This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with JOURNAL author Phil Tallon about his article, “The Living Manifestation of Destiny: The Meaning in the Mission: Impossible Movies “. [Editor’s Note: This review contains spoilers for Mission Impossible — The Final Reckoning.] https://www.equip.org/articles/the-living-manifestation-of-destiny-the-meaning-in-the-mission-impossible-movies/
Some related articles and podcasts by this author:Christopher Nolan Films Episode 400: Rage Against the Dying of the Light: Christopher Nolan’s Fighting FilmographyRage Against the Dying of the Light: Christopher Nolan’s Fighting FilmographyHorror Movies: Episode 350 Possession and Exorcism Movies in a Modern AgeThe Power of the Devil Compels Us: Possession and Exorcism Movies in a Modern AgeSherlock Holmes Episode 243: The Fall of Sherlock: Investigating the Victorian Detective in a Modern AgeThe Fall of Sherlock: Investigating the Victorian Detective in a Modern AgeSteven Spielberg Movies:Episode 139 Clear Skies, Hurt Hearts, Can’t Lose: Why Spielberg’s Aliens Help Make us More HumanClear Skies, Hurt Hearts, Can’t Lose: Why Spielberg’s Aliens Help Make us More HumanAlfred Hitchcock films:Episode 100: A. Hitchcock FilmsThe Coen Brother’s Films:Episode 050: O Father, Where Art Thou? The Coen Brothers and the Riddle of Existence“O Father, Where Are Thou? The Coen Brothers and the Riddle of ExistenceThe Films of Quentin Tarantino:Episode 001: The Films of Quentin Tarantino“Reservoir Gods: Quentin Tarantino’s Premodern Theology
Don’t miss an episode; please subscribe to the Postmodern Realities podcast wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Please help spread the word about Postmodern Realities by giving us a rating and review when you subscribe to the podcast. The more ratings and reviews we have, the more new listeners can discover our content.
Some related articles and podcasts by this author:Christopher Nolan Films Episode 400: Rage Against the Dying of the Light: Christopher Nolan’s Fighting FilmographyRage Against the Dying of the Light: Christopher Nolan’s Fighting FilmographyHorror Movies: Episode 350 Possession and Exorcism Movies in a Modern AgeThe Power of the Devil Compels Us: Possession and Exorcism Movies in a Modern AgeSherlock Holmes Episode 243: The Fall of Sherlock: Investigating the Victorian Detective in a Modern AgeThe Fall of Sherlock: Investigating the Victorian Detective in a Modern AgeSteven Spielberg Movies:Episode 139 Clear Skies, Hurt Hearts, Can’t Lose: Why Spielberg’s Aliens Help Make us More HumanClear Skies, Hurt Hearts, Can’t Lose: Why Spielberg’s Aliens Help Make us More HumanAlfred Hitchcock films:Episode 100: A. Hitchcock FilmsThe Coen Brother’s Films:Episode 050: O Father, Where Art Thou? The Coen Brothers and the Riddle of Existence“O Father, Where Are Thou? The Coen Brothers and the Riddle of ExistenceThe Films of Quentin Tarantino:Episode 001: The Films of Quentin Tarantino“Reservoir Gods: Quentin Tarantino’s Premodern Theology
Don’t miss an episode; please subscribe to the Postmodern Realities podcast wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Please help spread the word about Postmodern Realities by giving us a rating and review when you subscribe to the podcast. The more ratings and reviews we have, the more new listeners can discover our content.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Hi everyone, Thank you for tuning in to the post
Modern Realities podcast, brought to you by the Christian Research
Institute and the Christian Research Journal. I'm Melanie Cogdill, Managing
editor of the Christian Research Journal. It's June twenty twenty five,
and this is episode number four hundred and fifty, a
(00:42):
big milestone, and today I'm having a conversation about Mission Impossible,
the last in the series, and it's called Mission Impossible
Final Reckoning. On this episode, I'm joined by doctor Philip Tallon.
He is an associate professor of theology at Houston Christian University.
(01:02):
He's also the author of the Poetics of Evil. Phil
has written a feature article that's a film review for
the Christian Research Journal and it's called the Living Manifestation
of Destiny The Meaning in the Mission Impossible movies, and
you can read his film review for free at equipped
(01:23):
dot org. That's e quip dot org. And I know
you'll be interested in this episode, especially if you have
been here from the very beginning nine years ago. Phil
was my very first guest on episode number one. We
talked about the films of Quentin Tarantino. We're still talking
(01:45):
about films today at the milestone episode of four hundred
and fifty. Phil, it's good to have you back on
the podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Thanks Melanoi's pleasure.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Well, I really particularly enjoy having Phil on this podcast
because he was here at the very first episode that
we did nine years ago. So that's a lot of
episodes we're at four hundred and fifty now that I
just mentioned, and I'm just so grateful for the insights
hees brings to us through cultural apologetics and cultural artifacts.
(02:21):
And I always appreciate the faculty from Houston Baptist University,
and I encourage listeners to go back and listen to
Phil's podcasts. We also have Melissa Kane Travis, and we
have doctor Lewis Marcos. So there's a good variety of
various of members of the faculty that you guys will
(02:42):
enjoy hearing from and also reading their accompanying articles on
our website equip dot org. But today we are going
to talk about a series that probably some people weren't
even born when it started back in nineteen ninety six. Well,
actually that was the reincarnation of this series because it
was on television much longer than that ago. I don't
(03:05):
know was it the nineteen sixties or seventies or something
like that. But this is Mission Impossible. I mentioned that
we will be talking about this. It's also spoiler filled,
So if you haven't seen the movie yet and want
to get caught up to the series, then I suggest
to you come back to our conversation after that because
we're going to spoil stuff. But tell us about the
(03:26):
series as a whole, because some of our listeners, like
I said, if they're younger, they're not probably familiar with
just the whole series and its backstory and its popularity.
And of course this one that we're talking about in
particular today is the eighth movie in the Reincarnation featuring
Tom Cruise. So where does Mission Impossible? This particular series
(03:50):
is Tom Cruise driven one? Where does it fit within
the Hollywood landscape? Well?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Thanks, it's always a pleasure to be on and we've,
of course, you've been doing this so long that my
university has even changed its name. We used to be
Houston Baptist and now are Houston Christian University.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Oh yeah, that's right, you guys had a name change.
I'm sorry about that.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
And huts, it's all right, it's it's one of those
hard habits to break. I find myself saying, oh, still, HBU,
it's HCU now. But we haven't been doing the podcast
quite as long as the Mission Impossible series has been running. Yeah,
So nineteen ninety six the first film came out. It
was the first big effort of Tom Cruise and his
(04:30):
then partner Paul Wagner, as they were going to produce
a vehicle for him, and whereas he previously needs to
worked with a lot of great filmmakers and our tours,
and he was a leading man, a top star in Hollywood,
and the first film establishes a template that would hold
for a lot of the first half of the series,
(04:51):
which is that Cruise went out and found a director
that had a distinct style, and so he paired with
Brian de Palma, who's known for, you know, kind of
cerebral twisty, you know, highly edited, very artsy thrillers, and
they they made this movie using a lot of the
templates of the original TV show and its reboot, you know,
(05:12):
which is espionage and deception and masks and stagecraft in
order to pull off various heists and difficult missions. And
the movie was successful. I remember seeing it in the
theater with a bunch of other college age students, with
a young woman who then later became my wife, and
(05:32):
a bunch of other friends, and it was it was
a hit. And but there was this funny thing that
Cruz did which I think is really unique for within
for these major film franchises, which is that instead of
having a consistent tone and style for those first four movies,
he went out and found directors with really distinct styles.
(05:53):
So the second film was not like the first one
except that it had big action set pieces and masks
and spon and he partnered with John Wu who's known
for this Hong Kong style, very baalletic action, lots of
jumping sideways, shooting two guns at once and dubs. And
then he partnered with jj Abrams for the third film.
