Comparing Mission: Impossible–Rogue Nation to Bond films [Spoilers]
Matt S
Oh Cult Voodoo ShopPosts: 6,610MI6 Agent
I just saw Mission: Impossible–Rogue Nation and couldn't help but think of James Bond most of the time. It made me think of Bond more than any of the others have. Like Spectre, significant parts of M:I5 take place in Morocco, Austria and London. The Austria parts, however, are much more like the Austria parts of Quantum of Solace: the opera. M:I5's opera sequence is much more extensive than QoS's, but both involve identification of an enemy agent from an enemy organisation. I liked the opera fight far better in M:I5, but Hunt doesn't wear his midnight blue dinner suit as well as Bond does; Hunt screws it up with a four-in-hand tie rather than a bow tie. M:I5 also shows that Bond films are no longer the leader in stunts. I think the incredible stunts in the Bond films ended with TND, and M:I has been the series since then that does the most incredible stunts. I hope Spectre can earn that back for Bond! But the stunts in M:I5 copy a lot of what Bond has already done. Bond has already held onto the outside of a flying plane in OP. The car and motorcycle chase had similarities to those in older Bond films. M:I5 doesn't really do anything new that hasn't already been done in a Bond film, but the Bond films haven't been keeping up with M:5 or with what they used to do, which may not be a fault if the Bond films are trying to focus on stories more than action. But they still have been including the huge action set pieces in Bond films, just with less grandiose stunts.
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Thanks for noticing that! The average filmgoer will be drawing these comparisons after Spectre is out. We're ahead here!
Bond: “I must be dreaming.”
It fizzled out by the next decade, but the EON blueprint for making a spy film was out there so over the decades since copycats emerged and still do. MI would never have been born had it not been for the Bond films as it was one of the original television "fruits" that the Bond tree produced.
The MI films used the original idea from the series but changed it because Cruise was the star. In the original concept all the missions were a total team effort - no one dominated the mission, not even the heads of the team (which Cruise now is in the film series). Cruise is obviously the center focus of the series no matter how much he relies on the Task Force team members (just as Bond is even though he gets support from the Service HQ team in London). They also introduced the type of over the top stunts and international scenic spots as the Bonds have done in order to amp up the excitement. IMO this came together perfectly and most like a Bond film in Ghost Protocol. It impressed me to the extent I got the DVD and have seen it many times.
I'm actually very glad these films exist, because they put out a bench mark in quality that forces producers of other films - including the EON series - to keep up the quality and hopefully force them to keep trying to come up with a fresh plot ideas and interesting stunts.
I have not seen the new film yet and am looking forward to it, but from the reviews it seems it's going to be at least as good as the last one. However, I go in fully with my eyes open and aware of the fact that as good as Cruise is making these, a lot of it has to do with the fact that the Bond series
was responsible for giving this series the ladder to reach this quality of action/spy films.
Tom remaking the same film four times.
Him, I enjoy them, and I'm certain as long as they make money
He'll keep making them.
I really want to see a movie in which several spy organizations, MI6, CIA, MOSSAD, etc...have to cooperate and are stretched to the limit foiling the plans of a mastermind that you want to strangle half way through because he/she is completely heartless instead of a broken field agent with mommy issues.
A great film though and can highly recommend it.
I agree that Ghost protocol felt the most like a Bond film in terms of scale and the size of stunts and action sequences, but it was the one film in the series that relied the least on Cruise as the lead. Ghost Protocol was the team effort from start to finish.
I think Casino Royale and Quantum were responses to the Bourne phenomenon, and now that M:I has come back so strong in the last few years, I wouldn't be surprised if future Bond movies show more influence from M:I
Agree that the MI movies have taken over from Bond in the spectactular stunts department. There hasn't really been a major stunt sequence since the free running chase at the start of CR. Bond seems to be more fights than stunts these days.
Like everyone else noticed a lot of Bond in it.
When Hunt was hanging onto the side of the plane I thought yeah Bond's already done that in OP and better, and when Hunt was standing on the lowered ramp at the back of the plane by the cargo netting I had a TLD flashback.
Bond had Tosca and Hunt has Turandot. Got to say I preferred the opera sequence in Rogue Nation. Hunt made his escape clean from the Opera House whereas Bond ends up having a shoot out in a crowded restaurant putting loads of innocent lives at risk and then contributes to the death of a Special Branch officer.
Another area the MI movies have taken over from Bond is the gadgets. Although there was one scene where a gadget was conspicuous by its absence. When Hunt had to go underwater and hold his breath for 3 minutes. Now you can't tell me with all the hi tech gadgets that IMF has they couldn't provide him with oxygen. Hell, Bond had his re-breather in 1965.
