But with this month’s arrival of Dead Reckoning Part One, Tom Cruise’s blockbuster series will have been with us in four different decades. Given what Mission: Impossible has become-a series of death-defying set pieces with just enough plot scaffolding for Cruise to cling precariously to-it’s hard to believe these wonky references to real-world legislative drudgery are from the same genre, let alone the same franchise. We were living in a democracy the last time I checked.” “I want to know who these people are and how they’re spending our taxpayers’ money.

“No, John,” says Hunt in an affected southern lilt. But Hunt was going undercover (and under heavy makeup) as the senator, and that really is Tom Cruise debating with McLaughlin-specifically about the complexities of governing US intelligence agencies. Technically, it was “Senator John Waltzer” of Virginia appearing on the (real) show, debating with the (real) host, John McLaughlin. For his first assignment, Tom Cruise appeared on The McLaughlin Group. He didn’t scale the Burj Khalifa in Dubai or hang on to the hull of a cargo plane as it takes flight. IN HIS FIRST full on-screen assignment as Ethan Hunt, way back in 1996, Tom Cruise didn’t fly a helicopter over the Kashmir mountains or perform a HALO jump.

Brain out detective level 2