Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol
Financially speaking, there was little financial incentive to make a fourth Mission: Impossible. The third entry had been a huge disappointment, clouded by Tom's controversial ties to scientology and some truly weird behavior. Even Cruise's longstanding relationship to Paramount Pictures, the studio that funded his flagship franchise, as well as most of his biggest hits from the 80s and 90s, took a hit. Despite a small win in 2010 with Ben Stiller's hit ensemble comedy Tropic Thunder, Tom struggled struggled to find a hit over the next five years. So the fact that Ghost Protocol exists is at least a little surprising.
But the fact of the matter is, Tom wanted a do over. He wanted to earn the trust of his audience again. He was determined to put it all out there for the sake of entertainment. And thus he seemingly willed to life Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol from the nothing and made it so. And the movie is fucking great. Exceptionally well made by first time live action director Brad Bird (The Incredibles, The Iron Giant), Ghost-Protocol is a good as fuck spy action/adventure, and in many ways the movie Mission: Impossible III wanted to be. In fact, Ghost Protocol builds off M:I-III brilliantly, recognizing that films strengths and amplifying them to great effect. This is also where the absolutely insane death defying stunts started happening, a trend that would soon define the franchise.
Spoilers for Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol to follow.
Every time I watch Ghost Protocol, i am blindsided by how good it is. In my odd little brain, this entry gets a little overshadowed. Rogue Nation and Fallout are two of my favorite action movies of all time, and I have a real nostalgic love for III, so I just watch those entries more.
But every so often I watch GP and am immediately mad at myself for not watching it more (though it's a welcome surprise every time). Bird directs the hell out of this movie, and he's first in the series to make use of IMAX cameras. I remember seeing this in the Bob Bullock IMAX here in Austin and the experience is only bested by The Dark Knight in terms of IMAX, in my humbly correct opinion. Bird really gets the most out of the large format and gives us numerous set pieces, each just as well put together as the last. The most insane of course being Cruise hanging 2722 feet in the air off a building in Dubai. No stunt double, just Cruise. It's an absolutely bonkers thing to see, and what's great is that it's mostly played for laughs in the movie, acknowledging how insane it is. There is still tension and stakes of course, but the movie never forgets to have fun.
The movie is also eerily reminiscent of Cruise's career at the time. His character begins the movie having been thrown away in a Russian prison (not unlike Cruise had been discarded by Hollywood and audiences alike) and spends most of the movie being second guessed, forced to prove himself again and again. Jeremy Renner's character almost exclusively carries the weight of questioning Tom's character, Ethan. The idea of bringing Renner into the fold was to possibly hand the franchise to him, and let Tom step aside. Both Tom and Ethan fight this though, and prove that they still have what it takes.
Ironically enough, this film's success all but guaranteed that Renner would never take over, as they quickly put him in a corner in the next installment and decided they simply didn't need him for Fallout. But still, he proved to be a great foil for Cruise here, and gave the star and the character a reason to fight. It's a great pairing that the movie benefits from. Honestly, the whole team aspect is great here, something that would continue to get better in subsequent installments.
Special shoutout to Paula Patton, as she is easily the first truly badass female character in the franchise (I'll always love Michelle though), and I'm a little surprised she never returned. She has an amazing fight with Lea Seydoux that is a franchise highlight. Here's hoping she could pop up in one of these last two installments.
The Dubai stunt was a marketing center piece that heavily pushed the IMAX element. In fact, the film's first weekend was an IMAX only event to build word of mouth. This meant that on its first weekend, Ghost Protocol opened in 425 theaters. For comparison, Mission: Impossible III opened in 4,054 theaters 5 years earlier. Now, the filmmakers wisely decided to skip the blockbuster friendly summer time frame, where the previous installments opened, and instead chose mid December. The Christmas/New Year holiday time frame is one of the biggest movie going time periods of the year, a time when multiple films can flourish, and GP took advantage of that. The movie opened to $12 million its first weekend, a sum that seems small at first, but considering its small theater count is actually quite impressive. The fact that the critics loved it as well only fueled the fire. Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol ended up grossing $209 million domestically (second only to M:I-II) and $694 million worldwide, officially the highest grossing worldwide movie of Tom's career up to that point. A real deal home run.
And somehow, the franchise actually gets better from here.