(06:13):
Jj Abrams basically made an episode of the TV show Alias,
but using the mission impossible big pieces. And then by
the fourth one, he partnered with Brad Bird, who's known
primarily as an animator. And then and then the series
kind of evened out a little bit more into having
a They kind of figured out what they wanted to do,
(06:34):
and he found Christopher McCory who's been his collaborator for
the second half of the series, and so already as
I'm describing it, it's a it's a somewhat unique enterprise,
which is, you think, a lot of the other big
IP has a distinct style and anybody who comes in
is expected to take that on, whereas whereas Cruz you know,
(06:58):
had a very different vision. So I think it's made
it a pretty artistically interesting series to think about, to
look at the variations. It's had some ups and down,
some movies were more successful than than others, and and
the and it's it's never been I think anybody's favorite,
(07:18):
you know series. Of course, now we have Star Wars
movies and mc U and and there are other you know,
kind of popular works of IP that you know that dominate,
but Mission Impossible has always been there kind of periodically
popping up as a as a crowd pleasing fun you know,
mostly in the summer kind of you know, series of
(07:39):
blockbuster movies that really focus on spectacle and and incredible
stunts that that Cruise is now become famous for performing himself.
And that was something that I think when the first
movie came out, nobody really saw Cruise as an action star.
Now he's so famous for for running and for doing
(08:00):
all of these things himself, and for being one of
the great actor slash stuntmen of Hollywood history. So you
think about Jackie chan or even somebody like Buster Keaton
all the way back, you know, Cruise is one of
those few people that seems to really relish doing everything himself,
and so he's got this incredible work ethic. So the movies,
(08:21):
I think what's really most interesting about the films is
that they are so fused with the produce, producing and
acting work of Cruise, and the character of Ethan Hunt
and Tom Cruise kind of collapse into each other very
often as you're watching them. So if you like thinking
about movies and how they're made, then the Mission Impossible
(08:44):
series is a really rewarding series if you like thinking
about big ideas and themes. Maybe a little bit less so,
but nevertheless still interesting to consider.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Well, one thing he said is that Tom Cruise has
been in this series since the very beginning, which is
way back in nineteen ninety six, thirty years ago almost,
and so he's now sixty two years old, so he
is definitely a senior citizen. So this particular film is
called the Final Reckoning. Do you think this is the
(09:16):
very last mission? Impossible, like the titles suggests, final one.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Nobody really knows all the suggestions in the film or
that this is intended to be a bow that they're
wrapping on the franchise. And so I wouldn't ever, you know,
count Cruise out. You know, he's still you know, doing
seems like he's in really good shape, and he's got
(09:44):
this insane drive and so even if he thinks he's
going to step out right now, sometimes it's you know,
it's just not the case that you know, people get
you know, drawn back in, or they get excited about
some new idea, they come up with a new angle.
But audience, this is I think reasonably should expect seeing this,
that this is their attempt to conclude everything, and you
(10:05):
see a lot of evidence about that within within the film.
It's continually intercut with flashbacks from previous movies. One and
so spoiler. The other central character who's been in the
series since the beginning, a character named Luther played by
Ving Raims, is he was there from the very beginning.
He's one of the three lines he dies in this movie,
(10:27):
and the film concludes with a kind of a model
recorded monologue from him, this big you know statement, and
so you know, I think that you you would kind
of reasonably expect this is probably it and and and
you know, Cruise is in good shape. But also he
(10:47):
he's starting to show signs of age. He's been weirdly
ageless for so long, and you know, now he seems
like you, he's starting to show signs of of real
human mortality.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
I was thinking in the flashbacks that, wow, Tom Cruise
looks so young, you know, when they did flashback to
like the very first movie, because they do bring back
a character from the first movie, and definitely that character
has aged two, because yeah, it's been about thirty years.
So let's talk about the films, because again, some people
(11:24):
who are younger might not really know what some of
these films are about if they haven't gone to watch
all of them or weren't familiar with the television series
from which it was born. I guess, is there a
present like kind of an overarching world view that is
in the series. It seems like it's very much more
(11:44):
on the lines of a kind of a popcorn action film.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
The Yeah, there's I think that if you wanted to
situate them as it were, the world of Mission Impoposible.
You group it with a lot of other political espionage,
spy type films whose main focus is on you know,
global dangers, so you know, James Bond or Tom Clancy
(12:16):
or Jason Bourne and and films like that, and so
as such, the the movies do not typically wrestle with
a lot of the maybe sort of deeper, more profound
questions in life. They're they're dealing with present political threats.
There's a terrorist that's trying to launch nuclear nuclear bombs,
(12:39):
or the there's that it's possible that this secret agent
uh list of names is about to be released, and
this will be a threat to the government's attempt to
bring safety to the world through through espionage, and and
so in that in that sense, the I think the
(12:59):
world view as a parent by the degree to which
it's bracketing out a lot of the other larger, you know,
philosophical or spiritual concerns that that we might have, which
is to say, we're sort of locked in what Charles
Taylor might call that imminent frame, which is that that
everything that happens within the film is is physical in
(13:21):
maybe in both senses of the world. There are some
there's some awareness of the existence of religion, you know,
maybe a Bible verse is used as a as a password,
or the tom Cruise breaks into the Vatican and dresses
like a priest or. There's maybe a little bit of
a sense of, you know, some life after death that
(13:43):
comes up in the final film. But for the most part,
you know, these these are very much popcorn thrillers that
you know, that raise some danger which everyone recognized as
being worthy of of stopping. And that danger is so
intense that it warn't then taking on, you know, an
(14:05):
impossible mission and endangering the lives of all the heroes
who are putting themselves at risk. And so so you
might you might say that it's you know, it's it's
it's worldview is kind of just a soldier's, you know,
a view of things. There's a threat, and I'm summoned
to stop it. And so the primary ethical concern is
(14:27):
about the degree to which we're helping people or hurting people,
protecting people, or threatening them. And the good guys are
the protectors, the bad guys are the threats.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
It's June, as I've said, the last few episodes and
it is time to think about our fiscal year end
at our organization, which is a nonprofit, the Christian Research Institute.
And this is a ministry of the Christian Research Institute,
which is the Christian Research Shroom. We've been around for
almost fifty years. We started as a print incarnation and
(15:02):
then a couple of years ago went completely online so
that we could give all of this content from almost
fifty years completely free without a paywall, without subscriptions at
equip dot org. But because we do that, we would
ask that you would prayerfully consider this month giving a
partnering gift to the Christian Research Institute, or at least
(15:25):
a tip. We would be so grateful for a tip
that you would give us because those tips add up
together and they help us to continue to give you
a free article every week without a subscription at equipp
dot org and also this podcast, So please do so.
If you'd like to give us a tip during our
(15:47):
fiscal year end, just go to equip dot org and
click on journal, then click on Christian Research Journal and
you will see the podcast Postmodern Realities. And if you
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thank you so much for your partnership, and that includes
(16:08):
doing all the things like rating us on Apple Podcasts
and letting other people know about this podcast simply by
word of mouth, emailing, or putting an episode one of
your favorits on your social media accounts. Well, now back
to my conversation with doctor Philip Tallon about Mission Impossible. Well,
I think, like you know, if we think about classic
(16:30):
stories and particularly iconic heroes. In this series, you know,
Tom Cruise's main character, Ethan Hunt, is kind of a
superman with all his stunts, but and also there's something
about that lately you're talking about Marvel franchises or how
(16:51):
we've kind of gone into the franchise mode of in
the last several decades with films. But he's both like
practically a superhero with these daredevil stunts. I mean some
of them seem a little mind blowing. Can somebody do that?
