Movie Review: Mission: Impossible (1996)

NOTE: I had hoped to illustrate these movie reviews with lots of screen grabs, to make them match my TV season reviews, but my optical drive has failed me, so instead I'll make do with promotional material. Hopefully I'll have a chance to go back and add screen images in the future.

It took me about a decade to come around to accepting that Brian De Palma’s Mission: Impossible is actually quite a good spy movie. And twice that long to recognize that it’s even a pretty good Mission: Impossible movie. But when I first saw it in the theater my senior year of high school, I was just so incensed at the audacity of its major twist that I hated it for years. That twist (which I’m assuming is a spoiler to no one after 22 years) was making Jim Phelps, the hero of the TV show, the villain of the film. Granted, I had never even seen an episode of the classic 1966-73 series at that point, but I had seen and enjoyed episodes of the 1988-90 revival series, which also starred the great Peter Graves as team leader Jim Phelps. And I found the idea of making Phelps a traitor (even in the guise of a different actor) offensive and entirely unpalatable. And it still is, honestly, but as the subsequent film series has, over the years, both forged its own identity and simultaneously become more respectful of the TV series that spawned it (with direct references aplenty in 2011’s Ghost Protocol and 2015’s Rogue Nation), I’ve grown thicker skin as a fan. And the fact that in the film Phelps is played by the reptilian and generally charmless Jon Voight instead of the unflinchingly, endearingly earnest Graves definitely makes it easier to separate the two Phelpses. (I still wish, however, that one of the movies would include a cameo from a surviving star of the TV show reprising their role and explaining that somehow the Phelps who mentored Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt was not the same Phelps they knew and worked with. J.J. Abrams opened the door to such a possibility in 2009 when he suggested Graves himself might cameo in the next movie, but sadly the actor passed away before he had the chance to do that and rehabilitate his character.)

If one can manage to ignore the Phelps issue, however, Mission: Impossible is a highly entertaining movie, and a very rewarding one for spy fans. De Palma, who manages to be divisive even among his admirers (personally I find I tend to either love or hate his films), is, like Quentin Tarantino, a master of reappropriation. While he’s been accused of outright theft, I think that’s unfair. He takes scenes and situations he admires from classic films (and not little known ones, either; he blatantly borrows well-known imagery from the likes of Hitchcock, Antonioni, Kubrick, Coppola, and Eisenstein, among many others), and crafts them into something new, audacious, and often spectacular. He doesn’t just take imagery from these masters; he’s also studied their craft, and on a good day is right up there with Argento and Scorsese in his ability to construct epic cinematic setpieces worthy of Hitchcock. Mission: Impossible may owe its title, basic premise, and (most crucially) its theme music to its namesake television program, but the plot and central setpiece come from other spy and heist movies to which the director wishes to pay homage. And that makes it tremendous fun for fans of those genres. But despite the unforgiveable treatment of Jim Phelps, De Palma also pays homage to Bruce Gellar’s series.

The first act is pure Mission: Impossible, offering direct homage after direct homage to the show. The film begins with the tail end of an operation, and it’s clearly a classic Mission: Impossible con job incorporating several elements instantly familiar to fans of the show. Using a hotel room set of their own creation along with a life-like rubber mask and a staged death, the 1990s Impossible Missions Force (IMF) cons an enemy agent into revealing crucial intel. We then see them breaking down their set, an act that not only exposes the artifice of a good con, but also the artifice of cinema itself, recalling the final scene of Mario Bava’s classic horror movie Black Sabbath, in which the director keeps pulling back from a shot of Boris Karloff on horseback far enough to reveal that the actor is actually in a studio riding a fake horse, with crew members creating the illusion of movement through a forest. It may at first seem like a throwaway moment, but with this business, De Palma signals his intention to deconstruct the format of the series, as well as his commitment to cinematic sleight of hand. (A later scene reaffirms this with Cruise performing an actual magic trick for the other characters and the audience.)

Before that deconstruction comes, though, we’re treated to one more moment of pure, classic television Mission as the main titles unfold in a very familiar way to very familiar music. The TV series was somewhat unusual in cutting a new, unique opening credits montage for each episode, which teased actual scenes from the show you were about to watch with familiar graphics of a lit fuse burning down. De Palma crafts the same sort of opening for his film, showing bits and pieces of the movie to come set to composer Danny Elfman’s version of Lalo Schifrin’s iconic Mission: Impossible theme music.

Following the titles we’re treated to yet another familiar trope from the TV show, as Jim Phelps (Voight) is issued his orders via a recording hidden in an innocuous everyday item. (In this case it’s a personalized in-flight film selection, proffered by the complicit stewardess.) The voice is not Bob Johnson’s, but many of the phrases are: “Good morning, Jim…” “Your mission, should you choose to accept it…” and “This tape will self-destruct in five seconds.” We know the drill! From there, however, De Palma and screenwriters David Koepp (Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit), Steven Zaillian (Clear and Present Danger) and Robert Towne (who penned one of the greatest Man from U.N.C.L.E. episode "The Dove Affair" before going on to write such classics as Chinatown) serve up what the comfortably formulaic TV series never really gave us: an IMF mission gone horribly, deadly wrong.

