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The truth behind M:I-2 's most dangerous stunt

Director John Woo says Tom Cruise's life dangled by a thread

Liane Bonin is a senior writer for EW.com

If heights give you the heebie-jeebies, you may want to keep your eyes wide shut during the opening scene of Mission: Impossible 2 (in theaters May 24). Tom Cruise scales a vertigo-inducing cliff with his bare hands, leaps over a deadly drop, then hangs from a rock ledge by his fingertips before pulling himself up to safety. If you can't figure out how the producers found a stunt double who looks so much like the 37-year-old star, that's because they didn't. "It was all Tom up there," says producer Paula Wagner. "So of course, we had some really nail-biting moments."

Cruise, who is also a producer on the film, insisted on performing the sequence wearing only a thin safety cable, and he vetoed a small-scale cliff that had been constructed by the set department. Even though Cruise had two rock climbing experts on the set to guide him, his decision didn't sit well with director John Woo ( Face/Off ). "I was really mad that he wanted to do it, but I tried to stop him and I couldn't," Woo says. "I was so scared I was sweating. I couldn't even watch the monitor when we shot it."

Unfortunately for Woo, it took seven takes under the blazing Moab, Utah, sun to get the scene right. "We had five cameras on the cliff, including a helicopter camera, a camera on a crane, and cameramen hanging from safety cables, but we had focus problems, so we had to do it again and again," he says. "But Tom would say, 'I'm okay, John, don't worry, I want to do it one more time."'

Though Cruise's decision to perform his own stunts, including dangling from a helicopter six stories above the ground, didn't carry over to the rest of the crew (a lighting double refused to step in for one of Cruise's costars during a helicopter stunt), everyone seems to agree that his derring-do made a difference in the finished product. "The opening sequence just wouldn't have been the same if he hadn't done it himself," says costar John Polson. "No amount of special effects can make you feel like that, because you can tell that it's really just him."

'Mission: Impossible 2' Tried, And Failed, To Turn Tom Cruise Into An American James Bond

controfigura tom cruise mission impossible 2

(Welcome to Man on a Mission , a monthly series where we revisit the films of the Mission: Impossible franchise as we sprint toward the release of the seventh film.)

The first Mission: Impossible pulled off a critical achievement of Tom Cruise's career: it turned him into as close to an Americanized James Bond as possible. The 1996 origin story of IMF agent Ethan Hunt was massively successful, grossing nearly $180 million at the box office at a time when such figure were rarely reached by blockbusters. But while Mission: Impossible covered many of the bases of a Bondian spy thriller – seemingly death-defying action setpieces, a globe-trotting story, and strange little gadgets that come in handy at key moments of suspense – there was one area in which the first film failed to gain much traction. James Bond is a suave action hero, yes, but he's also as successful in bedding women as he is with taking down bad guys.

If Ethan Hunt wanted to be a true James Bond, then, he'd have to have his own kind of Bond girl. And so we arrive at the operatic world of Mission: Impossible 2 .

A Walk In the Park

Mission: Impossible 2 wastes very little time making clear that it's very different stylistically and tonally from its Brian De Palma-directed predecessor. Yes, Cruise has returned as Ethan Hunt, but the opening scene immediately challenges our perception of Cruise and introduces the first of many villainous figures in the franchise who's villainous simply by representing the antithesis of our hero and the agency he represents. Ethan's first apparently seen on a plane from Sydney, accompanying a Russian scientist (Rade Sherbedgia) to the States under an alias. As the scientist refreshes his old pal's memory (or just delivers helpful exposition to the audience), we learn that he's created both a deadly biological weapon, Chimera, and its only cure, Bellerophon, so ordered by a powerful biochemical company to rake in profits by using the cure to withstand the weapon.

But it soon becomes clear that Ethan isn't really Ethan. Instead, he's IMF agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott), intended to double as Ethan to get the scientist to safety...until Ambrose is revealed to have gone rogue, killing the scientist and causing the plane to crash after escaping to safety. Ethan's brought in by his mission commander (Anthony Hopkins), with the mission of using Ambrose's old flame Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandiwe Newton) to get close to the rogue agent and stop him from unleashing the biological weapon upon the world. To do so, Ethan will need a small team of his own (including his old friend Luther Stickell) while also wooing and falling for Nyah even as he sends her off to play a double-dealing diva.

Mission: Impossible 2 represents the limits of what Tom Cruise can do as Ethan Hunt in this franchise. When we first meet the real Ethan, we see him push himself to his physical limits, as he free-climbs the side of a cliff face as part of a strange excuse for a vacation. But the first film – and subsequent entries – show that Cruise can do just about anything physically, or at least that he's willing to do so even if he gets hurt in the process. What Mission: Impossible 2 tries, and fails at, is turning Ethan into as much of a suave romantic lead as Agent 007 is. On the surface, it should work perfectly. Cruise and Newton are both very attractive people, and director John Woo's camera never fails to emphasize their physical attributes. Just looking at them, it makes sense that Ethan and Nyah would meet cute at a party where he catches her trying to steal a precious jewel, before having their first love scene while in a car that dangles off the side of a cliff.

A Film Of Extremes

Mission: Impossible 2 is best appreciated as a film of extremes. Not that subsequent entries in the franchise don't push Ethan Hunt (and the audience) to levels never thought before possible, but the emotional highs of this film are vastly different from the 1996 predecessor. Screenwriter Robert Towne – who acknowledged that when he was brought onto the film, the action scenes were mapped out, leaving him to build a story around those scenes – pays homage in the action film's love triangle to one of the great Alfred Hitchcock films, Notorious . In that 1946 noir , a beautiful woman (Ingrid Bergman) is used by a government agent (Cary Grant) to romance a Nazi (Claude Rains) in a post-WWII landscape to find out the details of a nefarious plot he's trying to enact, while also falling for the government agent.

It's not that Notorious is a bad film from which to take inspiration – the noir is arguably among the two or three best of the genre, as well as one of Hitchcock's very best films. But the heat generated by Bergman and Grant is off the charts, even 75 years later. (Released during the more restrictive era of the Hays Code, pre-MPAA, Notorious famously features a three-minute scene where the two stars switch between kissing each other and talking, largely to skirt the rules about time limits on kisses in Hollywood movies of the period.) As physically beautiful as Cruise and Newton are, they simply don't have the right amount of chemistry to sell the presumably intense attraction they feel that transcends how good-looking they are. Newton, for her own part, spoke last year about some on-set issues with Cruise: "He just wanted this alpha bitch. And I did as best as I could. It's not the best way to get the best work out of someone." And Newton isn't wrong to point out that a specifically tough scene to film with Cruise, in which Nyah realizes the extent to which she's being used by Ethan and the IMF for the mission, gave her "the shittiest lines."

In their earliest scenes, Ethan and Nyah strike a flirtatious tone, in part because these are two extremely attractive people. But it's also because there's a strange playfulness to their rapport; Ethan first catches Nyah trying to steal a precious gem in Seville, and after he fails to recruit her then, he chases her down so they can have a meet cute of sorts: driving sports cars through hairpin turns on a cliffside road, before dangling off the side of one of those cliffs and making out intensely. Like basically every John Woo movie, this film's twists and turns are all or nothing.

But the idea of extremes, and how there's a limit to which that sensibility can work in a romantic setting, is best typified on screen in one of the film's many intensely pitched action sequences. By the halfway point, Ambrose has realized what Ethan and Nyah are up to, and after playing along for a bit, he's caught Ethan in the middle of an attempt to break into a highly secured lab to grab Chimera, and a shootout has commenced. In the middle of this, Nyah has been placed as a damsel-in-distress type with a killer twist: she injects herself with the last remaining vial of Chimera, leaving her just 20 hours to receive a shot of Bellerophon before she bites the big one.

The plot contrivances are such that Ethan has to leave on his own, with Nyah staying behind with Ambrose, but he's able to promise her – as much as he can – that she'll be fine and he'll save her before time runs out. "Just stay alive – I'm not going to lose you." That's the dialogue. But over the cacophony of the shootout, and because Cruise is the living embodiment of the word "intense," he shouts each word, so forcefully that Ethan sounds pissed off to even have to comfort or reassure Nyah. What should be intensely, tragically romantic instead reads as furious.

Grinning Like an Idiot

But dialogue isn't meant to be a strong suit of Mission: Impossible 2 . For better or worse, the film is about reaching those operatic highs and lows of action and intensity. Newton's recollection of the experience speaks to it from the very top: "John [Woo] had made a decision at the beginning of the movie, unbeknownst certainly to me, that he didn't speak English. Which I think was very helpful to him, but it was extremely unhelpful to the rest of us." Though some of the ingredients that we think of when we think of Mission: Impossible are present here – even that opening-credits stunt of Cruise free-climbing feels like a harbinger of him climbing up the Burj Khalifa a decade later in the series – the wit and humor that's marked the subsequent entries is mostly absent.

The touches with Ambrose are as close to cleverness as the film gets, as well as adding in a hint of metatextual humor. During a brief lull in the action of the aforementioned shootout, Ambrose says, "You know, that was the hardest part of having to portray you: grinning like an idiot every 15 minutes." That, along with the way in which Ambrose is able to stop Hunt in his tracks in the attempted theft leading up to the shootout – he knows exactly how Hunt will try to evade capture, both because the character has known Hunt for years, and because it's the filmmakers all but directly nodding to the Langley break-in from the first film – is as sly as the film gets.

