mission impossible tom cruise emmanuelle beart

How Tom Cruise's First Mission: Impossible Co-Star Emmanuelle Béart Really Felt About Working Alongside The Actor

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Given the stories from the past and present, working alongside Tom Cruise is a privilege. Nicholas Hoult had to turn down Tom Cruise and Mission: Impossible , calling it a major letdown for his career.

However, as we'll reveal in the following, those that got to work alongside Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible were in for quite the treat, both then and now. We'll take a look at all the different eras and those that worked alongside Cruise, including Simon Pegg, Emmanuelle Béart and Hayley Atwell. It is truly something else to see how consistent everyone is with their thoughts on working with the actor in Mission: Impossible , despite the fact that the three did so in different eras.

Emmanuelle Béart​​​​​​​'s reaction to Tom is especially unique given how it came about, and the circumstances of her Mission: Impossible audition. We'll take a look back at how it all went down, and what the actress took from her work alongside Cruise.

Simon Pegg Discussed His Own Experience Working Alongside Tom Cruise In Mission: Impossible III Back In 2006

Working alongside Tom Cruise is truly an experience his peers don't forget. Despite all his credits, Simon Pegg won't forget his time alongside the actor in Mission: Impossible III. Pegg was especially blown away by Tom's leadership qualities from top to bottom, despite how busy he was on-set.

Pegg reveals with Fox News , "Of all the mist of stuff that's around him, in the center of that mist is a generous, sweet guy who looks after everybody. He leads from the top down. And he's kind of inspiring to be around. There's no one else like him, he's the last movie star of the old kind."

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Pegg would go on to praise Cruise for staying the same since he first met him, and for being able to keep such a friendship despite Tom's wild career.

"When I first met him, it was my first time to Hollywood," he told the outlet. "He came to set the first day we met, he immediately made me feel very welcome, very at home, was incredibly generous."

Pegg continues, "Over the 17 years that we've been friends, I feel lucky to get to see a part of him that everyone else wants to see, which is just the guy," he said. "And he is just a guy. He's an extraordinary guy. He's a guy who feels the obligation to the audience to risk his life for them to kind of entertain them."

RELATED - Paramount Was Worried About Tom Cruise And Tried Firing Him From The Mission: Impossible Franchise

Opinions tend to vary in Hollywood, but when it comes to working with Cruise on Mission: Impossible , comments are very similar from his peers.

Emmanuelle Béart Had An Unusual Experience Auditioning For The Mission: Impossible Role Alongside Tom Cruise

Prior to her casting for the first Mission: Impossible , Emmanuelle Béart had quite the experience alongside Tom Cruise . She auditioned alongside the actor at an apartment, and was asked to be aggressive. Given that she didn't hold back, it certainly caught Tom's attention.

Emmanuelle Béart revealed with Live Journal , "I was told to pin this young man against the wall and put a gun on his temple. And since I have a good energy, let's say, I said to myself "Ok, I'm doing it". And so I caught him, but I don't think he expected it, and he said to himself "a little French girl ..." and I was hired immediately. "

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As for her overall experience with Cruise, the actress loved every bit of their work together, and was open to working with Tom down the road again.

“I found him quite exciting as an actor, extremely professional and generous. I'd love to see him again, he's someone good. "

The opinion was shaped way back in 1996, and as it turns out, the same holds true with Tom's current co-star Hayley Atwell these days.

Hayley Atwell Is The Latest Mission: Impossible Star To Praise Tom Cruise

Professionalism is what instantly comes to mind for Tom's peers. That was echoed by Hayley Atwell, who was new to both Cruise and the world of Mission: Impossible . Like the others, Atwell praised the actor, particularly given the work environment he's able to create for those around him.

"I had read with Tom before, I knew that he was very present," the actress told E! News. "He was very professional and he goes out of the way to make sure anyone around him in working capacity makes them feel very safe."

Set for a release on July 12th, it seems like Tom Cruise has another major hit on his hands with Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One . It is truly impressive to see not only how long the franchise has gone one for, but how Tom Cruise remains a mega star at the box office all these years later, as if no time has gone by.

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She Played Claire in "Mission: Impossible." See Emmanuelle Béart Now at 59.

American audiences know the french star best for her role in the 1996 action movie..