The team (played in an act of calculated misdirection by recognizable actors who had been heavily played up in commercials and even “introduced” in a comic book promising fans their first look at the new IMF) is tasked with infiltrating a black tie embassy party in Prague, and securing a MacGuffin from a traitor named Golitsyn. (Yes, De Palma happily references real life spies as well as fictional ones.) It seems like a simple enough assignment for team members with familiar specialties, like electronics wiz Jack (Emilio Estevez), icy femme fatale Sarah (Kristin Scott Thomas, deliciously channeling Barbara Bain) and master of disguise “point man” Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), among others. And it goes smoothly enough at first, but then, shockingly, team members start dying in grisly ways. Jim calls abort, but Ethan desperately tries to salvage the mission, only to end up impotently watching as all of his colleagues are killed, one by one, before his eyes. This includes Jim, who appears to be shot at point blank range and then fall off a bridge, and Jim’s wife, the beautiful Claire (Emmanuel Beart), whose car explodes. De Palma has given fans exactly what they want, and then pulled the rug out from under them quite excitingly. And he just keeps on tugging that rug when, later on, Jim is revealed to be still alive, and the architect of his own team’s demise. (Claire has also survived.) It’s classic Mission: Impossible… thoroughly and brutally deconstructed.

This is the moment when De Palma starts referencing what must be his favorite spy movie, the Robert Redford classic 3 Days of the Condor (1975). Ethan makes it to a pay phone and scrambles a secure connection, reporting in to his Langley control Kittridge (the then-ubiquitous Henry Czerny, of Clear and Present Danger) that (in Redford’s exact words), “They’re all dead.” Just as Redford’s CIA superiors set up a meeting for him that erupts in violence, so does Kittridge for Ethan. Since Ethan appears to be the only survivor of the mission gone awry, Kittridge is convinced he is the mole they were looking for. And Ethan realizes the whole mission was actually a mole hunt. After a very effective escape sequence involving hundreds of gallons of water gushing out in a restaurant, Ethan finds himself on the run like Redford… or like so many of the heroes of De Palma’s favorite director, Alfred Hitchcock. From here on in, what we get is more or less a Hitchcockian man-on-the-run movie, as Ethan desperately struggles to prove his innocence and safeguard the MacGuffin (again, in true Hitchcockian form)—a list of active non-official cover agents, or “NOC list.”*

But even if the plot is pure Hitchcock (by way of Condor), De Palma’s most famous appropriation (and the defining scene of the film in most viewers’ minds) comes from Jules Dassin’s 1964 heist classic Topkapi (based on Eric Ambler’s novel The Light of Day, and also an influence on Geller) in the form of a tour de force heist of CIA headquarters involving Ethan memorably dangling from the ceiling into a pressure-sensitive, climate-controlled vault. To aid him in this impossible mission, Ethan ends up forming the basis of a new team by recruiting disavowed agents Luther Strickle (Ving Rhames, then riding high on his breakout Pulp Fiction performance) and Krieger (Jean Reno, fresh from his international star-making turns for Luc Besson in Nikita and Leon) to join himself and Claire. Luther is a computer hacker in the vein of the original series’ tech whiz Barney Collier (Greg Morris), and Krieger is an all-purpose tough guy who flies helicopters and likes knifing people. The role as scripted seems to call for more of a Peter Lupus-type strongman (Willy on the TV show), as Krieger’s main function on the CIA heist is to deploy the rope from which Ethan dangles and to haul him back up (indeed, Krieger was drawn as a hulking muscle man in the Marvel prequel comic… but then again artist Rob Liefeld didn’t know how to draw men any other way), but Reno was the flavor of the moment and more than capable of a convincingly evil turn when the script calls for it. While not part of the de facto team, Vanessa Redgrave (Blow-Up) also deserves mention for a scene-stealing turn as an arms dealer named Max with a fascination for paradoxes and a seeming affinity for Ethan… if not trust. And she’s aided by Necros from The Living Daylights, actor Andreas Wisniewski, who makes the most of a small part with a large presence.

Like his “Odessa Steps” sequence copped from Battleship Potemkin in The Untouchables (a very high quality adaptation of a classic TV show), De Palma’s vault heist is an excellent example of how he masterfully reappropriates iconic scenes and makes them work in new contexts. The scene shows off Cruise’s trademark acumen for physical stuntwork (the dangle might not be from the heights of the Burj Khalifa or an airborne transport plane, but the acrobatics involved in remaining stiff as a board, parallel to the floor are very impressive—and clearly required abs of steel!) along with De Palma’s ability to craft ever-building suspense. Taking a page from another classic Dassin heist, in Rififi (1955), the whole enterprise must unfold in silence because alarms will go off if Ethan makes any sound. So the sequence plays out purely visually and generally free of dialogue.

After cleverly establishing the elaborate rules of the room via pre-lap voiceover as Cruise briefs his compatriots in advance, De Palma is able to ratchet up the tension with a close-up of a bead of sweat rolling down Ethan’s glasses from his forehead (will it hit the floor, setting off the alarms???) or a shot of a rat approaching Krieger as he lowers Ethan from the air vents above (will he sneeze again, setting off the alarms, or lose his grip on Ethan???). The director moves skillfully from wide shots establishing Ethan’s place in the space of this carefully controlled environment to close-ups of things like that bead of sweat or digital countdowns to create a nail-biting sequence. And true to the tenets of reappropriation rather than rip-off, everything taken from Dassin plays out within the context, once again, of a classic Geller IMF set-up. While the movie as a whole relies too heavily on a single protagonist for fans of the very much team-based series, the individual setpieces tend to highlight classic Mission: Impossible teamwork. Every member plays a role in the events at CIA headquarters, from Claire drugging the coffee of the man who’s meant to occupy the vault they’re invading, to Luther in the van looking at screens with moving green dots (as in Alien, these dots also signify suspense within the context of the scene) to Krieger struggling with Ethan’s weight on the other end of his rope. And upon executing their plan, they all make their getaway dressed as firefighters (recalling the show's first season episode "Memory") to the familiar strains of Lalo Schifrin’s original series cue “The Plot,” as reimagined by Danny Elfman. While utilizing generous bits of Schifrin throughout, Elfman’s terrific score also reinforces De Palma’s Hitchcock influence by channeling Bernard Herrman in equal measure. Furthermore, the timeless score helps the movie feel less dated today than its contemporary, GoldenEye, whose Eric Serra score places it as instantly and precisely in 1995 as the computer technology on display.

