‘Mission: Impossible 2’ Tried, and Failed, to Turn Tom Cruise Into an American James Bond
Posted on Monday, June 14th, 2021 by Josh Spiegel
(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.