Go down to like the Mariana Trench, you know, be
swimming out there without a you know, suit on, He's
(17:14):
like in his underwear or whatever. But also in an
ethical way, like the ways that he's trying to deal,
like you said, with some major threat from artificial intelligence
or a rogue nation or something like that. And so
it seems like they set him up that there's these
(17:35):
things that are kind of ethically, I don't know, necessarily
black and white, more of on the gray side, but he,
particularly as a character, is always black and white. And
then he's got these superhuman skills, which seem like would
they do that? As a matter of fact, which is
really interesting as I was reading an article I think
it was it's either was in the New York Times
(17:56):
or the Washington Post where they actually asked the director
of this by Museum, who used to be a CIA spy,
to watch this movie and ask them, Okay, could this happen?
Could this happen? And he some of the things that
we think are a little far fetched, like those masks
that he takes off. He said, no, no, those are
been used on the field. So I thought that was
really interesting. But so it sounds like, you know, there
(18:17):
are certain things that you've done that human people do,
but he has these, like you said, these stunts that
he performs that just seem extraordinary and superhuman. So why
do you think we like these kind of hero stories?
You know, thinking about the Marvel university. Even this isn't
a Marvel universe. This is the real world universe verse,
and something's threatening mankind and here's Ethan hunt out here
(18:39):
to help save mankind. I mean, how do these kinds
of stories resonate with us with some of what we
really desire as humans to believe in?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
The Yeah, he's you know, Ethan is a is a
true hero. And so the anything set with contemporary political landscape,
you know, sort of post Watergate, post are just a
kind of awareness of of the fallibility of of all
governments and in a sense that you know, no nobody
(19:13):
does things perfectly. You know, we see continually that the
you know, the mission Impossible Force, the Impossible Mission Force
that for which Ethan works is continually being disavowed the
because the you know, the government you know, doesn't want
them going off and doing, you know, doing something, or
because the government itself has kind of corrupt, corrupt motives.
(19:33):
But but the Impossible Mission Force always does the right
thing and knows the right thing to do. And one
of the really interesting features of the film is and
the films throughout, is that you see continually it it
seems like they're there's caught with a dilemma. Okay, you know,
I save this person or I save this person I
(19:54):
you know, do I compromise or you know, do I
seek after the you know, something that's pure, but it
seems less likely to work. And the fantasy of the
hero in many ways is a way of keeping before
our vision, you know, a call to seek after doing
what is truly right in the midst of uncertain circumstances.
(20:18):
One of the great dangers I think that we continually
face is, isn't it when we compromise too quickly, right,
we think something is impossible, and so then we you know,
we wind up just we're just going to settle for
the lesser of two evils because we think that's what's
what's practical. So I think it's important that we tell
ourselves stories of heroes who refuse to engage in utilitarian
(20:41):
consequentialists sort of reasoning. Okay, I'm going to do something
that's kind of bad because I think it's going to
lead to something good. No. One of the things I
loved about the MCU is character like Captain America, you know,
refuses to make that sort of calculation. He's going to
fight hard for the thing that he believes is truly
right and hope that everything will turn out well. And
(21:01):
Ethan Hunt is the pre eminent example of this. He
doesn't want to let anybody on his team die. He's
going to continually work to pull things off. They trust him,
and because this is a story, he always has the
ability to carry it off. Now, that's not how things
work very often in the day and day out reality
in which we live. But it's important that we continually
(21:24):
strive for this great good. And I think that that's
where you see heroes, and Ethan being one of them
as a kind of a messianic figure, right, as a
as a great deliverer, and drawn to the story of Jesus,
because here we have somebody who refuses to engage in
(21:48):
moral compromise, right, who remains pure, and even when it
seems like all is lost through supernatural power, is able
to overcome and defeat evil. And so is the that
is the hero that that we need to continually be
moving toward and doing what's right and living in hope
(22:10):
that all shall turn out well. And and so that
I mean, I can't think of anything more more basic
about our desire to interact with with stories than to
have that vision before our eyes and to be inspired,
you know, to seek towards some the greater good that
we've perhaps thought is impossible. It's not impossible for Ethan,
(22:32):
and often it's much more possible than we sometimes think.
We get tired, beaten down by the world, we settle
for less, but stories like Mission Impossible, you know, reignite
our desire for more.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
That's really interesting. I also kind of sometimes think about
Tom Cruise himself as he's for sure this character in
my mind in this final film is kind of set
up as a messiah figure, mainly because according to the film,
but he is, like you said, there is a threat
(23:10):
that's going to infect the entire world, and Ethan Hunt
keeps getting told that he needs to care not just
about the people he personally cares for, but the countless
millions of souls.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
For those we hold, for those we hold close, and
for those we never meet.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Right, that's the exactly that kind of idea, not just
the people, you know, but Hunt is going down the
sacrificial path for all these other people too, to save
them from this evil entity. Tom Cruise has paired with
various different kind of directors along the way in this
(23:51):
mission of possible series because he is very intimately involved
as one of the producers and one of them main
creative forces behind this entire series. So how does this
series reflect maybe Cruse and maybe even his worldview because
(24:12):
as many people known now, Tom Cruise is a scientologist,
and we've got various articles on our website that talk
about the beliefs of scientology. But do you think there
are any of this any kind of religion that comes
through it all in because either because of his own viewpoints,
which aren't Christian of course scientology, or just in general
(24:35):
that the idea of religion and belief is important to
him as someone creating this series.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Yeah, it's I think it's a really it's a question
that everybody has in their minds. They're thinking about Cruise
because we know that he's a scientology. Scientology is not
a very popular religion, but it has a cohort of people,
especially in Hollywood, who are engaged in very strange series
of views. It does unlike say John Travolta, who then
(25:05):
adapted l Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth, it doesn't seem to
have crept into much of his his thematic interests. The
sort of you know, at least certainly not in the
mission impossible movies. If there's a Cruise like element that's present,
it's the mirroring of the Ethan hunt character and Cruise himself,
which is this indomitable, just force of nature who's continually
(25:30):
sort of trying to do the best thing, And the
production of these films is continually like an impossible mission.
They come up with these big, crazy stunts that seem
like they should be impossible, and he just works tirelessly
to pull them off. So the high altitude, low opening
jump that they do in Fallout, you know, they practice
(25:52):
that thing two hundred times because the cameraman's jumping with him.
He needed to figure out how they can actually see
that it's really him doing it, and almost no other
actor in Hollywood is dedicating that amount of time to
pack things off. So he's an incredibly driven person, so
that you see, and even Hunterston coredbly driven. Tom Cruise
is incredibly driven. And then the sort of improvisational nature
(26:15):
of a lot of these these missions where they're trying
to figure out how to do something. Okay, we got
to do this, and everybody's flum mixed, how we gonna
do that, and Ethan will say, we'll figure it out,
you know, And that is a refrain on the set
of Mission Impossible, Cruise continually saying what if we did
this and it would make it even better? And everybody goes,
oh my goodness, that's that's so crazy and so hard.
How are we going to do that? They say, well,
(26:36):
we'll figure it out, and so the uh, this is
back to what I said previously, which is that I
think the if you want to think about the Mission
Impossible movies, then then the most rewarding avenue for reflecting
on them is about their existence as movies, their production,
the things that go into it. And there's I think
(26:58):
that a really admirable quality with the within Cruise's work habits,
which is that he he seems to be really invested
in leading the group well, so he doesn't behave like
an entitled star. He learns the names of people all
the way down the line, he comes to sit even
on his days when he's not shooting. He's all in right,
(27:20):
so not doesn't he's the He's the one who's leading
from the front, right, the general that's leading the charge
continually and has the most energy and enthusiasm, and and
then you just they obviously created a character that is
essentially a fictionalized spy version of the of the man himself,
(27:41):
and that you know, his Cruise's personal life seems really
rocky and bad. You know, just he's got lots of
the strange relationships. Of course, multiple divorces, is you know,
some of his kids. He's not us, not close to.