The only setpiece where De Palma really falters is in the final one, a chase atop the TGV train that involves a helicopter chasing the high-speed train into a tunnel. This sequence was heavily showcased in the film’s original advertising campaign, but even despite the great score it does feel a bit dated today thanks to the very sort of CGI the series now does its best to avoid (in favor of practical stunts), but which was such an irresistible new tool at the time that everyone was using it… even though the technology was still far from perfected. But unlike many of the subsequent movies in the film franchise, the action setpiece was not the film’s real climax. The complicated spy plot of betrayals and reversals plays out dramatically on board the train (such a classic genre setting!) prior to the wind tunnel flips and fighting. And, once again, it involves sleight of hand, both physically and in the filmmaking. De Palma relishes his reveals, and deploys them in his unfailingly cinematic style, with Cruise envisioning different scenarios that play out visually for the audience and in his head while verbally describing something entirely different for the benefit of his on-screen audience—a trick Christopher McQuarrie would revisit decades later in the series.

In Mission: Impossible, Brian De Palma crafted a pretty terrific spy film that manages to simultaneously embody and subvert many classic tropes of the genre. He didn’t limit himself to the tropes of the titular TV series alone, however, and for better or worse delivered a film that owes more overall to the classic spy films of Alfred Hitchcock and heist films of Jules Dassin. While that may rankle some dyed-in-the-wool fans of Bruce Geller’s series (and while I’ll personally never be able to fully get over the appalling treatment of the series lead Jim Phelps), what spy fan can resist classically canted angles of Prague streets at night, treffs in London safehouses, live drops on European trains, or intrigue at black tie embassy affairs? Not this one!

Mission Report
TV Moments: The firefighter disguises from "Memory," the opening credits, lots of mask business
Dangling: The definitive Hunt Dangle—right out of Topkapi
Rogue Agents: Phelps and his associates
Rogue Ethan: Ethan goes on the run when Kittridge accuses him of being the mole
Fashion Alert: One attribute Voight's Phelps shares with Graves is a fashion sense that dates somewhat poorly. It mostly comes through in his hair, which seems an odd length and cut for a secret agent.

*NOC lists as MacGuffins are a personal pet peeve of mine. I can’t stand that trope. From Mission: Impossible to Skyfall to Atomic Blonde (all movies I thoroughly enjoy), the NOC list MacGuffin drives me nuts. Because once a list of active agents is out of the hands of the agency controlling them for even a minute, all those agents must be assumed blown. The damage is done in the mere theft or disappearance of such a list from safe hands. It’s toothpaste that can never be put back in the tube, and thus an ineffective MacGuffin. The only way the CIA can really protect its blown assets now is by doing whatever it can to warn them and exfiltrate them in a timely manner. And an object that becomes instantly useless when removed from its proper place fails as a MacGuffin. In Mission: Impossible, at least, the audience can be sure that the real NOC list is never compromised, because we’re always privy to its whereabouts and the ineffectiveness of any attempt to upload it elsewhere. But Kittridge and the CIA don’t have the benefit of our omniscient point of view.

Read my review of M:I-2 (2000) here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Seventh TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Sixth TV Season here.

Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Fifth TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Fourth TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Third TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Second TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The First TV Season here.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE Week

Over the nearly twelve years I've been writing this blog, I've written a lot about Mission: Impossible. It's one of the key spy brands, whether we're discussing the blockbuster Tom Cruise movies which have grossed nearly $2.8 billion collectively at the worldwide box office since 1996, Bruce Geller's original, innovative, and ahead of its time 1966-73 TV series, which established so many now familiar tropes of the spy genre, or Lalo Schifrin's indelible theme, a tune that connotes action and excitement and high-stakes espionage as readily as "The James Bond Theme."

CBS/Paramount released the first season DVD set just a few months after I began this blog, and I reviewed it in December 2006 here. Although I'd caught a few syndicated episodes randomly, the DVD sets afforded me my first opportunity to dive into the original series at any length. (My original introduction to the franchise had actually come from the 1988-90 revival series.) Over the next five years, those season sets formed a sort of backbone for this blog. As I noted in the conclusion to my review of the seventh and final season, "In many ways, this whole blog has been about my growth as a Mission: Impossible fan... Discovering new favorite spy series—and sharing those discoveries—is one of the main reasons I started this blog to begin with. And after watching all seven seasons, I can say categorically that Mission: Impossible is one of my favorites—probably my second favorite Sixties spy series after The Avengers." My reviews of each season became longer and longer, more profusely illustrated, and more and more in depth. They've proven to be among the most popular posts I've done. And yet, somehow, I've never gotten around to reviewing the Mission: Impossible movies. Sure, I've written about them a lot... covered their casting and production as news items, and included some of them on various best of the year and best of the decade lists. But I've never done in-depth reviews to compliment my reviews of the TV seasons. With Mission: Impossible - Fallout, the sixth movie in the big-screen incarnation of the franchise, due out this Thursday, what better time to finally rectify that oversight?

