Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

Story: The whole IMF is disavowed. Blamed for the explosion at the Kremlin orchestrated by a madman to ignite a nuclear war, the remaining IMF team led by Ethan Hunt is operating on rogue status to stop it with no back up, no plan, with no choice but to succeed as the world’s future lies in balance.

Review: Since the 60’s, the audience sits in front of the television as Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves ignite the tip of the dynamite and the series theme starts playing. It also spawned a new series for the next generation that got Peter Graves back in the role to lead a new team with guest appearance of the original cast.

After the series was cancelled, it took a decade to bring back the MI franchise when Tom Cruise decided to produce it in movie and cast himself as the IMF point man Ethan Hunt and change the whole Mission: Impossible for the new generation. The first movie was a passing the torch moment as Ethan Hunt will start leading the team. When I first watched it, I was not impressed with what was turned out because I thought Tom Cruise turned MI into a solo action rather than team even though it was directed by Brian De Palma. It was only until the second movie that there was a new team.

But I only got to like Mission: Impossible again in the third movie thanks to J.J. Abrams, known for his TV series creation, Alias. The Mission: Impossible image of the TV series was back. I also thought that it might be the last since there was a stigma of movie series with a lifetime of two sequels and of what was progressed and character development.

There are twists and intrigue that will leave you stuck in your seats. As you think you will be relieved, another intense situation arises. The movie’s excitement never stops. It’s like a roller coaster ride. Even though it is not in 3D, the IMAX camera maximized the scenes that will leave you really breathless. The third movie was already my favorite until MI Ghost Protocol.

Don’t wait till it’s released on DVD or cable channels, it won’t give justice to watch it on TV. The movie experience will make you immersed with story, the stunts until you can finally breathe to relax. The movie also has added comedy that makes you relax in between gripping action sequences.

For the Philippine cinema, it will be shown in all cinemas on December 15. One week advance than United States so be one of the first to see it before the Metro Manila Film Fest starts.  If you wish to be ahead, there are selected movie screenings today. Thanks to Solar Entertainment Corporation for the advance screening last December 13 at IMAX SM Mall Of Asia.

Tom Cruise on new world-saving mission impossible in his unbelievable stunts

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL is an action-packed thrill ride, filled with mind-boggling stunts and rich characters.

In another action packed scene, Ethan slips out of a fourth-story window and, while Russian operatives wait for him to give up, grabs his belt, leaps from the building ledge, slides down a nearby power line to the roof of a moving van and rolls off safely onto the street.  “That was actually one of the most challenging stunts of the whole movie, as far as difficulty goes,” says stunt coordinator Gregg Smrz.  “We rehearsed that on stage over and over and over, until it was just old hat, and then went and put it into place.  Tom nailed it in just a few takes.”

The key word here is:  “Tom.”  That stunt – only a sign of things to come for the audience as they watch the rest of the film – was performed by Cruise himself as was the case throughout the movie. “Tom wants to do everything,” says Smrz, “even when he doesn’t have to.  There are shots where the producers were really getting nervous, and he wanted to take it further and further.  I told him, ‘Tom, nobody is going to know it’s not you.  There’s no reason for you to do this – your double could do it and you can watch.’  He just looked at me and said, ‘But I’m having fun.”

Director Brad Bird concurs:  “I agree with Tom that when the real guy is there, you get something extra, and the audience can feel it.  It’s not just that you’re seeing the actor’s face, but somebody like Tom adds intensity to it because he’s an actor.  When he falls, he shows you the fear of somebody who’s suddenly being dropped.  It’s a performance and I think people can tell the difference.”  Cruise is intimately involved with every step of the stunt process.  “He loves action films, and he takes them very seriously and does his homework,” says Bird.  “He’s a stunt coordinator’s dream because he invests himself completely.  He wants to understand every aspect of how you execute a stunt, how it’s planned.  By the time the day arrives to do the stunt, he’s completely prepared.  He’s made to order for this kind of movie.”  Adds Paula Patton, “It’s why he’s the perfect Ethan Hunt.  He’s fearless.  He lives for danger and excitement and doing the impossible, which he’s done his whole career.”

The rest of the cast followed Cruise’s example, both in work ethic and in the desire for a realistic experience for the audience, performing many of their own stunts as well, particularly in the fight arena.

Another intensely complicated stunt sequence in the film, involving one of the most complex sets ever built for an action movie, appears as Ethan fights with Kurt Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist) to recover the cheget, the Russian nuclear launch briefcase, to prevent the start of a nuclear holocaust.  The two battle it out in an old-fashioned fistfight in a 3D automated parking garage with machinery and automobiles constantly on the move. 

