THE ART OF  SEQUELS

Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol

Point of View
Ratatouille director Brad Bird shifts into top gear from mice to men with the breathtaking and well crafted Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol. Undoubtedly one of the best action films in years, it is guaranteed to have you on the edge of your seat with its impossible and unbelievable action sequences. The combination of animation wiz Bird (who also directed The Incredibles), and the unfathomable imagination of producer J.J.Abrams (Lost, Super 8, Cloverfield), with Tom Cruise on board as producer and actor, this fourth installment of the Mission Impossible installment holds nothing back. If you love spy thrillers, with gadgets, daredevil stunt sequences that gives Bond competition, spectacular settings, dashing action heroes, wicked villains and witty sidekicks, this is first rate entertainment and ultimate escapism. Reviewed by Daniel Dercksen. Rating 5/5

The story
Blamed for the terrorist bombing of the Kremlin, IMF operative Ethan Hunt is disavowed along with the rest of the agency when the President initiates "Ghost Protocol."  Left without any resources or backup, Ethan must find a way to clear his agency's name and prevent another attack. To complicate matters further, Ethan is forced to embark on this mission with a team of fellow IMF fugitives whose personal motives he does not fully know.

The screenwriters
André Nemec & Josh Appelbaum are childhood friends, both hailing from the New York City area.  Their first collaboration was a tenth-grade production of Thorton Wilder's Our Town.  Mr. Nemec played the lead. Mr. Appelbaum played an incidental role. And such is the nature of their collaboration to this day.  
After graduating High School, Mr. Nemec attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Mr. Appelbaum attended The University of Southern California.  Though he failed to gain entry into their prestigious Cinema Studies Program, Josh studied Creative Writing (which is what aspiring screenwriters do when they can't get into film school).
Post-College, these old friends reunited and were fortunate enough to swiftly find television writing jobs.  Mr. Appelbaum spent ten years riding Mr. Nemec's coattails through the television landscape before they had the honor of meeting J.J. Abrams in 2002. 
J.J. was immediately charmed by Mr. Nemec and taken with his talents as a writer.  He offered him a job on the Emmy Award-winning ABC Drama Alias. Mr. Nemec accepted the offer, on the condition he could bring Mr. Appelbaum along with him and J.J., always of a charitable heart, complied.
Mr. Appelbaum and Mr. Nemec spent three years on Alias, rising to the rank of Co-Executive Producers.  Following that, they co-created and executive produced ABC's October Road, Life on Mars and Happy Town and currently have a producing deal with FOX 21 to develop hour long dramas for the cable market.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL is their first produced feature film.  They have several un-produced screenplays sitting in their drawers, which would have gotten made if Mr. Appelbaum had just addressed Mr. Nemec's notes.

Director
Brad Bird is the director of the Academy Award-winning films Ratatouille and The Incredibles, and of the critically acclaimed 1999 animated feature, The Iron Giant, which won the International Animated Film Society's Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Theatrical Feature.
Bird began his first animated film at the age of 11, and finished it nearly three years later.  The film brought him to the attention of Walt Disney Studios where, at age 14, he was mentored by Milt Kahl, one of a distinguished group of Disney's legendary animators known as the "Nine Old Men."  Bird eventually worked as an animator at Disney and other studios.
Bird's credits include acting as executive consultant on The Simpsons and King of the Hill, the two longest running and most celebrated animated series on television.  He also created, wrote, directed and co-produced the Family Dog episode of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories, and co-wrote the screenplay for the live-action feature *Batteries Not Included.

