Mission: Impossible

Mission: Impossible is a 1996 spy thriller directed by Brian De Palma and the first big-screen entry in the Mission: Impossible film series. Tom Cruise stars as Ethan Hunt, an IMF agent who becomes the sole survivor of a disastrous mission in Prague and is framed as a mole within his own organisation. Forced to go on the run, he assembles a small rogue team to uncover the real traitor and steal a classified CIA list in one of the franchise’s most famous set-pieces. The film reshaped the 1960s television series into a sleek, paranoid 1990s thriller, mixing espionage, betrayal, elaborate deception and large-scale action around Cruise’s emerging identity as an action star.

The film was shot mainly in Prague and England, with additional work in London, Scotland and the United States. Prague is crucial to the opening act, with the Charles Bridge, Old Town Square, Kampa Island, Platnéřská Street, Liechtenstein Palace and the National Museum giving the doomed IMF mission its elegant but treacherous European atmosphere. Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire handled much of the large interior and set work, including controlled environments connected to the embassy, safe house and action sequences. London also plays an important role, with Liverpool Street Station used for the later meeting point and County Hall standing in for part of the CIA headquarters at Langley. The Channel Tunnel finale was created through a mix of studio work, model effects and location material, while the wider production gives the film a strong contrast between old-world Prague, institutional London and the hyper-secure American intelligence world Ethan has to penetrate.