The Mission: Impossible movie franchise kicked off in 1996, and there have since been five more movies released with at least two more on the way. And while Tom Cruise has returned as Ethan Hunt for every installment of the series, it was the only spy movie outing for his co-star in the original film, Emmanuelle Béart . Béart played Claire in Mission: Impossible , and while it might be the role for which American audiences know her best, in France, she's a major movie star, who has been nominated for numerous awards.

She also usually appears in much smaller movies than the first feature film adaptation of the '60s TV series . Béart, now 59, has a passion for French cinema and working with up-and-coming directors, and she's still busy as an actor today. She also recently turned heads with her look on the red carpet at France's own Cannes Film Festival. Read on to find out more about Béart's life now, 27 years after starring opposite Cruise.

READ THIS NEXT:  Ex Mimi Rogers Said Tom Cruise Explored Celibacy and Considered "Becoming a Monk."

She has fond memories of Mission: Impossible.

Béart looked back at her time working on Mission: Impossible while appearing on 50 Minutes Inside ( via Elle France ) in 2020.

"It's my American adventure," she said. "It's a game for me. I'm someone who is more into auteur cinema in France, and, suddenly, I'm being offered this completely crazy thing."

She added that she enjoyed working with Cruise. "I found him quite fascinating as an actor, extremely professional and generous. I would like to see him again, he is a good person."

Béart also spoke about making  Mission: Impossible in an interview for Nespresso and shared how different it was from her usual work. " Mission: Impossible was, for me, a playful experience," she said. "In addition to the cinematographic world, I discovered another planet into which I could integrate myself without having necessarily aspired to do so in my life as a woman and actress."

She's earned numerous accolades in France.

Béart is best known in the U.S. for  Mission: Impossible , but for her French fans, there are many other roles that might come to mind first. Béart's breakout performance was in the 1986 movie Manon des Sources , for which she won the César Award (similar to an American Oscar) for Best Supporting Actress. She has been nominated for seven other César awards: two for Most Promising Actress prior to her win for Manon des Sources  and five for Best Actress in movies that were released between 1989 and 2000.

Other significant projects include Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud (1995), Sentimental Destinies  (2000), and 8 Women (2002). Most recently, she appeared in the 2020 movie Margaux Hartmann and the 2022 movie The Passengers of the Night , as well as the 2022 TV series Syndrome E.

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She made waves with a magazine cover.

In 2003, Béart appeared nude on the cover of French  Elle . And while it wasn't the first cover of the magazine to feature nudity, it was an extremely popular one. According to The Guardian , the 550,000 copies that were printed sold out in three days . Béart spoke to  The Guardian  about the photoshoot during a 2007 interview.

"We'd just arrived for a beauty shoot, it was 5 a.m. and I desperately needed a swim," she said. "The photographer was a friend, and she asked if I'd mind if she took a few photos. When I saw them, it was me who suggested they use those. It was a riposte to all those skinny, semi-anorexic adolescents that women's magazines inflict on us; it was to say, 'Look, I'm 40, this is my body, this is my plenitude, these are my curves, I like them and I'm proud of them.' It's true, I feel better in my body now than when I was 20. Why not?"

She has three children.

As for her personal life, Béart has been married twice and has three children. She was married to Daniel Auteuil —with whom she co-starred in several movies—from 1993 to 1995. During their relationship, they welcomed a child, Nelly Auteuil . Béart then had another child, Johan Moreau , in her relationship with music producer David François Moreau . In 2008, the actor married a second time to actor Michaël Cohen , and they separated in 2011. They also share a child, Surifel Cohen .

Béart does not often post about her kids on social media, but for Mother's Day in 2020, she shared photos of all of them when they were babies. "It’s an everyday emotion to be the mother of my three little ones, probably the most beautiful thing I’ve done," She wrote in the caption. "I wish all mothers a beautiful #mothersday."

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Mission: Impossible

I’m not sure I could pass a test on the plot of “Mission: Impossible.” My consolation is that the screenwriters probably couldn’t, either. The story is a nearly impenetrable labyrinth of post-Cold War double-dealing, but the details hardly matter; it’s all a set-up for sensational chase sequences and a delicate computer theft operation, intercut with that most reliable of spy movie standbys, the midnight rendezvous under a street lamp in a chilly foreign capital.