The other unspoken element with Ambrose is in the homoerotic tension represented by him and his right-hand man Stamp (Richard Roxburgh). As much as Ethan grows increasingly jealous, watching Nyah reuniting with her old boyfriend Ambrose under the guise of being romantically interested, Stamp's own doubt about Nyah's motivations seems less driven by concern for his boss, and similar romantic jealousy. The way in which Stamp is dispatched in the finale is operatically cruel in and of itself. In one of many, many mask-driven reversals, we see that Stamp has been gagged and had a mask of Ethan placed over him by Ethan himself, who in turn is masked up as Stamp. (There's lots and lots of masks in this movie, and it's best to not wonder how they're just ready at hand whenever someone needs them.) When Ambrose realizes what's happened, ripping off the mask to see his compatriot, Dougray Scott lets loose an anguished howl that implies the attraction may well have been mutual.

Mission: Difficult

But you can see the streak of homoeroticism – whether it's intentional or not, though some of it feels too blunt to be accidental – all the way through the big finale. Upon realizing Hunt's latest trick, Ambrose and his team give chase, leading eventually to a showdown between the two men on their motorcycles. They play a game of chicken, then, driving their motorcycles at each other at full speed, jumping off in unison at the nick of time to get into a hand-to-hand brawl while their vehicles crash into each other in an orgiastic explosion. Ahem.

Mission: Impossible 2 is not without its charms. The uncredited Hopkins looks perhaps more delighted than anyone ever has in one of these movies, getting to rattle off lines like "This isn't Mission: Difficult, Mr. Hunt. It's Mission: Impossible. Mission: Difficult ought to be a walk in the park for you." And Woo's strength in staging action sequences remains unparalleled, in part because the editing and cinematography in these setpieces is so distinctive and unlike the way the action in other films in the series is handled.

But that singular style extends to the film around the setpieces – the story tying these sequences together is thinner and more uninvolving than anything else in the franchise. This film spends its entire runtime trying to paint Ethan Hunt as a swaggering lothario of an agent who can get with any woman, but by the end, his connection with Nyah feels as forced as ever. That doesn't mean the film was a failure in full – though more than two decades later, the conventional wisdom is that this is the weakest film in the series, it was the highest-grossing film of 2000 worldwide, and the highest-grossing film of the series domestically until the 2018 entry. (And only just –  Fallout outgrossed this film by $5 million in the States.)

But it would take a few more years for Ethan Hunt to believably connect with a beautiful woman. It would take him embracing perhaps his most terrifying mission of all: domesticity.

Next Time : Ethan Hunt tries his best to settle down.

Thandie Newton recalls the 'nightmare' experience working with Tom Cruise on 'Mission: Impossible 2'

  • Thandie Newton looked back on what it was like to work with Tom Cruise on "Mission: Impossible 2" in an interview with Vulture.
  • She admitted she was scared of Cruise while making the movie.
  • The "Westworld" star also recalled shooting a balcony scene between the two in which Cruise didn't think it was working and decided to act out her part to show her how to do it.
  • "It was the most unhelpful," Newton said.
  • After the scene, she called her "Beloved" director Jonathan Demme and told him the experience was "a nightmare."
  • Visit Insider's homepage for more stories .

Insider Today

Thandie Newton did not hold back when Vulture asked her what it was like to make a "Mission: Impossible" movie.

In a lengthy interview with the site, the "Westworld" star pulled the curtain back to reveal just how intense it is to work across from Tom Cruise on his franchise.

Newton starred in 2000's "Mission: Impossible 2," playing the love interest Nyah Nordoff-Hall opposite Cruise's IMF secret spy Ethan Hunt.

Newton told Vulture that she "was so scared of Tom" while working on the movie.

"He was a very dominant individual," Newton said. "He tries superhard to be a nice person. But the pressure. He takes on a lot. And I think he has this sense that only he can do everything as best as it can be done."

The actress recalled a scene between her and Cruise on a balcony in Spain that wasn't working.

"We're frustrated with each other," Newton said of shooting the scene.

Newton said that director John Woo was downstairs looking at everything on monitors but Cruise wasn't happy with how the scene was going so the star took matters in his own hands.

"He gets so frustrated with having to try and explain that he goes, 'Let me just — let's just go do it. Let's just rehearse on-camera,'" Newton said. "So we rehearsed and they recorded it, and then he goes, 'I'll be you. You be me.' So we filmed the entire scene with me being him — because, believe me, I knew the lines by then — and him playing me. And it was the most unhelpful."

A representative for Cruise didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment about Newton's remarks. 

Newton said after the scene she called director Jonathan Demme, who cast her in his movie "Beloved," and described to him what had happened, saying it was "a nightmare."

"It was clear that I thought I was the big f---ing problem," Newton recalled. "And Jonathan was like, 'Thandie, shame on you for not backing yourself.' He was really sweet."

Then, Newton said, Cruise called her.

"I thought, Oh, this is it. The apology," the actress said. "No, he was just like, 'We're going to reshoot this next week.' I'm like, 'Way brilliant.' And the next time we shot it, I went in there and I just basically manifested all the — because I realized what he wanted. He just wanted this alpha bitch. And I did as best as I could. It's not the best way to get the best work out of someone."

Looking back on the experience now, Newton told Vulture she didn't think Cruise was "horrible," it was just that "he was really stressed." She also believes, if she was in that experience today, she would have done things differently.

"I was so tender and sensitive," she said. "If it was me now, I would want to go in and go, 'Hey!' I'd be it. You wouldn't need to play me and I play you on that balcony. And I would have squeezed that spot. Bam!"

Read the entire Vulture interview here.

controfigura tom cruise mission impossible 2

Watch: How they filmed Tom Cruise jumping out of a plane in "Mission: Impossible—Fallout"

controfigura tom cruise mission impossible 2

  • Main content

Thandie Newton Recalls the "Nightmare" of Working with a "Really Stressed" Tom Cruise

"He tries superhard to be a nice person. But the pressure. He takes on a lot," she said in an interview.

tom cruise  thandie newton attend the missionimpossible 2 premiere in londons west end photo by antony jonesuk press via getty images

  • Newton described Cruise as "really stressed" and "dominant," although "he tries superhard to be a nice person."

No one, it seems, is impervious to the fear that Mission: Impossible 's franchise star and Hollywood's resident Scientology ambassador, Tom Cruise, can provoke. Not even Thandie Newton .

In conversation with Vulture , Newton described her experience working opposite a "really stressed" and "dominant" Cruise on the 2000 film Mission: Impossible II . When asked why she never filmed another movie with the action/thriller franchise, the Westworld actress merely said, "Oh, I was never asked. I was so scared of Tom. He was a very dominant individual. He tries superhard to be a nice person. But the pressure. He takes on a lot. And I think he has this sense that only he can do everything as best as it can be done."

She also regaled an incident on set in which her and Cruise attempted to finish a night scene on a balcony. "I don't think it was a very well-written scene," Newton said. "I get angry with him. We're frustrated with each other. And we're looking out over Spain. It wasn't going well. And [director] John Woo, bless him, wasn't there. He was downstairs looking at everything on a monitor. And John had made a decision at the beginning of the movie, unbeknownst certainly to me, that he didn't speak English. Which I think was very helpful to him, but it was extremely unhelpful to the rest of us. So this scene was happening, and Tom was not happy with what I was doing because I had the shittiest lines.

"And he gets so frustrated with having to try and explain that he goes, 'Let me just—let's just go do it. Let's just rehearse on-camera.' So we rehearsed and they recorded it, and then he goes, 'I'll be you. You be me.' So we filmed the entire scene with me being him—because, believe me, I knew the lines by then—and him playing me. And it was the most unhelpful … I can't think of anything less revealing. It just pushed me further into a place of terror and insecurity. It was a real shame. And bless him. And I really do mean bless him, because he was trying his damnedest."

According to Newton, Cruise grew more stressed over the course of that night, to the point of manifesting a blemish on his face. "I remember at the beginning of the night, seeing this slight red mark on his nose, and by the end of the night, I kid you not—this is how his metabolism is so fierce—he had a big whitehead where that red dot was," she said. "It would take anyone else 48 hours to manifest a zit. I saw it growing, and it was like the zit was me, just getting bigger and bigger."

She said that she later called director Jonathan Demme, telling him how much of "a nightmare" the on-set disaster was. "As I was describing it, it was clear that I thought I was the big fucking problem. And Jonathan was like, 'Thandie, shame on you for not backing yourself.' He was really sweet," Newton continued. "And then Tom called and I thought, Oh, this is it. The apology. No, he was just like, 'We're going to reshoot this next week.' I'm like, 'Way brilliant.' And the next time we shot it, I went in there and I just basically manifested all the—because I realized what he wanted. He just wanted this alpha bitch. And I did as best as I could. It's not the best way to get the best work out of someone."

Still, Newton doesn't seem to think poorly of Cruise as a person. "He wasn't horrible. It was just—he was really stressed," she said. "I had the most extraordinary time, and you know who got me that role? Nicole Kidman. I've never actually outright asked her, but when your husband is like, 'Who would you mind me pretending to shag for the next six months?' You know what I mean? It's kind of nice if you can pick together. Nicole was a huge advocate for me."

london, england   february 09  thandie newton l and tom cruise attend the charles finch and chanel pre bafta cocktail party and dinner at annabels on february 8, 2013 in london, england  photo by dave m benettgetty images

Newton later said of her Mission: Impossible II experience , "Look, creative stuff is difficult. I was so tender and sensitive. And, also, if you think about the timeline of that, it was still early in my healing, in my recovery. I'd had good therapy. I'd realized that I was precious. If it was me now, I would want to go in and go, 'Hey!' I'd be it. You wouldn't need to play me and I play you on that balcony. And I would have squeezed that spot. Bam!"

Oh, and if you were perhaps wondering what kind of gifts Cruise gives, Newton also had an answer for that: "He was very generous and open about sharing Scientological stuff. Christmas gifts would be something to do with Scientology. … Like a book with the greatest hits of Scientology, a bit like a Bible kind of thing. I was curious, because it's like, Wow, if it's going to attract people, powerful, high-profile people, there's got to be some glue that sticks this shit together. Didn't find any."

