MovieChat Forums > Mission: Impossible (1996) Discussion > Koepp on why they killed the old team an...

Koepp on why they killed the old team and made phelps a villain:

posted 9 years ago by Darknessviking
31 replies | jump to latest

at last i got an explanation to why they did this.

"When the first Mission: Impossible came out, it caused some controversy as you made Jim Phelps, the main character from the original TV series, into a traitor and the bad guy [played by Jon Voight]. You also created an all-new character, Ethan Hunt, for Tom Cruise to star as. Where did these decisions come from?

Tom was involved first. He was interested in doing it, and he was producing it. And then Brian [De Palma] called me and said why don’t you take a crack at it. You have to consider who’s in it, and then make it work.

The essential problem was Tom Cruise was the biggest star on the planet, and [the original TV show] was an ensemble that tilts towards no-one. I’d never viewed the TV show as sacrosanct. We had to acknowledge who our cast was. So I can’t remember whose idea it was, either De Palma or Steve Zaillian said let’s start by killing the team, lets just get rid of them. Because you had to work out how you get this ensemble piece into a star vehicle. So we killed everybody, and we were feeling very cheeky, and decided we’re going to do want we want, we’ll kill people, we’ll make the good guy the bad guy, and added in the new recruits. And I think it worked out well.

Read more: http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/david-koepp/33764/david-koepp-interview-mortdecai-jurassic-park-indy-4#ixzz3PeKRZepI
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[–] CountJohn (579) 7 years ago

I'm a big fan of the movie but the explanation doesn't entirely make sense.

They could have just as easily have Cruise play Phelps and made the Voight character an original character who had previously been a mentor to him. I've seen some episodes of the old show and liked it, but I don't have an emotional connection to it the way some people do, so it didn't bother me, but it would've been just as easy to make Phelps not a villain.

He said they killed the team to put the focus on Cruise, but then they just gave him a new team later. So they could have just not killed the first team and gotten the same result.

The original MI was an ensemble, but Phelps was still very much the lead and certain episodes were very much centered on him or another character, so the style wasn't necessarily in conflict with a Cruise vehicle.

I think the "we got a bit cheeky" comment is telling. They wanted to pull the rug out from under people and do a unique movie, which they did.

[–] Lemming (67) 6 years ago

That's a great point. Naming Cruise Jim Phelps or 'James Phelps' would have been a simple antidote to the angry response from fans. Still there's nothing really tying this movie to the tv series anyway; Phelps is played by Voight, for starters, and Grave's Phelps was would been 70 something in 1996; Jon Voight was in his 40s in M:I 1.
It's a loose movie adaptation. Different Phelps, different universe.

[–] PaladinNJ (20308) 6 years ago

All I know is every member of the original cast denounced this film. With cause I'd say.

[–] Lemming (67) 6 years ago

The old cast denounced the film because nobody called them to ask them if they wanted to appear in it. They were bitter. Especially Peter Graves, understandably.

[–] PaladinNJ (20308) 6 years ago

The old cast members were asked. They were originally supposed to be the first team that got wiped out.

[–] johnmiller (3327) 5 years ago

In my opinion, David Koepp is one of the all-time hack screenwriters. He destroys whatever he touches. "Jurassic Park" was a great, tight, R-rated thriller as a book, and Koepp turned into a kid-friendly adventure. He likewise trashed "Mission: Impossible." So, you take the hero of the entire TV series and turn him into the villain? Okay. Why not have an ounce of imagination and twist it further, making Phelps seem to be the villain, then it turns out that it is actually someone else with a mask of Phelps?

You could have had the actual Phelps die from his injuries from being kidnapped and let Cruise take over, or just have Phelps retire. What got to me was the whole film felt like Cruise just wanted to come in, kill off everyone, and take over. That really ticked me off, and still does.

It is only because John Woo directed the sequel that I enjoyed that, and Christopher McQuarrie doing such a masterful job with "Ghost Protocol" and "Fallout" that I loved those. But, seeing the original still makes Cruise come across as a controlling pr*ck.