The film opens with a burning match suggesting danger and action. A montage uses quick cuts between scenes of action including a car explosion. Advanced technology like facial recognition was considered high-tech. The film introduces a mysterious man on a private plane watching a self-destructing tape that makes him seem powerful and experienced in his field of work. It then reveals the city location where the main story will take place.

1. OliverBooth
Film Opening Analysis – Mission Impossible
The film opens with an extreme close up of a match burning and lighting something. As fire
connotes trouble and danger, this immediately suggests tothe audience that it willhave some
elements of action involved, simultaneously there is non-diegetic sound of up-tempo music
playing that also helps inform the audience that the genre of the film is action. After this,
there is then a montage containing various scenes with many different camera shots, such as
close ups, long shots and most notably within the montage there is a lot of jump cuts placed
throughout it, which zoom into characters faces for a brief period of time. This is used to show
the character’s facial expressions but also to throw the audience of a little and get them very
surprised at the vast amount of action in the film. Another prominent scene within the
montage is when the car explodes. This is avery common convention of action films and again
restates that it is an action film. In addition, there is a close-up of a facial recognition system
within the montage, a common convention of action-spy films is that they have advanced
technology. Back when this film was produced, the facial recognition system would’ve been
classed as extremely high-tech for that time period.
As the montage come to an end, a new scene begins with a close up of a man holding a photo
of a woman. The camera then proceeds to zoom out and pans left and the audience see the
backdrop which is the interior of a plane. This tells the audience that the man on this
particular plane is a very important person as it also appears to be a private plane. A more
dulled and diluted version of the opening music, hinting to the audience that there is still
more action to come. A few moments after this, there is a mid-shot of a flight attendant
conversing with the mysterious man, at which point the music has completely stopped. This
informs the audience that the conversation that’s about to happen is an important one. The
man picks a tape to watch, however, as he begins to put the tape in, the camera zooms in
greatly which immediately informs the audience that whatever is on the tape is crucial and
possibly imperative information. It then cuts to a low angle shot of the man taking out the
screen to view the mysterious tape.
Theirs is then a series of shot-reverse shots to show the man’s expression as he watches the
tape, as the tape contains classified information and the man’s emotion doesn’t change. The
audience can therefore assume that is very comfortable and is used to this lifestyle. The tape
then self-destructs and the man begins to smoke. Cigarettes are a very common convention
within action films as they symbolise importance for that particular character and make him
look more powerful within the scene. This use of this prop makes this particular character
very important and tells the audience that he may be one off the main characters within the
film. This also tells the audience that he has been in this business for a long time and shows
that he is experienced in this particular field of work. Finally, it then fades to a long shot of a
city in the horizon. This long shot is used to show the audience where the film location will
be. It then proceeds to lower itself until the audience can see a street and the audience can
assume this is when the film properly begins.