Headshot of Chelsey Sanchez

As an associate editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com, Chelsey keeps a finger on the pulse on all things celeb news. She also writes on social movements, connecting with activists leading the fight on workers' rights, climate justice, and more. Offline, she’s probably spending too much time on TikTok, rewatching Emma (the 2020 version, of course), or buying yet another corset. 

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‘mission: impossible 2’ co-writer reveals how ‘star trek’ helped save the sequel.

Twenty years after 'Mission: Impossible 2' hit theaters, Ronald D. Moore recalls days spent working on the script at Tom Cruise's house and taking over the film that originally had Oliver Stone attached.

By Phil Pirrello

Phil Pirrello

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How 'Star Trek' Saved 'Mission: Impossible 2'

Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible 2  wouldn’t exist without getting a little help from Captain Picard and the Borg.

Twenty years ago, on May 24, 2000, director John Woo’s M:I-2 motorcycle-jousted into theaters as the first sequel in producer-star Cruise’s venerable big-screen franchise based on the classic TV show. Helping bring this extreme guilty pleasure to life, which centers on IMF Agent Ethan Hunt racing against time to stop a deadly virus (in between slow-mo gun fights and flying doves), was another movie based on a TV show: 1996’s Star Trek: First Contact . The second film to feature the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation was a huge hit for Paramount Pictures, which put the film’s writers, Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga, on the radar of Cruise and his then-producing partner, Paula Wagner. The writers’ mission: Reshape and refine the sequel’s story after development with then-director Oliver Stone and writers David Marconi and Michael Tolkin had stalled out. 

To celebrate the hit sequel’s 20th anniversary, The Hollywood Reporter recently spoke with Moore about his experience going from the bridge of the Enterprise to breaking story at Tom Cruise’s house. 

“ Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It…”

“ First Contact  came out in November 1996, and a Paramount exec who worked on it approached us shortly after the premiere, in December,” Moore recalls. At the time, First Contact reportedly had the best test-screening scores in the studio’s history — better than their Oscar-winning hit  Forrest Gump  — so bringing the film’s writers on board was a no-brainer. “We had been approached by Don Granger [the feature exec on Star Trek at the time]. He called us and said, ‘Hey, we’re having trouble getting M:I-2 off the ground. I think you and Brannon might be good candidates to help.” (While Moore and Braga would receive story credit on the final film, sole screenplay credit went to Chinatown ’s Robert Towne, Cruise’s then-script doctor of choice.) 

Moore and Braga were excited for the opportunity to take this next step into their feature film career, after previous success with First Contact and its predecessor, 1994’s Star Trek: Generations . “It was obviously a big opportunity for us, and a very fun one, to go from having this great, formative experience starting our careers working on Star Trek for the last few years to, now, having a chance to work on a Tom Cruise movie,” Moore says.

But the studio didn’t hire the writers right away. “‘We have a script and it doesn’t work, and the director’s had a falling out,’” Moore remembers Granger telling them (he would go on to a long producing career with the Mission franchise and other Tom Cruise films like Jack Reacher ). From there, Moore and Braga agreed to read the script Stone and his collaborators were working on to see how they could help before meeting with Cruise and producer Wagner. 

“We first met with Tom and Paula Wagner, sort of a general meeting to get a feel for us, and that went well,” Moore says. Soon after, the writers scripted their first draft. They continued to meet with the actor at his home.

“We would meet with Tom every day, for like a month,” Moore recalls, “just hanging out with him and working on story. It was wild. Looking back on that now, it was really cool what we did. We really liked him. He was a great guy, very smart, he was funny … he had a deep knowledge of film and cinema.” It was through their chats about classic films that the two writers and their boss landed on Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious (1946) to serve as the basic framework for what their film would be. Like the protagonist that film, Ethan Hunt would find himself in a similar plot that forces him into a relationship with a crafty thief and love interest, Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandie Newton). (Moore and Braga never did a pass on the Marconi and Tolkin draft Stone was developing, but Moore recalls making handwritten notes on the margins of that script  — both are available to the public in Moore’s archives at the USC Library.)

“It’s Not Mission: Difficult, It’s Mission: Impossible…”

Moore and Braga were also responsible for fine-tuning the midair hijack of a passenger plane that starts the film, putting that in place of what Stone and his team scripted: A “mouse trap”-like sequence involving a Brazilian drug lord being tricked to board a plane that turns out to be a high-tech simulation. The duo was also responsible for “Chimera,” the deadly, genetically modified virus that would serve as the film’s MacGuffin, along with its cure, “Bellerophon.” They also executed one of the film’s signature (and often parodied) scenes: the opening rock-climbing sequence. Here, Ethan, on vacation, free climbs and leaps precariously from one cliff face to another in Cruise’s signature death-defying style. (This sequence arguably started the franchise’s “Top that!” approach to finding increasingly tense and harrowing stunts and set pieces for Cruise to execute for real.) 

“That sequence was all Tom,” Moore remembers. “Tom was deep into rock climbing at that point. He was like, ‘I want to be rock climbing at the beginning,’ and we said, ‘Okay.’” Moore also believes they scripted the beat where Cruise receives his new mission briefing via high-tech sunglasses encased in a rocket-like tube that’s launched at Hunt at the end of his harrowing climb. 

As exciting as it is to pitch and write action scenes for a summer blockbuster, Moore’s fondest memories of working on the movie come from those behind-the-scenes moments that never made it to the screen — one of which Moore believes he’s never told anyone about before. 

“[Tom] would just tell us these amazing stories. Like, Time  magazine had just recently gathered all the people who had been on its covers for some anniversary. And Tom goes to the event and he’s there, sitting at the table with Henry Kissinger and all these other memorable people from history. And Tom tells us that Jack Kevorkian was there.”

Moore recalls Cruise saying that Kevorkian approached the actor. “Tom goes: ‘Kevorkian shakes my hand and says, “So, how you feeling?” And Tom laughs and says, ‘Oh, I’m fine.’ And Kevorkian snaps his fingers and goes: ‘Ah, too bad.’”

There’s also “one very sweet” moment of Moore’s time with Cruise, an insight into the notoriously private star’s home life, that stands out. 

“I got there a little early to Tom’s house, before Brannon did, for the meeting,” Moore recalls. “We always met in this big room that felt like a living room, but it was actually his screening room. And I’m in there, and I’m just waiting, and I’m looking out the windows into the backyard. And out there was Tom with his kids, and he had them in these pedal cars that were custom made to look like airplanes. Like a P-51 fighter. And his little kids were pedaling around in these little airplane toy cars, and Tom was like hunched down and he was so into [playing with] his kids. He was like, ‘Okay, you are Whiskey-Tango-Five, and you’re on the runway. And you got to call into the tower before she takes off,’ and the kids were into it, and it was just so endearing. Such a lovely moment.” 

Meeting Woo

The highlight of the whole experience for Moore was arguably meeting the film’s director, John Woo, and talking to the iconic action filmmaker about the making of one of his most memorable masterpieces.

“We got to meet with him a couple of times, he was great,” Moore says. “I was in awe of him, because [ TNG writer and Deep Space Nine showrunner] Ira [Steven-Behr] had gotten me into Hard Boiled and The Killer at the time, and I was so into those films. And there was a moment when Woo and I were alone, and I just had to ask him about the making of the tea house [shootout] scene that opens Hard Boiled . And he kind of lit up and said, ‘Oh, that was a whole thing,’ you know? He goes, ‘We spent days plotting it out, working with the cinematographer,’ and he got so animated talking about it and how challenging that scene was to pull off.” 

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Mission: Impossible 2 is the series' odd one out but I love it all the same

In defence of a camp, cheesy, and imperfect Tom Cruise movie

Mission: Impossible 2

Why is Tom Cruise free climbing a sheer rock face in a tank top and shades? Like many things in Mission: Impossible 2 , the opening prioritises looking cool over practicality. There's certainly an argument to be made – and this is no bad thing – that this is a movie that runs on vibes and vibes alone.

There's also an argument to be made for the 2000 sequel being the most underrated Mission of the bunch. That's not one you'll find here. It deservingly sits near the bottom of most M:I rankings; an odd curio of a film – directed by John Woo, no less – that's a tonal mismatch for Cruise's strengths, bundled with a two-dimensional villain, a stuttering plot, and by far the series' least memorable action sequences. 

So, why do I love it so much? How can you not love a movie that starts with Ethan Hunt being delivered a classified message via rocket propelled sunglasses and ends with two alphas jousting on motorcycles and kicking the shit out of each other on a beach? If I didn't have a word count to fill, I'd leave it there. But the reasons to adore Mission: Impossible 2 are many.

The premise alone is brilliantly restrained compared to what comes after: tasked with hunting down rogue IMF agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott, who spends half the movie scowling in his island compound) and a deadly Chimera virus, Ethan Hunt enlists the help of Ambrose's ex-flame Nyah (Thandiwe Newton) to take him down. No Hunt masterclass, just a honey trap. It all feels like Mission: Doable, a loose getaway sandwiched between a half-dozen action epics. 

In truth, Newton's delicious cat-and-mouse act completely carries the film. Whisper it, but she has more chemistry with Cruise than any of his co-stars before and since (Newton, for her part, described filming as a "nightmare" in a 2020 interview with Vulture ). It's electrifying seeing the two bounce off each other and it's worlds away from Cruise's pretty safe, chaste performances of the past 20 years.

Their car chase in the Seville hills – surely the biggest case of 'why not, we have a budget to spend' in action movie history, complete with slow-motion swerving – also gives us a sparkling taste of Hunt doing his best Bond impression. For a series that has shied away from the 007 comparisons in recent years, this is a goofier, sillier baby brother of the DB5 chase in GoldenEye – not bad company to keep, then.

