Mission Impossible 1996: Cast, Plot, Ending and Where to Watch

Mission: Impossible (1996) follows Ethan Hunt, a member of an Impossible Missions Force team led by Jim Phelps, who ends up as the only survivor of a mission that goes badly wrong in Prague. The team is sent to the Czech capital to watch a meeting and stop a rogue agent from selling a secret list of undercover operatives.

The operation collapses and nearly everyone on the team is killed. Ethan's superior, Kittridge, suspects him of being the traitor, so Ethan escapes and sets out to clear his name and find the real mole. From there the film becomes a hunt for a list, a vault and a man nobody expected, and it is a tidy introduction to how the saga treats a plan: lay it out, watch it slip, then improvise.

The full plot of Mission: Impossible (1996) runs from a Prague trap to a train finale, and it hinges on one betrayal. Jim Phelps's team goes to Prague to stop Alexander Golitsyn from stealing a list of covert agents. The mission turns out to be a trap, and the team is killed one by one, with Ethan Hunt the only one to get out alive.

Kittridge, Ethan's chief, suspects him of being the mole, and Ethan escapes custody. He then meets Claire, Jim's wife, who also survived. Ethan learns of an arms dealer called Max, who wants the real list, and he recruits two disavowed operatives, Luther Stickell and Franz Krieger, to break into CIA headquarters in Langley and steal it. The break in works, with Ethan lowered by wires into the secure vault.

Ethan gives the list to Max in exchange for money. He then works out that Jim is alive and is the real traitor, with Claire and Krieger on Jim's side. Ethan sets a trap on a high speed train to Paris, and Kittridge watches a live feed of the confrontation. Jim is exposed, and Claire is killed. Jim and Krieger try to escape in a helicopter, but Ethan hooks it to the train and it is destroyed in the Channel Tunnel, killing both men. Kittridge arrests Max and recovers the list, and Ethan's name is cleared.

Mission: Impossible (1996) opened in US theaters on May 22, 1996, according to Box Office Mojo, followed by Australia on June 26, 1996 and the UK on July 5, 1996, according to TMDB. The film had originally been scheduled for release on December 8, 1995.

It opened in a then record 3,012 theaters, and the rollout paid off. The film took $181 million at the domestic box office and $277 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $457.7 million on an $80 million budget, according to Box Office Mojo. Ratings differ by market: PG-13 in the US, PG in the UK and M in Australia, a handy starting point if you are checking the parents guide before a family viewing.

For how that total compares with the sequels, see the mission impossible box office page.

The ending of Mission: Impossible (1996) has Ethan expose Jim Phelps as the mole on the train to Paris, then destroy his helicopter in the Channel Tunnel. Jim and Krieger die in the blast. Kittridge takes Max into custody and gets the list back, and Ethan and Luther are cleared. On a flight home, Ethan is offered a new mission.

Why does it work? In my opinion, the key is Kittridge watching the live feed. The film spends its first half making Kittridge the man who wants Ethan caught, and the finale turns him into the witness who can clear Ethan, so the paperwork ending is earned by a set piece rather than by a speech. It could be argued that a climax in this saga lands best when it pays off a plot thread, not only a stunt.

The structure also rewards a second look. The Prague trap kills the team one by one, and the film never shows Jim's death on screen in that sequence, so the later reveal that he is alive and is the traitor is a payoff the first act quietly plants. Claire survives the Prague disaster alongside Ethan, which in hindsight makes her the first sign that the story is not what it seems. By the time Ethan lowers himself on wires into the secure vault at Langley, the audience has been trained to expect that every neat plan will slip, and the train finale is the one plan where Ethan holds the upper hand.

The train also deserves a note from a mechanical point of view. Most of the sequence was shot on Pinewood's 007 Stage against blue screen, with a wind machine capable of producing winds up to 140 mph, and Industrial Light & Magic digitized the footage. That makes the helicopter hooked to a train largely a studio and effects build, with exterior train shots filmed in Scotland on the Glasgow South Western Line. It is a different philosophy from the stunts the saga became known for later: Tom Cruise climbed the Burj Khalifa himself for Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and the Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One motorcycle cliff jump in Hellesylt, Norway followed extensive skydiving and motorcycle jump preparation. Here the thrill comes from the plan and the editing, and the practical stunt reputation arrives later.

The closing offer of a new mission sets up further adventures, and the next one is mission impossible 2.

Mission: Impossible (1996) was filmed mainly in Prague and at Pinewood Studios in England, with principal photography running from March to August 1995. Prague supplied the embassy, Charles Bridge, National Museum and Old Town Square scenes.

Pinewood Studios in England hosted the train sequence, shot against blue screen. Other shooting took place in London and Aldershot in England, and in the United States. Exterior train shots were filmed in Scotland on the Glasgow South Western Line. So, if you want to visit the Mission: Impossible (1996) locations, Prague is the one to book, since the train work was built in a studio and on Scottish rails rather than across Europe.

The production history of Mission: Impossible (1996) includes a score swap, a moved release date and a record opening.

• Principal photography ran from March to August 1995, mainly in Prague and at Pinewood Studios.
• Alan Silvestri was first hired to score the film, but his music was replaced by Danny Elfman's score.
• Most of the train sequence was shot on Pinewood's 007 Stage against blue screen, and Industrial Light & Magic digitized the footage.
• A wind machine capable of producing winds up to 140 mph was used for the train sequence.
• The film was originally scheduled for release on December 8, 1995.
• The film opened in a then record 3,012 theaters.
• Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. of U2 made a dance version of the theme, which was nominated for a Grammy.