Where to watch Mission: Impossible (1996)

Trivia & production notes

• Tom Cruise launched his new production company with Mission: Impossible as its first project, securing a $70 million budget from Paramount after years of failed attempts to adapt the television series.
• Tom Cruise met Brian De Palma at a dinner with Steven Spielberg while working on Interview with the Vampire, then rewatched all of De Palma's films at home before insisting he direct Mission: Impossible.
• David Koepp was paid $1 million to rewrite a script originally by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, then was fired when the film was greenlit before being brought back later.
• The restaurant scene with a giant lobster tank and three fish tanks overhead was Cruise's idea, and he performed the stunt himself despite the risk of drowning when the glass detonated.
• During the vault heist scene where Cruise hangs from a cable, the actor placed British pound coins in his shoes to use as counterweights to maintain a level position.
• After French rail authorities initially rejected using the TGV high-speed train, Cruise dined with the TGV owners and secured permission to film on it the next day.
• To film the train-top sequence, Cruise sourced a skydiving wind simulator from across Europe capable of producing 140 mile-per-hour winds to distort his face for visual authenticity.
• Mission: Impossible was among the first major Hollywood productions to be both set and shot in contemporary Prague, filming at landmarks like Charles Bridge and Old Town Square.
• George Lucas advised removing an opening sequence depicting a love triangle between Jim Phelps, his wife Claire, and Ethan Hunt because test audiences felt it took them out of the film's genre.
• The filmmakers completed production on time and under budget, a rarity in Hollywood, with Cruise performing the majority of his own stunts.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Mission: Impossible (film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.