Cruise control

Mission: Impossible 2's biggest strength, though, is in how much it dines out on 2000s camp, with lashings of cheese on the side. Slow-mos, fades, fish eye lenses, black-and-white shots, zooms, and, bizarrely, Flamenco dancer wipe transitions are all Woo's stock in trade here. They don't make 'em like they used to, that's for sure. 

The shot choices might furrow some brows, but it helps that Woo makes everyone here look like a star; everything they do gives off the laid-back, seductive tone of a faintly sexy perfume ad. Eyes shimmer, lips purse, and the tension is off the charts. For the first – and last – time, Mission: Impossible is a little bit naughty, and it revels in it.

The relaxed attitude (Woo, famously, didn't speak English during production) also gives us rare chef kiss clunkers of lines that are eaten up by Cruise. "We just rolled up a snowball and tossed it into hell. Now we'll see what chance it has," he mutters in one moment. Even he's not buying what he's saying – and it's glorious. 

It's easy to forget, too, that there are bizarre bit-part roles for Brendan Gleeson and Anthony Hopkins. That's the sort of movie Mission: Impossible 2 is: one where two of the leading talents of their generations get in and get out as low-energy footnotes. They walked so Phillip Seymour Hoffman could run.

In 2023, it's a time capsule of another kind – an intriguing glimpse at Cruise before he fully cultivated his action hero persona. Cruise is oddly fine with not being the centre of attention, here – even if it does suffer in places because of it. If you like watching a man who counts cheating death as a part-time hobby using binoculars and looking at computer screens for half the runtime, you're in luck.

Stamp of approval

Instead, we get a giant what-if: Dougray Scott's Ambrose – the anti-Ethan Hunt, for all intents and purposes – glowers and snaps his way through the movie. He could've been Hollywood's next big thing, but arguably reached his ceiling here. Indeed, an accident or scheduling conflicts – depending on who you believe – while filming Mission: Impossible 2 cost him a gig as Wolverine in X-Men . It's also an intriguing sideways glance at where the direction of the series could have gone until it had the rough edges sanded off by J.J. Abrams and Brad Bird before being refined by Christopher McQuarrie.

Then there's its absurd peak: the death fake out scene. In today's meme economy, it feels tailor-made to be accompanied by pictures of Martin Scorsese declaring, 'this is cinema.' Hunt manages to pull a fast one, using a mask bait-and-switch to trick Ambrose into killing his henchman Hugh Stamp. It's then topped off by Cruise (as Stamp) sprinting away, surrounded by the Woo trademark of white doves as the scene's operatic score transitions into the Mission: Impossible theme. 

McQuarrie and Cruise are a Hollywood dream ticket, but even they would be hard pressed to match the Woo-ness of it all, a superb blend of melodrama and mayhem that feels like a fever dream. Watch it for yourself if you don't believe me.

Is any of this good? It's hard to say – but it sure is entertaining. There's something scientific and calculated about later Mission: Impossibles. Not quite filmmaking by algorithm, but Cruise and his creative team certainly cracked the code by the time Rogue Nation rolled around. Here, half the fun is watching the series fumble around for its place in a cinematic landscape that would soon be filled with Bournes, Bonds, and action knock-offs galore. All told, there's something inherently watchable about Cruise starring in something a little bit messy and imperfect.

Yes, the series would go on to have greater, more impossible Missions. But there's something to be said – should you choose to accept it – about embracing this fascinating and flawed one-of-a-kind sequel.

Not sure what to watch next? Here are the best action movies on Netflix . If you're still in a Mission: Impossible mood, read our interview with Dead Reckoning director Chris McQuarrie.

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Bradley Russell

I'm the Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, focusing on news, features, and interviews with some of the biggest names in film and TV. On-site, you'll find me marveling at Marvel and providing analysis and room temperature takes on the newest films, Star Wars and, of course, anime. Outside of GR, I love getting lost in a good 100-hour JRPG, Warzone, and kicking back on the (virtual) field with Football Manager. My work has also been featured in OPM, FourFourTwo, and Game Revolution.

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Mission: Impossible II

2000, Action/Adventure, 2h 3m

What to know

Critics Consensus

Your cranium may crave more substance, but your eyes will feast on the amazing action sequences. Read critic reviews

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Mission: impossible ii videos, mission: impossible ii   photos.

Tom Cruise returns to his role as Ethan Hunt in the second installment of "Mission: Impossible." This time Ethan Hunt leads his IMF team on a mission to capture a deadly German virus before it is released by terrorists. His mission is made impossible due to the fact that he is not the only person after samples of the disease. He must also contest with a gang of international terrorists headed by a turned bad former IMF agent who has already managed to steal the cure.

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Action, Adventure, Mystery & thriller

Original Language: English

Director: John Woo

Producer: Tom Cruise , Paula Wagner

Writer: Brannon Braga , Ronald D. Moore , Robert Towne

Release Date (Theaters): May 24, 2000  wide

Release Date (Streaming): Jan 1, 2011

Box Office (Gross USA): $215.4M

Runtime: 2h 3m

Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Production Co: Paramount Pictures, Cruise-Wagner Productions

Sound Mix: SDDS, Dolby Digital, DTS, Surround, Dolby SR

Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

View the collection: Mission: Impossible

Cast & Crew

Dougray Scott

Sean Ambrose

Thandiwe Newton

Nyah Nordoff-Hall

Ving Rhames

Luther Stickell

Richard Roxburgh

John Polson

Billy Baird

Brendan Gleeson

John McCloy

Rade Serbedzija

Dr. Nekhorvich

William Mapother

Dominic Purcell

Anthony Hopkins

Mission Commander Swanbeck

Matthew Wilkinson

Paula Wagner

Brannon Braga

Ronald D. Moore

Robert Towne

Terence Chang

Executive Producer

Paul Hitchcock

Lalo Schifrin

Hans Zimmer

Cinematographer

Steven Kemper

Film Editing

Christian Wagner

Deborah Aquila

Sarah Halley Finn

Thomas E. Sanders

Production Design

Nathan Crowley

Art Director

Kevin Kavanaugh

Michelle McGahey

News & Interviews for Mission: Impossible II

The More Tom Cruise Runs, The Better His Movies Are: We Did the Math

New 4K UHD Movies in June 2023: Upcoming 4K Releases on Blu-ray

New on Netflix in August 2022

Critic Reviews for Mission: Impossible II

Audience reviews for mission: impossible ii.

The first underwhelmed me, but this one straight-up bored me. Again, of course seeing Hunt climb a mountain without a harness is impressive sure. And I even quite liked the idea behind the villain of the piece (though even that angle was woefully underdeveloped). Even setting it in predominantly Australia was enough to grab my attention, and that's saying something cause I'm pretty biased when it comes to that. I hear tell that Mission: Impossible II is the low point in the series, and that at least is encouraging, because if anything afterwards is much worse than this one, I don't know if I'll be able to make it through to Rogue Nation.

controfigura tom cruise mission impossible 2

Wrongly shouldered with a reputation for being stylish over substantive as if that ends up to be a bad thing in this specific case, the second Mission: Impossible puts action before espionage, but effectively advances IMF from small to big screen with enough sexy cool to keep the team going. Indeed, the eye-popping spectacles leave the convoluted web spun by the first chapter in the dust, successfully setting up a winning template for the more mental and muscular episodes to follow. The only conspiracy here is against time. Clocking in at over two hours, what should've been a lean mean fighting machine overstays its welcome. In this PG-13-rated spy thriller, a secret agent (Cruise) gets sent to Sydney, to find and destroy a genetically modified disease called "Chimera." Sure, more persnickety moviegoers laugh at the balletic ballistics of Hong Kong director John Woo, but the excitement rarely lets up. Going solo after the muddled mission in the first adventure, screenwriter Robert Towne presents a straight-shooting spy game. It's not rocket science but it does make the audience pump their fists and laugh in all of the right places. Bottom line: The Woo Sell Out

[img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon13.gif[/img]

Mission: Impossible gets Wooed in this second installment of the franchise. Director John Woo takes the helm and ups the action to the point of nauseum. And, there's so much identity switching and uses of masks that this might as well have been called Face/Off 2. Tom Cruise is also a problem, as he makes it all about his character and showing off his action moves (to the detriment of the film). The style over substance focus even extends to Limp Bizkit's cover of the Mission: Impossible Theme, which is just noise. Still, a lot of the action sequences are impressive and shot well. For a mindless action film, Mission: Impossible II is alright, but it's a disappointing entry into the series.

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If James Bond is still around at the end of the 21st century, he will look a lot like Ethan Hunt. The hero of the " Mission: Impossible " series is a 007 for our time.

That means: Sex is more of a surprise and a distraction than a lifestyle. Stunts and special effects don't interrupt the plot, but are the plot. The hero's interest in new consumer items runs more toward cybergadgets than sports cars. He isn't a patriot working for his government, but a hired gun working for a shadowy international agency. And he doesn't smoke, hardly drinks, and is in the physical condition of a triathlete.

The new Bond, in short, is a driven, over-achieving professional -- not the sort of gentleman sophisticate the British spy family used to cultivate. His small talk consists not of lascivious puns, but geekspeak. When he raised an eyebrow, it's probably not his, because he's a master of disguise and can hide behind plastic face masks so realistic even his cinematographer doesn't know for sure.

The first "Mission: Impossible" (1996) had a plot no one understood. "Mission: Impossible 2" has a plot you don't need to understand. It's been cobbled together by the expert Hollywood script doctor Robert Towne out of elements of other movies, notably Hitchcock's " Notorious " (1946) from which he takes the idea that the hero first falls in love with the heroine, then heartlessly assigns her to resume an old affair with an ex-lover in order to spy on his devious plans. In both films, the woman agrees to do this because she loves the hero. In "Notorious," the hero loses respect for the woman after she does what he asks. The modern hero is too amoral to think of this.

