These sunglasses explain Ethan’s next mission to him. This shows his importance as they have specifically asked for him to do the mission. Also the sunglasses are supposed to make him look young and cool.
However Mission Impossible three is completely different. While Mission Impossible two is quite happy and jolly and portrays Ethan as the strong hero-type of character, in Mission Impossible three Ethan has a bruised and cut face and is unshaven which shows he may have been held hostage for a few days. Ethan is chained to a chair in a dark room where a man is holding a gun to a woman’s head.
Ethan is threatened for the location of something coded as “The Rabbits Foot.” Ethan stays faithful to his job, rather than this woman who he appears to of had, or be in, a relationship with resulting in her possible death. This portrays Ethan as weak however others may argue he is also being strong as he stays loyal to his job.
Mission Impossible two’s jolly atmosphere is created with its background music which is lively, bouncy music. This is used to help highlight Ethan’s determination, youth and help warm you to his character. Also it is used to help keep the interest in the clip as there is no dialogue. Mixed in with the background music is the digetic sounds you would expect to hear to show nature. There are the sounds of birds chirping and wind blowing which both show that Ethan is high upon the cliff and prefers solitude.
In contrast Mission Impossible three doesn’t have any background music as there is a lot of dialogue. However there are a few sounds in the background pf the scene. There is a periodic distant rumbling which creates the illusion of some sort of train or car passing overhead. This shows that this room that Ethan is being kept in an underground basement far from where they can be heard or where anyone could easily come and rescue him. The villain in Mission Impossible three fires a warning shot into the woman’s leg when Ethan refuses to compromise. At this point all the speech and sound is slurred as though form Ethan’s point of view indicating that he is scared and worried. There is also a tension building piece of music that really draws you into the action of the film when it is played.
The camera angles of both scenes also show a lot about the plot and the personality of Ethan Hunt. For example, firstly in Mission Impossible two you see an extreme wide shot of Ethan and all his surroundings. This shows you the whole picture, that Ethan is the only person around ant to portray how small he is compared to the cliff and how brave he is to actually be climbing the cliff. The camera zooms in towards Ethan to a mid shot. The mid shot shows Ethan hanging onto the rocks so you can see his facial expressions to see that he is tired yet you can still se the surroundings around him to get the whole effect. Halfway up the cliff Ethan jumps down from one ledge in the cliff to another. Woo uses slow motion to portray his jump to make the shot more dramatic.
More examples are in mission impossible three. The first shot you see of Ethan is a close up. The close up allows you to see all the cuts and bruises on Ethan's Face which is obvious that he has been beaten up.
Next we see a two shot of the villain and the woman being held hostage. This is used to show the villain as most superior and in charge. Thirdly is an over the shoulder shot of both the villains to show you exactly who they are and that they are the people who have put Ethan into this situation. When the female hostage is shot in the leg as well as the sound going blurry and slurred the screen goes out of focus. This is used to effect to build the tension and it could also reflect Ethan's emotions that he is scared and worried.
Finally, mission impossible two and three have very different approaches to catching the audiences’ attention. Mission Impossible two was directed by John Woo and is an effective introduction because you warm up to the character Ethan Hunt with the was he is shown. How he is shown as a happy and adventurous character just makes the audience like him straight away and makes you want to follow him on his mission. On the other hand Mission Impossible threes’ introduction was made by a different director called J.J Abrams who jumps straight into the plot of what the film is all about. Also Abrams plays the sympathy vote to make you want to carry on watching the film to check that Ethan Hunt is ok and that he makes it out. These two directors have portrayed two very different sides of Ethan, in Mission Impossible two he is a young, brave, strong hero figure and in Mission Impossible three he is a weak character who is put in a position of danger.
Both introductions have very different approaches but are equally effective. My favourite introduction is probably the start of Mission Impossible three as I prefer Ethan the way he is portrayed in Mission Impossible two than Mission Impossible three.
