If the first MI movie was to showcase a Mission Impossible Story directed by DePalma and 2 was to showcase John Woo then this one is about J.J. Abrams and his particular style. But it works here (compared to the failure that is MI 2 and the mess that is 1). First coup was casting Philip Seymour Hoffman as the villain, something that at the time was considered laughable, people didn’t know what to think. some people didn’t like it, I personally loved it. That first scene where he’s tied up and slowly counting up to 10 is very stressful.

But it’s still not quite a Mission Impossible film. It’s Tom Cruise + others.

as I recall either this film was the stepping stone the studio needed to prove J.J. Abrams could do his own film (Cloverfield) or to do Star Trek.