It's kind of amazing that Tom Cruise has been playing Ethan Hunt now for 22 years—far longer than any one actor continuously wore the mantle of 007, and longer even (by a year) than the cumulative period between Sean Connery's first and last (non-consecutive) appearances as James Bond. That's quite an accomplishment. And a reason why these films deserve further exploration on this blog!

It's also been a very long time since I've done a theme week, so "Mission: Impossible Week" is pretty exciting! Watch for my review of Brian De Palma's 1996 inaugural Mission later today, and others throughout the week, mixed in with other little Mission-related postings. And then see Mission: Impossible - Fallout in theaters this weekend! And while you're waiting (no doubt with bated breath!) for that first film review, why not whet your palettes by checking out or revisiting my reviews of the various TV seasons?

Read my review of Brian De Palma's Mission: Impossible (1996) here.
Read my review of John Woo's M:I-2 (2000) here.

Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Seventh TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Sixth TV Season here.

Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Fifth TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Fourth TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Third TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Second TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The First TV Season here.

Trailer: DAMASCUS COVER

We've been waiting for this one for a long time! Now, finally, Damascus Cover, the movie version of Howard Kaplan's 1977 Syria-set spy novel starring Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (Mission: Impossible III) and, in his final role, John Hurt (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) that we first heard about way back in early 2015 is finally opening in the United States.. today! Check out the trailer below and check out the movie in select theaters. Or pre-order the DVD, due out September 4, from Amazon.

Trailer: THE SPY GONE NORTH

CJ Entertainment released a trailer this week for a new Korean spy movie that looks pretty great. A late Cold War period piece set in the days of Kim Jong-il, The Spy Gone North follows a South Korean agent sent as a dangle to infiltrate a cadre of North Korean leadership based in Beijing, who ultimately gains the trust of the Supreme Leader himself. His delicate position ultimately becomes threatened by the ruling class on both sides of the Demilitarized Zone. According to the trailer, the story is inspired by true events, but it also looks at least a little bit inspired by The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. (And maybe just a tad by The Chairman...?) Jong-bin Yoon (Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time) directs and Jung-min Hwang (The Wailing) stars. The Spy Gone North opens in select theaters in the U.S. August 17.

Easton Press Publishes Signed, Leatherbound Limited Edition of THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD

Connecticut-based publisher Easton Press, renowned for their beautiful, leatherbound editions, have announced a new release sure to interest all spy fans. John le Carré's seminal 1964 masterpiece The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, still inevitably cited as a touchstone every time a new, twisty, brooding, serious spy novel comes out, is the latest le Carré title to receive the Easton treatment. In addition to each copy being hand-signed by the author, according to the publisher, "this Easton Press exclusive edition features premium leather binding, a hubbed spine accented with true 22kt gold, gilded page ends, moiré endsheets, and a satin bookmark." Dimensions of the 256-page book are 5 1/2” x 8 1/2”. Easton's signed edition of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy came with a certificate of authenticity that was itself signed not only as le Carré (a pen name), but also as David Cornwell (the author's real name)... which I found quite neat! I would expect that to be the case once again with this book.

Easton doesn't report the limitations of their books, but they are limited. Once the signed stock sells out, it's gone, and the books become collectors' items inevitably commanding high prices on Ebay. Their last le Carré release, for example, a 3-volume set of the Karla Trilogy with the first, the aforementioned Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, signed by the author, is now all sold out. For now, however, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold can be ordered directly from the publisher for 4 monthly installments of $32.

While other le Carré books (including Tinker, Tailor) have had previous leather editions in the past, this edition surprisingly marks the first ever time that what is arguably the author's most famous work has been published in leather. (It did, however, receive an excellent illustrated, slipcased treatment from The Folio Society last year, which is still available--and highly recommended!)

Other notable Easton Press spy titles over the years include leather editions of le Carré's A Perfect Spy (this is a really cool book, with a "secret code"-themed pattern on the cover), William F. Buckley, Jr.'s Saving the Queen, Robert Ludlum's The Parsifal Mosaic, James Grady's Six Days of the Condor, the entire run of Ian Fleming James Bond titles (From Russia With Love actually got the Easton treatment twice), and Anthony Horowitz's first Bond novel, Trigger Mortis. All together, they make for a very impressive shelf or two in any good spy library!

Dynamite's JAMES BOND ORIGIN Comic to Bridge the Gap Between Young Bond and FOREVER AND A DAY Starting in September

Comic Book Resources today at long last revealed details about Dynamite's long in the works James Bond Origin comic book. The WWII-set comic was a cornerstone of Dynamite's initial announcement of their acquisition of the James Bond license (to kill) way back in 2014, and we got further hints over the years that it was still being worked on, in close association with rights-holders Ian Fleming Publications. But 007 fans have long since learned that patience is a necessity when it comes to Bond comics. (Anyone else recall the excruciating delay between issues of the Eclipse/Acme series Permission to Kill, or Dark Horse's Serpent's Tooth, back in the early 90s? Or, worse still, the Bond comics that ran so late they were eventually cancelled, like Dark Horse's A Silent Armageddon or Topps' GoldenEye? The promised follow-ups to the Dark Horse serials "Light of My Death" and "Minute of Midnight" that never materialized? Or, more recently, the years of delays on Dynamite's Casino Royale graphic novel adaptation?) While delays have been inevitable, Dynamite so far has rewarded fans' patience better than any other publisher to ever hold the Bond license. The Fleming adaptation Casino Royale, which was also first announced in that initial 2014 press release, finally arrived earlier this year as a handsome hardcover, and now the company is making good on their James Bond Origin promises as well!