Towne's contribution is quite skillful, especially if it's true, as I've heard, that he had to write around major f/x sequences which director John Woo had already written and fine-tuned. His strategy is to make Ethan Hunt ( Tom Cruise ) into a sympathetic yet one-dimensional character, so that motivation and emotion will not be a problem. He's a cousin of Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name -- a hero defined not by his values but by his actions.

The villain remains in the Bond tradition: A megalomaniac who seeks power or wealth by holding the world ransom. In this case, he seeks control of a deadly virus, but the virus is what Hitchcock called a MacGuffin; it doesn't matter what it is, just so it's something everyone desires or fears. The movie wisely spends little time on the details, but is clever in the way it uses the virus to create time pressure: Twenty-four hours after you're exposed, you die, and that leads to a nicely-timed showdown involving the hero, the woman he loves, the villain, the virus, and a ticking clock.

Thandie Newton plays the woman, and the most significant thing about her character is that she's still alive at the end, and apparently available for the sequel. The Bond girls have had a depressing mortality rate over the years, but remember that 007 was formed in the promiscuous 1960s, while Ethan Hunt lives in a time when even spies tend to stay with old relationships, maybe because it's so tiresome to start new ones.

Newton's character is unique in the way she plays a key role in the plot, taking her own initiative. Bond girls, even those with formidable fighting skills, were instruments of the plot; Newton's Nyah Hall not only lacks a name that is a pun, but shockingly makes a unilateral decision that influences the outcome of the movie. The playing field will be more level in the "M:I" battle of the sexes.

For Tom Cruise, the series is a franchise, like Mel Gibson's " Lethal Weapon " movies. "M:I3" is already on the drawing board, again with John Woo as director, and there's no reason the sequels can't continue as long as Cruise can still star in action scenes (or their computer-generated manifestations). This is good for Cruise. By more or less underwriting his box office clout, it gives him the freedom to experiment with more offbeat choices like " Eyes Wide Shut " and " Magnolia ."

As for the movie itself: 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. It is a global movie, flying no flag, requiring little dialog, featuring characters who are Pavlovian in their motivation. It's more efficient than the Bond pictures, but not as much pure fun. But in this new century, I have a premonition we'll be seeing more efficiency and less fun in a lot of different areas. The trend started about the time college students decided management was sexier than literature.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Mission: Impossible II movie poster

Mission: Impossible II (2000)

Rated PG-13

123 minutes

Dougray Scott as Sean Ambrose

Thandie Newton as Nyah Hall

Richard Roxburgh as Hugh Stamp

Brendan Gleeson as McCloy

John Polson as Billy Baird

  • Steven Kemper
  • Christian Wagner

Produced by

  • Paula Wagner

Screenplay by

  • Robert Towne
  • Hans Zimmer

Based on a story by

  • Ronald D. Moore

Directed by

Photographed by.

  • Jeffrey L. Kimball

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Mission: Impossible 2 - The One Stunt Tom Cruise Begged Director John Woo To Do

Ethan hanging onto a rock

Tom Cruise's much-publicized stunt of driving a motorcycle off a cliff in the upcoming "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1" had fans losing their minds. Of course, the death-defying leap of faith — where he opens a parachute as he lets the cycle falls to the earth below — isn't the first time the adrenaline-fueled actor made director Christopher McQuarrie lose sleep. The "Dead Reckoning" stunt was preceded by a HALO jump in 2018's "Mission: Impossible – Fallout," and a stunt hanging outside a door of a cargo plane in "Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation" in 2015.

Cruise obviously doesn't have a fear of heights, which director John Woo discovered firsthand at the helm of the 2000 blockbuster "Mission: Impossible II." In a 2022 interview with Letterboxd  about his filmmaking career, Woo revealed the terror he felt as Cruise performed the film's marquee stunt to open the film.

"I think the most dangerous and scary moment was when we were shooting 'Mission: Impossible II,' and Tom Cruise climbed 2,000 feet up a cliff by himself," Woo recalled for the publication. "And he didn't allow me to use any stunt doubles to do it. He wanted to do all of the action by himself. It was insane!"

Cruise begged Woo to do the rock-climbing scene

Without question, Tom Cruise is Hollywood's last great action star , and he has rightfully earned that reputation through his persistence in performing all of his own stunts to entertain his audiences no matter the risks involved. John Woo learned of Cruise's persistence during the production of "Mission: Impossible II," when the actor wouldn't take no for an answer from the director when it came to tackling the cliff-climbing scene.

"The first time [he asked] I refused, because I was angry and worried. But he was begging me to do it," Woo told Letterboxd. "I was so scared, I couldn't even bear to watch the monitor. But we set it all up, and he's climbing up there by himself, and I'm sitting there praying, 'Jesus, please don't let anything happen.' He had no protection, so it was very scary, very dangerous. But the scene turned out really great."

With so much at stake, Woo admitted to Letterboxd that word surrounding the cliff-climbing stunt was initially kept private: " I didn't let the studio know about it. Or the insurance company!"

At least studios and insurance companies can take comfort in knowing that Cruise extensively prepares for his stunts. In fact, Cruise jumped out of a plane over 500 times for his Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning training to do his motorcycle cliff scene.

'Mission: Impossible 2’ Revisited: “Who Wants to Be Decent?”

The franchise almost self-destructs in John Woo’s misguided, misogynistic sequel.

[ With the upcoming release of Mission: Impossible - Fallout , we're reposting our retrospective series on the Mission: Impossible franchise. ]

Mission: Impossible was a resounding success , and yet it didn’t firmly establish what a “ Mission: Impossible ” movie was in terms of tone. There was Tom Cruise acting at Peak Tom Cruise within the confines of an action spy story. How much flexibility was there in a franchise that was anchored by Cruise and tried to balance a team dynamic against its big star while throwing in fun twists and neat gadgets. Cruise and co-producer Paula Wagner tested the dexterity of the film series by bringing in John Woo to completely change the complexion of the franchise. The result was a disaster that jettisoned what was fun about the first movie and reduced Mission: Impossible II to a painfully generic action film that sucked the energy out of its talented actor and director and left audiences with a shell of a picture that’s both crushingly dull and ragingly misogynistic.

This time around, the protagonist isn’t really even Ethan Hunt (Cruise). It’s Nyah Nordoff-Hall ( Thandie Newton ), a thief who is recruited by Hunt when rogue IMF Agent Sean Ambrose ( Dougray Scott ) makes off with Chimera, a virus created by Biocyte Pharmaceuticals chemist Vladimir Nekhorvich ( Rade Serbedzija ). Nekhorvich believed that he was getting the virus into Hunt’s safe hands, but Ambrose, impersonating Hunt by wearing a mask and using a digital voice changer, took possession of the virus, or at least he thought he did. In the film’s convoluted framework, Ambrose only has the cure, Bellerophon, and needs to get Chimera. Then he’ll work his way into the idiotic plan of Biocyte’s slimy CEO John C. McCloy ( Brendan Gleeson ).

mission-impossible-2-tom-cruise-rock-climbing

The plan is to release Chimera, which gestates inside a host for 20 hours before becoming fatal and contagious, and then when there’s a worldwide epidemic, the company will release Bellerophon and make an ungodly sum of money. The particulars of this deal include forcing the audience to watch Ambrose negotiate stock options with McCloy because Woo thought that was just riveting stuff. Meanwhile, both baddies (and the screenwriters) seem oblivious to the fact that if a worldwide, deadly epidemic struck and a company had the cure, people wouldn’t patiently wait in line at their local pharmacy and pay for it. The governments of the world would simply take the drug and distribute it freely to prevent the collapse of civilization. While I don’t demand “realism” from a Mission: Impossible movie, I prefer if the villains understand how the world works.

To stop this harebrained scheme, IMF sends in Hunt even though they don’t have a good reason for it. Ambrose may have impersonated Hunt to get Chimera from Nekhorvich, but that’s the end of his involvement. In Mission: Impossible II , Hunt’s role goes from operation point man to recruiter/handler for an asset whose skills are completely discarded. It’s hard to think of another film that’s tries so hard to craft a damsel in distress while simultaneously devaluing the knight in shining armor, but Mission: Impossible II puts Nyah at the front of the action, not because she’s a skilled thief, but because she used to date Ambrose. Her actual skillset is a red herring so that the movie can engage in jaw-dropping misogyny.

mission-impossible-2-tom-cruise-thandie-newton

Women rarely fare well in the first three Mission: Impossible movies, but Nyah gets it the worst. Even when she’s supposed to be at her best, Hunt comes in and ruins her heist. Later when she’s trying to drive away, he almost runs her off of a cliff before the two go goo-goo eyed at each other and hop into bed. Now that Hunt has “feelings” for her, we can have Mission Commander Swanbeck ( Anthony Hopkins ) step in to reveal that he wasn’t recruiting Nyah for her thieving, but because she can seduce Ambrose. Hunt, using reason and logic, tries to explain that perhaps its best not to rest the fate of the world on an untrained civilian conjuring up old feelings from her highly suspicious ex, but Swanbeck replies, “What? To go to bed with a man and lie to him? She's a woman. She's got all the training she needs.” And it somehow gets worse to the point where she’s later referred to as a monkey because why be sexist when you can be shockingly racist as well?

Nyah is a professional damsel who might be able to think on her feet as long as Hunt is holding her hand. Unfortunately, she never has Ambrose fooled for a second, and the film lets us know that he’s unconvinced and just using her for sex. So all of our heroes are dumber than the guy who thinks he can get rich by unleashing the Plague. The whole endeavor is so corny and overwrought, but it’s also a Tom Cruise blockbuster, which is why Mission: Impossible II is morbidly fascinating.

mission-impossible-2-tom-cruise

Watching M:I 2 , it looks like John Woo interpreted the material as the American James Bond, but minus the interesting gadgets and slathered with a melodramatic, B-movie style, which pushed the director into self-parody. Set aside that all of the fights, shootouts, and car chases are inert and feel like someone trying to copy Woo’s better movies; the glowing dove may as well be the director stepping out and saying, “None of us are taking this seriously, right?” And if Mission: Impossible II were some subversive bit of filmmaking, I could at least applaud it on those grounds, except it never has the guts to truly break free of the summer blockbuster. It plays like a kid who’s constantly rolling his eyes at what’s happening.

