Mission Impossible 2

Mission Impossible Film Analysis

The first shot is an establishing shot to show the character’s surroundings of the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon is an array of very steep and high mountains which Tom Cruise is seen climbing. This gives the audience an insight to his strength and capability of just how powerful he is but also the Grand Canyon is very bare with no people to show his isolation from the rest of the world and how this will affect him throughout the rest on the film.

 The camera which could have been used on a helicopter as it is so high up, starts to zoom in towards the character to show him making his climb. As you can see, he is not held onto the rock by any form of support, just his bare two hands which adds to the danger shown in the opening scene. Next, the camera does some pan shots to prove to the audience that he isn’t being held on by anything and to emphasise the characters strength and how it might be used throughout the rest of the film. Then the camera zooms out to give the audience more of a view of the Grand Canyon and the climber showing just how high it is.

As the character carries on his climb, there is a close up of his face which  tells us that he is not scared or in fear of what he is doing and how high he is up which makes the viewer feel more secure that he isn’t going to fall off of the rock. A birds eye view is made as the camera looks down and the character is looking up towards it. In the scene, we can hear the diegetic sound of an eagle circling around him as if he is the prey but Tom is not fazed by it at all and just carries on. The birds eye shot that was made could be to represent how the bird could be looking down on him.

The next shot that is made is when the character jumps from one part of the rock to another in order to be able to climb up easier. This shocks the audience even more as he is already risking his life let alone jump across the rock because if he was to fall, he would die so he is making a huge choice. When he makes the jump and gets to the other side, he falls down the rock but luckily manages to hang on to the edge of the cliff which is significant because no one else would have been able to get such a good grip with just their fingertips lifting their whole body weight. Then, he hangs off of the cliff with just one arm which would take some serious strength to which so this emphasises to the audience just how strong and powerful he is and that no one should cross him.

The camera pans/moves around like a bird would when flying to show the character holding on to the rock in a position which is similar to how Jesus was on the cross. This symbolises how Tom Cruise will be seen as the saviour in this film and will save people that he comes into contact with unless they are the villains. There is a zoomed in close up to his face and the expression on his face shows that nothing fazes him and he isn’t bothered about where he is or what he is doing proving his fearlessness. Suddenly, he swings round back onto the rock to begin his climb again. When he gets to the top of the mountain, there is a moving shot or 360 degree shot which is like the bird coming to get him but it just circle round him as he watches and doesn’t harm him. An establishing shot gives a clear view of the Grand Canyon  and the overall picture so that you can see everything in its surroundings.

Next, we see the helicopter come into view and turn round to when the character is. Because the helicopter is black, we just assume that something bad is going to happen because there is another character in a black and white suit that is holding what appears to be a gun. When he fires the gun, an object lands in the rock and then there is a close up view of Tom’s face smiling so we know he knows the person and what the object could be so the audience don’t feel on-edge anymore. A low shot is taken when Tom walks over towards the object and picks it up. When he takes the lid off of the arrow shaped object, there is a close up of the sunglasses that are inside to show what they are and what the main focus is as they are the only things in that shot. Then there is another close up of Tom’s face when he smiles and shakes his head because he knows who they are from and what they are because they aren’t ordinary sunglasses. When he puts the sunglasses on, we get a point of view shot which is the same as if we were looking through his eyes at the information he is being told. Furthermore, there is then a mid shot where we can see the character with his sunglasses on and also some of the scenery of the Grand Canyon. The shot is panned so that we can see the full view of the character not moving as he is focused on what he has to listen to showing his mental and physical ability to block out what is happening around him to listen to one voice. When he takes off the sunglasses and throws them away they explode and the film titles start up which makes it a great opening scene because it gives the audience a mixture of things that will happen through the entirety of the film and the explosion emphasises again the danger that will come with the job that he does.

The music is quite calm at the start which is not what you would expect because of his circumstances. Then it builds up bas the character gets higher up the rock. When he jumps the music slows temporarily for a second and the singing stops but when he is hanging onto the cliff with one hand, then puts the second hand on, the music’s tempo builds up again getting louder and louder and the singing is back again. The music sounds like some that you would hear on holiday abroad but it is really ironic as he is rock climbing which you wouldn’t normally do on holiday.