What Writers Can Learn From Mission: Impossible
1996’s Mission: Impossible was a triumph of the spy genre. Tom Cruise brought the IMF to the big screen in a big way. While it’s certainly not a perfect film, it’s very tightly written and is wildly entertaining. This is the kind of movie that hurts your brain as you try to figure out who was on whose side, which I think is a good thing. While this film certainly has its plot holes and chunks of exposition overload, something it handles very well is its plot twists. There’s a lot that this film can teach writers about plot twists. In particular, how to provide reveals that completely upend what the audience thought they knew. If there’s one thing you should take away from this movie, it’s how to pull off a gripping plot twist. Let’s look at four steps to do so using examples from Mission: Impossible.
Before we get started, however, I want to clarify what I mean by ‘plot twist’. While a plot twist can also describe a sudden change in where a plot is going, I’m specifically going to be referring to an event where a piece of major information is revealed, particularly one that is surprising or is contrary to information previously established.
Strategy #1: Small Setups
Mission: Impossible has three plot twists which fit this description, which are the scene with Kittridge in Prague, when Ethan realizes that Jim is evil and the reveal that Claire is working with Jim. Each of these reveals employs four strategies to make the reveal more effective, the first of which is Small Setups. When Kittridge reveals that the entire operation was a mole hunt and that Ethan is their suspect, we get hints of this previously in the form of what Ethan realizes was the other IMF team. While we saw these people previously, we had no idea that they were IMF agents. So, when the time came to reveal the truth, it made more sense as the pieces had already been in place.
This also happens for the Jim reveal, particularly with the Bible from the Drake Hotel, but also with the nightmare of Jim that Ethan has a vision of. Both of these details seem insignificant at the time but are secretly foreshadowing the plot twist later on.
For the reveal that Claire is working with Jim, we see in Ethan’s flashback that she was the one who killed Hannah. Ethan ignores this, unable to accept that Claire has turned, leaving the audience unsure of her allegiances until later when the truth is confirmed. Earlier in the movie, the fact that Claire was the only other survivor also makes her suspicious. Ethan survived because he was being framed, meaning that Claire survived either because of luck or she was part of the plan all along. Nothing spoils the big reveal, but enough hints are laid so that the audience doesn’t feel cheated when the truth is ultimately uncovered.
Strategy #2: False Information from a Reliable Source
The second strategy is false information from a reliable source. Telling your audience a piece of information that directly contradicts the later plot twist is a great way to keep the twist surprising. One of the worst things that can happen is for your audience to guess the plot twist before it happens. In one of the first scenes of the movie, we see Jim Phelps receiving his mission. Everything he’s told comes straight from the IMF. It seems like he’s simply being informed of the movie’s conflict and instructed on how to stop it. The audience has no reason to suspect that the IMF is lying to Jim, and since the mole hunt is so elaborate, nothing suggests that it might be fabricated until we get hints of another IMF team spectating the mission.
For the second plot twist, reliable information seems to point to Jim being dead. True, we don’t see his body, but we don’t see a body for any of Ethan’s team except for Sarah. Ethan witnessed what he thought was Jim’s death, and Kittridge’s supposed confirmation later gives the audience every reason to believe that Jim was a victim of the plot, not the perpetrator. We also have no reason to suspect that Jim might be evil. In the opening scenes in the safehouse, we get small hints of his relationship with Ethan. It’s not something that’s directly touched on, but we get enough to know that Ethan trusts him. Kittridge’s comment about Ethan knowing Jim personally adds more weight to his apparent death, thereby making the plot twist later even stronger.
For Claire, the reliable information telling us that she’s innocent is her incredible acting. Claire convinces Ethan that she’s been truly traumatized by the loss of her team and her husband, quickly making the audience believe that she’s an ally. It’s not until later when we finally get hints of her true motivations, but by that point, we’ve already come to trust her.
Strategy #3: Tense Reveal
The third strategy used in these plot twists is the tense reveal. If you have a strong setup for a surprising plot twist, flubbing the reveal will quickly send things downhill. But Mission: Impossible manages to keep its plot twists entertaining by revealing them to us in exciting ways. Firstly, Kittridge’s slow burn in his scene with Ethan builds our sense of unease. With the slightly threatening way that Kittridge explains the truth to Ethan, this scene reveals to us the nature of the operation in Prague as well as the severity of Ethan’s situation.
For the scene with Jim in London, we get the plot twist through a series of flashbacks where Ethan imagines what truly happened that night in Prague. It’s an interesting way to show us what happened in direct contrast with what we’re being told, but it effectively allows us to see Ethan’s mind as he realizes the truth at the same time as the audience does. Jim’s monologue after also goes a long way in telling us his reason for betraying the IMF.
As for Claire, her reveal is carried mostly by her dialogue. She trusts Jim, so she quietly backstabs Ethan and spills all of her secrets at once, forcing us to question her intentions all along.
Strategy #4: Powerful Payoff
Finally, each of these reveals comes with a powerful payoff. All plot twists should affect the plot and have an impact on the story going forward. For the scene with Kittridge, part of the payoff is this:
“You want to shake hands with the devil, that’s fine with me, I just want to make sure that you do it in hell.”
It’s a crazy line that kickstarts the plot into high gear as Ethan is forced to flee for his life and set out on a mission to clear his name. And, of course, we get the first of two payoffs for Jack’s gum.
For the scene with Jim, the payoff is pretty much the entire train sequence. It’s because of this reveal that the final battle between Ethan and Job is emotionally tense as Ethan has to kill his mentor and friend. I wish that this movie had done more legwork in developing their relationship and the impact of Jim’s betrayal, but the plot twist itself is handled masterfully.
For the scene with Claire, well, the payoff is an awesome mask reveal and the confrontation with Jim, as well as the subsequent semi-plot twist where Ethan shows Kittridge that Jim is alive, thus clearing his own name. While the reveal that Claire is working with Jim isn’t as good a plot twist as the other two, it still follows these steps and does its job well. It’s something that you can do in your writing: Insert small setups, provide false information, give a tense reveal and provide satisfying payoff to shock your audience with gripping plot twists.
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