It’s the final installment of our look through the best scenes of each of the Mission Impossible films. You thought I was going with the climb, didn’t you? Suckered you with the photo, no, while the climb is the iconic scene from Ghost Protocol, to me the funniest and most creative scene was how Tom Cruise and Simon Pegg infiltrate a hallway deep within The Kremlin. It doesn’t even need sound. It works as silent film comedy.
Brad Bird took over this installment, directing his first-ever live action film (he had previously worked in animation directing The Iron Giant and The Incredibles) and, like JJ Abrams, had no trouble making the leap to a new format. Ghost Protocol is, in my opinion, the best film of the series and I’ll tell you why I give it the edge over Mi:III, which is nearly as good. Previous installments of the series hadn’t had much continuity to them aside from the gimmicks and the characters, but at the end of the third film, Ethan Hunt gets married. Rather than ignore that rather confining element, Bird uses the very end of the film to show Hunt watching his wife (clearly being very protected) from afar with a look that knows that’s a life he’s never going to get. That was almost the best scene also. Fantastic movie and I hope Chris McQuarrie gives us another great one in July 2015.
I know this is a cliche, but it’s distressing that Iron Giant bombed, and remains a cult film instead having the wide audience it deserves.
I’m with you, the hallway scene was awesome and clued me in that a very inventive movie was about to follow. I am following Bird with a lot of interest, and I believe he has an amazing career ahead of him (not that his career hasn’t been amazing so far).
Bird’s work is filled with wonderful set pieces as well as a ton of little imaginative conceits, and there is always an overall sense of happiness, a sense of joy being taken in the proceedings. And since when is the fourth film in a franchise ever the best, ever?
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Star Trek IV arguably, but other than that, yeah this is a very unique franchise. I am really excited to see what’s in store in Tomorrowland. I’ve also followed him since The Iron Giant, WHICH SHOULD BE WATCHED BY ALL, and he’s very selective about what he does so I have a pretty high degree of confidence that we’re in for a great time in May
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Are you a Voyage Home guy too? I always wondered if it was just because I wasn’t a Trekker.
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I think it’s the most easily accessible of all the Trek movies because essentially it’s a straight up sci-fi comedy. It’s the first of the films I ever saw and it interested me enough to get me onboard.
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