Mission: Impossible II
USA/Germany 2000
Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
The present. Dr Nekhorvich is flying from Australia to Atlanta carrying Chimera, a man-made virus, and its antidote known as Bellerophon. Sean Ambrose, a renegade agent from the Impossible Missions Force, steals Nekhorvich's briefcase, then escapes. IMF agent Ethan Hunt is instructed to recover the stolen virus. In Seville, he recruits Nyah, Ambrose's ex-lover, to help him. Ethan and Nyah fall in love.
Nyah agrees to return to Ambrose in Australia to pass on information to Ethan. Realising that all he stole from Nekhorvich was Bellerophon, Ambrose attempts to sell the antidote to McCloy, a pharmaceutical tycoon who owns the only supplies of Chimera. Ambrose becomes suspicious of Nyah. Ethan breaks into McCloy's Sydney headquarters to destroy the last of the Chimera. Ambrose anticipates this and corners Ethan, holding Nyah hostage. Nyah injects herself with the last syringe of Chimera. Ambrose must keep her alive to hold on to the virus, but she will die if not injected with Bellerophon within 20 hours. Ethan and Ambrose both escape a shootout in McCloy's building. Ambrose plans to take over McCloy's company, use Nyah to start a Chimera epidemic in Sydney and profit from selling Bellerophon to the afflicted. Ethan breaks into Ambrose's island compound and escapes with Bellerophon. Ambrose pursues him; Ethan kills him in hand-to-hand combat, finds Nyah before she kills herself and injects her with the remedy.
Review
During one of Mission: Impossible II's typically elaborate action sequences, someone at the back of the Manhattan theatre where I saw the film called out: "These guys have been watching too much Matrix." I don't know whether the heckler was ignorant of the historical relationship between John Woo and the Wachowski brothers, or was making an ironic wisecrack about the confusing state of contemporary Hollywood action cinema. It's a telling remark either way. To paraphrase what Manohla Dargis wrote about Face/Off (S&S September 1997), as Woo's sensibility has conquered Hollywood, so Hollywood's sensibility has seemed to conquer him.
By any reasonable measure Mission: Impossible II is a successful action-adventure film, and even a casual fan of Woo's work will recognise his trademark flourishes: slow-motion firearm callisthenics, overblown emotion and enough motor-vehicle eroticism to make J. G. Ballard blush. There are also a few of the surpassingly beautiful moments only he can provide, when something enormous seems to stir in the lives of apparently superficial characters. There's a meditative, almost mystical sequence as Nyah approaches Ambrose's waterfront compound outside Sydney - as ever, Woo lovingly fetishises the lifestyles of the evil rich - that ranks with anything in his Hong Kong movies. Thandie Newton strides up the pier in slow motion, her olive features and raven hair framed by the preternatural blue of Sydney harbour. Dougray Scott meets her with a purposeful gleam in his eye, and as the scarf around her neck is about to slip away, he reaches out and catches it. You can argue that this is clichéd symbolism - Beauty captured by the Beast - but at least it's wonderfully executed.
But viewed in the context of Woo's other films, Mission: Impossible II looks like a muddy, compromised film. The director seems hemmed in by his star, by a lacklustre script and by a franchise that has abandoned its Cold War origins for generic action-adventure formula. If our waggish friend in the back row contends that this is not quite as good a Woo film as The Matrix, one could retort that it's no worse a Bond film than The World Is Not Enough. Our hero favours the casual look and motorbike leathers rather than immaculately pressed dinner jackets, but the lovely girl, the smooth-operator villain and the tangled, unconvincing doomsday plot are all in place.
Tom Cruise as agent Ethan certainly comes off as a game, athletic performer (or at least his stunt double does), but his disarmingly low-key acting style is most effective when he's given time to steep in the role. His early scenes with Newton have the appealing tenderness of two inscrutable characters who have found each other, and their giddy seduction ritual, a Porsche-vs-Audi motor race through the Spanish mountains, provides the film's sexiest thrills. But as Mission: Impossible II shifts its focus to Ethan's battle with Ambrose, Cruise increasingly seems like a good-natured guy going through the motions. Similarly, while Woo makes good use of Dougray Scott's handsome visage as a design element, Ambrose is never more than a collection of villainous mannerisms; neither of these actors is capable of the meaty excess Nicolas Cage and John Travolta brought to Face/Off.
