“Our lives are the sum of our choices” is a message reiterated to agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) throughout the final installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. From breaking into the CIA headquarters to scaling the Burj Khalifa or riding a motorcycle off of a cliff, Hunt has been through it all during his attempts at saving the world and has undergone a character arc that has spanned almost 30 years of filmmaking.
Oftentimes, when we think about how the character has evolved, we look to the increase in scale of stunts, the monumental stakes at play, or how fear-inducing his antagonist is. Despite having one of the most memorable auditory motifs in cinematic history (originally composed for the Mission: Impossible (TV Series 1966-1973) by Lalo Schifrin), the score in the franchise is overlooked when considering how it progresses Ethan Hunt’s story. We see Hunt’s character, relationships, and missions evolve whilst accompanied by a distinct film score that uniquely builds tension, heart, and animosity.
With eight films spanning seven composers, let’s take a look at how the sound of Mission: Impossible has developed its central character’s story.
Mission: Impossible (1996)
Brian De Palma’s Mission: Impossible catapults you straight into a world where the Impossible Mission Force (IMF) is thriving, completing covert, life-saving operations at risk of being disavowed by the American government if they are caught. Composed by Danny Elfman, the score’s first track, “Sleeping Beauty,” is the first pull that the audience feels for Ethan’s first on-screen mission. The constant fluctuation between the brass, bass, violin, and chime instruments builds a moody, mysterious, and tense atmosphere right off the bat. The modal ambiguity (which refers to the key center of a musical piece being unknown) of the score is recurrent throughout the film, especially for high-stakes moments like the team’s first attempt to retrieve the NOC list.
The musical composition clearly takes direct inspiration from 1960s spy thrillers such as John Barry and Monty Norman’s scores in Dr No (1962) and From Russia With Love (1963) from the James Bond franchise. Elfman is intentional with this, as many similarities can be drawn between the two franchises: the sophisticated attire, infiltration, espionage, and saving the world from threats unbeknownst to the public. Using the sound of the Bond films as a point of reference, Elfman wants the audience to draw comparisons between the two as a means to set expectations for the first Mission: Impossible film.
Before we even begin to see the opening sequence in Kiev, we hear percussion that mimics the style we hear performed by marching bands. Their origin stems from military use and has evolved to be intrinsically linked with American high school culture. This is Elfman’s way of reminding viewers that, although inspiration has been taken from a British franchise, this series is wholeheartedly American.
Mission: Impossible II (2000)
John Woo’s interpretation of Ethan Hunt and the IMF in the second feature flips the franchise completely on its head – score included. Hans Zimmer, who requires no introduction, takes the helm as composer. In Mission: Impossible II, he melds elements of the most iconic film soundtracks of the 1990s, like the hard rock of Guns N’ Roses’ “You Could Be Mine” in Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) and the futuristic electronica of Propellerheads‘ “Spybreak!” in The Matrix (1999). From the opening track “Hijack,” Zimmer uses the genre shift to inject a new bad boy persona into Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, who is trying to replicate the swagger emanated by Keanu Reeves as Neo and Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator.
Yet this is not the most character-affirming choice Zimmer makes with the score. The introduction between professional thief Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandiwe Newton) and Hunt is filled with explosive chemistry as they taunt each other around flamenco dancers in the center of the room. The track that plays during their initial meeting, “Seville,” is a type of Cante Jondo (Spanish for “deep song”) which is described to be “the most serious and deeply moving variety of flamenco”. Within a few minutes, Zimmer utilises the power of the Cante Jondo to foreshadow the emotional intensity to come of Hunt and Nordoff-Hall’s relationship, subsequently becoming a recurring motif during their character interactions.
Mission: Impossible III (2006) & Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
Michael Giacchino’s composing on the third and fourth films of the franchise sees a return to the style established by Elfman, yet Giacchino’s work clearly sets out the distinct sound that this franchise will carry forward in later iterations. In Mission: Impossible III, there is more of an emphasis on Schifrin’s original theme as a motif, weaving it into unassuming pieces such as “See You In The Sewer” and “Humpty Dumpty Sat On A Wall.” This signifies to the audience that what is happening on the screen, like scaling the wall of the Vatican or successfully doubling as villain Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman) using a mask and voice distorter, is precisely what these films are about.
Giacchino additionally introduces a new motif that is arguably the second most recognisable of the franchise. We hear six staccato brass notes at the start of “Factory Rescue” that, once again, are reminiscent of sounds we often associate with martial activity, which simultaneously builds tension as well as invokes a sense of urgency. The motif is used in the sequence where Hunt and his team are breaking into a factory to rescue Lindsey Farris (Keri Russell), and we continue to hear it used in this way throughout the series.
A notable frame of reference that Giacchino took from his previous work into the franchise, particularly in the reinterpretation of the franchise theme “Light The Fuse” from Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, was from The Incredibles (2004). “The Incredits” has the same soft but rapid chimes at the beginning of “Light The Fuse” that turn into a commanding sforzando of brass and percussion. At the same time, both themes incorporate rolling-like sound segments using instruments like bongos and timbales, resembling a heart racing and thus eliciting a rush of adrenaline. It all becomes incredibly intentional when you realise that Brad Bird directed both films.
