Mission: Impossible 2 | |
---|---|
Directed by | John Woo |
Screenplay by | Robert Towne |
Story by | |
Based on | Mission: Impossible by Bruce Geller |
Produced by | |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Jeffrey L. Kimball |
Edited by |
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Music by | Hans Zimmer |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures [1] |
Release date |
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Running time | 124 minutes [2] |
Countries | |
Language | English |
Budget | $120–125 million [3] [4] |
Box office | $546.3 million [4] |
Mission: Impossible 2 (titled onscreen as Mission: Impossible II and abbreviated as M:I-2) [1] is a 2000 action spy film directed by John Woo and produced by and starring Tom Cruise. It is the sequel to Mission: Impossible (1996) and the second installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. The film also stars Dougray Scott, Thandiwe Newton, Richard Roxburgh, John Polson, Brendan Gleeson, Rade Šerbedžija and Ving Rhames. In the film, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) teams with professional thief Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Newton) to secure a genetically modified disease held by rogue Impossible Missions Force (IMF) agent Sean Ambrose (Scott), who is Nordoff-Hall's former lover.
Mission: Impossible 2 was theatrically released in the United States by Paramount Pictures on May 24, 2000, and grossed $546 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of that year. Initial reactions from critics were mixed, with praise for the action sequences and Woo's direction, but criticism for the characterization. A sequel, Mission: Impossible III , was released in 2006.
In Sydney, bio-genetics scientist Dr. Vladimir Nekhorvich sends a message to the IMF for Dimitri (Ethan Hunt's cover name), his old friend, warning that his employer, Biocyte Pharmaceuticals, forced him to develop a biological weapon, the Chimera virus, to profit from the cure, Bellerophon. He injects himself with the virus, carrying Bellerophon in a bag. However, en route to Atlanta, IMF agent Sean Ambrose, who was disguised as Dimitri, goes rogue, betrays Nekhorvich, steals Bellerophon, and crashes the plane in the Rockies.
In Seville, IMF director Swanbeck informs Ethan about Ambrose's actions, tasks him with recovering Chimera and Bellerophon, and has him recruit Nyah Nordoff-Hall, a professional thief and Ambrose's ex-girlfriend. Despite her initial reluctance, Ethan gets her to trace Ambrose to Sydney using an injectable tracking device. Ethan assembles his team, old friend and computer hacker Luther Stickell and helicopter pilot Billy Baird, in Sydney while Nyah pretends to rekindle her relationship with Ambrose.
After Ambrose uses a video of Chimera infecting one of Nekhorvich's colleagues to blackmail Biocyte's CEO, John McCloy, into cooperation, Nyah gives Ethan the memory card containing the video, revealing that Chimera has a 20-hour dormant period; Bellerophon is only effective if used within that window. Ethan's team kidnaps McCloy and learns that the only Bellerophon samples, taken by Nekhorvich, are now in Ambrose's hands, but he doesn't have the virus, since Nekhorvich injected himself with it. Ethan breaks into Biocyte headquarters and destroys two samples of Chimera, but Ambrose's team ambushes him, having discovered Nyah's deception. At a stalemate, Ambrose orders Nyah to retrieve the virus' last sample, but she injects herself with it instead and begs Ethan to kill her to destroy the virus. Ethan refuses and flees the facility, promising to get her the cure.
Ambrose releases Nyah to wander the streets of Sydney, intending to start a pandemic. At Biocyte's storage facility on Bare Island, he offers to sell Bellerophon to McCloy in exchange for enough stock options to make him Biocyte's majority shareholder, enabling him and McCloy to make billions. Ethan infiltrates the base and fights Ambrose's right-hand man Hugh Stamp; Stamp seemingly brings a subdued Ethan to Ambrose, who executes him. However, Ambrose discovers that the dead "Ethan" is Stamp, masked and gagged, while the real Ethan has stolen the Bellerophon samples. Enraged, Ambrose and his men chase Ethan onto the mainland; Hunt kills them, while Luther and Billy locate Nyah, who has wandered to a cliffside to kill herself and prevent the outbreak.