What’s more bizarre than seeing Woo direct like an amateur film director is watching Cruise take a backseat in his own movie. Somehow, Ethan Hunt has even less of a character this time around, which is a problem since Hunt and Ambrose are positioned to be mirrors of each other. In the movie’s only good scene, Hunt’s plan to break into Biocyte and destroy Chimera gets described by Ambrose. It’s a great moment where the villain is positioned to be so powerful that he’s the one who breaks down and ridicules the hero’s plan and character. He points out that Hunt would prefer to engage in “acrobatics” than drop a few guards. It also gets a little meta when the villain criticizes Hunt/Cruise by remarking, “You know, that was the hardest part about having to portray you: grinning like an idiot every fifteen minutes.”

mission-impossible-2-tom-cruise-1

Perhaps if Mission: Impossible had developed more of an identity as a franchise, and there was more care being put into the subversive qualities, Mission: Impossible II could have functioned as a thoughtful deconstruction of the series. But not enough had been built up. I understand that they didn’t want to ape De Palma, but they also didn’t grow anything that had been planted. They don’t question why Ethan remains an IMF Agent; they don’t question the lone hero/team dynamic. Instead, they come up on the wrong side of a B-movie and hoped to awe the audience with generic action and lots and lots of masks.

Despite being absolutely wretched and offensive, Mission: Impossible II was a huge hit at the box office. Cruise’s career was still red hot, and while he was picking up critical acclaim for his work in Jerry Maguire , Magnolia , and Eyes Wide Shut , movies like Mission: Impossible are what made him an international sensation. However, when Cruise returned to the franchise six years later, he was at a very different point in his life. The next time we saw Ethan Hunt, his impossible mission was proving he could be a family man.

Tomorrow: Mission: Impossible III

mission-impossible-2-poster

ScreenRant

"He's Got Tears": Tom Cruise Begged To Do One Super Dangerous Mission: Impossible 2 Stunt

  • Mission: Impossible 2 memorably opens with a sequence in which Ethan Hunt is scaling the side of a cliff, with one scene featuring the actor jumping from one side of the cliff to the other.
  • Director John Woo recalls that he was originally going to have a stuntman do the scene, but Tom Cruise was adamant that he do it himself as the audience would know if it wasn't really him.
  • While generally regarded as the worst entry in the franchise, Mission: Impossible 2 can arguably be considered the inception of the franchise's (and Cruise's) focus on death defying stunts.

Mission: Impossible 2 director John Woo recalls Tom Cruise's emotional pleas to be allowed to film one especially dangerous stunt. Released in 2000, the second film in the long-running action franchise sees Cruise return as Ethan Hunt to face off against a rogue IMF agent in possession of a deadly virus. The film, which was met with mixed reviews, features a handful of impressive stunt sequences, including one at the very start when Hunt is seen scaling the side of a cliff and jumping from one handhold to another.

In a recent interview with The New York Times to promote the release of his latest film, Silent Night , Woo recalls how Cruise begged to be able to film Mission: Impossible 2 's cliff stunt himself. The actor, according to the director, had clear thoughts behind why a stunt performer shouldn't do the scene for him. Check out Woo's full comment below:

“We did a scene when he’s climbing on a 2,000-foot-high cliff. We have three stunt doubles, they’re all great climbers. I said, ‘OK, from this side jump over to the other side, only one cable.’ He said, ‘No, no, let me do it.’ I said, ‘Why? No, it’s too dangerous. There are no protections. What if you made a mistake?’ ‘No, John, believe me, I can do it.’ “He’s begging me and he’s got tears. He did the whole thing without a double. He said, ‘The audience will notice when you use a double. The body movement is so different from mine. Even from the back, they know it wasn’t me.’ “Sometimes I’d set up the camera and he [has some] other idea. The crew, they’re all looking at me, and I know it’s going to be trouble. I brought him to the back of the set and I told him, ‘My camera angle will make you look great, very pretty. You just trust me.’ And he understood. Then I brought him out to talk to everybody: ‘Our idea is to put the camera there.’ He didn’t lose face.”

Mission: Impossible 2 Started A Tom Cruise Trend

Mission: Impossible 2 is generally considered the weakest entry in the franchise, but it does arguably serve as the inception of the current state of the franchise and perhaps Cruise's career more generally. Save for Cruise's iconic suspension from the ceiling, the first Mission: Impossible was more of an espionage film and fairly light on death-defying stunts. The sequel, however, really marks the start of Cruise seriously risking his safety (in a highly controlled environment) for the audience's entertainment.

In addition to the cliff sequence, Woo's sequel also features a scene in which a knife is suspended only a fraction of an inch above Cruise's eye. Mission: Impossible 3 , similarly, features the star jumping off a building and slamming into a car. It's in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol 's Burj Khalifa stunt , however, that Cruise pulls off his biggest and most publicized stunt. It's with the 2011 sequel, too, that the franchise actually starts marketing the movies around one or two standout set pieces.

Mission: Impossible 2 's knife scene features a real knife attached to a cable that is secured to an overhead bar. While the cable was designed to stop the knife just before it touched Cruise's eye, there was no margin for error or equipment malfunctions.

Since the 2011 sequel, each new entry in the franchise has the difficult challenge of outdoing the one that came before it, with the latest film, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 featuring Cruise driving a motorcycle off a cliff into a base jump. While Mission: Impossible 2 may not be the best of Cruise's outings as Ethan Hunt, it might just be the true origin point of what the franchise is today, and that's certainly worth celebrating.

Source: The New York Times

Mission: Impossible II

Release Date: 2000-05-24

Director: John Woo

Cast: Tom Cruise, Thandie Newton, Richard Roxburgh, Ving Rhames, Dougray Scott

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 123 Minutes

Genres: Action, Adventure, Thriller

Writers: Robert Towne

Budget: $125 Million

Studio(s): Cruise/Wagner Productions

Distributor(s): Paramount Pictures

Sequel(s): Mission: Impossible III, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, Mission: Impossible - Fallout, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part Two

prequel(s): Mission: Impossible

Franchise(s): Mission: Impossible

"He's Got Tears": Tom Cruise Begged To Do One Super Dangerous Mission: Impossible 2 Stunt

Here's why Mission: Impossible 2 is, in fact, the most important film of the century so far

Nobody's favourite M:I film shaped Hollywood in ways no-one could have predicted.

Headshot of Morgan Jeffery

But if there's a black sheep in the generally well-regarded M:I family, it's 2000's Mission: Impossible 2. Directed by John Woo, it holds an approval rating of just 57% on Rotten Tomatoes , with Variety calling it "flashy" but "empty" and Newsweek branding it "a slick, expensive, bullet-ridden thriller that is oddly dull".

Now, to paraphrase Limp Bizkit, we know why they wanna hate it . The criticisms of the movie are pretty fair – it's a lot of brainless, adolescent fun, but has zero depth and is ridiculously overblown even by Mission: Impossible standards. (Remarkably, Woo's original cut allegedly ran to three and a half hours.)

mission impossible 2

But for all its flaws, M:I-2 is actually the most important of the films to star Tom Cruise as agent Ethan Hunt. In fact, it's one of the most significant movies of the century so far.

How exactly, we hear you ask?

Related: Mission Impossible 7 : Cast, release date, trailer, plot and everything you need to know

It's all got to do with the film's shoot, and how it overran way past original expectations.

Dougray Scott, who delivers a spectacularly hammy turn as M:I-2 's villain, rogue ex-IMF agent Sean Ambrose, was originally cast as Wolverine in 2000's X-Men . But when filming on Mission: Impossible 2 ran long for a variety of reasons, including Scott sustaining a shoulder injury in a motorcycle accident, 20th Century Fox was forced to consider a recast.

"While Par[amount] and Fox brass have been trying to juggle schedules to get Scott free to join X-Men helmer Bryan Singer and his star-studded ensemble, it's too big a movie and too big a role for Fox to be uncertain any longer," Variety wrote on October 7, 1999.

Dougray Scott in Mission: Impossible 2

"They need Scott in the Wolverine suit by Oct 18 and if that can't be guaranteed, Fox will recast by week's end."

Sure enough, Scott wasn't available in time to meet X-Men 's schedule and was replaced by Hugh Jackman, a relatively unknown Australian actor who'd just taken the lead role in the film Paperback Hero . "I was about to do [ X-Men ], and then the movie that I was doing at the time just overran, so I couldn't do it in the end," Scott confirmed last year .

Just think... without Mission: Impossible 2 and its difficult production, Hugh Jackman might never have been a thing. It's impossible to judge, of course, whether the X-Men franchise would've been as successful with Scott as Wolverine, but if he'd been denied his breakthrough – not to say career-defining – role, we'd almost certainly never have seen Jackman in The Prestige or Les Misérables or The Greatest Showman .

hugh jackman as wolverine in xmen days of future past

Now X-Men *might* have worked with Scott in place of his breakout-star replacement Jackman. But it might not. Without the success of X-Men , most critics agree, the superhero genre might not have taken off to the extent that it has. No X-Men , no Spider-Man . No Spider-Man , No Iron Man . No Iron Man , no MCU.

But that's only the start of it, because Dougray Scott wasn't the only actor affected by M:I-2 's shoddy timekeeping.

Thandie Newton – now an Emmy winner for Westworld – played the rather thankless role of 'Hunt girl' Nyah Nordoff-Hall in the film, with her next project set as 2000's Charlie's Angels .