“That went along with our desire for this movie to not fire a lot of guns and unleash a ton of ordinance,” André Nemec explains.  “Josh and I talked about setting an old school fistfight in a crazy environment.  I recalled a conversation I had with an architect friend, who told me about these automated parking garages.  So, Josh and I went online and found one that VW had.  We were looking at pictures of it and thought ‘This literally could be the most insane environment for a brawl,’ then pepper in playing hot potato with a nuclear briefcase - wild.”

Special Effects Supervisor Mike Meinardus and his crew then spent the next six months building the set, which was fully operable. The structure held the 35,000 pound, 78 foot tall center column, supporting two 23 feet paddles, each of which weighed over three tons.  The completed set held about 70 cars, 18 on each level, which were best set in place using the machinery Meinardus had built to use shooting the scenes – the paddles themselves. 

The action for the incredibly complex sequence was mapped out by Brad Bird in an animatic; a simplified animation used to plan each step of the sequence.  “It’s an extraordinary exercise in three-dimensional thought,” says Bissell.  “It’s a tremendous testament to Brad’s ability to introduce the geography of the set,” co-producer Tom Peitzman adds.  That trait, no doubt, comes from the director’s keen ability to visualize the way he would in animation, producing the kind of fantastical shots Bird is known for.  But for MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, the director took the kind of approach necessary for live action stunts.  “He didn’t want things just to be magical,” says Burk.  “He wanted everything to feel authentic and real.”

For that, Bird wisely turned to his visual effects supervisor and stunt coordinator for advice, both of whom were eager to pull off what Bird envisioned, while still helping him stay in the realm of reality.  The two would negotiate with Bird to hit the mark.  The shots were rehearsed with Cruise’s stunt double, to plan out camera moves and program the operation of the paddles, but filmed, of course, with Cruise and Nyqvist doing their own work in every shot.  An immense amount of care was taken to protect the actors in the dangerous maneuvers with the operating paddles and the minimal deck surface to stand on between cars.  “Each paddle weighs 6700 pounds and there’s only about ½ inch clearance between the paddle and the decks, so it’s like a giant sheer,” says Meinardus.  “When it was running, we’d have sirens and safety meetings, to make sure that nobody was rappelling between there.”  Adds Bird, “It was a great tribute to the whole team to pull that off because it takes incredibly precise coordination.”

The pair of actors were suspended from cables, picked to the ceiling of the warehouse, as well as to the ends of the paddles to prevent accidental falls between vehicle platforms and to guide planned jumps.  Cruise, at one point, makes a three-story leap from a deck level into a car on a moving paddle, slowed at the end of his fall by a decelerator.  “It was very challenging work, coordinating their moves and finding safe places to set the cameras,” says 2^nd unit director Dan Bradley, who shot the sequence.

PAULA PATTON the new girl of MIF

Paula Patton with Tom Cruise in MI:Ghost Protocol

Paula Patton (Jane Carter) emerged as an unforgettable talent with her leading roles in the Tony Scott film “Déjà Vu” and the original musical “Idlewild.”  In “Déjà Vu,” Now  she’s Tom Cruise’s co-star in the new Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. As director  describes her, Agent  Jane Carter  “is a badass.”  Though she has yet had a lot of experience as a field agent, she is driven by something besides her desire to complete the mission: revenge. “She’s enormously talented, very charismatic and really took the physicality the role required head-on,” Cruise notes.  Jane, Patton says, “is as fierce as the boys, if not fiercer – she’s someone to contend with.”

How aware were you growing up of the whole MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE legacy?

I didn’t catch the TV show, but my husband and I were huge fans of the films. This is a dream come true for me to be in. I have to pinch myself everyday that I got this.

What do you think is the appeal of this franchise? Why does it keep coming back?

Tom is really a smart producer. He always likes to find different directors who brings their own unique style. Brian De Palma did the first and then John Woo did the second and finally J.J. Abrams did the last one. Now, we have Brad Bird (winner of two Academy Awards® for Best Animated Feature Films THE INCREDIBLES and RATATOUILLE) has his own unique vision for the story. This is a different Mission than you have ever seen before.  Tom is the heart of the franchise, but for this there is a really strong team around him and the IMF is completely shut down.  We have no resources, no help, and these are things that are new in this film. – It's an incredible ride from start to finish.

What is it like to work on a Tom Cruise movie as opposed to working with Denzel Washington or Will Smith?

All of them are great to work with. Tom is incredible. Not only is he a great actor, but also he is a great human being. He is kind to everyone on set, weather it be a PA or a grip. He just has this passion for making movies. I still have that but I am so new to the process. I am so excited about going to set. He acts as if it is his first movie and that enthusiasm bleeds down to everyone else. Everyone else is then jacked up and excited to be on the set as well. He is the hardest worker that I have ever met and so it is no coincidence that he is one of the biggest stars in the world.

Was there anything that surprised you about him? He can be intense when he works.