Tom Cruise stars as Ethan Hunt, professional spy, whose assignment, which he chooses to accept, is to prevent the theft of a computer file containing the code names and real identities of all of America’s double agents. It’s not enough to simply stop the guy; Cruise and his team (also including Jon Voight , Kristen Scott-Thomas and Emmanuelle Beart ) are asked to photograph the enemy in the act of stealing the information, and then follow him until he passes it along. This process involves a check list of Cold War spycraft and cliches: Eye glasses with built-in TV cameras, concealed microphones, laptop computers, agents in elaborate disguise, exploding cars, knifings, shootings, bodies toppling into a river, etc. Of course the whole sequence centers around a diplomatic reception in Prague.

Because “Mission: Impossible” was directed by Brian De Palma, a master of genre thrillers and sly Hitchcockian wit (“ Blow Out ,” “ Body Double “), it’s a nearly impossible mission to take the plot seriously.

He is more concerned with style than story, which is wise, since if this movie ever paused to explain itself it would take a very long time.

There are so many double-reverses in the first half hour that we learn to accept nothing at face value (not even faces, since they may be elaborate latex masks). And the momentum of the visuals prevents us from asking logical questions, such as, is physically copying a computer file onto another disc the only way to steal it? (My colleague Rich Elias has written that the obvious solution for the CIA would have been to hire Robert Redford’s team from “ Sneakers ” to commit an online theft.) “Mission: Impossible” is all slick surface and technical skill. The characters are not very interesting (except for Vanessa Redgrave , as an information broker, and Jon Voight, who expresses a touching world-weariness in a film too impatient for weariness of any kind). The plot is impossible to follow. The various strategies of Cruise and his allies and foes don’t stand up under scrutiny. And none of that matters.

This is a movie that exists in the instant, and we must exist in the instant to enjoy it. Any troubling questions from earlier in the film must be firmly repressed.

De Palma is expert at sustained nonverbal action sequences, and there are three in the film: The opening scenario at the diplomatic reception; a delicate act of computer theft; and a chase in which a helicopter follows the high-speed London-Paris train into the Chunnel with Cruise and a bad guy clinging to the top of it.

The computer theft scene will ring a bell with anyone who has seen “ Rififi ” (1954) or “Topkapi” (1964), both by Jules Dassin , who became famous for his extended theft sequences done in total silence. “Topkapi” also used the device of suspending a thief from a hole in the ceiling, to avoid anti-theft devices on the floor. This time, De Palma gives us a computer “safe room” rigged so that alarms will sound at any noise above a certain decibel level, any pressure on the floor, any change in temperature. Cruise hangs in a harness while carefully inserting a blank disc and making a copy of the file.

Of course it’s convenient that the decibel level is set high enough that it isn’t triggered by the noise of a computer copying a disc — which is precisely what it should be guarding against. Convenient, too, that the infra-red rays guarding the ceiling hatch can be so conveniently dealt with. And very convenient for the audience that the rays are made visible to a normal eye. If you want to see infra-red rays — really — exploited in a heist movie, have a look at “ Grand Slam “(1968).

If the heist has been done before, and better, not even the James Bond films have ever given us anything quite like the ending chase sequence, with a bad guy in a helicopter flying into the Chunnel linking Britain to France. Earlier it’s been established that the train through Britain is traveling so fast that Cruise, clinging to it, might easily be blown off. This will cheer the film’s British viewers, who can forget for a moment that the Chunnel train goes that fast only on the French side, since the high-speed tracks on the British side have not yet been completed. (Inaugurating the Chunnel, Francois Mitter and wickedly described a traveler “Speeding through France and then enjoying a leisurely view of the British countryside”).

No matter. The train goes fast, and the helicopter follows it right under the Channel, and De Palma’s special effects (by Industrial Light and Magic) are clever for obscuring the scale involved, since a helicopter’s blades would obviously not fit into the tunnel — but then why am I quibbling, since the whole stunt is obviously impossible?