He just seems to work all the time right, doesn't
have good work life balance. But his leadership behavior as
(28:02):
a producer and an actor is kind of impressive as
an example of how to be a fully engaged, enthusiastic,
personable leader. And so I sometimes look to creatives for
insight on how one should be in the world, and
I think that you we can learn a few things.
(28:24):
We shouldn't learn everything from how Crews operates in this
work life, but definitely being all in excited, you know,
tirelessly enthusiastic, and never willing to settle for less is
a valuable example for us. I think.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
So this film Mission Impossible Final Reckoning very much had
mixed reviews from critics. There was not an overwhelming positive
response to it. I don't know so much about fans
what they're thinking. But what did you think about this film?
Speaker 2 (29:03):
I thought it was one of the messiest of all
the films, and I probably put it right toward the
bottom of the series, maybe not last, but perhaps second
to last, and in terms of its overall quality and coherence.
The improvisational production nature of their filmmaking, I think, you know,
(29:27):
fails them at times, which is they don't have a
clear script. They know some of these big pieces that
they're going to put in there and so, and it
feels weirdly cobbled together and some things, you know, why
they're doing them is is not obvious at all. The
there's also an attempt to retroactively create continuity within the series,
(29:49):
which this has never existed, sort of going going forward,
they're sort of looking back and trying to make sense
of everything that's happened, as if all of this was intentional,
and that the results there are somewhat laughable. It's long too,
It's a long film with a lot of I think unnecessary,
you know, plot diversions. But the big reason why I
(30:13):
think any reasonable person is going to pay fifteen dollars
to go see Mission Impossible is to see on the
big screen some of the best executed film stunts in
recent years. And there are two scenes in particular. The
submarine scene where Cruise descends down to a Russian submarine
(30:36):
and then moves through it half underwater, is so intense
that that you're I mean, it was one of those
really like edge of the seat kind of kind of moments,
incredibly well crafted. And then the final biplane duels there
are two biplanes flying along that are battling and cruises
(30:57):
climbing and jumping is all so just marvelous. And they've
shot it in imax, and so if you go see
in imax, they'll lift the curtain and you'll see it
in this big aspect ratio. And that's again one of
those things is if you just love the craft of
making movies, this commitment to practical effects and really just
(31:18):
excellent cinematic storytelling, those two things I think carry most
of the audience out afterwards. Oh man, that scene plain
sequence was so so exciting that you maybe forgive some
of the sins of the film. But Nobody's gonna Mission
Impossible is not Star Wars. It's it's never had this
(31:38):
sort of sanctity of being, you know, a holy text
like in you know, Raiders, the Lost Arc or Star
Wars or something that's being ruined. The series has always
been kind of goofy and up and down, and so
so if you like previous Mission Impossible movies, I think
you'll have a good time at this one. And it's
(32:00):
also interestingly dealing with with AI and some of the
potential threats in a way that is surprisingly precient, and
trying to make a little bit of cultural commentary. So
you have runnamook Ai. I think everybody already has a
sense of what this might look like. The AI is
(32:22):
creating all sorts of false information, so you don't know
what to trust online. And then you have now in
this final film, people have become acolytes of the AI.
They become so obsessed with.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Yeah, I didn't understand that there's like this AI cult.
I don't think they really explained how a religion kind
of you know, sprung up from this AI that's kind
of like all knowing or something.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Yeah, it's a Rocco's basilisk if you're familiar with that
thought experiment, which is people sort of serving an evil
artificial intelligence and the hope of being rewarded and and
so the movie has like one of the few big
jokes in the film is that Cruz has to fight
off somebody who's become an acolyte at the AI, and
(33:10):
as he's beating him up, he says, you know, you're
spending too much time on the internet, and so that
that feels like a you know, the the funny commentary
of a sixty something, you know, year old man who's
who's kind of telling, you know, telling a younger generation
of just like get out and you know, and live
(33:31):
your life and stop spending so much of your of
your time online.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Well, I think that I'm not sure that this was
the biggest send off for this series. I think maybe
they could have stopped it a few movies ago. And
also if I don't know if we mentioned that this
is part two of the first movie. Part one came
out last year and this is part two, So I
(33:55):
don't know that i'd recommend somebody watching it as part
one part two together. I don't know if it would
make more sense that way, But for sure, it was
interesting to see the stunts and if people go online,
there's articles about how they film that those, especially the
stunts on the plane, they're just the director was talking
(34:15):
about how you know, yes they're flying at a lower altitude,
but you don't really have any oxygen up there, and
all different kinds of things. That's very fascinating. But I
just do think it's been an interesting ride for sure,
and I would encourage people at least to go back
to some of the earlier films, especially the first few films.
They were just very much on the edge of your
(34:37):
sea kind of big blockbuster type films.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
The yeah my, you know, if folks, if folks are
looking to to just watch one, I think that the
Bradbird's Ghost Protocol is you know, as one of those
that you know that really.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Works basically kind of can stand on its own. That
they're they're playing with some of the previous lore, but
I think cinematically that's just you know, absolutely one of
one of the best, and the middle chunk, the middle
chunk of movies, I think are are really where the
series is that it's its strongest. And so you know,
(35:16):
four or five and and six, especially you know, Fallout,
I think a lot of people point to as being
you know, another like the best of the Christopher McCrory
directed films, and and so I you know, I'd say
check those out that as as far as being kind
of family friendly, the not so much with I think
(35:38):
the second you know, the second film is is maybe
a little bit uh stranger, But a lot of the
movies are are relatively sexless, you know, just kind of
they're primarily about the work. They tend to be relatively
clean compared with some other major Hollywood movies, and and
so they're they're not uh. I think they're perfectly commendable,
(36:02):
high octane summer popcorn films that a lot of people
would enjoy. If you have not watched the Mission Impossible series,
do not start with this last one because all of
the callbacks and nostalgia will be lost on you.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Yeah, I would say try to get into a few
of them, or at least Wikipedia the ones a few
of them, but I would say go back because some
of the other ones I think are a little bit
more iconic. And in case people might not know this,
you mentioned Brad Bird and he is the guy responsible
for the Pixar film The Incredibles, which a lot of
(36:41):
people have watched and probably enjoy. So definitely go back
and look at some of the other ones. Well. Finally,
I have a rapid fire question for Phil. Phil, we're
talking about Mission Impossible. And before we start this podcast,
we just talked about different films that are coming out.
So is there any kind of film, whether serious or
popcorn film that you're looking forward to seeing this summer?
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Oh? Well this, yeah, this summer. Let's see what else is.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
The ideas coming up? Superman? You've got dressed.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
I am I am interested in in the Superman I
I'm curious to see what they uh, what they do
with it. The one of the things that with the
DC Cinematic universes, I think they've been searching for for
different tones and this Superman film seems like it's really
(37:36):
trying to bring back a little bit of a more
colorful literally more uh more colorful and kind of old
fashioned vibe with you've got Crypto the Dog and you've
got you know, hot girl and and so I hope
that they really have a fun time with with Superman,
(37:57):
as opposed to some of the Zack Snyder uh films
that were were very heavy and weighted with with significance.
And so yeah, that is that is certainly one of
the one of the ones that's that's on my list.
And we just we're just a big fan of the
MCU on the whole, and and so we saw Thunderbolts
(38:18):
and liked it, and Fantastic Four is also coming out,
and so I'm curious to see what they do with
with Fantastic Four as well.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
I am too because just because of the actors that
are involved in it, somehow I guess we see him
a more well not always serious fear but Pedro Pascal
is one of the Fantastic Four. So I'm interested to
see this reboot of the Fantastic for and see what
it's going to be like. So it's definitely going to
be a summer filled with a lot of superhero type movies.