Newton had all but put pen to paper on a contract that would see her join Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore in the movie reboot. But at the last minute, she got cold feet, pulled out, and was replaced by Lucy Liu.

tom cruise and thandie newton in mission impossible 2

"I was going to do it for about 24 hours," she told the Daily Express in 2008. "But then I woke up and it just didn't feel right. I'd been away from home for nine months [filming Mission: Impossible II ] and it would have meant another six months away."

Newton's reluctance to launch herself into another major movie project is understandable when you consider that the over-running M:I-2 only wrapped filming on December 15, 1999, with Charlie's Angels gearing up for its first day of production less than a month later, on January 10, 2000.

That's two major franchises, X-Men and Charlie's Angels , altered forever – all because of Mission: Impossible 2 . Pretty seismic, right?

Believe it or not, though, the film's impact was almost even more tremendous. Sir Anthony Hopkins, later Newton's Westworld cast-mate, also appeared in M:I-2 as Ethan Hunt's smooth-talking superior Swanbeck... a part that was originally offered to Sir Ian McKellen.

Anthony Hopkins in Mission: Impossible 2 / Ian McKellen as Gandalf in The Hobbit movies

McKellen turned the role down, due to a prior theatre engagement in London, but if he'd accepted, M:I-2 's costly overruns would've prevented him, like Dougray Scott, from participating in the first X-Men film. No McKellen as Magneto? Unthinkable.

It gets worse! Had McKellen played Swanbeck, the film's shoot might also have clashed with his commitment to The Lord of the Rings , which began filming in October 1999. Happily, we never had to live in a world without McKellen as Gandalf... but just imagine.

So there you have it: Mission: Impossible 2 might be considered the least notable entry in its own franchise, but it disrupted two other film series and very nearly transformed a third. Fallout might be a no-holds-barred, adrenaline-fuelled thrill ride, but it can't say that.

Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Instagram and Twitter account .

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Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One

Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Vanessa Kirby, and Mariela Garriga in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

Ethan Hunt and his IMF team must track down a dangerous weapon before it falls into the wrong hands. Ethan Hunt and his IMF team must track down a dangerous weapon before it falls into the wrong hands. Ethan Hunt and his IMF team must track down a dangerous weapon before it falls into the wrong hands.

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  • Trivia The frequent delays caused by COVID-19 ballooned the budget to $291 million, making it the most expensive Mission: Impossible film (surpassing Fallout, $178 million), the most expensive film of Tom Cruise 's career (again surpassing Fallout), and the most expensive film ever produced by Paramount (surpassing Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) , $217 million). The insurance company Chubb originally gave Paramount only £4.4 million (about $5.4 million) for the delays, arguing that the cast and crew could still fulfill their duties to the production despite being infected with COVID-19. Paramount sued Chubb in 2021, and the two companies settled in 2022. In 2023, Chubb gave Paramount a £57 million (about $71 million) payout for the COVID-caused delays, reducing the film's budget to about $220 million, which still makes it the most expensive film for Cruise, Paramount, and the franchise.
  • Goofs Steam trains, especially moving at high speeds, need to be continuously provided with fuel, in this case coal. With the engineers killed and the controls opened all the way, the locomotive would have gradually slowed down and come to a halt as the pressure in the boiler dropped. That train would never have reached the bridge for that distance with no coal provided. Since the early 1900s, when firebox coal consumption exceeded the efforts of two men, the trains have used mechanical stokers. The coal would continue feeding without one missing coal shoveler.

India Zulu 254 : What is the oath?

Ethan Hunt : We live and die in the shadows, for those we hold close, and for those we never meet.

  • Crazy credits Disclaimer as one of the last entries in the end titles scroll: "The production company would like to make it clear that at no point were vehicles driving on the Spanish Steps. These sequences were filmed at a set on a studio backlot."
  • Connections Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Most Anticipated Franchises Returning in 2023 (2023)
  • Soundtracks The Mission: Impossible Theme Written by Lalo Schifrin

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Screen Rant

"he's got tears": tom cruise begged to do one super dangerous mission: impossible 2 stunt.

Director John Woo recalls Tom Cruise begging to be allowed to film one of Mission: Impossible 2’s most dangerous stunt sequences without a double.

  • Mission: Impossible 2 memorably opens with a sequence in which Ethan Hunt is scaling the side of a cliff, with one scene featuring the actor jumping from one side of the cliff to the other.
  • Director John Woo recalls that he was originally going to have a stuntman do the scene, but Tom Cruise was adamant that he do it himself as the audience would know if it wasn't really him.
  • While generally regarded as the worst entry in the franchise, Mission: Impossible 2 can arguably be considered the inception of the franchise's (and Cruise's) focus on death defying stunts.

Mission: Impossible 2 director John Woo recalls Tom Cruise's emotional pleas to be allowed to film one especially dangerous stunt. Released in 2000, the second film in the long-running action franchise sees Cruise return as Ethan Hunt to face off against a rogue IMF agent in possession of a deadly virus. The film, which was met with mixed reviews, features a handful of impressive stunt sequences, including one at the very start when Hunt is seen scaling the side of a cliff and jumping from one handhold to another.

In a recent interview with The New York Times to promote the release of his latest film, Silent Night , Woo recalls how Cruise begged to be able to film Mission: Impossible 2 's cliff stunt himself. The actor, according to the director, had clear thoughts behind why a stunt performer shouldn't do the scene for him. Check out Woo's full comment below:

“We did a scene when he’s climbing on a 2,000-foot-high cliff. We have three stunt doubles, they’re all great climbers. I said, ‘OK, from this side jump over to the other side, only one cable.’ He said, ‘No, no, let me do it.’ I said, ‘Why? No, it’s too dangerous. There are no protections. What if you made a mistake?’ ‘No, John, believe me, I can do it.’ “He’s begging me and he’s got tears. He did the whole thing without a double. He said, ‘The audience will notice when you use a double. The body movement is so different from mine. Even from the back, they know it wasn’t me.’ “Sometimes I’d set up the camera and he [has some] other idea. The crew, they’re all looking at me, and I know it’s going to be trouble. I brought him to the back of the set and I told him, ‘My camera angle will make you look great, very pretty. You just trust me.’ And he understood. Then I brought him out to talk to everybody: ‘Our idea is to put the camera there.’ He didn’t lose face.”

Mission: Impossible 2 Started A Tom Cruise Trend

Tom cruise as Ethan Hunt riding motorcycle and wearing sunglasses in Mission: Impossible 2.

Mission: Impossible 2 is generally considered the weakest entry in the franchise, but it does arguably serve as the inception of the current state of the franchise and perhaps Cruise's career more generally. Save for Cruise's iconic suspension from the ceiling, the first Mission: Impossible was more of an espionage film and fairly light on death-defying stunts. The sequel, however, really marks the start of Cruise seriously risking his safety (in a highly controlled environment) for the audience's entertainment.

In addition to the cliff sequence, Woo's sequel also features a scene in which a knife is suspended only a fraction of an inch above Cruise's eye. Mission: Impossible 3 , similarly, features the star jumping off a building and slamming into a car. It's in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol 's Burj Khalifa stunt , however, that Cruise pulls off his biggest and most publicized stunt. It's with the 2011 sequel, too, that the franchise actually starts marketing the movies around one or two standout set pieces.

Mission: Impossible 2 's knife scene features a real knife attached to a cable that is secured to an overhead bar. While the cable was designed to stop the knife just before it touched Cruise's eye, there was no margin for error or equipment malfunctions.

Since the 2011 sequel, each new entry in the franchise has the difficult challenge of outdoing the one that came before it, with the latest film, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 featuring Cruise driving a motorcycle off a cliff into a base jump. While Mission: Impossible 2 may not be the best of Cruise's outings as Ethan Hunt, it might just be the true origin point of what the franchise is today, and that's certainly worth celebrating.

Source: The New York Times

Mission Impossible 2 Movie Poster

Mission: Impossible II

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What are the Motorcycles in Mission: Impossible 2?

Mission Impossible 2 Motorcycles

Mission: Impossible 2 came out in 2000, starring Tom Cruise as Impossible Missions Forces (IMF) agent Ethan Hunt, who must track down a biological weapon known as “Chimera.” The film, directed by John Woo, was the highest-grossing film of the year 2000.

Mission Impossible 2 Motorcycles

Though the plot and dialogue were subjected to criticism, the action sequences were widely lauded. The most memorable is the motorcycle chase / duel late in the film, rife with stoppies, wheelies, jumps, and dirt action.

Mission Impossible 2 Motorcycles

There are two motorcycles involved, both Triumph models:

  • Triumph Speed Triple
  • Triumph Daytona 955i

Mission Impossible 2 Motorcycles

While the two-wheeled physics of the action leave much to be desired, the scene certainly introduced a broader audience to the “bug-eyed” beauty of the Speed Triple. Knobby tires were installed in order to handle the dirt scenes — tires which can be seen in stills from the film, as well as photos of the actual Speed Triple stunt bike on display.

Mission Impossible 2 Motorcycles

M:I-2 Triumph Speed Triple

This is the black naked bike ridden by Tom Cruise’s character in the film. Some sources have reported the bike as a Speed Triple 955i — however, the black wheels and cursive quarter panel script indicate the bike is an earlier version, either a T509 or the 1999 T595. The T509 Speed Triples had an 885cc, 108-hp, fuel-injected triple cylinder motor, while the T595 received a re-tuned version of the larger 955cc triple from the Daytona.

Mission Impossible 2 Motorcycles

The dual “bug-eye” headlamps and polished frame gave the bike’s a factory streetfighter look, which would become a trademark of the series. The high-powered triples were tuned for broader torque curves, making these bikes potent hooligan machines.

Mission Impossible 2 Motorcycles

M:I-2 Triumph Daytona 955i

The Daytona was Triumph’s entry into the sport bike market. The Daytona 955i had a 130-hp triple that helped to establish the company’s reputation for high-performance, distinctive triples.

