American Cinematographer - December 1996 - 84

Making Mission Possible

Trek: Generations), who handled the
sequence. The film's overall visual
effects supervisor was Richard

ILM creates

Yuricich, ASC.

Mission:

Using Alias for modeling,
Softimage for animation, and Pixar

high-velocity climax for
Impossible.

Renderman, Parallax, and 3-D
and 2-D in-house proprietary
software for rendering, ILM's

by Ron Magid

team created

Mission:ripe
Impossible
has always
for revival.
With
been

a

its famous

high-velocity theme
music (composed by Lalo Schifrin)
and enigmatic opening sequence
(wherein Mr. Phelps receives his
taped assignment in some innocu¬
ous
setting, be it sewer or sink¬
hole), Mission was among the most
iconic TV series of the Sixties.

Just as those microcassette
recorders
into

inevitably smoldered

self-destruction,

so

too has

Phelps, who returned in Brian De
Palma's big-screen revival not as
the hero, but as the hero gone bad.
Saving the world this time
around is brilliant young Impos¬
sible Missions Force agent Ethan
Hunt (Tom

Cruise), who must pre¬

and

Voight

were

really fighting

atop a train going 160 m.p.h.,
while ensuring that both actors
would survive the

production.

At Pinewood

Studios, the

pair performed against bluescreen
on a
stationary full-scale locomo¬
tive set, while a parachuting fan
outside created a genuine 160 mile
per hour gale-force wind which
was ducted to the
stage. Aided by
the powerful wind and strong offcamera
tugs on his flying harness,
Cruise did his own death-defying
flips and lunges on-set. Cruise flew
on

wires for the shot in which Hunt

loses his

MacGuffin aboard

train

a

-

to

some

French TGV

train

speeding at 160 miles per
through the England-bound
Chunnel, Phelps makes his perfect
getaway. Employing magnetic
grips, Phelps traverses the slick top
of the train's rear engine. Hunt fol¬
lows Phelps - minus any hightech gear and wearing a sportscoat.
The ferocious wind flips Hunt over
onto the train's slippery roof as
Phelps' ride appears: a helicopter.
Helpless to stop him, Hunt desper¬
ately clings to the train. There's no
place for him to go and nothing to
hold onto, which is exactly where
De Palma and Industrial Light &
Magic wanted him.
hour

ILM contributed 150 shots

entire 65'

were shot in Scotland, as were
the fore and aft POVs of the train

travelling down the track. In wider
shots, ILM ran its digital train on
the real rails; shots of the actors in
the foreground were filmed on the
locomotive set, which was often

digitally blended with half a mile's
worth of CG train.

After Hunt tethers the he¬

licopter to the train, the speeding
bullet

screams

into the

Chunnel,

whirlybird in tow. Although a
genuine McDonnell Douglas
MD520 No-Tar was brought to
Scotland, the real chopper couldn't
fly fast enough to keep up with
ILM's CG train. Knoll shot the
tire sequence

en¬

without the helicop¬

to the

ter, then later added the MD520

train sequence,

digitally. However, the failed shoot
yielded a cache of 'copter refer¬

breathtaking seven-minute
most of them
achieved with startlingly real
computer graphics created on a va¬
riety of Silicon Graphics worksta¬

Cinematographer

helicopter

foreign power. After acquiring this

dex of IMF contacts

American

CG

a CG train into the CG
Chunnel. The aim, of course, was
to convince audiences that Cruise

grip and hurtles down the
length of the locomotive,
crashing feet-first into Phelps.
Background plates of the
real landscape passing behind the

Phelps (Jon Voight), from sell¬
ing the CIA's "NOC list" - an in¬
vent

82

a

chasing

ence,

which ILM matched to their

handpainted textures. "People

tions. "From the time Ethan climbs

can't believe that's not

onto the train till the end of the

copter," Knoll

se¬

a

real heli¬

"It doesn't
synthetic."

crows.

quence, every single shot was a vi¬
sual effect," maintains ILM visual

look the tiniest bit

effects

another ILM CG creation. While

supervisor John Knoll (Star

December 1996

Neither does the Chunnel,
American Cinematographer - December 1996

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