Like all Woo films, Mission: Impossible II concludes with an extended action sequence of almost hallucinatory intensity. The finale - where Cruise and Scott face each other alone - is probably enough to ensure that mass audiences will go home sated. But Woo's fans may see the climax as an almost desperate litany of images and ideas downloaded from his earlier films. Is he trying to convince himself, or us, that he is still capable of things his imitators - almost everyone working in action cinema - are not? Or did his western admirers, snobbishly seduced by the subtitles, exotic locations and seemingly antiquated moral codes of his Hong Kong films, see something in John Woo that was never there?
Credits
- Director
- John Woo
- Producers
- Tom Cruise
- Paula Wagner
- Screenplay
- Robert Towne
- Story
- Ronald D. Moore
- Brannon Braga
- Based on the TV series created by
- Bruce Geller
- Director of Photography
- Jeffrey L. Kimball
- Editors
- Christian Wagner
- Steven Kemper
- Production Designer
- Tom Sanders
- Music
- Hans Zimmer
- ©MFP Munich Film Partners GmbH Co. MI 2 Productions KG
- Production Companies
- Paramount Pictures presents a Cruise/Wagner production in association with MFP Munich Film Partners GmbH Co. MI 2 Productions KG
- Executive Producers
- Terence Chang
- Paul Hitchcock
- Associate Producer
- Michael Doven
- Executive in Charge of Production
- US Crew:
- Jonathan Sanger
- Production Supervisor
- Susan Towner
- Production Co-ordinators
- Australia:
- Silla Childs
- Paula Jensen
- Australian Crew:
- Megan Worthy
- US Crew:
- Zita Mazzola
- 2nd Unit Australia:
- Lil Heyman
- Unit Production Managers
- Kevin De La Noy
- Australia:
- Anne Bruning
- 2nd Unit Australia:
- Deuel Droogan
- Unit Managers
- Australian Crew:
- Will Matthews
- 2nd Unit Australia:
- Wil Milne
- US Crew Supervising Location Manager
- David Israel
- Location Managers
- Australian Crew:
- Robin Clifton
- US Crew:
- Brad Bemis
- 2nd Unit Director
- Billy Burton
- Assistant Directors
- Arthur Anderson
- Joan Cunningham
- Australian Crew:
- Guy Campbell
- Julian Ryan
- Fiona Winning
- Paul Sullivan
- Sophy Robertson
- US Crew:
- Randol Perelman-Taylor
- 2nd Unit Australia:
- Albert Cho
- Bob Donaldson
- Simon Warnock
- David Arnold
- Jamie Platt
- Claire Richardson
- Jo Pearce
- Script Supervisors
- Kristin Voumard
- US Crew:
- Alex Kreuzwieser
- Judy Townsend
- 2nd Unit Australia:
- Judy Whitehead
- Casting
- Deborah Aquila
- Greg Apps
- Sarah Halley Finn
- Associate:
- Barbara Fiorentino
- Australian:
- Prototype Casting
- Voice:
- Barbara Harris
- 2nd Unit Director of Photography
- Gary Capo
- US Splinter Crew Director of Photography
- Fleming Olsen
- Aerial Director of Photography
- Phil Pastuhov
- Camera Operators
- Greg Lundsgaard
- Australian Crew:
- Brad Shield
- Marc Spicer
- US Crew:
- Michael St. Hilaire
- 2nd Unit Australia:
- Calum McFarlane
- Ian Thorburn
- Darrin Keough
- Steadicam Operators
- Greg Lundsgaard