Ethan kills Ambrose in a fistfight on the beach and gives Bellerophon to the arriving Luther, who injects Nyah with it. The IMF clears Nyah's criminal record and Ethan starts a vacation with her in Sydney.
Additionally, Anthony Hopkins appears in an uncredited cameo appearance as Mission Commander Swanbeck. [5] Tom Cruise's cousin William Mapother and Dominic Purcell appear as, respectively, Wallis and Ulrich, two of Ambrose's henchmen.
William Goldman says he was the first writer on the film. "All that's left of mine is the climax... the climbing up the rocks sequence," he said. "I couldn't come up with a good villain and Bob Towne did." [6]
According to screenwriter Robert Towne, several action sequences were already planned for the film prior to his involvement and before the story had been written. [7] Ian McKellen was offered the part of Mission Commander Swanbeck but turned it down. [8]
Ronald D. Moore & Brannon Braga's draft of the script included Willy Armitage as one of the team members, though the role would have been recast with a younger actor instead of original cast member Peter Lupus. [9]
The studio expressed concern about the safety of filming Tom Cruise's entrance scene, in which he is free solo climbing at Dead Horse Point State Park in Moab, Utah. [10] Cruise refused to drop the idea because he could not think of a better way to reintroduce the character. There was no safety net as he filmed the sequence, but he did have a harness and a thin wire. [11] He tore his shoulder when performing the jump from one part of the cliff to another. [12]
Thandiwe Newton discussed her unpleasant on-set experiences with Cruise during the shooting of the balcony sequence in a 2020 interview. According to Newton, Cruise was heavily stressed over the expectations of the sequel being good and was upset during the shooting of said scene because she had "the shittiest lines." The two decided to reverse roleplay each other as practice. However, it was unhelpful for her and pushed her "into a place of terror and insecurity." After the shooting was finished for the day, she contacted Jonathan Demme, telling him what happened. Looking back on that day, Newton said about Cruise, "Bless him. And I really do mean bless him because he was trying his damnedest." [13] [14] [15]
During the final fight scene between Ethan Hunt and Sean Ambrose, Tom Cruise insisted that a real knife be used. The knife was attached to a cable and was carefully measured to stop a quarter of an inch from Tom Cruise's eyeball, and the actor asked Dougray Scott to put his full strength down on the knife to get a realistic look for the scene.
The film's original score was composed and conducted by Hans Zimmer and features vocals performed by Lisa Gerrard. [16] In addition, the film includes contemporary music such as Limp Bizkit's rendition of Lalo Schifrin's Mission: Impossible theme entitled "Take a Look Around" as well as Metallica's "I Disappear". [17]
While Ethan is rock climbing during his holiday, Zap Mama's remixed version of "Iko Iko" plays on the soundtrack.