One area where Ethan Hunt will never beat James Bond - sartorial elegance. I wonder in the Opera House scene if Tom Cruise elected to wear a tie with his dinner jacket rather than a bow tie so there wouldn't be a comparison with Bond.
Going to be a good year for spy movies - looking forward to The Man From U.N.C.L.E. next.
They showed the SPECTRE trailer and it looked great on the big screne.
The underwater part was explained that nothing metal could make its way into the tank, so even a tiny gadget like a rebreather would be an issue. Although seeing as he has a digital readout of his oxygen level on his sleeve, there must have been some IMF technology that could have been developed without metal. But at the same time they're operating outside of the CIA and like in Ghost Protocol were probably very limited on equipment.
http://www.ajb007.co.uk/topic/40484/the-mission-impossible-series/
But I can't help but wonder why Rogue Nation was so rediciously similar to SPECTRE now! Surely it can't be a coincidence right? The agency of our main hero is about to be closed down, there is an mysterious organisation operating in the shadows that the hero needs to uncover while going rogue. The mysterious organisation is provoking several covort operations and makes them seem like accidents that aren't linked. The hero's adventure takes him from Austria to Morocco and it ends with a major climax in London. He is assisted by an IT guy throughout the journey. And there are a lot more similarities like that!
We all know SPECTRE had a leaked script out in the open, could it really have been possible that they ripped parts of this off during production of Rogue Nation?
(Still though, I really liked Rogue nation! Easily the best one in the Mission Impossible series!)
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Since Rogue Nation was released months before Spectre, and filming of Rogue Nation was well underway by the time of the Sony hacks, I wouldn't blame Rogue Nation. Since Rogue Nation came first, if any film is to blame it would be Spectre! Spectre was still undergoing rewrites when Rogue Nation was being filmed.
Yeah but SPECTRE can't really be blamed for having a similar plot either! They had no way to know what plot Rogue Nation was going to have, where as filmmakers of Mission Impossible could have had access to the leaked script. Still though, you're right that production of Rogue Nation was well underway when the script got leaked. So I guess it does all come down to coincidence...
But it's undeniably a major coincidence! What are the odds of all these similaries. Even the order of the locations alone! It's pretty mindblowing..
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Only months apart. Here are a few more examples
http://mentalfloss.com/article/54768/25-movies-similar-plots-released-same-year
Yes remarkable how much this happens! A Bug's life v.s Antz also springs to mind now!
Still though, i'm happy I didn't get to see Rogue Nation before SPECTRE, it was a darn good movie and I may have ended up comparing it on my first viewing in the cinema! And Rogue nation is a tough act to follow I have to say!
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yeh theres an unlikely lot of plot and location similarities between Rogue Nation and SPECTRE. So much I may have to stop calling SPECTRE a Goldmember remake. And the Tom Cruise film did a lot of that similar stuff better. The Morocco locations especially were well used, whereas SPECTRE's Morocco content was unconvincing.
...and Léa Seydoux turns out to have been a Mission Impossible character before being cast as a Bond-girl … them Broccoli kids got to be watching these competing movies to be poaching their actors. (I know, she's actually in the one before, I just watched that one too.)
One comparison no one up above has noted is a tribute in the opposite direction:
the whole opera scene in Rogue Nation is an updated variant on the Living Daylights premise, isn't it? Hunt suspects theres going to be an assassination, and spots the beautiful woman entering the opera house, carrying an instrument. We see her assemble her weapon from the parts of the instrument … and given the obvious choice to shoot the beautiful sniper, he does something unexpected instead, spoiling her shot and calling his own judgement into question.
Also there's a cargo plane with its backdoor open and of course there was Morocco content in tLD too.
Cool to see another film paying homage to one of the underrated Dalton-era Bond films.
I love Daylights, but I'd have to say the M:I version is way better.
Good observation though, you're not wrong.
Where Bond can still differentiate, is in the complexity of the Bond character. However, besides family issues and Bond's angst, we do not see the other side of Bond that I thoroughly enjoy; the snob part of Bond. The refined British gentleman, the suaveness. Something Ethan Hunt lacks.
Cannot wait to see the latest M:I movie. Really enjoyed M:I 3,4 and 5. The chase in Morocco on the motor bike is out of this world.
1. Connery 2. Craig 3. Brosnan 4. Dalton 5. Lazenby 6. Moore
Why they didn't make more of the fact That Tom
Did his own flying in the movie ? ...... As it seemed
Such a big part of the selling of MI6.