The bottom line on a film like this is, Tom Cruise looks cool and holds our attention while doing neat things that we don’t quite understand — doing them so quickly and with so much style that we put our questions on hold, and go with the flow. When the movie is over, it turns out there wasn’t anything except the flow. Our consolation, I guess, is that we had fun going with it.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• Henry Czerny as Kittridge
• Kristin Scott Thomas as Sarah Davies
• Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt
• Ving Rhames as Luther
• Jean Reno as Krieger
• Jon Voight as Jim Phelps
• Emmanuelle Beart as Claire
• Vanessa Redgrave as Max

Directed by

• Brian De Palma
• Danny Elfman

Screenplay by

• David Koepp
• Robert Towne
• Paul Hirsch

Produced by

• Paula Wagner

Photographed by

• Stephen H. Burum

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FILM REVIEW

FILM REVIEW;Mission Accepted: Tom Cruise as Superhero

By Stephen Holden

• May 22, 1996

Having held the patent for more than a decade on Hollywood's notion of a yuppie conquerer with a gold-plated conscience, Tom Cruise has found the perfect superhero character on which to graft his breathlessly gung-ho screen personality. In "Mission: Impossible," a sleek, whooshingly entertaining update of the vintage television series, he plays Ethan Hunt, an American spy who dashes frantically around the globe risking his life to keep a computerized list of secret agents from falling into the wrong hands.

Ethan has all the characteristics of a typical Tom Cruise protagonist. He is a clean-cut all-American boy, a cocky young man on the make and a driven moral crusader all rolled into one fiery-eyed, brightly toothy package of compressed willpower. But beneath his righteous boy-wonder enthusiasm lurks a streak of the Halloween trickster. "Mission: Impossible" is loaded with fancy gadgetry and intimidating jargon, but its most amusing conceit is Ethan's occasional habit of hiding behind an actual mask of another character.

For the Cruise hero, each new challenge has the urgency of a do-or-die initiation rite into the next level of manhood. Sexy without really being sexual, he doesn't know the meaning of the word "relaxation." He is too busy proving himself as a master technician in the game of life to take time out for a leisurely roll in the hay. On the rare occasions that he does sidle up to a woman, love becomes yet another dutiful test of skill executed with grace under pressure.

For a young man dressed for success in a cutthroat world, hyped-up vigilance is not just an attitude but an essential survival strategy as well. "Mission: Impossible" pauses just long enough to suggest an attraction between Ethan and Claire (Emmanuelle Beart), a partner in espionage, but it doesn't take time off to give them a love scene.

The movie, directed by Brian De Palma, zooms along with a chilly suavity that suggests an elegant freeze-dried version of his 1981 film "Blow Out." In his homages to Hitchcock, Mr. De Palma has proved himself a brilliant copycat. Here, imitating something far less artful, he finds an exhilarating balance between the television series' clunking cold war futurism and the sinister electronic cool of the cyber-wise 90's.

Instead of well-coiffed cogs in a technological dream machine, these 90's spies are laptop-toting gamesmen playing deadly hide-and-seek on the Internet. One strand of the story involves a continuing correspondence of cryptic messages from the Book of Job. As the movie reaches its climax aboard a high-speed train, it becomes a drama of dueling computers, modems and cell phones operated by antagonists all sitting within several yards of one another.

As it should in a movie that is really a live-action cartoon, nothing in "Mission: Impossible" looks exactly real. Prague, the site of some of the best action scenes, is bathed in an iridescent blue. The eeriest explosion erupts in an improbably chic Prague cafe dominated by a giant aquarium that serves as a comically bloated metaphor for the piranha-infested world through which Ethan swims.

A crucial difference between the television series and the movie is their attitude toward teamwork. The series viewed patient cooperation as an almost religious obligation, and nearly every episode included at least one protracted sequence of collaborative mechanical tinkering to set a trap. The movie pays homage to the past by including two drawn-out scenes of breaking and entering. In the more elaborate of the two, Ethan invades a Pentagon computer vault by being lowered through the ceiling on a cord that requires him to be a trapeze artist with the fingers of jewel thief. If his body temperature warms the room by so much as one degree, alarms will sound.

In the movie, it is Mr. Cruise's character who drives the story, and he survives precisely because he refuses to be a team player. After his colleagues are wiped out (or so he thinks) near the beginning of the film, he disobeys an official order to abort the mission, enlists his own helpers and forges on with an investigation that gets him officially disavowed from his profession.