According to CBR, the ongoing series (not miniseries!) James Bond Origin will debut in September with star American comic book writer Jeff Parker at the helm. Fans have long speculated about who would be hired to write this crucial stage of Bond's career. Early on I was rooting for Howard Chaykin, but I honestly couldn't be happier with the choice of Parker. He's the perfect guy for the job, being no stranger to the spy genre or even to period spy stories. One of his early mainstream successes was the Bourne-ish graphic novel with a sci-fi spin The Interman. This led to his rebooting Marvel's Atlas-era heroes as the Agents of Atlas, led by FBI agent Jimmy Woo who debuted in Atlas's Yellow Claw before Steranko made him an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. during his seminal run on Nick Fury. He later spearheaded a very successful run at DC writing the modern comic book version of the 1960s Adam West TV show, Batman '66, and eventually penned the very fun crossover Batman '66 Meets The Man From U.N.C.L.E., which remains (sadly) the only U.N.C.L.E. comic of this century and belongs on every spy fan's shelf. More recently he tackled another Sixties TV icon with strong spy roots, Jonny Quest, in the popular DC series Future Quest. He's definitely got what it takes to tell the largely untold story of James Bond's wartime career! Dynamite veteran Bob Q. (Kings Quest, Green Hornet '66 Meets The Spirit) will handle art chores. And based on his variant covers for James Bond Origin (right, or see another one at CBR), he looks well-qualified to do so! Premiere issues from Dynamite are always heralded by a wide range of variant covers, and James Bond Origin will be no exception. Comics luminaries John Cassaday, David Mack, Kev Walker, Gene Ha, Ibrahim Moustafa (who wrote and drew one of Dynamite's best Bond comics to date, "Solstice"), and Bob Q. and Jordan Boyd will provide those covers.

James Bond Origin will bridge the gap between IFP's Young Bond YA novels by Charlie Higson and Steve Cole (read my review of Higson's final entry here) and Anthony Horowitz's just-released Casino Royale prequel Forever and a Day. It's clear from the various covers, including one (left) by the official Young Bond artist Kev Walker (who illustrated the Young Bond graphic novel Silverfin, based on Higson's first novel, as well as a line of book jackets and numerous spot illustrations) that Walker's character design is being used as the key art reference for Bond at this age, clearly demonstrating Dynamite's close collaboration with IFP. According to CBR, "The new ongoing series will take readers back to March 1941, and introduce 17-year-old James Bond as a restless student in Scotland who’s eager to make his mark on the world. However, a visit by an old family friend coincides with the devastating Clydebank Blitz, forcing James to fight to survive." The Clydebank Blitz refers to the deadly Luftwaffe bombing on Scottish shipbuilding town Clydebank, which killed more than 500 and left more than 35,000 homeless. Readers of the Young Bond novels may have notions about who that old family friend is, though it's possible that Parker will draw exclusively on Fleming (leaning heavily, no doubt, on that obituary M writes for 007 in You Only Live Twice, which was mostly all his creator ever wrote about Bond's youth), or just create his own new characters. (Higson and Cole readers will also no doubt note that the 1941 date still leaves a little bit of room for a few further Young Bond novels taking place between Cole's stories and Parker's, should IFP decide to commission any.)

Dynamite has previously trumpeted this series as the first time the tale of Bond's origins has been told, but that's not strictly true. John Pearson covered Bond's pre-war and wartime espionage career in great depth in his 1973 continuation novel James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007, and William Boyd provided flashbacks to Bond's WWII service (cheekily putting him in the 30 Assault Unit, the elite commando unit assembled by Commander Ian Fleming when he worked for Naval Intelligence) throughout his 2013 continuation novel Solo. Horowitz chose to ignore Pearson's account in Forever and a Day, so I wouldn't expect to see any of that incorporated into Parker's comic book. Whether or not he ties his stories into Solo (a much more recent addition to the Bond canon, commissioned by the same regime at IFP who are working on this series) remains to be seen.

New Trailer for Amazon's JACK RYAN

Amazon has released a new trailer for their forthcoming TV series Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, which premieres August 31. It looks pretty good, and I'm glad that they're playing up the fact that Ryan is an analyst... though once again, as with Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, it looks like they've made the mistake of conflating Ryan and Clark and thrust Ryan into too much of the action too soon. (Clark isn't in this show, as the rights to that character are tied up with the long-in-the-works film adaptation of Without Remorse.) But I'm still excited for this!

Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan was already renewed for a second season back in April, hot on the heels of the massive success of series star John Krasinski's horror movie A Quiet Place. In season two, according to Deadline, "Jack Ryan (Krasinski) confronts the forces in power in a dangerous, declining democratic regime in South America. The second season commences production this summer in Europe, South America and the United States. Also returning for Season 2 is Wendell Pierce who will reprise his role as James Greer." So while Season 1 looks to be loosely inspired by Clancy's Patriot Games (with the Irish terrorists swapped for Islamic extremists), it sounds from that brief description as if Season 2 will be loosely inspired by Clear and Present Danger. Now take a look at the trailer for Season 1!

Tradecraft: Universal to Distribute Next Bond Movie Internationally, Annapurna and MGM Domestically

Danny Boyle Confirmed as Director

Deadline reports that EON Productions and MGM have made a deal with Universal to distribute the 25th James Bond movie internationally and on home video. The news is something of a surprise, as Warner Bros. had widely been considered the frontrunners. Sony has distributed all four Daniel Craig Bond pictures to date. This deal adds another superspy to Universal's franchise roster. The studio also distributes the Jason Bourne movies. Outside of the spy department, the studio is home to mega-franchises The Fast and the Furious and Jurassic World, and they certainly know how to market and distribute huge blockbusters worldwide. According to the trade, "domestic distribution will be handled by MGM and Annapurna through the joint venture they signed last year," as had been expected by many in the industry. While this will be a far bigger release than Annapurna has handled to date as a distributor, this strategy makes sense from MGM's point of view, as they've been eager to return to the distribution business for a while. MGM will also retain digital and worldwide television distribution rights. Digital may soon be a bigger earner than home video, if it isn't already. And retaining television rights is key for MGM's premium cable channel, EPIX.

