Back to 'Mission's' beginning

Friday, May 5, 2006

P-I STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES

"Mission: Impossible III," starring Tom Cruise and Philip Seymour Hoffman, opened early today with several midnight screenings. A full-length review by P-I movie critic William Arnold can be found online. Arnold, giving it a C+, says, "the air of deja vu is stifling."

So just how did we get to this third installment, anyway?

Here's a franchise recap:

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE

Director: Brian De Palma ("Scarface," "The Untouchables")

Premise: Someone has killed all but two members of Ethan Hunt's IMF team, and the super spy must go deep undercover to find out who did it and clear his own name.

Budget: $80 million

U.S. box office: $180.9 million

Signature scene: Tom Cruise's Hunt is lowered into a high-security chamber at CIA's Langley, Va., headquarters via cables and a pulley system. He acrobatically hovers inches from the floor and the chamber's alarm system. (The scene is later spoofed in "Shrek 2," with Pinocchio in Cruise's role.)

Fast fact: Peter Graves, who originally played Jim Phelps in the TV series, reportedly turned down the role in the film after he learned the character is killed.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II

Director: John Woo ("Face/Off," "Broken Arrow")

Premise: Hunt must find a genetically created disease called Chimera before a rogue IMF agent gets his hands on it and infects millions.

Budget: $125 million

U.S. box office: $215.4 million

Signature scene: At the outset, Cruise's Hunt is vacationing on the side of a vertical wall of rock while making a tetherless ascent near Moab. While Iko Iko plays in the background, he leaps from one grip to the next -- only to find the IMF waiting for him at the top with a new mission.

Fast fact: The script allegedly was written specifically to accommodate a handful of stunts and scenes that Woo already was set on filming.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III

Director: J.J. Abrams (creator of TV's "Lost," "Alias")

Premise: Hunt comes out of semi-retirement to handle a sadistic arms dealer and rescue his girlfriend.

Budget: $150 million

Signature scene: In one of "M:I:III's" most spectacular stunts, Cruise's Hunt dives from the top of a Shanghai skyscraper. When Hunt reaches the end of his tether, a "pendulum effect" kicks him in the other direction, and he lands on the roof of another skyscraper. The same Shanghai building is involved in another of the movie's stunts, this one bringing Hunt face-to-face with a jackknifed semi-truck.

Fast fact: The $150 million price tag is believed to be the biggest budget ever given a first-time director (Abrams).