Where the television series depicted America's struggle to keep pace with Soviet arms technology, the movie shrewdly puts one foot in the past and the other in the present. After exploiting cold war nostalgia by suggesting that the enemy is an Eastern European post-Communist demon, it abruptly swings the telescope around to examine corruption and duplicity within America's own spy system.

The story, by David Koepp and Steven Zaillian, certainly has enough twists and surprises to keep audiences guessing until the last minute. If that story doesn't make a shred of sense on any number of levels, so what? Neither did the television series, in which basic credibility didn't matter so long as its sci-fi popular mechanics kept up the suspense.

The film has a fine time tipping its hat to the past, beginning with the moment Ethan's boss (Jon Voight) receives instructions through a videotape that promptly self-destructs with a discreet little hiss of smoke. Lalo Schifrin's gallumphing 1960's television theme with its percussive ticks and accelerating bongo drums is resurrected and blended with a score by Danny Elfman that maintains enough of the original flavor to provide seamless musical continuity.

"Mission: Impossible" is so thoroughly dominated by its star that its subsidiary characters register only fleetingly. One exception is Vanessa Redgrave, who camps it up as a ruthlessly greedy information peddler named Max with whom Ethan and his partners play games of dueling computers. Another is Henry Czerny, who personifies fanatical, tight-lipped bureaucratic officiousness. Mr. Voight's face bubbles with enough intense, ambiguous emotions over the course of the film to fill an actor's dictionary of facial expressions.

In the spirit of its tightly wound star, the movie cannily hoards its flashiest action-adventure moments until the very end, then unleashes them in a delirious rush that is brief but still worth the wait. As Mr. Cruise finds himself desperately clawing across the top of a speeding train with a helicopter in pursuit and a tunnel coming up, "Mission: Impossible" catapults you into the wildest movie ride of the year.

"Mission: Impossible" is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has several scenes of violence.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE

Directed by Brian De Palma; written by David Koepp and Robert Towne, story by Mr. Koepp and Steven Zaillian, based on the television series created by Bruce Geller; director of photography, Stephen H. Burum; edited by Paul Hirsch; music by Danny Elfman, with theme song composed by Lalo Schifrin; production designer, Norman Reynolds; produced by Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner; released by Paramount Pictures. Running time: 110 minutes. This film is rated PG-13.

WITH: Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Jon Voigt (Jim Phelps), Emmanuelle Beart (Claire), Henry Czerny (Kittridge), Jean Reno (Krieger), Ving Rhames (Luther), Kristin Scott-Thomas (Sarah Davies) and Vanessa Redgrave (Max).

"We waste our money so you don't have to."

"We waste our money, so you don't have to."

Movie Review

Mission: impossible.

US Release Date: 05-22-1996

Directed by: Brian De Palma

Starring ▸ ▾

• Tom Cruise ,  as
• Jon Voight ,  as
• Emmanuelle Beart ,  as
• Claire Phelps
• Henry Czerny ,  as
• Eugene Kittridge
• Jean Reno ,  as
• Franz Krieger
• Ving Rhames ,  as
• Luther Stickell
• Kristin Scott Thomas ,  as
• Sarah Davies
• Vanessa Redgrave ,  as
• Emilio Estevez as
• Jack Harmon

Kristin Scott Thomas and Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible

Mission Impossible starts with a jovial mood, but quickly changes tone.  The members of the elite squad of undercover agents joke and tease each other before and during their mission in Prague.   Things change dramatically when the agents start getting killed, leaving a very humorless Ethan Hunt on the run.

The rest of Mission Impossible is an action packed, tense ride through a labyrinth of deceit and mystery.  Hunt must run for his life as he tries to figure out the reason for the betrayal, and who was responsible for it.  This begins with one of several now classic scenes.  Hunt sits across from a contact, who says to him, "I understand you're very upset." Hunt responds through gritted teeth, "Kittridge, you've never seen me very upset."

Of course the most memorable scene is when Hunt breaks into CIA Headquarters.  This involves him lowering himself by cable where the stress gets to him to the point that he sweats.  Earlier he described the three security hurdles, "The third one is on the floor, and it's pressure sensitive. Just the slightest increase in weight will set it off."  Thus, even a bead of sweat would give him away.