The studio confirmed Deadline's scoop to the trade, and EON principals Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson issued a statement expressing their excitement at partnering with Universal and confirming that Danny Boyle will, indeed, direct the next Daniel Craig-starring installment. "We are delighted to announce that the exceptionally talented Danny Boyle will be directing Daniel Craig in his fifth outing as James Bond in the 25th installment of the franchise. We will begin shooting Bond 25 at Pinewood Studios in December with our partners at MGM and thrilled that Universal will be our international distributor.” While Boyle was first reported to be the frontrunner to helm the forthcoming Bond adventure in February, his involvement was said to be contingent on Broccoli and Wilson approving of a script being written by Boyle's frequent collaborator, John Hodge (Trainspotting), from a story concoted by Boyle. Apparently, that approval has now come.

Production on Bond 25 is slated to begin on December 3 of this year, with release dates still on track of October 25, 2019 in the UK, and November 8, 2019 in the U.S.

Tradecraft: NBC Cancels TAKEN

Deadline reports that NBC has cancelled the Taken TV series after two seasons. The series, based on EuropaCorp's neo-Eurospy film franchise starring Liam Neeson, was retooled for its second season, but the new direction didn't boost viewership the way NBC had hoped. In recent weeks its Friday night ratings had become pretty dire. The network will, at least, air the final episodes that are already in the can. They'll be burned off on Saturday nights at 8pm starting this Saturday, May 26.

Full Trailer: CONDOR (2018)

Following up on March's teaser trailer, The Audience Network (yeah, that's a thing) has released the full trailer for their TV reimagining of 3 Days of the Condor entitled Condor. James Grady's novel Six Days of the Condor is one of the genre's all-time classics. Sydney Pollack then made it into one of the all-time classic spy films, Three Days of the Condor. Can lightning strike thrice? Can the same story now be successfully adapted once again, into a different medium? Well, it worked for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, so I suppose it's just possible... but obviously a long shot. Still, this full trailer looks pretty good, even if it seems clear that they've ditched the brilliant purpose of the CIA department Condor works for in both original versions.

As we first learned over a year ago, the series protagonist played by Max Irons (Crooked House) will be named Joe Turner, like Robert Redford's character in the film, and not Ronald Malcolm, as in the book. But the movie was close enough to its source material (despite a few key differences) that if the TV series is at all faithful to either, it should at least resemble both. Katherine Cunningham (The Playboy Club) takes on the Faye Dunaway role of Kathy Hale (again using the character's movie name rather than book name), and 20-year-old Israeli Arab actress Leem Lubany (Rock the Casbah) plays Gabrielle Joubert, a variation on the iconic role of the professional killer played so memorably by Max Von Sydow in the film. William Hurt, Mira Sorvino, Brendan Fraser, and Bob Balaban also star.

Condor premieres June 1 on The Audience network. My understanding is that the Audience Network was previously only available to DirecTV satellite subscribers, but now there is an app, DirecTV Now (similar to HBO Go, I think), that allows users to stream it on various set-top devices. I haven't done this myself, and can't vouch for it. But come June, I will have to figure out how to see it, and this seems the easiest way.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT Character Posters and International Trailer

Paramount has released nine new character posters for Mission: Impossible - Fallout with a really great tagline: "Some missions are not a choice." They showcase series regulars like Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames, returnees from Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation like Rebecca Ferguson and Sean Harris, and new faces like Vanessa Kirby and Angela Bassett. There's also an international trailer that's slightly different from the second domestic one we saw last week, offering some alternative footage and more of certain characters. Check it out.

xxx

Two Connery Bond Movies on the Big Screen in 35mm This Father's Day in Los Angeles

Hollywood's famed Egyptian Theatre will show 35mm prints of From Russia With Love and Goldfinger on June 17 - Father's Day. Bond on film has become a relatively rare commodity in recent years (even the once ubiquitous Goldfinger!), as most revival screenings nowadays tend to be projected digitally. Personally, I find that no matter how sharp the transfer, a DCP just doesn't feel like film... and I'd always rather watch a Bond flick on film. So if you feel like I do, and you'll be in the Southern California area mid-June, you should definitely go! The double feature kicks off at 7:30, starting with From Russia With Love. Tickets ($12 covers both films) are available through Fandango, or at the Egyptian Theatre box office.