About the score, Zimmer said: "The love theme from Mission: Impossible [II] was written about 6 weeks before they started shooting. I was on it that early. Then, we had a big meeting in Australia. They had the love theme, and I knew what the story was about, and I always thought it was about these two men being in love with the girl. So I said to the record company guy, "Look, here's one thing I would love you to do, when you find bands for me, make them all female. Make them all about sirens." Of course, what did I get? A bunch of heavy metal bands with guys. I promise you, it would have been a better movie, and it would have been a better score." [18]
In 2024, Diego Pineda Pacheco from Collider singled out Mission: Impossible 2 as one of Zimmer’s most underrated scores especially for the Injection scene: "The film's score is imbued with Spanish influences, filling the romance at the core of the narrative with passion and flair." [19]
Mission: Impossible 2 was released on VHS and DVD on November 7, 2000, [20] [21] with a rare Japanese LaserDisc release following on April 3, 2001 [22] (released late in the format's life), with a potential North American release of this LaserDisc being cancelled in mid-2001. [23] A Blu-ray release followed on June 3, 2008, and an Ultra HD Blu-ray version was released on June 26, 2018. [24]
On opening day, Mission: Impossible 2 made $12.5 million, making it the fourth-highest-grossing Wednesday opening, behind Men in Black , Independence Day and Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace . At that time, it had the largest number of screenings, playing at 3,653 theaters and beating Scream 3 . [25] The film would go on to hold this record until it was surpassed by Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone the following year. [26] It grossed $57,845,297, crossing over Toy Story 2 to have the third-highest-grossing opening weekend of all time, behind The Lost World: Jurassic Park and The Phantom Menace. [27] Moreover, the film surpassed its predecessor Mission: Impossible for not only having the highest-grossing opening weekend for a film based on a TV show, but also the largest opening weekend for any Paramount film. It also dethroned Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me for scoring the biggest opening weekend for a spy film, a position it held until 2002. [27] The TV show opening weekend record would be held for seven years until the The Simpsons Movie was released in 2007. [28]
When Mission: Impossible 2 first opened, the film was ranked number one at the US box office, topping out Dinosaur and Shanghai Noon . [29] In its second weekend, it collected a total of $27 million, while outgrossing Big Momma's House . [30] It held on to the number one spot for a total of two weekends until it was overtaken by Gone in 60 Seconds . [31] Around this time, the film went on to become the highest-grossing film of the year in the US, beating Gladiator . [32] It would remain so until that December when it was dethroned by How the Grinch Stole Christmas . [33]
It started its international release on June 1, 2000 and topped the Australian box office with a gross of $3.7 million (A$6.4 million) in its opening 4-day weekend from 366 screens, a record for United International Pictures. [34] It was a big success in Japan, recording the second biggest opening ever behind Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace with a gross of $13.6 million from 356 screens, grossing over $50 million in just over three weeks and $94 million in total. [35] [36] [4] The film also delivered the third-highest opening in Spain with $2.9 million, after the latter film and The Sixth Sense . [37] It recorded the biggest July opening in Germany with a four-day gross of $7.9 million and had record openings in Austria ($1.3 million) and Russia ($0.3 million). [35]
The film eventually grossed $215,409,889 in the United States and Canada and $330,978,216 in other territories for a total worldwide gross of $546,388,105, making it the highest-grossing film of 2000. [4] It is John Woo's highest-grossing film, surpassing Face/Off , and was the highest-grossing film in the Mission: Impossible series until the release of the fourth film, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol , in 2011.
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes indicates Mission: Impossible 2 has an overall approval rating of 56% based on 155 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Your cranium may crave more substance, but your eyes will feast on the amazing action sequences." [38] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 59 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [39] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, down from the first film's "B+". [40]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film three stars, stating "if the first movie was entertaining as sound, fury, and movement, this one is more evolved, more confident, more sure-footed in the way it marries minimal character development to seamless action." [41] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly felt the film was a "throwaway pleasure" but also "a triumph of souped-up action." [42] Ella Taylor of LA Weekly said that "every car chase, every plane crash, every potential drop off a cliff is a masterpiece of grace and surprise." [43] Desson Howe of The Washington Post said that "[John] Woo [...] takes complete command of the latest technology to create brilliant action sequences." [44]
J. Hoberman of The Village Voice called the film "a vaguely absurd thriller filled with elaborately superfluous setups and shamelessly stale James Bond riffs." [45] Dennis Harvey of Variety said the film is "even more empty a luxury vehicle than its predecessor" and that it "pushes the envelope in terms of just how much flashy packaging an audience will buy when there's absolutely nada inside." [46] Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader said that "no hero or villain winds up carrying any moral weight at all." [47]
In a retrospective commentary in 2012, Brad Brevet noted the film has significant similarities in plot and themes to Alfred Hitchcock's 1946 film Notorious . [48]
Mission: Impossible 2 won both Best Male Performance for Tom Cruise and Best Action Sequence at the MTV Movie Awards. [49] However, it was also nominated for two Golden Raspberry Awards at the 2000 ceremony, including Worst Remake or Sequel and Worst Supporting Actress for Thandiwe Newton [50] as well as nominated for a Stinker Award at the 2000 ceremony for Worst Song (Limp Bizkit's "Take a Look Around"). [51]
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV is an American actor and producer. Regarded as a Hollywood icon, he has received various accolades, including an Honorary Palme d'Or and three Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for four Academy Awards. His films have grossed over $5 billion in North America and over $12 billion worldwide, placing him among the highest-grossing actors of all time. Cruise holds the Guinness World Record for the most consecutive $100-million-grossing movies, a feat that was achieved during the period of 2012 to 2018. One of the most bankable stars, he is consistently one of the world's highest-paid actors.