- Australian Crew:
- Brad Shield
- Visual Effects Supervisor
- Richard Yuricich
- Visual Effects
- MVFX
- Double Negative
- Cinesite
- Cinesite - Los Angeles
- Digiscope
- Digital Visual Effects
- Computer Film Company
- Digital Visual Effects/Animation
- Cinesite (Europe)
- Pacific Date Images
- Digital Film Service
- Cinesite
- Digital Matte Paintings
- MatteWorld Digital
- Computer Graphics/ Animation
- Bionic Digital
- Special Effects Supervisor
- US Crew:
- David Kelsey
- Conceptual Model Maker
- Australian Crew:
- Lewis Morley
- Model Making Supervisor
- Australian Crew:
- Tom Davies
- Miniatures Creation/ Photography
- The Magic Camera Company
- Miniatures Creation
- David B. Sharp Productions, Inc
- Graphic Artist
- Australian Crew:
- Karen Harborow
- Additional Editors
- Tony Ciccone
- Eric Strand
- Supervising Art Director
- Dan Dorrance
- Art Directors
- Australian Crew:
- Nathan Crowley
- Michelle McGahey
- US Crew:
- Kevin Kavanaugh
- 2nd Unit Australia:
- Mark Dawson
- US Crew Set Designer
- Thomas F. Betts
- Set Decorators
- Australian Crew:
- Kerrie Brown
- US Crew:
- Lauri Gaffin
- Draftspeople
- Australian Crew:
- Godric Cole
- Edward Cotton
- Peter Milton
- Louise Rooney
- Amanda Le Guay
- Storyboard Artists
- Australian Crew:
- Robert Consing
- Mark Sexton
- US Crew:
- Michael Jackson
- Rick Buoen
- Trevor Goring
- Costume Designer
- Lizzy Gardiner
- Costume Supervisors
- Australian Crew:
- Kenny Crouch
- Kerrie Thompson
- US Crew:
- Carolyn Dessert
- Chief Make-up Artists
- Robert McCann
- Australian Crew:
- Paul Pattison
- US Crew:
- Mary Burton
- Make-up Artist/ Hairstylists
- Australian Crew:
- Kate Birch
- Annnette Hardy
- Zeljka Stanin
- Carolyn Nott
- Special Make-up Effects Creation
- Kevin Yagher
- Special Make-up Effects Creation/Design
- Kevin Yagher Productions, Inc
- Special Effects Make-up
- Australian Crew:
- Mitchell Coughlin
- Mark Garbarino
- Chief Hairdresser
- Kerry Warn
- Chief Hairstylists
- Australian Crew:
- Paul Pattison
- US Crew:
- Peter Tothpal
- Kathrine Gordon
- 2nd Unit Australia:
- Samantha Pattison
- Main Title Sequence Design/Execution
- yU+co
- Garson Yu
- Title Design
- Greenberg/Schluter
- Titles/Opticals
- Pacific Title
- Additional Optical Effects
- Cinema Research Corporation
- 'Mission: Impossible' Theme
- Lalo Schifrin
- The Mission: Impossible II Band
- Klaus Badelt
- Michael Brook
- Dave Gamson
- Lisa Gerrard
- Nick Glennie-Smith
- Oliver Leiber
- Heitor Pereira
- Jeff Rona
- Martin Tillman
- Mel Wesson
- Hans Zimmer
- Music Score Supervisor
- Adam Milo Smalley
- Music Production Co-ordinator
- Gretchen O'Neal
- Music Editors
- Marc Streitenfeld
- Zigmund Gron
- Music Recordist/Mixer
- Alan Meyerson
- Supervising Music Technical Adviser
- Slamm Andrews
- Soundtrack
- "Take a Look Around (Theme from 'M:I-2')" - Limp Bizkit; "I Disappear" - Metallica; "Iko-Iko" - Zap Mama; "Don Toribio Carambola" - Peret; "Alba y Camino" - Jose Manuel Lopez; "Danza de Ibio" - The Dancers of Cabezon de la Fuente; "Viva la Virgen del Carmen" - Joaquine Lagar and Chorus