(38:51):
So thanks philm.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Yeah, there's a new Wes Anderson coming out too, so
I'll definitely go see that.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Wes Anderson is very quirky filmmaker, so if people like
some of his things, you might not want to miss that. Well.
Thanks Phil for being here with us on four hundred
and fifty. We are very grateful that you're here, and
it's always good to talk to you about movies.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
It's always always a pleasure. Millanie, Thanks for having me back.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
You've been listening to the postmodern Realities podcast from the
Christian Research Journal. Today is episode number four hundred and fifty,
a big milestone nine years into podcasting and starting this podcast,
and we look forward to keep going on this podcast,
and we'll look forward to Phil joining us for episode
(39:36):
five hundred coming up next year. But in the meantime,
you will want to read his article The Living Manifestation
of Destiny The Meaning in the Mission Impossible Movies, and
you can find that for free without a paywall at
equipped dot org. You won't want to miss out on
subscribing to the other podcasts from the Christian Research Institute.
(39:58):
We have the Bible answer Man podcast, which is published
Monday through Friday, with the best of the week on Saturday.
It's hosted by CRI President Hank Handigraph and is available
wherever you get your favorite podcasts. In addition, Hank has
a podcast called Hank Unplugged. Hank takes you out of
(40:18):
the studio and into his study to engage in free flowing,
essential Christian conversations on critical issues with some of the
most interesting, informative and inspirational people on the planet. And
you won't want to miss out on the brand new
podcast from the Christian Research Journal. Christian Research Journal Reads
(40:41):
presents audio versions of Christian Research Journal articles and it
was a print incarnation of almost forty five years. It's
now on the web as you know, with new articles
every single week, so you won't want to miss these
audio articles of some of our most popular and most
accessed art goals on our website equip dot org.
Hi everyone, Thank you for tuning in to the post
Modern Realities podcast, brought to you by the Christian Research
Institute and the Christian Research Journal. I'm Melanie Cogdill, Managing
editor of the Christian Research Journal. It's June twenty twenty five,
and this is episode number four hundred and fifty, a
(00:42):
big milestone, and today I'm having a conversation about Mission Impossible,
the last in the series, and it's called Mission Impossible
Final Reckoning. On this episode, I'm joined by doctor Philip Tallon.
He is an associate professor of theology at Houston Christian University.
(01:02):
He's also the author of the Poetics of Evil. Phil
has written a feature article that's a film review for
the Christian Research Journal and it's called the Living Manifestation
of Destiny The Meaning in the Mission Impossible movies, and
you can read his film review for free at equipped
(01:23):
dot org. That's e quip dot org. And I know
you'll be interested in this episode, especially if you have
been here from the very beginning nine years ago. Phil
was my very first guest on episode number one. We
talked about the films of Quentin Tarantino. We're still talking
(01:45):
about films today at the milestone episode of four hundred
and fifty. Phil, it's good to have you back on
the podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Thanks Melanoi's pleasure.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Well, I really particularly enjoy having Phil on this podcast
because he was here at the very first episode that
we did nine years ago. So that's a lot of
episodes we're at four hundred and fifty now that I
just mentioned, and I'm just so grateful for the insights
hees brings to us through cultural apologetics and cultural artifacts.
(02:21):
And I always appreciate the faculty from Houston Baptist University,
and I encourage listeners to go back and listen to
Phil's podcasts. We also have Melissa Kane Travis, and we
have doctor Lewis Marcos. So there's a good variety of
various of members of the faculty that you guys will
(02:42):
enjoy hearing from and also reading their accompanying articles on
our website equip dot org. But today we are going
to talk about a series that probably some people weren't
even born when it started back in nineteen ninety six. Well,
actually that was the reincarnation of this series because it
was on television much longer than that ago. I don't
(03:05):
know was it the nineteen sixties or seventies or something
like that. But this is Mission Impossible. I mentioned that
we will be talking about this. It's also spoiler filled,
So if you haven't seen the movie yet and want
to get caught up to the series, then I suggest
to you come back to our conversation after that because
we're going to spoil stuff. But tell us about the
(03:26):
series as a whole, because some of our listeners, like
I said, if they're younger, they're not probably familiar with
just the whole series and its backstory and its popularity.
And of course this one that we're talking about in
particular today is the eighth movie in the Reincarnation featuring
Tom Cruise. So where does Mission Impossible? This particular series
(03:50):
is Tom Cruise driven one? Where does it fit within
the Hollywood landscape? Well?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Thanks, it's always a pleasure to be on and we've,
of course, you've been doing this so long that my
university has even changed its name. We used to be
Houston Baptist and now are Houston Christian University.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Oh yeah, that's right, you guys had a name change.
I'm sorry about that.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
And huts, it's all right, it's it's one of those
hard habits to break. I find myself saying, oh, still, HBU,
it's HCU now. But we haven't been doing the podcast
quite as long as the Mission Impossible series has been running. Yeah,
So nineteen ninety six the first film came out. It
was the first big effort of Tom Cruise and his
(04:30):
then partner Paul Wagner, as they were going to produce
a vehicle for him, and whereas he previously needs to
worked with a lot of great filmmakers and our tours,
and he was a leading man, a top star in Hollywood,
and the first film establishes a template that would hold
for a lot of the first half of the series,
(04:51):
which is that Cruise went out and found a director
that had a distinct style, and so he paired with
Brian de Palma, who's known for, you know, kind of
cerebral twisty, you know, highly edited, very artsy thrillers, and
they they made this movie using a lot of the
templates of the original TV show and its reboot, you know,
(05:12):
which is espionage and deception and masks and stagecraft in
order to pull off various heists and difficult missions. And
the movie was successful. I remember seeing it in the
theater with a bunch of other college age students, with
a young woman who then later became my wife, and
(05:32):
a bunch of other friends, and it was it was
a hit. And but there was this funny thing that
Cruz did which I think is really unique for within
for these major film franchises, which is that instead of
having a consistent tone and style for those first four movies,
he went out and found directors with really distinct styles.
(05:53):
So the second film was not like the first one
except that it had big action set pieces and masks
and spon and he partnered with John Wu who's known
for this Hong Kong style, very baalletic action, lots of
jumping sideways, shooting two guns at once and dubs. And
then he partnered with jj Abrams for the third film.
(06:13):
Jj Abrams basically made an episode of the TV show Alias,
but using the mission impossible big pieces. And then by
the fourth one, he partnered with Brad Bird, who's known
primarily as an animator. And then and then the series
kind of evened out a little bit more into having
a They kind of figured out what they wanted to do,
(06:34):
and he found Christopher McCory who's been his collaborator for
the second half of the series, and so already as
I'm describing it, it's a it's a somewhat unique enterprise,
which is, you think, a lot of the other big
IP has a distinct style and anybody who comes in
is expected to take that on, whereas whereas Cruz you know,
(06:58):
had a very different vision. So I think it's made
it a pretty artistically interesting series to think about, to
look at the variations. It's had some ups and down,
some movies were more successful than than others, and and
the and it's it's never been I think anybody's favorite,
(07:18):
you know series. Of course, now we have Star Wars
movies and mc U and and there are other you know,
kind of popular works of IP that you know that dominate,
but Mission Impossible has always been there kind of periodically
popping up as a as a crowd pleasing fun you know,
mostly in the summer kind of you know, series of
(07:39):
blockbuster movies that really focus on spectacle and and incredible
stunts that that Cruise is now become famous for performing himself.
And that was something that I think when the first
movie came out, nobody really saw Cruise as an action star.