To be great, you have to have intense focus and dedication. There is time to laugh and have fun but then there is time to stay focused. TOM UNDERSTANDS THIS BALANCE BEST. You have to be serious about what you are doing. There is a lot riding on that and so you have to be committed. 

 You get to be a spy in the film. What qualities do you have that would lend themselves to be a good spy?

I LOVE THE IDEA OF BEING A spy BECAUSE I love becoming other people and I love wearing costumes BUT I don’t think I would BE THAT GOOD AT BEING A SPY I would probably ruin it because I am such a romantic and I love love (laugh). I am not cold hearted enough to be a spy.

Tom gets to climb outside a 130-story building. Are there moments like that where you could step up and do that?

I would like to do something like that. I was glad that in this MISSION IMPOSSIBLE they decided to make this female character strong and fierce. She is able to hang with the boys. I have SOME GREAT FIGHTS AND SOME COOL SHOOT OUTS. I really get to BE in the middle of the action.

Did you have to condition yourself?

I did. It was five months after the birth of my son and I WAS

I want to go back to those scenes in Dubai on that building. Do you have a fear of heights?

When I was doing documentaries, I don’t like looking at medical procedures where they have to open people up; yet I could film them because this was a job. I would film gastro-bypass surgeries and I filmed births. I filmed so many things that I hope I never have to see again. The same could be said about heights. They had this huge open window at the top of the Burj. When that window was cut out and you are in the tallest building in the world, you do get that foot tingling feeling but when your in the moment and in character you just do it.

Did you empathize with the plight of the women there?

Over there it is not a burqa; it is an abaya. It is very silky and beautiful. These women are important and smart and they are of value to their family. Dubai is one of the most liberal places you will find in the Middle East. It is not one for us to judge someone else’s culture. We all grow up differently.

What cultural things did you get to experience there?

I got to ride a camel (laugh). The food was amazing. I love Middle Eastern food. I didn’t have a lot of time off but when I did, we went to sand dunes and took camel rides. Walking through the streets is its own cultural experience. It is like nothing you see in the West.

 How did you see your character?

I play Jane Carter. SHE IS A CHARACTER WHO HAS EXPERIENCED A FAILURE AND A LOSS AND SHE IS WORKING TO RIGHT THE WRONGS THAT HAVE BEEN DONE.

  

My last question is what do you feel has been your most impossible mission you have accomplished in your life?

It would have to be BEING A mom. It is one of the most challenging things and yet the most empowering and gratifying.

Jeremy Renner talks about Tom Cruise and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

Jeremy Renner in Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol

Academy Award winner Jeremy Renner  plays  the enigmatic agent William Brandt Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. The character had immediate appeal to Renner.  “Brandt is an analyst, a seemingly tight-wound desk guy who is smart as a whip, and that’s his job.  He’s not very emotional about things.  Then, you slowly start to see the revealing of who he really is – particularly through seeing this physical skill set you would not expect out of a tight, blue shirt-wearing analyst.  He doesn’t really want to be part of the team, but circumstances force him to join the group,” says Renner.

Renner came to the project almost by chance, after a quick meeting with Abrams regarding another project, on a day when Cruise happened to be visiting for a production meeting.  “Then, literally, from that meeting, I just came over to Paramount and sat down with Brad Bird, Bryan Burk and Tom, and they pitched me the story – there wasn’t even a script yet.  They described the character and it seemed pretty interesting.  I couldn’t say no.”

How were you offered the role of Brandt?

I met up with Tom Cruise and Brad Bird and Bryan Burk, one of the producers, they all had their own sort of take on what the movie was and gave me a general sense of everything and why they wanted me to be a part of it. I couldn’t say no. I mean I was a fan of Tom and the franchise, with the machine of Paramount behind it, the great support system that they give, and then Brad Bird sealed the deal for me; I love his movies. There was no reason not to do it.

Would you say Brandt is a new kind of Mission: Impossible agent?

Yeah, definitely a new character, I think every character in this movie is new. Even though Pegg was in the last one, his character has grown and continued on to be a field agent—not a guy behind the scenes. There are so many things that are so different; I don’t want to draw a comparison to any of the other Mission movies. It being a Mission: impossible is the only thing it has in common with the previous films, that and Ethan Hunt are the through-lines here. There is great conflict and drama and a sense of humour within all the characters: I really think that’s what separates it. Of course it has the big action set pieces, and Mission: Impossible is known for those big action set pieces, but this has things even bigger and more intense and now it’s partially shot in IMAX, which is really more immersive visually. But there’s time and care spent on the characters, as much as you possibly can in a big, fun popcorn movie like this so you get invested hopefully and then the ride becomes even more fun.

What is it like working with Tom Cruise on this franchise, he is so much more than just its star, as a producer he is instrumental in bringing each new sequel together?

