N.Y. museum exhibition celebrates the ‘Mission: Impossible' franchise
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Tom Cruise, a wall text notes, was a fan of the series, which helped lead to the franchise. He better have been. Beside starring in all the movies, Cruise has produced them and served as perpetual-motion muse. Does the
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Installation view of "Mission: Impossible — Story and Spectacle."
Thanassi Karageorgiou
Other franchises are about a character — James Bond, say, or Indiana Jones — or the comic books that inspired them. The 'M: I' movies are about the franchise's star. Try to imagine these movies with anyone other than Cruise starring in them. Would most people even recognize the name 'Ethan Hunt,' his character? 'Sir,' Alec Baldwin's Impossible Missions Force secretary, tells the British prime minister in the sixth movie in the series, 'Mission: Impossible — Fallout' (2018),
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Alec Baldwin in "Mission Impossible: Fallout."
Chiabella James
'Story and Spectacle' isn't quite all Tom, all the time, but pretty close. That's all right, too. The snaggly smile, the endless energy, the well-mannered relentlessness: Resistance is futile. Among the 130+ items and displays in the exhibition are two brief video interviews with Cruise. 'I never do anything half way,' he says in one. 'My whole life, like,
I'm in
.' He's being modest. There's no 'like' about it.
Think of the exhibition as an extended advertorial for the franchise — or, better yet, as a set of ex post facto trailers. Call it 'The M: I Experience.' That's all right, too (do you see a theme here?), since the show is very well done and quite entertaining.
Happily overstuffed, the exhibition space is a black-box interior, like a cross between a warehouse and casino (always put your chips on Hunt). A Honda motorbike hangs from the ceiling. So do several Cruise mannequins. More than 40 screens show clips from the movies or behind-the-scenes explanations of various bits. Most of the screens are small, keeping the visual effect from being overwhelming, though several are large. The action is pretty much nonstop, not unlike the movies.
Display of costumes from "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning" in "Mission: Impossible — Story and Spectacle."
Thanassi Karageorgiou
Each 'M: I' gets its own section. The one constant is that each movie's
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There are many, many props, handsomely displayed and all the more engaging for so many of them being so deadpan silly. They include a selection of fake passports (Ethan Hunt gets around), computer paraphernalia, several pairs of sunglasses (which aren't really sunglasses, of course), wristwatches (ditto), ID badges, a very high-end Technics turntable, a plutonium orb (don't ask), a sonic glass breaker (you never know when one might come in handy), not one but two mask-making machines (masks being a franchise trademark), and several masks. The masks, it must be said, are not the franchise at its best.
Display of dossiers from "Mission: Impossible — Fallout."
Thanassi Karageorgiou
Deserving special mention are the gloves Cruise wore in 'Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol' (2001) while
Stunts get a lot of attention in the exhibition, and rightly so. They are 'M: I' at its most 'M: I.' They're also Tom Cruise at his most Tom Cruise. In one of the interviews, he mentions Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and airplane wing walkers as inspirations. Looking at the accompanying clips, one sees how clearly he belongs in that lineage. Maybe even he marks its culmination. As the editor of the Guinness Book of World Records said earlier this month when
The Academy announced Tuesday that Cruise will be one of four lifetime achievement Oscar winners this year. The other three are Dolly Parton, receiving the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, choreographer and actor Debbie Allen, and production designer Wynn Thomas.
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Cruise previously had four nominations: two for best actor ('Born on the Fourth of July,' 1989, and 'Jerry Maguire,' 1996), one for best supporting actor ('Magnolia,' 1999 — he should have won, actually), and one for producer ('
Might another nomination, or even Oscar, lie ahead? The Academy has added a category for stunt work, starting with 2027 releases. Depending on what movie — or movies — Cruise stars in two years from now, consider him the sentimental favorite in that category.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE — Story and Spectacle
At Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35th Ave., Queens, N.Y., through Dec. 14. 718-777-6800, movingimage.org
Mark Feeney can be reached at
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