The film climaxes on a speeding train, both inside and out.  With all that came before, this final adrenaline rush certifies Mission Impossible as one of the best action films of the 1990s. 

In 1996, at the age of 34, Tom Cruise was the biggest movie star in the world.  I was struck by how young and boyish he looks here compared to  Ghost Protocol .  Besides aging gracefully, Cruise has also grown as an actor.  He is always good in the action scenes, but some of his line readings have definitely gotten better with age. 

One thing that has always bugged me about the rest of the Mission Impossible films is that they play too much with the classic television theme song.  Here it stays much closer to the original.  Speaking of the show, Peter Graves was offered the role of Jim Phelps, that he originated, but turned down the part due to how the character would be treated.

Like the television show, Mission Impossible stretches the imagination of believability, but plays it all straight, making for a great film from start to finish.  I particularly noted how the government arrests Hunt's mother and uncle with trumped up charges and has the media report it as Gospel.  I guess parts of this film are more believable than we know.

Vanessa Redgrave as Max in Mission: Impossible .

Mission: Impossible remains - after more than 15 years and 3 sequels - the best entry in the franchise. It has the right blend of action and intrigue and a stellar cast. Like Eric I noticed and appreciated the traditional arrangement of the theme song, which calls to mind the old adage, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” I’m not sure why they feel the need to change this iconic piece of music for each new movie.

I also noticed just how boyish Cruise looks and I agree about his overly dramatic line readings in a few scenes. “Wake up, Claire! Jim's dead! He's dead! They're all dead!” His characterization as Ethan Hunt is the one thing that has improved over the intervening years. The plot, like all the subsequent films, is a bit convoluted but that is part of its charm.

The impressive cast features several standouts. An unbilled Emilio Estevez meets a gruesome end early in the movie. Kristin Scott Thomas brings a bit of class to her rather small role as fellow agent Sarah Davies. Jean Reno adds a full-bodied European flavor as the rough-around-the-edges Franz Krieger. He shares the movie’s tensest, and most famous, scene with Cruise as they break into CIA headquarters. The regal Vanessa Redgrave fairly drips with gravitas in her role as arms-dealer Max. “Anonymity... is like a warm blanket.” She easily steals her scenes with Cruise away from him, while bringing out his best acting at the same time.

Longtime fans of the television series were appalled at the way the revered Jim Phelps was characterized. Peter Graves, who originated the part, turned it down after reading the script. The fact that he is played by Jon Voight instead makes him seem like someone else anyway.

It’s worth noting that each installment in the series has been helmed by a different person. In order, the Mission: Impossible movies have been directed by Brian De Palma, John Woo, J.J. Abrams and Brad Bird. De Palma and Bird have been the most successful of the group but I give a slight edge to De Palma with this first of Ethan Hunt’s impossible missions.  

Tom Cruise keeps audiences dangling in anticipation as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible .

The producers of the Mission Impossible series of movies demonstrate a patience that is quite rare in Hollywood. All of them have been financially successful and yet the shortest interval between installments is the four years between this one and the sequel. It would be another six years until MI:3 and then five more until MI:4 . These longer than usual gaps coupled with the use of different and distinctive directors has kept the series fresh and interesting, while at the same time maintaining the elements that mark each one as a Mission Impossible film, continuing the traditions set forth in the original series and this original movie.

Having read both of your reviews, I was prepared to see a much younger Tom Cruise and yet I was still shocked at just how boyish he looks. This is of course partly because Cruise has aged 15 years since, but also because in 1996 I was 7 years younger than Ethan Hunt in this film, while today, I am now 8 years older than him.

Cruise isn't the only thing to have changed in the past 15 years. The technology is also quite dated. Floppy disk drives, chunky CRT monitors, dial-up modems and Usenet groups are some of the technologies used in the film that mark it as old. And Hunt's method of sending emails to Job demonstrates that the screenwriters didn't really understand how it worked yet.

I never watched either version of the Mission Impossible television series which might be why it never bothered me that they've updated the theme music several times over the series. While the original theme is heard throughout this installment, over the end credits you can hear a modern reworking of it. I do understand why Peter Graves wouldn't want to portray this version of Jim Phelps. Imagine the fan backlash if the makers of the James Bond films decided to make M betray Bond!