Tradecraft: Another Year, Another 24 Revival Rumor

It's a tradition that every year at the Fox upfronts (the event where networks unveil new series to advertisers), some executive teases the possibility of a 24 revival. Some years, that happens, leading to the excellent Kiefer Sutherland half-length reunion series, 24: Live Another Day, and the single season of "CTU: The Next Generation," 24: Legacy. But most years, nothing comes of such talk at all. (Like last year's rumors that the real-time format would be kept for another new incarnation, but the counterterrorism angle would be ditched altogether in favor of a female-driven legal drama.) This year was no exception to that rule. Deadline reports that, "during Fox’s upfront press call, chairman Dana Walden revealed that 24 executive producer Howard Gordon (Homeland, Legends) is working with 24 creators Joel Surnow and Bob Cochran on a possible new iteration of the real-time drama. The network and 24 producers 20th Century Fox, Imagine TV and Gordon had been discussing new ideas for a 24 series since the end of 24: Legacy last season, including a female-led legal thriller earlier this season. Walden would not elaborate what the new [premise] is, but noted that 'we are very excited about where the show would go.'" Make of that what you will. Most likely it means nothing, but it does remind you that it's very hard for a network to let a good idea go entirely. Sutherland has sworn that he'll never again play Jack Bauer... but spy fans know when to say "never again." (Sutherland made that definitive statement when he had another show, but Designated Survivor was just cancelled, so perhaps that will change things.) What I would love to see is for Bauer to return for another 12-episode season (which works so much better than the 24-episode format, which always sags in the middle) and team up with Corey Hawkins' next-gen CTU op from Legacy along with all the fan-favorite familiar faces (most essentially Chloe and Tony, the only original series cast member to show up on Legacy)... but each leaving their annoying family members behind. I just hope that Gordon, Fox, et. al. realize that 24's real contribution to the genre is not its real-time gimmick (which wore thin by Season 2, honestly), but the character of Jack Bauer, who belongs in the pantheon of the great spy heroes. Find a way to get Jack Bauer back in action, in whatever format Sutherland will agree to do!

Warner Archive Releases 1939 Joel McCrea Spy Flick ESPIONAGE AGENT

It's been a while since the Warner Archive has dipped into their spy library. But last week WB's MOD branch announced the first-ever DVD release of the historically notable 1939 spy film Espionage Agent, starring Joel McCrea (Foreign Correspondent) and the stunning Brenda Marshall. Espionage Agent is not a great film, but its historic significance makes it one well worth seeking out for scholars of spy cinema and espionage history.

Like McCrea's next (and far better) spy film, Foreign Correspondent (1940, review here), Espionage Agent is pure propaganda. But it's espousing the exact opposite sentiment of the later Hitchcock movie! While Hitchcock's film serves to warn America that the dawn of WWII is no time for complacency, and that America has an obligation to come to the aid of her allies in Europe and to stand up to the Nazi menace, Espionage Agent makes a case for isolationism. Yet it also makes a case that America needs a dedicated, international counter-intelligence service, which, of course, it didn't have at the time. So for students of spy history, it's a very interesting picture. The basic case is that if the U.S.A. has a spy agency along the lines of what the CIA would eventually become, then that will be enough to keep the country safe from overseas threats like Hitler's Germany, and there need be no more discussion about getting involved with the war in Europe - talk that's all stirred up by German agents anyway, according to the movie. (Why would Germany have wanted America to enter the war? Britain certainly had agents working that angle, but Germany was pretty intent on keeping us out....) Naive politics that have dated poorly aside, Espionage Agent is also worth watching for its place in film history when Hollywood was struggling with how to portray a heroic American "espionage agent." At the time, remember, spies were nearly always bad guys, and it was up to policemen and reporters (as in Foreign Correspondent) and costumed avengers (in the serials) and regular Joes to thwart their nefarious schemes. It wouldn't be until the Cold War and James Bond that we started to see proper, professional spy heroes on screen with any regularity, but Espionage Agent is a curious stepping stone worth checking out.

The Warner Archive made-on-demand DVD retails for $21.99 but can, as always, be found at a discount on Amazon. (Remember, purchases made through links on this blog benefit the Double O Section, which takes up far more of my time than any small commissions will ever compensate for, but every little bit helps!)

Read my full review of Espionage Agent, written in the early days of this blog, here.

Tradecraft: H Collective Activates COUNTER SPY Comedy

The H Collective, a global film finance and production company founded last year, has been building an aggressive production slate recently. As we learned last month, the focal point in their production slate is a fourth xXx film with Vin Diesel following The H Collective's acquisition of the rights to the extreme spy franchise from Revolution Studios. That fits in with their eye to the Chinese market, where the xXx: Return of Xander Cage made the bulk of its overseas money. Continuing the China-focused strategy - and, more importantly, continuing with the spy genre - The H Collective last week set the CIA comedy Counter Spy to be the first film of a three-picture co-production and distribution deal with Chinese streaming giant IQiyi. According to Deadline, "Counter Spy follows a barista at the CIA headquarters’ Starbucks in Langley, Virginia. He has the highest security coffee job in the world and loves being close to the action. However, when he’s accidentally tangled up in a secret mission with an old-school CIA agent and his Chinese counterparts, his fantasy of the spy life comes crashing down." David Rothenberg and Lionel Enns penned the first draft of the script; former Marvel exec Craig Kyle is currently doing a rewrite. The H Collective recently struck a distribution deal with Sony, so it seems possible that studio could handle domestic.

TV Trailer: WHISKEY CAVALIER

ABC announced this week that it had picked up the previously reported spy pilot Whiskey Cavalier to series. And they also unveiled a trailer! Bear in mind, this is one of those long, sort of cumbersome upfront trailers (designed with advertisers in mind, not audiences)... but it still looks awesome! This is exactly what I want from a network spy series. I really hope the show turns out to be as much fun as the trailer! Fulfilling the ancient prophecy that all the stars of Felicity would one day be spy stars (hey, Scott Speedman had his shot in xXx: State of the Nation, remember?), Scott Foley stars as a mostly by-the-book FBI agent just coming off a breakup who's assigned to partner up with a freewheeling CIA agent played by Lauren Cohan (who also stars in the upcoming summer spy movie Mile 22, whose trailer also dropped this week). Action, hijinks, and sexual tension ensue. And based on his memorable several seconds in the trailer, Dylan Walsh (Nip/Tuck) looks to have reinvented his career, brilliantly transforming himself from a ho-hum leading man to a scene-stealing character actor. I can't wait to see the show!