Simon John Pegg is an English actor, comedian and screenwriter. He came to prominence in the UK as the co-creator of the Channel 4 sitcom Spaced (1999–2001), directed by Edgar Wright. He and Wright co-wrote the films Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and The World's End (2013), known collectively as the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, all of which saw Wright directing and Pegg starring alongside Nick Frost. Pegg and Frost also wrote and starred in the sci-fi comedy film Paul (2011).
Christopher McQuarrie is an American filmmaker. He received the BAFTA Award, Independent Spirit Award, and Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the neo-noir mystery film The Usual Suspects (1995). He made his directorial debut with the crime thriller film The Way of the Gun (2000).
Melanie Thandiwe Newton, formerly credited as Thandie Newton, is a British actress. She has received various awards, including a Primetime Emmy Award, and a BAFTA Award, as well as nominations for two Golden Globe Awards. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to film and charity.
Irving Rameses Rhames is an American actor. He is best known for portraying IMF Agent Luther Stickell in the Mission: Impossible film series (1996–present) and crime boss Marsellus Wallace in Pulp Fiction (1994).
Mission: Impossible is a 1996 American action spy film directed by Brian De Palma and produced by and starring Tom Cruise from a screenplay by David Koepp and Robert Towne and story by Koepp and Steven Zaillian. A continuation of the 1966 television series of the same name and its 1988 sequel series, it is the first installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. It also stars Jon Voight, Henry Czerny, Emmanuelle Béart, Jean Reno, Ving Rhames, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Vanessa Redgrave. In the film, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) seeks to uncover who framed him for the murders of most of his Impossible Missions Force (IMF) team.
Mission: Impossible III is a 2006 American action spy film directed by J. J. Abrams and produced by and starring Tom Cruise, from a screenplay by Abrams and the writing team of Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. It is the sequel to Mission: Impossible (1996) and Mission: Impossible 2 (2000) and the third installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. It also stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ving Rhames, Michelle Monaghan, Billy Crudup, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Keri Russell, Maggie Q and Laurence Fishburne. In Mission: Impossible III, retired Impossible Mission Force (IMF) agent and trainer Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is forced to return to active duty to capture elusive arms dealer Owen Davian (Hoffman).
Mission: Impossible is an action-adventure video game developed by Infogrames and loosely based on the 1996 film of the same name. It was originally released for the Nintendo 64 video game console in 1998. In the game, the player assumes the role of Ethan Hunt, an Impossible Missions Force (IMF) agent who must clear his name after a mole has infiltrated the IMF team. The game features 20 levels where the player must complete several mission objectives with the use of numerous high-tech gadgets.
Ethan Matthew Hunt is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Mission: Impossible film series. He is portrayed by Tom Cruise. The character of Ethan Hunt is a highly skilled field agent and operative for the Impossible Mission Force (IMF), a secret government agency that handles dangerous and high-stakes missions.