Mission Impossible 2 Motorcycles

While the bikes could not quite match the laptimes of the Japanese-built competition, the brawny Daytona 955i was big on class and personality — and it worked better on real roads than the liter-class replica racers from Japan.

Mission Impossible II Motorcycle Chase Scene

Here’s the full video of the chase scene in HD.

' src=

The bike is a 1999 955i Speed Triple with the larger 955 engine. A T595 is a faired Daytona not a Speed Triple. The script was changed in 2000 from the earlier type and the black wheels changed in 2000 also. the frame is NOT highly polished but lacquered silver sparkle paint. – I only know this as I have the same cross-over year bike identical (apart from the silly tyres) to the one in the film.

' src=

Bikes were great in the scene but they rely heavily on the audience not knowing the difference between a street and knob tire – it was in your face obvious. C’mon Mr Woo, it’s that sort of detail that…..eh, what do I know, the film still made half a billion box office.

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Thandie Newton on Tom Cruise on ‘Mission Impossible 2’ set: “I was so scared”

"He was a very dominant individual"

thandie newton tom cruise

Thandie Newton has spoken of her experience working with Tom Cruise on  Mission Impossible 2 , saying she was “so scared” of the actor, and calling him “a very dominant individual”.

The actress played Nyah Nordoff-Hall in the 2000 film, and when asked whether she had been offered a role in any subsequent  Mission Impossible films, Newton said, “Oh, I was never asked.”

She explained in an interview with Vulture : “I was so scared of Tom. He was a very dominant individual. He tries super hard to be a nice person. But the pressure. He takes on a lot. And I think he has this sense that only he can do everything as best as it can be done.”

Mission Impossible: Fallout

Newton recalled a specific situation while filming when Cruise was dissatisfied with the actress’ performance in a scene (“Tom was not happy with what I was doing because I had the shittiest lines”), and suggested rehearsing the scene by saying each other’s lines, after realising “it wasn’t going well” and the actors “got frustrated with each other.”

“It was the most unhelpful,” Newton said. “I can’t think of anything less revealing. It just pushed me further into a place of terror and insecurity. It was a real shame. And bless him. And I really do mean bless him, because he was trying his damnedest.”

“He wasn’t horrible,” Newton said of Tom Cruise. ”It was just – he was really stressed.”

Cruise’s representatives are yet to respond to the claims after being contacted about the matter.

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IMAGES

  1. Mission: Impossible II (2000)

    controfigura tom cruise mission impossible 2

  2. Mission: Impossible II, 2000

    controfigura tom cruise mission impossible 2

  3. Tom Cruise and his Stunt Double

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  4. Mission: Impossible Becomes Possible As Tom Cruise Ends Pay Dispute

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  5. Tom Cruise Wallpapers Of Mission Impossible 2

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  6. Mission: Impossible

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  1. Mission Impossible 7

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COMMENTS

  1. Everything That Went Wrong With Mission: Impossible 2

    The arrival of Mission: Impossible 2 in 2000 brought a film that seemed badly out of step with its 1996 counterpart. From its earliest moments, where Tom Cruise performs an engaging yet ultimately pointless rock climbing stunt, M:I2 just couldn't seem to hit the mark in the same way that the first film had. This wasn't for lack of trying, but each time the sequel attempted to up the ante ...

  2. Did Tom Cruise Climb Mission: Impossible 2's Mountain Without A Safety

    Mission: Impossible 2 marked a turning point for Tom Cruise, as he set out to make himself an action hero and performed impressive stunts.; The rock climbing sequence in Mission: Impossible 2 was filmed with safety cables and a stuntman, although it still showcased Cruise's dedication to making things look real. Since Mission: Impossible 2, Cruise has continued to push the boundaries with ...

  3. Mission: Impossible 2

    Mission: Impossible 2 (titled onscreen as Mission: Impossible II and abbreviated as M:i-2) 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 ...

  4. The truth behind ''M:I-2'''s most dangerous stunt

    If heights give you the heebie-jeebies, you may want to keep your eyes wide shut during the opening scene of Mission: Impossible 2 (in theaters May 24). Tom Cruise scales a vertigo-inducing cliff ...

  5. 'Mission: Impossible 2' Tried, And Failed, To Turn Tom Cruise Into An

    What Mission: Impossible 2 tries, and fails at, is turning Ethan into as much of a suave romantic lead as Agent 007 is. On the surface, it should work perfectly. Cruise and Newton are both very ...

  6. Thandie Newton Recalls 'Nightmare' Working With Tom Cruise

    Jason Guerrasio. Jul 7, 2020, 10:08 AM PDT. Thandie Newton and Tom Cruise in "Mission: Impossible 2." Paramount. Thandie Newton looked back on what it was like to work with Tom Cruise on "Mission ...

  7. Thandie Newton Recalls the "Nightmare" of Working with Tom Cruise

    No one, it seems, is impervious to the fear that Mission: Impossible's franchise star and Hollywood's resident Scientology ambassador, Tom Cruise, can provoke.Not even Thandie Newton.. In ...

  8. Mission: Impossible II (2000)

    Mission: Impossible II: Directed by John Woo. With Tom Cruise, Dougray Scott, Thandiwe Newton, Ving Rhames. IMF agent Ethan Hunt is sent to Sydney to find and destroy a genetically modified disease called "Chimera".

  9. How 'Mission: Impossible 2' Transformed Tom Cruise From ...

    Clad in leather jacket and shades, the floppy-haired Cruise would run, gun and motorcycle his way to victory. It would begin Tom Cruise's evolution from an A-level actor who occasionally drove ...

  10. How 'Star Trek' Saved 'Mission: Impossible 2'

    Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible 2 wouldn't exist without getting a little help from Captain Picard and the Borg.. Twenty years ago, on May 24, 2000, director John Woo's M:I-2 motorcycle ...

  11. Mission: Impossible 2 is the series' odd one out but I still love it

    Why is Tom Cruise free climbing a sheer rock face in a tank top and shades? Like many things in Mission: Impossible 2, the opening prioritises looking cool over practicality. There's certainly an ...

  12. Mission: Impossible II

    Tom Cruise returns to his role as Ethan Hunt in the second installment of "Mission: Impossible." This time Ethan Hunt leads his IMF team on a mission to capture a deadly German virus before it is ...

  13. Mission: Impossible II movie review (2000)

    The movie wisely spends little time on the details, but is clever in the way it uses the virus to create time pressure: Twenty-four hours after you're exposed, you die, and that leads to a nicely-timed showdown involving the hero, the woman he loves, the villain, the virus, and a ticking clock. Thandie Newton plays the woman, and the most ...

  14. How Mission: Impossible 2 Changed Tom Cruise's Career (For Better And

    Cruise is regarded as one of the most iconic action stars of all time, but it wasn't until Mission: Impossible 2 that the three-time Golden Globe winner cemented himself as such. For better or worse, the 2000 spy thriller changed the trajectory of Cruise's career. Directed by action auteur John Woo, Mission: Impossible 2 followed Ethan Hunt as ...

  15. Mission: Impossible II (2000)

    A scientist, who is a friend of I.M.F. Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), who is in Sydney, Australia, wants him to escort him to Atlanta, Georgia, which he does. While on the plane, something bizarre happens and Ethan kills the scientist. It is then revealed that Ethan is not Ethan, but someone posing as him. He and his cohorts jump out of the ...

  16. Mission: Impossible 2 Director Clarifies Rumors Of Tom Cruise's ...

    Mission: Impossible 2 director John Woo clarifies rumors that Tom Cruise took over editing the 2000 action hit. Cruise had a smash with 1996's Brian De Palma-directed adaptation of the classic ...

  17. Mission: Impossible 2

    Cruise obviously doesn't have a fear of heights, which director John Woo discovered firsthand at the helm of the 2000 blockbuster "Mission: Impossible II." In a 2022 interview with Letterboxd ...

  18. Mission: Impossible 2 Retrospective Series

    Read Matt Goldberg's Mission: Impossible 2 retrospective; John Woo's film stars Tom Cruise, Thandie Newton, Dougray Scott, Ving Rhames, and Anthony Hopkins.

  19. "He's Got Tears": Tom Cruise Begged To Do One Super Dangerous Mission

    In a recent interview with The New York Times to promote the release of his latest film, Silent Night, Woo recalls how Cruise begged to be able to film Mission: Impossible 2 's cliff stunt himself ...

  20. Here's why Mission: Impossible 2 was the most important film of the

    Dougray Scott, who delivers a spectacularly hammy turn as M:I-2 's villain, rogue ex-IMF agent Sean Ambrose, was originally cast as Wolverine in 2000's X-Men. But when filming on Mission ...

  21. Mission: Impossible

    Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One: Directed by Christopher McQuarrie. With Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg. Ethan Hunt and his IMF team must track down a dangerous weapon before it falls into the wrong hands.

  22. "He's Got Tears": Tom Cruise Begged To Do One Super Dangerous Mission

    Mission: Impossible 2 director John Woo recalls Tom Cruise's emotional pleas to be allowed to film one especially dangerous stunt. Released in 2000, the second film in the long-running action franchise sees Cruise return as Ethan Hunt to face off against a rogue IMF agent in possession of a deadly virus. The film, which was met with mixed reviews, features a handful of impressive stunt ...

  23. What are the Motorcycles in Mission: Impossible 2?

    Mission: Impossible 2 came out in 2000, starring Tom Cruise as Impossible Missions Forces (IMF) agent Ethan Hunt, who must track down a biological weapon known as "Chimera." The film, directed by John Woo, was the highest-grossing film of the year 2000.Though the plot and dialo

  24. Thandie Newton felt "so scared" of Tom Cruise on 'Mission Impossible 2'

    7th July 2020. (Credit: Getty) Thandie Newton has spoken of her experience working with Tom Cruise on Mission Impossible 2, saying she was "so scared" of the actor, and calling him "a very ...