- Flamenco Choreographer
- Antonio Vargas
- Sound Recordists
- Bob Renga
- Craig 'Pup' Heath
- Sound Mixers
- Australian Crew:
- Paul Brincat
- US Crew:
- Arthur Rochester
- 2nd Unit Australia:
- Chris Alderton
- Additional Audio
- Mark Ormandy
- Peter Sullivan
- Carey Andrews
- Re-recording Mixers
- Andy Nelson
- Anna Behlmer
- Additional:
- Jim Bolt
- Paul Massey
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Mark P. Stoeckinger
- Sound Editors
- Bryan Bowen
- Tony Lamberti
- Alan Rankin
- Geoff Rubay
- Scott Wolf
- Supervising Dialogue Editor
- Dave Williams
- Dialogue Editors
- Susan Kurtz
- J.H. Arrufat
- Noah Blough
- Simon Coke
- ADR
- Mixers:
- Bob Baron
- Charleen Richards
- Mixer, Soundfirm:
- Andrew Neil
- Supervising Editor:
- Robert Ulrich
- Editors:
- Kerry Dean Williams
- David Giammarco
- Zack Davis
- Michelle Perrone
- Foley
- Artists:
- Sarah Monat
- Robin Harlan
- Mixer:
- Randy K. Singer
- Supervising Editor:
- Thomas Small
- Editors:
- Tammy Fearing
- Scott Curtis
- Glenn T. Morgan
- Dino DiMuro
- Special Consultant
- William Mapother
- Marine Co-ordinator
- Australian Crew:
- Jack Ellison
- Technical Advisers
- US Crew:
- William C. Patrick III
- Harry Humphries
- Aerial Co-ordinator
- Bruce Benson
- Stunt Co-ordinators
- Brian Smrz
- Australian Crew:
- Rocky McDonald
- 2nd Unit Australia:
- Bob Hicks
- Bob Brown
- Armourers
- Robert 'Rock' Galotti
- Australian Crew:
- John Bowring
- Helicopter Pilot
- Craig Hosking
- Pilots
- Corkey Fornof
- Peter McKernan
- Helicopter Pilots
- Australian Crew:
- Gary Ticehurst
- Terry Lee
- Roger Corbin
- Cast
- Tom Cruise
- Ethan Hunt
- Dougray Scott
- Sean Ambrose
- Thandie Newton
- Nyah Nordoff-Hall
- Ving Rhames
- Luther Strickell
- Richard Roxburgh
- Hugh Stamp
- John Polson
- Billy Baird
- Brendan Gleeson
- McCloy
- Rade Sherbedgia
- Doctor Nekhorvich
- William Mapother
- Wallis
- Dominic Purcell
- Ulrich
- Matthew Wilkinson
- Michael
- Nicholas Bell
- McCloy's accountant
- Cristina Brogeras
- flamenco dancer 4
- Kee Chan
- McCloy's chemist
- Kim Fleming
- Larrabee
- Alan Lovell
- Biocyte security guard 2
- Dan Luxton
- relief pilot
- Christian Manon
- Doctor Gradsky
- Karl McMillan
- Biocyte security guard 1
- Lester Morris
- bookie
- Kelly Ons
- flamenco dancer 1
- Nicholas Papademetriou
- prison guard 2
- Brett Partridge
- Biocyte security guard 3
- Candice Partridge
- flamenco dancer 7
- Natalie Reis
- flamenco dancer 2
- Daniel Roberts
- co-pilot
- Adriana Rodriguez
- flamenco dancer 5
- Sandra Rodriguez
- flamenco dancer 6
- Nada Rogic
- flamenco dancer 3
- Antonio Vargas
- Senor De L'Arena
- [uncredited]
- Anthony Hopkins
- Swanbeck
- Certificate
- tbc
- Distributor
- United International Pictures (UK) Ltd
- tbc feet
- tbc minutes
- Dolby Digital/Digital DTS Sound/SDDS
- Colour by
- DeLuxe
- Anamorphic [Panavision]