Now he's so famous for for running and for doing
(08:00):
all of these things himself, and for being one of
the great actor slash stuntmen of Hollywood history. So you
think about Jackie chan or even somebody like Buster Keaton
all the way back, you know, Cruise is one of
those few people that seems to really relish doing everything himself,
and so he's got this incredible work ethic. So the movies,
(08:21):
I think what's really most interesting about the films is
that they are so fused with the produce, producing and
acting work of Cruise, and the character of Ethan Hunt
and Tom Cruise kind of collapse into each other very
often as you're watching them. So if you like thinking
about movies and how they're made, then the Mission Impossible
(08:44):
series is a really rewarding series if you like thinking
about big ideas and themes. Maybe a little bit less so,
but nevertheless still interesting to consider.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Well, one thing he said is that Tom Cruise has
been in this series since the very beginning, which is
way back in nineteen ninety six, thirty years ago almost,
and so he's now sixty two years old, so he
is definitely a senior citizen. So this particular film is
called the Final Reckoning. Do you think this is the
(09:16):
very last mission? Impossible, like the titles suggests, final one.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Nobody really knows all the suggestions in the film or
that this is intended to be a bow that they're
wrapping on the franchise. And so I wouldn't ever, you know,
count Cruise out. You know, he's still you know, doing
seems like he's in really good shape, and he's got
(09:44):
this insane drive and so even if he thinks he's
going to step out right now, sometimes it's you know,
it's just not the case that you know, people get
you know, drawn back in, or they get excited about
some new idea, they come up with a new angle.
But audience, this is I think reasonably should expect seeing this,
that this is their attempt to conclude everything, and you
(10:05):
see a lot of evidence about that within within the film.
It's continually intercut with flashbacks from previous movies. One and
so spoiler. The other central character who's been in the
series since the beginning, a character named Luther played by
Ving Raims, is he was there from the very beginning.
He's one of the three lines he dies in this movie,
(10:27):
and the film concludes with a kind of a model
recorded monologue from him, this big you know statement, and
so you know, I think that you you would kind
of reasonably expect this is probably it and and and
you know, Cruise is in good shape. But also he
(10:47):
he's starting to show signs of age. He's been weirdly
ageless for so long, and you know, now he seems
like you, he's starting to show signs of of real
human mortality.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
I was thinking in the flashbacks that, wow, Tom Cruise
looks so young, you know, when they did flashback to
like the very first movie, because they do bring back
a character from the first movie, and definitely that character
has aged two, because yeah, it's been about thirty years.
So let's talk about the films, because again, some people
(11:24):
who are younger might not really know what some of
these films are about if they haven't gone to watch
all of them or weren't familiar with the television series
from which it was born. I guess, is there a
present like kind of an overarching world view that is
in the series. It seems like it's very much more
(11:44):
on the lines of a kind of a popcorn action film.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
The Yeah, there's I think that if you wanted to
situate them as it were, the world of Mission Impoposible.
You group it with a lot of other political espionage,
spy type films whose main focus is on you know,
global dangers, so you know, James Bond or Tom Clancy
(12:16):
or Jason Bourne and and films like that, and so
as such, the the movies do not typically wrestle with
a lot of the maybe sort of deeper, more profound
questions in life. They're they're dealing with present political threats.
There's a terrorist that's trying to launch nuclear nuclear bombs,
(12:39):
or the there's that it's possible that this secret agent
uh list of names is about to be released, and
this will be a threat to the government's attempt to
bring safety to the world through through espionage, and and
so in that in that sense, the I think the
(12:59):
world view as a parent by the degree to which
it's bracketing out a lot of the other larger, you know,
philosophical or spiritual concerns that that we might have, which
is to say, we're sort of locked in what Charles
Taylor might call that imminent frame, which is that that
everything that happens within the film is is physical in
(13:21):
maybe in both senses of the world. There are some
there's some awareness of the existence of religion, you know,
maybe a Bible verse is used as a as a password,
or the tom Cruise breaks into the Vatican and dresses
like a priest or. There's maybe a little bit of
a sense of, you know, some life after death that
(13:43):
comes up in the final film. But for the most part,
you know, these these are very much popcorn thrillers that
you know, that raise some danger which everyone recognized as
being worthy of of stopping. And that danger is so
intense that it warn't then taking on, you know, an
(14:05):
impossible mission and endangering the lives of all the heroes
who are putting themselves at risk. And so so you
might you might say that it's you know, it's it's
it's worldview is kind of just a soldier's, you know,
a view of things. There's a threat, and I'm summoned
to stop it. And so the primary ethical concern is
(14:27):
about the degree to which we're helping people or hurting people,
protecting people, or threatening them. And the good guys are
the protectors, the bad guys are the threats.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
It's June, as I've said, the last few episodes and
it is time to think about our fiscal year end
at our organization, which is a nonprofit, the Christian Research Institute.
And this is a ministry of the Christian Research Institute,
which is the Christian Research Shroom. We've been around for
almost fifty years. We started as a print incarnation and
(15:02):
then a couple of years ago went completely online so
that we could give all of this content from almost
fifty years completely free without a paywall, without subscriptions at
equip dot org. But because we do that, we would
ask that you would prayerfully consider this month giving a
partnering gift to the Christian Research Institute, or at least
(15:25):
a tip. We would be so grateful for a tip
that you would give us because those tips add up
together and they help us to continue to give you
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dot org and also this podcast, So please do so.
If you'd like to give us a tip during our
(15:47):
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thank you so much for your partnership, and that includes
(16:08):
doing all the things like rating us on Apple Podcasts
and letting other people know about this podcast simply by
word of mouth, emailing, or putting an episode one of
your favorits on your social media accounts. Well, now back
to my conversation with doctor Philip Tallon about Mission Impossible. Well,
I think, like you know, if we think about classic
(16:30):
stories and particularly iconic heroes. In this series, you know,
Tom Cruise's main character, Ethan Hunt, is kind of a
superman with all his stunts, but and also there's something
about that lately you're talking about Marvel franchises or how
(16:51):
we've kind of gone into the franchise mode of in
the last several decades with films. But he's both like
practically a superhero with these daredevil stunts. I mean some
of them seem a little mind blowing. Can somebody do that?
Go down to like the Mariana Trench, you know, be
swimming out there without a you know, suit on, He's
(17:14):
like in his underwear or whatever. But also in an
ethical way, like the ways that he's trying to deal,
like you said, with some major threat from artificial intelligence
or a rogue nation or something like that. And so
it seems like they set him up that there's these
(17:35):
things that are kind of ethically, I don't know, necessarily
black and white, more of on the gray side, but he,
particularly as a character, is always black and white. And
then he's got these superhuman skills, which seem like would
they do that? As a matter of fact, which is
really interesting as I was reading an article I think
it was it's either was in the New York Times
(17:56):
or the Washington Post where they actually asked the director
of this by Museum, who used to be a CIA spy,
to watch this movie and ask them, Okay, could this happen?
Could this happen? And he some of the things that
we think are a little far fetched, like those masks
that he takes off. He said, no, no, those are
been used on the field. So I thought that was
really interesting. But so it sounds like, you know, there
(18:17):
are certain things that you've done that human people do,
but he has these, like you said, these stunts that
he performs that just seem extraordinary and superhuman. So why
do you think we like these kind of hero stories?
You know, thinking about the Marvel university. Even this isn't
a Marvel universe. This is the real world universe verse,
and something's threatening mankind and here's Ethan hunt out here
(18:39):
to help save mankind. I mean, how do these kinds
of stories resonate with us with some of what we
really desire as humans to believe in?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
The Yeah, he's you know, Ethan is a is a
true hero. And so the anything set with contemporary political landscape,
you know, sort of post Watergate, post are just a
kind of awareness of of the fallibility of of all
governments and in a sense that you know, no nobody
(19:13):
does things perfectly. You know, we see continually that the
you know, the mission Impossible Force, the Impossible Mission Force
that for which Ethan works is continually being disavowed the
because the you know, the government you know, doesn't want
them going off and doing, you know, doing something, or
because the government itself has kind of corrupt, corrupt motives.