Team Ghost Protocol                             Read interview with director Brad Bird
ETHAN HUNT (Tom Cruise) must evolve as an agent, going from lone wolf to a true team leader.  "Ethan has really relied on himself in the previous three movies, but in this movie he has to rely on others.  It's a great challenge for him because he's been betrayed so many times by team members and his organization and now he has no choice but to trust these three people whom he hardly knows."
For this film, Appelbaum and Nemec also liked the idea of having a strong female agent.  As Brad Bird describes her, AGENT JANE CARTER (Paula Patton) "is a badass."  Though she has yet had a lot of experience as a field agent, she is driven by something besides her desire to complete the mission: revenge. "She's enormously talented, very charismatic and really took the physicality the role required head-on," Cruise notes.  Jane, Patton says, "is as fierce as the boys, if not fiercer - she's someone to contend with."
Returning from MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III is the team's technical wizard, BENJI DUNN (Simon Pegg), who has graduated to field agent.  Pegg describes the character as "the ultimate I.T. guy.  He's the computer guy who just knows everything about everything."  Josh Appelbaum recalls, "J.J. said, 'I would love to see Benji come out from behind the desk and be in the field.'  So we just had some fun with the idea because we were so used to seeing those hardened agents that have been on mission after mission and, instead, having Ethan with this guy who hasn't been in the field that long.  This is all sort of new to him." Pegg also brings a great amount of wit and humor to his character, which is unique to this film in a franchise that is known for its intense, action packed sequences.
For AGENT WILLIAM BRANDT (Jeremy Renner), "We liked the idea of meeting this character as more of a desk jockey - a suit," explains Appelbaum.  "We only later realize that he has these great capabilities.  Brandt gives Ethan another agent to be squaring off with through the course of the movie and that's something that hadn't been done before."
The character had immediate appeal to Renner.  "Brandt is an analyst, a seemingly tight-wound desk guy who is smart as a whip, and that's his job.  He's not very emotional about things.  Then, you slowly start to see the revealing of who he really is - particularly through seeing this physical skill set you would not expect out of a tight, blue shirt-wearing analyst.  He doesn't really want to be part of the team, but circumstances force him to join the group," says Renner.
Renner came to the project almost by chance, after a quick meeting with Abrams regarding another project, on a day when Cruise happened to be visiting for a production meeting.  "Then, literally, from that meeting, I just came over to Paramount and sat down with Brad Bird, Bryan Burk and Tom, and they pitched me the story - there wasn't even a script yet.  They described the character and it seemed pretty interesting.  I couldn't say no."
Bird couldn't have been happier with the team and its casting.  "All of these people are terrific screen presences, and together they were like four different rhythms and voices and tempos that synchronized really well onscreen," he says.  Cruise agrees.  "I'm a fan of their work and you see the characters they create.  Each member is a unique piece creating a wonderful dynamic for the team."
This fourth installment also features an international cast with actors and characters from Russia, India, Sweden and France.
"KURT HENDRICKS (Michael Nyqvist) hearkens back to that Cold War-era kind of bad guy - he's got a wildly destructive plan and he's bent on executing," says André Nemec.  "He's very old school," agrees Swedish-born actor Michael Nyqvist.  The idea for a sociopathic bad guy with a plan bent on world destruction came out of discussions between Bird, Cruise and Abrams.  "There was a real desire to not make his plan too complicated or too abstract," explains Appelbaum.  "It's a big, old school bad guy plan.  What's new school is the modern manner in which we go after him, and the manner in which he's trying to avoid us.  "What's really weird, though, is that he believes he's morally correct, and that's always a very dangerous enemy to face because they believe they're justified in what they're doing.  As far as he's concerned, he's fighting for good," says Simon Pegg.
SABINE MOREAU, played by Léa Seydoux, is straight out of the classic spy films.  "She's an assassin - she kills for money - or, in the case of GHOST PROTOCOL, diamonds will do just fine," says the French actress of her character.  "She's brutal, but with a little tenderness, which makes it even more evil," marks Josh Holloway who plays TREVOR HANAWAY, an IMF Agent who has a very significant encounter with Moreau.
Rounding out the cast are Indian star ANIL KAPOOR, widely known for his performance in the Academy Award-winning "Slumdog Millionaire," as an Indian communications magnate and Russian actor VLADIMIR MASHKOV as Russian intelligence operative ANATOLY SIDIROV. This incredible team of international characters celebrates the worldwide audiences that have long supported the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE Franchise.

Mission: Impossible - Disavowed, disconnected
IMPOSSIBLE MISSIONS FORCE (IMF) agents JANE CARTER (Paula Patton) and TREVOR HANAWAY (Josh Holloway) and brilliant tech whiz, BENJI DUNN (Simon Pegg) are tasked with finding a courier carrying nuclear launch codes.  Very unfortunately, their mission goes awry and the codes fall into the hands of a sultry assassin, SABINE MOREAU (Léa Seydoux).

Meanwhile, team leader ETHAN HUNT (Tom Cruise) must be extracted from a Moscow prison and the group is assigned the task of breaking into the Kremlin to retrieve information about the intended recipient of the codes; a man code-named Cobalt.  Shortly thereafter, Cobalt blows their cover and, before Ethan and Benji can escape, a tremendous explosion rocks Red Square.  Ethan finds himself and the entire IMF being blamed to the point that the President invokes "Ghost Protocol" - a complete dissemination of the agency.
Having inherited a new team member, WILLIAM BRANDT (Jeremy Renner), Hunt finds himself, for the first time, working with a team he did not choose.  On the surface, Brandt is a desk-bound analyst, but he carries a more complicated past.  Begrudgingly, Ethan and this new team must work together as one - all without any support or backup from the now-defunct IMF - if they are to clear their names, complete their mission and prevent nuclear annihilation.

