Mission impossible analysis

The film begins with a title sequence consisting of all the main characters, shots of a burning fuse which represents a lack of time in conjunction with the theme of the film and a selection of intriguing action shots extracted from the film. The opening scene of the film directly evolves you as the audience in a current mission of the secret organisation in which a victim is being lured into a fake situation and then drugged by the operatives. This enables the viewers to be instantly part of the action of the film’s theme.

Representation of the hero plays a big role in this action/thriller and is used for a variety of reasons. In this particular story the hero is the character of ‘Ethan Hunt’ who shows a collection of typical heroic characteristics throughout the film as well as playing within the typical ‘hero’ story line. The character goes through a series of challenges throughout the film surviving them all and then finally achieving his goal. The hero is always played so that the audiences become attached to him and the story allows the audience to develop hatred for those working against the hero.

Certain symbolic techniques are used in the film to demonstrate the role of different characters. A good example of this is when the hero, Ethan Hunt, is hanging from a ceiling and attempting to steal the ‘Noc list’ within a high security room. During this complex scene of the film, a ‘birds eye view’ shot is used from directly above the mid air suspended Ethan Hunt. This shot shows the character dressed in full black hanging over a floor which is cross hatched and appears similar in shape to a spider’s web. This represents the character as the spider in control of his web and is symbolic in the fact that this image is signifying his power.

Women are represented in the film by a kind of underlying love tale between Ethan Hunt and Claire Phelps in which Ethan is tempted by her and constantly is feeling a wanting for Claire. Towards the end of the film, Ethan begins to suspect Claire as being a part of the scheme against him but attempts to deny the truth by thinking of other possible reasons.