played by Ving Rhames, is the only character other than Ethan to appear in every film. BENJI joined as the technical wizard, and ILSA Faust, a British agent, became one of the most popular additions to the team.
The films are full of the vocabulary of ESPIONAGE: the SECRET AGENT and the SPY, the BRIEFING, the HEIST, SABOTAGE, a GADGET for every problem, and a STUNT at every turn.
Every mission involves a CLIMB, a chase and a plan that goes wrong, and Ethan escapes by RAPPEL down the side of a building more than once.