‘Mission: Impossible’
Mission: Impossible exploded into movie theaters on Memorial Day weekend in 1996, 25 years ago this week. The movie potently combined A-list star wattage (Tom Cruise near his apex of movie superstardom), auteur-driven action set pieces (courtesy of director Brian De Palma), and beloved yet highly malleable IP (the original M:I television show ran for 7 seasons), which served as a template for how to make an international four-quadrant blockbuster franchise — one that’s still spinning off exciting sequels all these years later. It’s no slander to the excellent Fallout or Ghost Protocol to say that the original film remains the best in the series, due in large part to its brilliant (yet eternally confusing) screenplay penned by David Koepp and Robert Towne. Let’s pour one out for Emilio Estevez, though; he missed out on many, many big paydays after being brutally staked in the eyesocket in the franchise’s very first scene.