Giacchino’s twists on previous classics go to show that the ever-evolving music of the Mission: Impossible films does not shy away from bending genre by plucking inspiration from superhero, futuristic, post-apocalyptic, and traditional spy thriller films.
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)
Long-time Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie takes charge as director on Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, where we are introduced to the covert crime organisation The Syndicate. Having already worked with both McQuarrie and Cruise on Jack Reacher (2012), Joe Kraemer also joins the film as the fourth composer in the saga. As far as the music goes, Kraemer does not deviate heavily from the tried and true, almost formulaic, style that Elfman and Giacchino set with the recurring motifs and the blend of the percussion, brass, and strings. However, there are elements that are not completely derivative.
Rogue Nation contains one of the best scoring moments of the series in “Meet The IMF.” Two key segments of the piece strongly convey the impact of what we are witnessing on screen. The first striking part we hear is the elevated brass playing of the classic theme during the scene where Hunt and his team capture Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) in the glass box. The use of the theme at the moment we see the rest of the IMF team appear around him reinforces the shift we see in Hunt, showing how he has, largely by happenstance, accrued a team he trusts like family and emphasising how the Mission: Impossible series has grown to not only be about Ethan Hunt anymore.
The second portion includes a beautiful crescendo that plays as Lane gets gassed in the box whilst Hunt watches. It grows in a way that emphasises how monumental a defeat this was, while, at the same time, illustrating how important it was to capture a villain of his stature before he could accomplish his “new world order.” Tied together with minimal dialogue, “Meet The IMF” ties a satisfying bow to end one of the strongest installments of the franchise.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) & Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (2023)
Mission: Impossible – Fallout features music from Lorne Balfe, who had previously worked in the music department with Zimmer on The Dark Knight (2008). The pivotal component of the score is the predominance of the violin, as opposed to the trumpets and drums taking center stage previously. We hear this violin predominantly in “Kashmir” when Hunt and his team arrive at the smallpox outbreak camp where “The Apostles” have planted bombs. The use of the violin morphs from a soft, romantic tone when he first sees his ex-wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) at the camp to a deep, melancholic tone when she realizes the reason why Ethan is there, to a high-pitched, frightened tone when she realizes that she is in immediate danger. This influences the entire atmosphere of this film, allowing the audience to sympathize with the vulnerability Hunt is bearing.
Five years later, Balfe continued his work with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, which is most notable for its debut of the artificial intelligence villain “The Entity.” What’s interesting about this antagonist is that it is faceless, making it tricky to construe its malice visually. To combat this, “The Entity” is given the most unique and menacing motif of the film saga, constructed purely by very sharp, high-pitched, electronic synthesizers as heard in the piece “He Calls Himself Gabriel.” It is the most distinctive motif given to an adversary in this franchise, creating a mysterious yet fear-inducing aura whenever it is played. The synthesizer was the perfect choice to be used as the sound that defines this AI, given the futuristic connotations it has.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025)
Students of Balfe and Zimmer, Max Aruj and Alfie Godfrey were given the weight of composing the most anxiety-inducing film in this series yet: Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. Yet, they did not buckle under the pressure and instead rose to the occasion in making very conscious decisions that overall enhanced the narrative that it was playing against.
During the stunt sequences, there is a greater emphasis on the backing track being quiet and subdued rather than loud and overbearing. It lets the jaw-dropping stunt work speak for itself as opposed to using dramatic music to amplify an already incredibly coordinated stunt’s tension. More specifically, this is wonderfully executed in the underwater sequence when Hunt dives down to the marooned submarine in the composition “The Sevastopol.”
While Balfe leans into the technological sound of “The Entity,” Aruj and Godfrey breathe life into it within their score named after the villain. The angelic gospel choir grounds the boundless and bodiless nature of “The Entity”, giving it a humanity to emphasize the reality of the threat it poses. Simultaneously, there is a rhythmic, ever-present thudding that resembles a heartbeat, further reinforcing the humanity they try to build for this villain, such that it can be a plausible counterpart to Ethan Hunt.
It is clear that Hunt has undertaken an expansive arc over the past eight films. We see him grow from being the American incarnation of James Bond into his own fully fleshed out individual. He has gone from being a distrusting lone agent to building a team that has become a family to him. We even see his confident, effortless persona broken down into a more vulnerable, fragile state. It is rare that we get this level of attentiveness and care towards a character’s journey within such a large film saga.
Mission: Impossible is a franchise with longevity and insists upon the very best. It cannot achieve this without each gear in its carefully crafted machine positioned perfectly. Whilst there may be gears that are larger and more visible, like the powerhouse ensembles, breathtaking stunts, and stunning set locations, the smaller gears, like the score, are just as important. In their absence or misplaced, it could cause everything to collapse in on itself.
Essay Courtesy of Nandita Joshi
Feature Image Credit to Paramount Pictures