(19:33):
But but the Impossible Mission Force always does the right
thing and knows the right thing to do. And one
of the really interesting features of the film is and
the films throughout, is that you see continually it it
seems like they're there's caught with a dilemma. Okay, you know,
I save this person or I save this person I
(19:54):
you know, do I compromise or you know, do I
seek after the you know, something that's pure, but it
seems less likely to work. And the fantasy of the
hero in many ways is a way of keeping before
our vision, you know, a call to seek after doing
what is truly right in the midst of uncertain circumstances.
(20:18):
One of the great dangers I think that we continually
face is, isn't it when we compromise too quickly, right,
we think something is impossible, and so then we you know,
we wind up just we're just going to settle for
the lesser of two evils because we think that's what's
what's practical. So I think it's important that we tell
ourselves stories of heroes who refuse to engage in utilitarian
(20:41):
consequentialists sort of reasoning. Okay, I'm going to do something
that's kind of bad because I think it's going to
lead to something good. No. One of the things I
loved about the MCU is character like Captain America, you know,
refuses to make that sort of calculation. He's going to
fight hard for the thing that he believes is truly
right and hope that everything will turn out well. And
(21:01):
Ethan Hunt is the pre eminent example of this. He
doesn't want to let anybody on his team die. He's
going to continually work to pull things off. They trust him,
and because this is a story, he always has the
ability to carry it off. Now, that's not how things
work very often in the day and day out reality
in which we live. But it's important that we continually
(21:24):
strive for this great good. And I think that that's
where you see heroes, and Ethan being one of them
as a kind of a messianic figure, right, as a
as a great deliverer, and drawn to the story of Jesus,
because here we have somebody who refuses to engage in
(21:48):
moral compromise, right, who remains pure, and even when it
seems like all is lost through supernatural power, is able
to overcome and defeat evil. And so is the that
is the hero that that we need to continually be
moving toward and doing what's right and living in hope
(22:10):
that all shall turn out well. And and so that
I mean, I can't think of anything more more basic
about our desire to interact with with stories than to
have that vision before our eyes and to be inspired,
you know, to seek towards some the greater good that
we've perhaps thought is impossible. It's not impossible for Ethan,
(22:32):
and often it's much more possible than we sometimes think.
We get tired, beaten down by the world, we settle
for less, but stories like Mission Impossible, you know, reignite
our desire for more.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
That's really interesting. I also kind of sometimes think about
Tom Cruise himself as he's for sure this character in
my mind in this final film is kind of set
up as a messiah figure, mainly because according to the film,
but he is, like you said, there is a threat
(23:10):
that's going to infect the entire world, and Ethan Hunt
keeps getting told that he needs to care not just
about the people he personally cares for, but the countless
millions of souls.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
For those we hold, for those we hold close, and
for those we never meet.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Right, that's the exactly that kind of idea, not just
the people, you know, but Hunt is going down the
sacrificial path for all these other people too, to save
them from this evil entity. Tom Cruise has paired with
various different kind of directors along the way in this
(23:51):
mission of possible series because he is very intimately involved
as one of the producers and one of them main
creative forces behind this entire series. So how does this
series reflect maybe Cruse and maybe even his worldview because
(24:12):
as many people known now, Tom Cruise is a scientologist,
and we've got various articles on our website that talk
about the beliefs of scientology. But do you think there
are any of this any kind of religion that comes
through it all in because either because of his own viewpoints,
which aren't Christian of course scientology, or just in general
(24:35):
that the idea of religion and belief is important to
him as someone creating this series.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Yeah, it's I think it's a really it's a question
that everybody has in their minds. They're thinking about Cruise
because we know that he's a scientology. Scientology is not
a very popular religion, but it has a cohort of people,
especially in Hollywood, who are engaged in very strange series
of views. It does unlike say John Travolta, who then
(25:05):
adapted l Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth, it doesn't seem to
have crept into much of his his thematic interests. The
sort of you know, at least certainly not in the
mission impossible movies. If there's a Cruise like element that's present,
it's the mirroring of the Ethan hunt character and Cruise himself,
which is this indomitable, just force of nature who's continually
(25:30):
sort of trying to do the best thing, And the
production of these films is continually like an impossible mission.
They come up with these big, crazy stunts that seem
like they should be impossible, and he just works tirelessly
to pull them off. So the high altitude, low opening
jump that they do in Fallout, you know, they practice
(25:52):
that thing two hundred times because the cameraman's jumping with him.
He needed to figure out how they can actually see
that it's really him doing it, and almost no other
actor in Hollywood is dedicating that amount of time to
pack things off. So he's an incredibly driven person, so
that you see, and even Hunterston coredbly driven. Tom Cruise
is incredibly driven. And then the sort of improvisational nature
(26:15):
of a lot of these these missions where they're trying
to figure out how to do something. Okay, we got
to do this, and everybody's flum mixed, how we gonna
do that, and Ethan will say, we'll figure it out,
you know, And that is a refrain on the set
of Mission Impossible, Cruise continually saying what if we did
this and it would make it even better? And everybody goes,
oh my goodness, that's that's so crazy and so hard.
How are we going to do that? They say, well,
(26:36):
we'll figure it out, and so the uh, this is
back to what I said previously, which is that I
think the if you want to think about the Mission
Impossible movies, then then the most rewarding avenue for reflecting
on them is about their existence as movies, their production,
the things that go into it. And there's I think
(26:58):
that a really admirable quality with the within Cruise's work habits,
which is that he he seems to be really invested
in leading the group well, so he doesn't behave like
an entitled star. He learns the names of people all
the way down the line, he comes to sit even
on his days when he's not shooting. He's all in right,
(27:20):
so not doesn't he's the He's the one who's leading
from the front, right, the general that's leading the charge
continually and has the most energy and enthusiasm, and and
then you just they obviously created a character that is
essentially a fictionalized spy version of the of the man himself,
(27:41):
and that you know, his Cruise's personal life seems really
rocky and bad. You know, just he's got lots of
the strange relationships. Of course, multiple divorces, is you know,
some of his kids. He's not us, not close to.
He just seems to work all the time right, doesn't
have good work life balance. But his leadership behavior as
(28:02):
a producer and an actor is kind of impressive as
an example of how to be a fully engaged, enthusiastic,
personable leader. And so I sometimes look to creatives for
insight on how one should be in the world, and
I think that you we can learn a few things.
(28:24):
We shouldn't learn everything from how Crews operates in this
work life, but definitely being all in excited, you know,
tirelessly enthusiastic, and never willing to settle for less is
a valuable example for us. I think.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
So this film Mission Impossible Final Reckoning very much had
mixed reviews from critics. There was not an overwhelming positive
response to it. I don't know so much about fans
what they're thinking. But what did you think about this film?
Speaker 2 (29:03):
I thought it was one of the messiest of all
the films, and I probably put it right toward the
bottom of the series, maybe not last, but perhaps second
to last, and in terms of its overall quality and coherence.