Trailer: MILE 22

While it's likely to be eclipsed by the new Mission: Impossible trailer, STX is eager to make us aware that intense spy action is not the exclusive domain of Tom Cruise. The first trailer (a red band trailer) has dropped for Peter Berg's (The Kingdom) CIA actioner Mile 22, starring his frequent collaborator Mark Wahlberg (2 Guns) and envisioned as a franchise kickoff. And it's got lots of shooting, running, and blowing shit up in it. Mile 22 is co-written by Jack Ryan showrunner Graham Roland, who's clearly having a very spy-ish summer, and Lea Carpenter. John Malkovich (RED), Ronda Rousey (Furious 7), and Lauren Cohan co-star. This is, in fact, one of two Lauren Cohan spy trailers to hit this week! She also stars in the new ABC series Whiskey Cavalier, which looks great.

Trailer: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT

As promised, Paramount debuted the new trailer for Mission: Impossible - Fallout today. And it certainly looks like another winner! Will this be three great Missions in a row? Check out the trailer and judge for yourself.

New Poster and Trailer for MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT

Paramount has released a new poster for Tom Cruise's sixth Mission: Impossible movie, Mission: Impossible - Fallout. A new trailer will debut tomorrow. (If the waiting is killing you, you can still tide yourself over with the awesome first trailer!) Cruise once again stars as Ethan Hunt; the supporting cast including returnees Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, Alec Baldwin, Sean Harris, and Michelle Monaghan, and newcomers Angela Bassett, Vanessa Kirby, and Henry Cavill. (No Jeremy Renner this time around.)  Christopher McQuarrie, who helmed the last entry in the series, Rogue Nation, returns to direct. (A first for the series, which has historically used a different director for each film.)

Tradecraft: John Cena Replaces Dwayne Johnson in Ludlum Movie THE JANSON DIRECTIVE

It's been a while since we've heard about any movement on the Robert Ludlum film front. After the success of the Bourne franchise, there were all sorts of reports of new adaptations of Ludlum bestsellers like The Chancellor Manuscript (at one point Martin Scorsese was supposed to direct Leonard DiCaprio), The Matarese Circle (once set to team Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington before the Cruise-run United Artists imploded), The Osterman Weekend (a remake once set to be Simon Kinberg's directorial debut, and later a vehicle for RED director Robert Schwetke), The Sigma Protocol (long in development with producer Irwin Winkle), The Parsifal Mosaic (Ron Howard and, tantalizingly, Zhang Yimou had both kicked the tires as potential directors), and The Janson Directive. That last one seemed the most likely to move forward, as the world's biggest star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was attached to topline, and because the Ludlum estate has kept a Janson book franchise going along the lines of the Bourne series, hiring other authors to pen continuation novels about Ludlum's sniper hero. (Even Ludlum's original Janson tale, The Janson Directive, was finished by another author, and published posthumously.) But it had been quite a while since we'd heard anything about this film, and I'd assumed it had gone the way of so many other projects (like Shane Black's Doc Savage) that Johnson attaches himself to but ultimately doesn't have room for on his busy slate. Apparently, that's not the case! Johnson must believe in the property, because he remains involved as a producer. But he's tapped a protege to take over starring duties on the Universal film.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, fellow wrestler-turned-actor John Cena will step in to star. Cena is hot right now, coming off of a major comedic success in Blockers after steadily building a mainstream comedy career with smaller roles in movies like Trainwreck, Sisters, and Daddy's Home 2 after first fizzling by following the typical wrestler path of paint-by-numbers action vehicles like The Marine (2006) and 12 Rounds (2009). He has, however, maintained his dramatic chops by appearing in Doug Liman's experimental Iraq horror movie The Wall. But most of all, he's proven himself to be an immensely charming and likable screen presence, much like Johnson. So it makes sense for the latter to anoint the former his successor. (Johnson first made the announcement on social media.)

In The Wall, Cena played a spotter for a sniper; in The Janson Directive he'll play a sniper himself - a former SEAL who now runs a private security firm and ends up taking on a younger female apprentice. The Ludlum novel (review here) saw Janson lead a team on a disastrous rescue mission that left him on the run from governments and terrorists alike. As he trotted the globe in an effort to clear his name, he ended up uncovering a conspiracy with ties to his own past military service and reaching (thrillingly) all the way to the highest levels of the U.S. government. Of course, in the post-Bourne Identity world there is no guarantee whatsoever that a Ludlum-based movie will actually follow much of the master plotter's plot. One key divergence is obvious already. The Janson of the book is the proverbial old gunslinger, a Vietnam vet now well past his prime and running form his past. That Janson would have been a great role for Liam Neeson. If any of Ludlum's plot is retained, presumably Janson's military service and the horrific incident that still haunts him will now take place in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The trade reports that James Vanderbilt (The Losers, White House Down) will pen the script from a story he and Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind) adapted together. (John Hlavin penned a previous draft for Universal.) The pair will also produce, along with Ludlum rights holders Captivate Entertainment's Ben Smith and Jeffrey Weiner and Johnson's regular producing partner Hiram Garcia. Johnson and Dany Garcia will executive produce. No director has yet been named.

With Cena set to star, I'm a lot more hopeful that this movie will actually happen! (His dance card isn't nearly as full as The Rock's, and he's at the perfect stage of his career to launch a new spy franchise.) And I always welcome any new Robert Ludlum based movies.

Read my review of Ludlum's novel The Janson Directive here.
Purchase The Janson Directive on Amazon here.