Your Mission..Should you CHOOSE to Accept it..
Whilst I may have skipped a few eps and must confess to not being QUITE as big a ‘Mission’ fan as they..this show has dedication to the craft of podcasting, to film and building community. What’s particularly fascinating is that they have managed to not only secure some big name guests (Paul Hirsch, Brad Bird, Lorne Balfe, Christopher McQuarrie) but to keep those guys talking, at some depth and leisure , in an era of sound-bites and template promotional clips.
You get to share in a mutual joy and learn in a truly substantial, philosophical sense about the trials, challenges, rewards and joys of film-making. I look forward to seeing some repeat visits / further big names on the show and yes, I suspect they will eventually get Tom Cruise, though he is quite a focused man, I suspect? I have rarely if ever seen him simply sit down and relax and talk movies beyond the brief of promoting each new release (a diplomatic art at which he excels).
One nonetheless gets every sense that he would love to do so..you can just tell he’d feel that’s a luxury he cannot afford because he could be out planning and MAKING the things! Maybe McQuarrie could lure him to the cast as a double act between takes on the now readied for action Missions 7 and 8 (being shot back to back for a 2021/22 release). There is a mystery surrounding Tom. But Light the Fuse could infiltrate and probe and charm and ‘we got it’..
There are also interesting looks back at what might have been. The cast on Oliver Stone’s Mission:abort on the second movie is as entertaining as the ACTUAL second movie that John Woo ended up making! I can see why it did not end up getting made as the ending was pure sci-fi rather than merely ‘spy-fi!’. Equally, oh the lost treasures that were in both M:I-3 and Ghost Protocol!
So, yes: Recommended! A great listen for commutes, work-outs, jogs /walks, bath time, washing up, woteva. Just a great listen, full stop, be you a Mission devotee , Tom Cruise disciple or just a film fan.
Some questions I would like them to address?
- When are we teaming up for a joint show?
- If the IMF is American then why so many ENGLISH operatives and adventures? They just cast Hayley Atwell for Missions 7 and 8.
- How DID Benji get to field agent status? Does he have a BIT of a crush on Ethan?
- WILL we EVER get a definitive answer on how / why Phelps went from decent man to nasty bastard (and no, the movie’s explanation does not cut it: is it a different Phelps?!)
- Have they in fact made up their minds at Team Cruise /Paramount as to whether the movies are in fact in continuity with the TV shows or a totally different universe?
- Why so many bad apples in the IMF team down the years: plot device to make Ethan go rogue (and hence have an army after him?) or a genuine piece of plot in awaiting about the nature of Black Ops?
- Would Jack Reacher, Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell, Mitch McDeere make it in the IMF if Ethan took a day off?
- Where is KITTRIDGE?! Will he ever come back? And is he in fact the best goodie buddy Ethan is waiting to have..or a truly nasty bastard or somewhere in between? Henry Czerny..we need you!
- What ARE the sexual politics of Mission movies? Are we meant to be seduced when Ilsa comes out of the pool / takes off shoes / wraps legs round you..(nb that’s not a complaint just a genuinely curious query). 😉
- How did Ethan get past West Point, let alone into intel with THAT erratic a hairdo?
- WHAT IS THE RABBIT’S FOOT?! Where can we find one of the abandoned Mission:3 scripts?!
- In the Mission:Impossible drinking game..do we take a shot of water every time Dougray Scott shouts HUNT like it’s a n other swear word?
- Who was offered the Cavill role in FALLOUT? McQ keeps teasing that as well as the ‘famous’ cameo that went to a stuntman instead. Was it Fassbender?
- Is Ethan now a fully fledged character and if so, do we adopt the bio that was given in the first film/ surely ripe for reference via visual nods in the forthcoming films..not a full prequel, just visual montage nod (Ethan learns his skills, acquires traits, gets recruited by a younger Jim Phelps?..think Spielberg’s into segment for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade)?
LOVE your work. Happy to promote. And would welcome a collaboration sometime. Keep it up!
The secretary can neither confirm nor deny the existence of the podcast.
