Half-Assed Internet Research
Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz's original script killed the original IMF team including Peter Graves; a near-bankrupt Apple tied in with PowerBooks and a web adventure game; the Langley heist homages Dassin's Topkapi and Rififi; Ethan Hunt's name may honor Watergate's Howard Hunt
In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:48:44Read transcript
- The original script came from two earlier writers. Katz and Huck (Gloria and Willard, as transcribed) reportedly opened it with the original IMF team, including Peter Graves, on a mission with their youngest member played by Cruise, all killed except him, leaving him to solve who killed his team, which may be another reason the older stars did not return.
- Apple was almost bankrupt at release and tried to get cool again through a corporate tie-in, with PowerBook laptops in the movie, plus an early promotional website called the Mission Impossible Web Adventure, sinking about $15 million into it; things worked out for Apple.
- The Langley heist homages the Jules Dassen (as transcribed) classics Top Copy and Rafifi (as transcribed); some think Ethan Hunt's name is a sly tribute to Howard Hunt, the former CIA spy involved in the Watergate break-in, and Ethan Hunt is called a perfect, anonymous yet fun-to-say name.