The improvisational production nature of their filmmaking, I think, you know,
(29:27):
fails them at times, which is they don't have a
clear script. They know some of these big pieces that
they're going to put in there and so, and it
feels weirdly cobbled together and some things, you know, why
they're doing them is is not obvious at all. The
there's also an attempt to retroactively create continuity within the series,
(29:49):
which this has never existed, sort of going going forward,
they're sort of looking back and trying to make sense
of everything that's happened, as if all of this was intentional,
and that the results there are somewhat laughable. It's long too,
It's a long film with a lot of I think unnecessary,
you know, plot diversions. But the big reason why I
(30:13):
think any reasonable person is going to pay fifteen dollars
to go see Mission Impossible is to see on the
big screen some of the best executed film stunts in
recent years. And there are two scenes in particular. The
submarine scene where Cruise descends down to a Russian submarine
(30:36):
and then moves through it half underwater, is so intense
that that you're I mean, it was one of those
really like edge of the seat kind of kind of moments,
incredibly well crafted. And then the final biplane duels there
are two biplanes flying along that are battling and cruises
(30:57):
climbing and jumping is all so just marvelous. And they've
shot it in imax, and so if you go see
in imax, they'll lift the curtain and you'll see it
in this big aspect ratio. And that's again one of
those things is if you just love the craft of
making movies, this commitment to practical effects and really just
(31:18):
excellent cinematic storytelling, those two things I think carry most
of the audience out afterwards. Oh man, that scene plain
sequence was so so exciting that you maybe forgive some
of the sins of the film. But Nobody's gonna Mission
Impossible is not Star Wars. It's it's never had this
(31:38):
sort of sanctity of being, you know, a holy text
like in you know, Raiders, the Lost Arc or Star
Wars or something that's being ruined. The series has always
been kind of goofy and up and down, and so
so if you like previous Mission Impossible movies, I think
you'll have a good time at this one. And it's
(32:00):
also interestingly dealing with with AI and some of the
potential threats in a way that is surprisingly precient, and
trying to make a little bit of cultural commentary. So
you have runnamook Ai. I think everybody already has a
sense of what this might look like. The AI is
(32:22):
creating all sorts of false information, so you don't know
what to trust online. And then you have now in
this final film, people have become acolytes of the AI.
They become so obsessed with.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Yeah, I didn't understand that there's like this AI cult.
I don't think they really explained how a religion kind
of you know, sprung up from this AI that's kind
of like all knowing or something.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Yeah, it's a Rocco's basilisk if you're familiar with that
thought experiment, which is people sort of serving an evil
artificial intelligence and the hope of being rewarded and and
so the movie has like one of the few big
jokes in the film is that Cruz has to fight
off somebody who's become an acolyte at the AI, and
(33:10):
as he's beating him up, he says, you know, you're
spending too much time on the internet, and so that
that feels like a you know, the the funny commentary
of a sixty something, you know, year old man who's
who's kind of telling, you know, telling a younger generation
of just like get out and you know, and live
(33:31):
your life and stop spending so much of your of
your time online.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Well, I think that I'm not sure that this was
the biggest send off for this series. I think maybe
they could have stopped it a few movies ago. And
also if I don't know if we mentioned that this
is part two of the first movie. Part one came
out last year and this is part two, So I
(33:55):
don't know that i'd recommend somebody watching it as part
one part two together. I don't know if it would
make more sense that way, But for sure, it was
interesting to see the stunts and if people go online,
there's articles about how they film that those, especially the
stunts on the plane, they're just the director was talking
(34:15):
about how you know, yes they're flying at a lower altitude,
but you don't really have any oxygen up there, and
all different kinds of things. That's very fascinating. But I
just do think it's been an interesting ride for sure,
and I would encourage people at least to go back
to some of the earlier films, especially the first few films.
They were just very much on the edge of your
(34:37):
sea kind of big blockbuster type films.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
The yeah my, you know, if folks, if folks are
looking to to just watch one, I think that the
Bradbird's Ghost Protocol is you know, as one of those
that you know that really.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Works basically kind of can stand on its own. That
they're they're playing with some of the previous lore, but
I think cinematically that's just you know, absolutely one of
one of the best, and the middle chunk, the middle
chunk of movies, I think are are really where the
series is that it's its strongest. And so you know,
(35:16):
four or five and and six, especially you know, Fallout,
I think a lot of people point to as being
you know, another like the best of the Christopher McCrory
directed films, and and so I you know, I'd say
check those out that as as far as being kind
of family friendly, the not so much with I think
(35:38):
the second you know, the second film is is maybe
a little bit uh stranger, But a lot of the
movies are are relatively sexless, you know, just kind of
they're primarily about the work. They tend to be relatively
clean compared with some other major Hollywood movies, and and
so they're they're not uh. I think they're perfectly commendable,
(36:02):
high octane summer popcorn films that a lot of people
would enjoy. If you have not watched the Mission Impossible series,
do not start with this last one because all of
the callbacks and nostalgia will be lost on you.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Yeah, I would say try to get into a few
of them, or at least Wikipedia the ones a few
of them, but I would say go back because some
of the other ones I think are a little bit
more iconic. And in case people might not know this,
you mentioned Brad Bird and he is the guy responsible
for the Pixar film The Incredibles, which a lot of
(36:41):
people have watched and probably enjoy. So definitely go back
and look at some of the other ones. Well. Finally,
I have a rapid fire question for Phil. Phil, we're
talking about Mission Impossible. And before we start this podcast,
we just talked about different films that are coming out.
So is there any kind of film, whether serious or
popcorn film that you're looking forward to seeing this summer?
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Oh? Well this, yeah, this summer. Let's see what else is.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
The ideas coming up? Superman? You've got dressed.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
I am I am interested in in the Superman I
I'm curious to see what they uh, what they do
with it. The one of the things that with the
DC Cinematic universes, I think they've been searching for for
different tones and this Superman film seems like it's really
(37:36):
trying to bring back a little bit of a more
colorful literally more uh more colorful and kind of old
fashioned vibe with you've got Crypto the Dog and you've
got you know, hot girl and and so I hope
that they really have a fun time with with Superman,
(37:57):
as opposed to some of the Zack Snyder uh films
that were were very heavy and weighted with with significance.
And so yeah, that is that is certainly one of
the one of the ones that's that's on my list.
And we just we're just a big fan of the
MCU on the whole, and and so we saw Thunderbolts
(38:18):
and liked it, and Fantastic Four is also coming out,
and so I'm curious to see what they do with
with Fantastic Four as well.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
I am too because just because of the actors that
are involved in it, somehow I guess we see him
a more well not always serious fear but Pedro Pascal
is one of the Fantastic Four. So I'm interested to
see this reboot of the Fantastic for and see what
it's going to be like. So it's definitely going to
be a summer filled with a lot of superhero type movies.
(38:51):
So thanks philm.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Yeah, there's a new Wes Anderson coming out too, so
I'll definitely go see that.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Wes Anderson is very quirky filmmaker, so if people like
some of his things, you might not want to miss that. Well.
Thanks Phil for being here with us on four hundred
and fifty. We are very grateful that you're here, and
it's always good to talk to you about movies.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
It's always always a pleasure. Millanie, Thanks for having me back.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
You've been listening to the postmodern Realities podcast from the
Christian Research Journal. Today is episode number four hundred and fifty,
a big milestone nine years into podcasting and starting this podcast,
and we look forward to keep going on this podcast,
and we'll look forward to Phil joining us for episode
(39:36):
five hundred coming up next year. But in the meantime,
you will want to read his article The Living Manifestation
of Destiny The Meaning in the Mission Impossible Movies, and
you can find that for free without a paywall at
equipped dot org. You won't want to miss out on
subscribing to the other podcasts from the Christian Research Institute.
(39:58):
We have the Bible answer Man podcast, which is published
Monday through Friday, with the best of the week on Saturday.
It's hosted by CRI President Hank Handigraph and is available
wherever you get your favorite podcasts. In addition, Hank has
a podcast called Hank Unplugged. Hank takes you out of
(40:18):
the studio and into his study to engage in free flowing,
essential Christian conversations on critical issues with some of the
most interesting, informative and inspirational people on the planet. And
you won't want to miss out on the brand new
podcast from the Christian Research Journal. Christian Research Journal Reads
(40:41):
presents audio versions of Christian Research Journal articles and it
was a print incarnation of almost forty five years. It's
now on the web as you know, with new articles
every single week, so you won't want to miss these
audio articles of some of our most popular and most
accessed art goals on our website equip dot org.
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