Developing the plot
In developing this plot, Appelbaum recalls, "J.J. called us and asked if we could come up with a story with a way to show Ethan in a different light from the previous films.  Ethan Hunt is the heart of the franchise, but they were looking for a way to tell a story that's really about him trying to lead a team, and keep the team intact, against great odds." Thus was born the concept of the Ghost Protocol, in which the entire IMF agency was being disavowed.  "We thought that without having resources, it would be a great way to instantly bond Ethan to his team and to help us fall in love with these other characters.  We wanted to challenge Ethan as both player and coach - a guy who's not only in it, but is in it with a team that isn't fully gelling.  So, he's got to try and pull the team together, all while working on the fly."
Another caveat unique to this film is they are also stripped of their usual support - no resources, no extractions, no backup.   "In the world of technology and information that we live in, we wanted to strip the agents of their ability to rely on immediate intel and access.  We wanted the gadgets that they use to not always be working properly.  To not necessarily make their jobs easier," says Nemec.  Ethan's Gecko Gloves, which he uses to climb the outside of a building, and the otherwise-indispensible mask making machine both fail the team when most needed.  Adds Appelbaum, "It's the idea that everything in life doesn't go off exactly like planned and we wanted that to be true for our agents, as well.  They couldn't rely on their agency, they couldn't always rely on the tools and gadgets and tricks that they had.  They really had to rely on themselves.  This movie isn't about unlimited firepower.  These people are smart in their intuition and their training, in really clever and inventive ways."
The producers even encouraged Bird to incorporate his own ideas about what makes a spy movie cool.  "When I first got involved, they said, 'Well, we have this story line but, other than that, are there any cool things you've always wanted to see in a spy movie?'  It was like looking at it from a moviegoer level, in terms of what kinds of things you'd want to see if you were sitting in the audience watching this."  Things such as Brandt's Eyecam lens (a contact lens which functions as a video display), throwing off a meet-and-swap meeting with Moreau, a sandstorm chase and, after Ethan retrieves his mission assignment from a payphone, which "will self-destruct in five seconds" - but doesn't, at least not without a swift kick from Mr. Hunt, all came from Bird.  "He really brought that constant sense that the mission plan is not 100% working." says Nemec.  "Brad was able to look at things with a little bit of a 'fun' lens, which we loved."
Complicating matters is the team members' knowledge of Ethan's reputation within the agency.  "Part of starting off with finding him imprisoned is wanting to play into a character that isn't necessarily coming into this with a bunch of medals on his chest. The team isn't going, 'Of course I'll follow that guy into battle!' It's more like, 'Well, that guy did something that earned him being imprisoned.'  So, they're always wondering if he's making the right calls along the way."
The producers also wished to create a film that, though part of a series franchise, could stand alone, story-wise, so that audiences didn't have to be familiar with what had gone on in the previous MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movies to enjoy or follow GHOST PROTOCOL.  "We made a conscious effort to make it so if you had never seen the other films, it didn't matter," Burk explains.  "You could watch this film and easily follow the story and understand Ethan's backstory and where he is because the movie is completely self-contained.  And, if you have seen the previous films, then you'll be able to draw more from it."

Building the team
"I loved the show when I was a kid," says Cruise.  "I felt that, as a film, it could take us to different locations, have pulse-racing action sequences and smart, innovative tech.  It was the first film I ever produced.  As a filmmaker and as an actor, I'm always thinking about the audience.  I want to entertain them and give them a new adventure every time."   Read more

Travelling the international globe
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL is an action-packed thrill ride, filled with mind-boggling stunts, rich characters, the coolest gadgets and stunning locations.  Filmed over a five month period from October 2010 to March 2011, production took the film from Los Angeles to Moscow, Prague, Dubai, Mumbai, and Vancouver.Read more

The Burj Khalifa
Located in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai is visually striking.  "It's cinematic from the get-go," notes Bird.  "A lot of the architecture is very imaginative and seems so futuristic.  The fact that it's surrounded by desert is such a surreal sight because it's just dunes and flatness, and then there's this city rising up like Oz."  The city had never truly been photographed for a motion picture portraying itself before.  Filmmakers had not yet taken advantage of the vertical scale of the Dubai until GHOST PROTOCOL. .Read more

Stunting for action
In another action packed scene, Ethan slips out of a fourth-story window and, while Russian operatives wait for him to give up, grabs his belt, leaps from the building ledge, slides down a nearby power line to the roof of a moving van and rolls off safely onto the street.  "That was actually one of the most challenging stunts of the whole movie, as far as difficulty goes," says stunt coordinator Gregg Smrz.  "We rehearsed that on stage over and over and over, until it was just old hat, and then went and put it into place.  Tom nailed it in just a few takes." Read more

About the gadgets
"These movies are a prop master's dream come true," says property master Kristopher E. Peck, who held the same position on MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II.  One of the biggest gadgets, the IMF train, is one of Bird's favorite sets.  Designed by Jim Bissell and built on a soundstage in Vancouver, the set appears bombproof inside.  "It's oval-shaped and designed to look like it's prepared to take a huge concussive shock, and be a good command center for any situation.  It's just loaded with all the special gadgets they could need." says Bird.  "It was full of all sorts of gimmicks," Bissell explains.  "Sliding trays for weapons, televisions that you pulled out of the wall and then slid down with hydraulic stands that pop up and allow you to swivel them anywhere you wanted to."  Read more

The art of sequels


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