When did “Mission: Impossible” first present indicators that it may grow to be the “Mission: Impossible” we have all come to know and love? Oh, I’d say the second that Ethan Hunt narrowly escapes demise on the grisly finish of a helicopter’s spinning blades and as a substitute leaps onto the flying machine’s skids to provide the villainous Phelps the sendoff he deserves. In a neat and surprising callback to his earlier escape from Kittredge within the restaurant, Hunt takes out one final piece of exploding bubble gum, slaps it onto the helicopter windshield, and jumps away from the explosion to land (comparatively) safely again on the prepare in one of many movie’s simplest cash photographs.
Of course, this being a Brian De Palma movie, that is not fairly the top of the motion. Hunt nonetheless has the fiery remnants of the helicopter to cope with, nonetheless chained to the rushing prepare and on a collision course with the helpless agent. As the prepare continues to decelerate, the wreckage involves a relaxation proper up towards the again of the prepare … with the still-spinning (and terrifyingly sharp) propeller blades coming to a relaxation mere inches from Hunt’s throat. Just how nicely did this scene work? Well, future sequels would go on to consciously evoke this actual second, most famously within the sequel “Mission: Impossible 2” when the stunt workforce hung an precise knife solely millimeters away from Cruise’s eyeball.
By the top of this sequence, Hunt had remodeled from a gifted IMF agent with luck on his facet to 1 who regarded demise within the eye and laughed if it meant engaging in his mission in any respect prices. Those who misguidedly look down on the “Mission: Impossible” franchise want solely watch this film and this scene to grasp its enduring enchantment.