He is very inclusive, he makes you part of every stage of the process. I never felt left out in the cold, I always felt like it was a collaborative effort, which is a really, really wonderful thing to be a part of. You get to learn a lot and I learned a lot about him as a person in the process, personally as a friend and then also as an actor I’ve looked up to for years. And he couldn’t be more generous and giving of his time. But he also sets a really high bar that challenged me as an actor, and as an athlete: he got me into a really great physical program that obviously he’s been on, got me in the right mind set to be able to do the things I needed to do. He would bend over backwards, do anything for any of his actors to make this the best experience, the best it could be, and I think he’d do it for anyone. I certainly felt singled out even though I know I wasn’t, he makes you feel that way. And Tom, he’s really, really gregarious and generous with his time, he just makes you feel like you’re the only person in the room.

How would you say this Mission: Impossible is bigger than the other ones?

Bigger doesn’t always mean better. You could make this a really intimate story as well and I think it’d be fantastic. But this one has a big scale, and the places we go and the things we’re doing, the action set pieces were big, like the Burj Khalifa. That’s a really big set piece. And the story, the scale and the stakes are really high, much higher than they have been in the other ones. IMF is shut down, it’s coming at it from a whole other angle. How do you get bigger than this?

With Tom Cruise so invested in the film’s realism, doing as many of the stunts himself — including climbing up the side of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa the tallest building in the world — did you feel you had to step up and do your own stunt work?

Absolutely, and he pushes you to do it too. There was the opportunity to do so many things physically that I’ve never done. I had to get into really, really great shape and I was doing Filipino Stick Fighting and I didn’t know what that was and muay thai (a combat sport). I’m doing it for five hours a day, fighting, training and then doing all this stuff on a wire. I’ve never done anything on a wire prior to this and it was really great fun, I got to learn a lot! And I feel like it’s a kind of like a new sport — doing stunts is a whole sport, you have to treat it as such. And, boy, did I have a blast! I really, really had a blast doing it.

That’s what makes the Mission: Impossible films wonderfully old-fashioned because they’re all the extremes of the real world, not green screen and computer effects. You’re going to go up the Burj Khalifa, and that reality sells it to an audience…

Right, right, the whole reality of it, and we’re all doing it. There is fantasy in it, in the circumstances of the plot: the Kremlin blows up, people die and their world’s ending. But it is tied in with the reality of what we’re doing, and that is the great ride, the roller-coaster ride that hopefully we take the audience on for two hours. I think it’s a really terrific film because of that sense of reality, the humanness of the characters. I know that when I go to the cinema, whether it’s a big movie or small movies, I’m an audience member too, I need to connect with somebody, or care about somebody or hate somebody, I need to get in there and I feel like they did a really great job with this one.

How much is this Mission: Impossible focused on being a team game with Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt as their leader?

They’re always going to have that kind of Tom Cruise stamp on them because he’s a force to be reckoned with, but he was adamant about it being a bit more of a team, a crumbling team or terrible team or wonderful team, whatever we end up being or not being... He certainly wanted it to be a bit more of a collective than him just going on this journey and the audience following. Now it’s a little bit more splintered out.

We’re in a shape-shifting political universe now, in terms of who are the potential villains, how easy is it to make a spy movie in 2011?

You know, I don’t know. We don’t want politics to get involved, it’s just sort of bad guys are bad guys, and doesn’t matter what country they’re from. But there’s also the technology factor where in the IMF there’s all these gadgets. In movies in the 70s  there’s no cell phones. If there’s a bad guy coming round the corner you can’t just call the police, but now there’s technology for everybody. So you have all this technology, but they undercut it in this movie where the gadgets don’t really work properly or they malfunction so there are a lot of fun things they did to keep it sort of updated but still realistic.

Surely one of the great pleasures of Mission: Impossible, like the old Bond films used to offer, is the chance to go round the world?

For Mission, we had some Moscow, we were in Prague, we were in Dubai, we were in Mumbai, and then Vancouver. Most of those were splinter units, the main unit, main, main stuff was in Prague, Dubai and then stagework in Vancouver. They had a race sequence over in Mumbai real quick and then did a week I think somewhere in Moscow, but otherwise we did Prague and Vancouver and Dubai for the big set pieces.

What is it like at the top of  Burj Khalifa the tallest building in the world?

It is twice the size of The Empire State. Twice the size! It’s surrounded by proper skyscrapers with 70 floors, there’s a lot of big skyscrapers round there, but they look like little Lego. Like a little model of the city down below you. The only things you see are those big buildings and they’re so tiny, everything else is just like from a plane. It’s the craziest, craziest thing and amazing view. It’s actually a beautiful building, and I hear they’re building one that’s going to be bigger than that in Saudi Arabia — Jeez, is it high up there! It’s pretty spectacular.