Ethan Hunt's latest 'Mission: Impossible'

Mission: Impossible has become a part of cinematic history. This action film, featuring particularly risky situations and a hero capable of handling and resolving the most extreme challenges, has become a pure adrenaline rush for viewers eager for entertainment and eager for good to triumph over evil.

In addition to being part of cinematic history, this eight-part saga became a classic of the action genre.

The franchise began with director Brian de Palma in 1996 and continued with John Woo, JJ Abrams, Brad Bird and Christopher McQuarrie, who has been at the helm of this project since the fifth film and was responsible for giving a worthy closure not only to Ethan Hunt, the protagonist of Mission: Impossible played by the incomparable Tom Cruise, but to Cruise himself.

From the very beginning, Mission: Impossible offered iconic moments. Legendary are the scenes in which Hunt is suspended from the ceiling by a cable to reach an object previously unattainable by anyone; or the motorcycle plunge off a cliff , considered the most spectacular action sequence in cinematic history.

It was the 90s, and Tom Cruise was looking for a project to launch his Cruise/Wagner Productions. When he learned that Paramount owned the rights to his favorite spy series from when he was a kid, he jumped at the chance to produce the Mission: Impossible revival. And the man chosen to make it happen was Brian de Palma, the director behind the hit films Scarface and The Untouchables .

The Mission: Impossible series was a hit in the 1960s and 1970s, amid a global context marked by the Cold War and tensions between the US and the USSR, in which spies played a key role. In the series, the protagonist was played by American actor Peter Graves, who played Jim Phelps, head of the Impossible Mission Force (IMF), who, along with his team, received messages warning of their imminent self-destruction, the contents of which always involved a threat to the world.

When De Palma turned this story into a film in 1996, Jon Voight was chosen to play the character of Jim Phelps. But the director and Cruise didn't want their Mission: Impossible to be a faithful copy of the television series. Hence, they made Phelps the enemy and Ethan Hunt the hero agent, who would catapult Tom Cruise to the top of the action movie charts. Fans of the series didn't agree with the new liberties, but they marked a new beginning for what would become a box-office saga.

Since the first installment, Cruise has played the undercover agent, who wasn't a character in the hit series but is a fixture in the story as another IMF cohort. Since the first film, Cruise has been joined by Ving Rhames, who plays Luther Stickell, a computer expert who becomes Hunt's ally.

In addition to the intrigues, betrayals, and disloyalties that Hunt uncovers episode by episode, another element that has always been present in all the films has been the main theme, created by Lalo Schifrin. The song has even existed since the beginning of the television series and is as recognizable as the scenes in which Cruise jumps on trains or escapes by parachute.

To talk about a perceptive, highly skilled, and attractive agent is to talk about Ethan Hunt, but also about James Bond, agent 007. These two sagas share similarities, while also having characteristics that distinguish them from each other. The most basic one is the American origins of the first and the English origins of the second. This way, viewers can enjoy both without having to split their time.

The James Bond saga dates back to 1962, so it's had a longer run and also a greater variety of actors who have played the iconic British agent. Even Agent 007 was one of the spy film inspirations that the Mission: Impossible series borrowed to create a story centered on an American agent in a television format. A bold idea for the time, but one that resonated with the audience when it launched in 1966.

Now, the Mission: Impossible film series, for its part, has won the public's favor for being more daring, for Cruise's continued presence in the leading role, and for the actor's decision to perform most of the stunts required by the script, with hardly any doubles in the most dizzying scenes.

It was Brian de Palma who inspired this boldness in the actor from the first film, with the scene in which Hunt jumps after an aquarium in a Prague restaurant, where he meets Kittridge (Henry Czerny), explodes. “Tom was afraid of that scene because he had to make a big jump. The first time we shot it with a stunt double, but it didn't turn out well. So I told him he had to do it himself for it to really work,” the director wrote in the book Brian De Palma by Brian De Palma, which compiles conversations with journalists.

Tom was afraid of that scene because he had to make a big jump. We shot it with a stunt double the first time, but it didn't turn out well. So I told him he had to do it himself for it to really work.

The director recalls that Cruise had doubts about it and was reluctant to do the scene. “But he did it. And I think from that moment on, he started doing all the stunts himself . He realized he could probably do it better than a stuntman,” reads another excerpt from the book.

Twenty-nine years, eight installments have passed, and Tom Cruise proves that at 62, he's ready for any challenge that comes his way, no matter how risky. Mission: Impossible - Judgment Day's screening at the Cannes Film Festival showed that both the story and its protagonist are in top form. Film critics have been unanimous regarding the spectacular nature of the scenes, which continue to surprise, leave them breathless, and meet the expectations of viewers who seek out the best of Hollywood: that is, extravagance, entertainment, and a complete lack of logic.

Christopher McQarrie fulfilled this goal. From taking the reins in the fifth installment to this eighth and final one, McQarrie has cinematically directed this "mission" with spectacle . This time, he also wanted to pay homage to the entire saga, and this latest film begins with a brief look back at the hero agent's most iconic moments from this story that began in 1996.

In this latest installment, Hunt completes the tasks he left behind in 2023 with Mission: Impossible: Dead Sentence, in which he and his team must unravel an artificial intelligence, called the Entity, that is programmed to destroy the world.

Cruise, as Hunt, hangs from a plane and dives into deep water. “The training and preparation we put into this film is the culmination of everything we’ve done before,” the actor wrote in a November 26 Instagram post, in which he is practicing an underwater sequence for which a communication relationship was established between him and the director.

The training and preparation we put into this film is the culmination of everything we've done before.

With Mission: Impossible: Judgment Day, it seems that Ethan Hunt has fulfilled his duty to save the world and the story comes to a close, crowning Cruise as the undeniable star of action cinema.

Continuing with the James Bond comparison, this franchise—now owned by Amazon—is preparing a new installment, although it's unknown who the new 007 will be, replacing Daniel Craig, who played the character for 15 years. The good news is that, although the world seems to be losing a hero, it remains to be seen whether it will soon welcome another.

(*) With additional information from the Sunday Editorial Staff of EL TIEMPO.