Mission: Impossible – Operation Surma is an action-adventure stealth video game developed by Paradigm Entertainment and published by Atari for Game Boy Advance, Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube. The game takes place between Mission: Impossible 2 and Mission: Impossible III.
Tom Cruise is an American actor and producer who made his film debut with a minor role in the 1981 romantic drama Endless Love. Two years later, he made his breakthrough by starring in the romantic comedy Risky Business (1983), which garnered his first nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. In 1986, Cruise played a naval aviator in the Tony Scott-directed action drama Top Gun which was the highest-grossing film of the year, and also appeared with Paul Newman in the Martin Scorsese-directed drama The Color of Money. Two years later, he starred with Dustin Hoffman in the drama Rain Man (1988). His next role was as anti-war activist Ron Kovic in the film adaptation of Kovic's memoir of the same name, Born on the Fourth of July (1989), for which he received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama.
Luther Stickell is a fictional character in the Mission: Impossible film series who first appeared in the 1996 film Mission: Impossible and is the only character besides Ethan Hunt to appear in every film to date.
Mission: Impossible is a series of American action spy films, based on the 1966 TV series created by Bruce Geller. The series is mainly produced by Tom Cruise, who plays Ethan Hunt, an agent of the Impossible Missions Force (IMF). The films have been directed, written, and scored by various filmmakers and crew, while incorporating musical themes from the original series by Lalo Schifrin.
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is a 2011 American action spy film directed by Brad Bird from a screenplay by the writing team of Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec, who also serve as co-producers. Produced by Tom Cruise, J. J. Abrams, and Bryan Burk, it is the sequel to Mission: Impossible III (2006) and is the fourth installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. The film stars Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, and Paula Patton, with Michael Nyqvist, Vladimir Mashkov, Josh Holloway, Anil Kapoor, and Léa Seydoux in supporting roles. In the film, the Impossible Missions Force (IMF) is shut down after being publicly implicated in a bombing of the Kremlin, causing Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team to go without resources or backup in a life-threatening effort to clear their names.
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation is a 2015 American action spy film written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie from a story by McQuarrie and Drew Pearce. It is the sequel to Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) and the fifth installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. It stars Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris and Alec Baldwin. It follows Impossible Missions Force agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team, who, subsequent to their disbandment and Hunt's pursuit by the Central Intelligence Agency, must fight The Syndicate, an international group of rogue government agents.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout is a 2018 American action spy film written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie. The sequel to Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015), it is the sixth installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. The ensemble cast includes Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Angela Bassett, Vanessa Kirby, Michelle Monaghan, and Alec Baldwin. Set two years after the events of Rogue Nation, Fallout follows Impossible Missions Force agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team in their efforts to prevent a nuclear attack by terrorist Solomon Lane and the mysterious extremist John Lark.
Top Gun: Maverick is a 2022 American action drama film directed by Joseph Kosinski and written by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie from stories by Peter Craig and Justin Marks. The film is a sequel to the 1986 film Top Gun. Tom Cruise reprises his starring role as the naval aviator Maverick. It is based on the characters of the original film created by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. It also stars Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Monica Barbaro, Lewis Pullman, Ed Harris and Val Kilmer, who reprises his role as Iceman. The story involves Maverick confronting his past while training a group of younger Top Gun graduates, including the son of his deceased best friend, for a dangerous mission.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is a 2023 American spy action film directed by Christopher McQuarrie from a screenplay he co-wrote with Erik Jendresen. It is the sequel to Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) and the seventh installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. It stars Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, alongside an ensemble cast including Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Mariela Garriga, and Henry Czerny. In the film, Hunt and his IMF team face off against the Entity, a powerful rogue AI.
The untitled eighth Mission: Impossible film is an upcoming American spy action film directed by Christopher McQuarrie from a screenplay he co-wrote with Erik Jendresen. It is the direct sequel to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) and the eighth installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, and Henry Czerny all reprise their roles from the previous film in the series.