The plot is convoluted and not without its holes. The most famous scene in the film is the one you mentioned Eric, where they break into CIA headquarters to steal data. However, since they never really intend to sell the data, but only pretend to, why must they steal it? Why can't they just fake it? Max doesn't know what the data looks like.  If she knew the names on the list then she wouldn't need the list after all. And in regards to the famous dangling scene, why on earth would the designers of the security to the computer room include a vent large enough for a man to get through? And instead of all the lasers, pressure plates and temperature detectors, couldn't they just set an alarm to go off whenever someone touched the keyboard? Or why not simply station a guard inside the room?

To be fair, this installment is no more guilty of implausibility than any of the later films. All of them contain action pieces and plot devices that you just have to accept at face value. Cruise as Ethan Hunt, carries the audience along from action set piece to action set piece, keeping you on the edge of your seat, distracting you from the plot holes like a magician by diverting your eye from them. You might think back and notice them, but while you're watching you're too busy enjoying yourself to care.

I disagree Patrick that this is the best of the impossible missions. I would still award that honor to MI:4 , but this one is a close second.

Photos © Copyright Paramount Pictures (1996)

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• Average 6.1

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Mission : impossible (NRJ12) : pourquoi Emmanuelle Béart n'a jamais percé à Hollywood

Publié le 29/08/2017 à 15:00,

modifié le 04/12/2017 à 01:07

Ce soir, rendez-vous à 20h55, sur NRJ12, pour suivre les aventures d'Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) dans Mission : Impossible de Brian De Palma. Un long-métrage qui marquait les premiers pas d'Emmanuelle Béart à Hollywood, mais aussi... les derniers.

Manon des sources , Un coeur en hiver , L'Enfer ... autant de films qui ont permis à Emmanuelle Béart d'accéder au rang de star du cinéma français. Si la renommée de l'actrice de 54 ans n'est plus à faire dans nos contrées, elle a cependant eu du mal à se faire une place outre-Atlantique. Pourtant, l'ex de Daniel Auteuil a tenté sa chance à Hollywood. C'était en 1996, pour Mission : Impossible de Brian De Palma, diffusé ce soir sur NRJ12.

>>> Emmanuelle Béart : selfies sans maquillage, vie de famille... Ses meilleures photos Instagram

Les aventures d'Ethan Hunt ( Tom Cruise ) sur grand écran ont en effet marqué les premiers pas de la comédienne à Hollywood. Une expérience assez décevante pour Emmanuelle Béart, alias Claire Phelps, qui a préféré fermer la porte aux grosses productions américaines par la suite. Pourquoi une telle décision ? Elle n'en avait tout simplement " pas envie ". Selon elle, Mission : Impossible n'était qu'une " grosse machine " qui ne lui a pas laissé " beaucoup de possibilités d'interprétation ".

Si la star n'a pas cédé aux sirènes d'Hollywood, c'est aussi parce que les propositions qu'on lui a faites ne correspondaient pas à ses attentes. " Si des gens passionnants étaient arrivés dans mon univers, aurais-je dit non ? Honnêtement, je ne crois pas"' avoue l'artiste. " Mais j'avais - il est vrai - beaucoup de mal avec Hollywood. "

Emmanuelle Béart s'est donc concentrée sur le cinéma français, faisant montre de son talent dans des fictions comme Les Témoins (2007), Disco (2008), Télé Gaucho (2012) ou Les Yeux jaunes des crocodiles (2014). On ne lui en tiendra pas rigueur.

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Film d'action

• Prime video
• Emmanuelle Béart
• Brian de Palma
• #Télé Gaucho
• #Mission Impossible
• #Manon des sources

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Product details

• Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
• Language ‏ : ‎ English, French
• Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.32 x 4.19 x 1.12 inches; 6.13 ounces
• Director ‏ : ‎ Brian De Palma
• Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 50 minutes
• Date First Available ‏ : ‎ June 27, 2006
• Actors ‏ : ‎ Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Béart, Henry Czerny, Jean Reno
• Producers ‏ : ‎ J.C. Calciano, Paul Hitchcock, Paula Wagner
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00004CV17
• Writers ‏ : ‎ Bruce Geller, David Koepp, Robert Towne, Steven Zaillian

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