MISSION IMPOSSIBLE II: John Woo, Part 1

By: Craig Reid
Date: Thursday, June 01, 2000

If you have ever seen a John Woo film and read most of what's written about them, you'd think that they're about guns. Hands lovingly caressing revolvers or stroking pump-action shotgun barrels, Woo's heroes tap dance upon the fence between psychotic relief and chivalrous anti-heroism. Although his work must now be tailored to American tastes, it's subliminally fashioned to Woo's unmistakable wild and Woo-ly specifications. His latest frantic foray into frenetic pandemonium, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2, will appease his Hong Kong fans and fascinate prima facia filmgoers into a sense of authentic awe and astonishment. MI2'S yarn is a cool soliloquy of the action conventions we know and love, rather than a regurgitation of genre traditions. His fourth 'Americanized' directing effort is a homerun at the box office.

Born as Wu Yu Sen in 1946 in Guang Zhou, China, his first grade English teacher suggested he take on a Christian name. He admired John the Baptist, so he chose John. The religious significance surfaces as a recurring theme in many of his films including MI2. This latest actioner features Tom Cruise as secret agent Ethan Hunt and Dougray Scott as Hunt's former colleague Sean Ambrose, turned mad terrorist, who holds the world at ransom with the deadly Chimera virus. Although the film's script is defiantly under par, its ineptness fortunately can't undermine our anticipation for the expected 'High Noonish' showdown of two men who have to do what two men have to do amidst a mind boggling symphony of explosions, dancing cars, motorcycle mayhem, Woo's deliciously visceral patented pyrotechnical ballet and a mano-a-mano pugilistic finale that will wow Cruise fans. However, if you have a collection of 3000 Chinese martial art films, the fight is nothing new. Incidentally, the same holds true for THE MATRIX.

John had recently returned from scouting locations in Hawaii, so over the Memorial Day Weekend he took time out (I mean a lot of time out) from his hectic, non-stop schedule to speak with me and share some thoughts about MI2 and his next film, along with a few other juicy tid-bits of info.

FANDOM: HAWAII, AYE? WAS THAT FOR 'WIND TALKERS?'

WOO: Yes, it was for scouting. It's one of my dreams projects and is totally a different thing for me, and it's certainly not like MISSION 2 or THE KILLER. It's a very human-moved story.

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN WAR STORIES?

Yes, but in actuality, I'm interested in all kinds of movies; basically, as long as the movie has some kind of meaning and the meaning can fit into my philosophy and thoughts, then I like to do it. Like this war movie is all about friendship and understanding; it's not the usual action film. It's more about that people make mistakesthat's why they make warand people just hating and killing each other for nothing, and people can't get along together because there is a lot of misunderstanding and they make a lot of mistakes. So what I am trying to do with this film, and it's the good thing about this script, is that we have to learn from each other and stick together.


INTERESTING, BECAUSE THE FILM DEALS WITH TWO MEN, AND MANY OF YOUR FILMS ARE ENERGIZED BY THE BOND OF HONOR AND THE SUBSEQUENT RIVALRY.

Yes, good point, and this is the same.

YOU USUALLY HAVE AN ANTI-HERO THAT DOES WRONG BUT TRIES TO MAKE AMENDS LATER, BUT IN MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2 AUDIENCES ARE THROWN INTO AN IMMEDIATE MALE-FEMALE LOVE RELATIONSHIPA DIFFERENT DIRECTION FOR YOU.

Yes.

SO I'M CURIOUS. DOES THAT AFFECT YOUR APPROACH AS A FILMMAKER FOR MISSION 2 SAY COMPARED TO 'THE KILLER' OR 'HARD BOILED?'

No, it's no difference to me, man to man or woman to man; it's the same to me [laughs]. They can all be friends, and they also have some interesting things to do. So with WIND TALKERS it's a friendship between a white man who is a marine [Nicholas Cage] and a Navaho code talker. In World War II Americans were using the Navaho people as code talkers, using their language as their code so the Japanese couldn't break it. In the beginning there is a little misunderstanding and they are learning from each other and they become friends. So the story is about how they work together and get more understanding.

DID YOU EVER WATCH MISSION IMPOSSIBLE WHEN YOU WERE A KID?

I did, I did. I like the show a lot; it was so interesting [with] lots of surprises in the show and that is what we were trying to do in this one. Because in MISSION 2, since Tom [Cruise] said it's not a sequel, it's a totally John Woo movie, so what he wants is another new style for the film. So each episode of the show has different directors with their different director styles, so maybe the next film will be James Cameron or something like that. So in this one, we wanted to keep the same spirit of the TV show like the makeup and suspense, twists, and teamwork stuff, but we wanted to add more like some of my old things like the gun battles, action, the car and motorbike stunts and the romance. Because in the old TV show there was no romance or even the clear character, so in this film we tried to go beyond that to try to have more of the character and more of the drama. I think this is a spy movie, but I also just want to make a love story.

SOME CRITICS FEEL MI2 IS MORE OF A JAMES BOND MOVIE. IN YOUR EYES, IS THAT A FAIR ASSESSMENT?

No. We try to avoid it; that is why we work real hard trying to make Ethan Hunt as a real human being. He has passion, love; he cares about people, and he enjoys nature and enjoys life. And that is what is different from James Bond, and then when he is in love, he was truly in love. We didn't play by the rules because the spies are really never in love with anyone; they are cold blooded, because they train for this. So we try to make different from James Bond, but there will always be people that feel there was some humor elements in the movie and action pretty much [LIKE] James Bond. But this is okay. We try very hard to make it different from the Bond film.

YOU ALSO SEEMED TO REINVENT TOM CRUISE'S CHARACTER, THE LONGER HAIR, UNSHAVEN. WAS THAT ON PURPOSE?

Yes. We want to make him more charming and more young. I feel for the first one, his character was a little bit too cold and one-dimensional. So for this one, for his look we want to make him more charming and have great energy and [let] him smile. In the first one, I never see him smile.

LIKE A BOND MOVIE.

Yes. Tom is a very charming guy, and we try to make him a bit more natural, so that is why we create the rock-climbing scene, because it introduces him as a new character. So here we are telling the audience that this young guy enjoys nature, has a passion about life; he has dreams, charm, like a young man of the world. We really did it on purpose. The other thing was also when he was in love, he really was in love. So it's a romantic spy film where Tom is a real hero who really cares about what he believes and who he loves. So it's not just about saving the world but saving the girl.

THAT ROCK CLIMBING THING AT THE BEGINNING IS VERY SCARY LOOKING TO ME; I'M AFRAID OF HEIGHTS.

Me, too [laughs].

HOW MUCH OF THAT WAS SPECIAL EFFECT AND REALLY TOM CRUISE HANGING ON THE CLIFF, AND HOW HIGH UP WAS HE?

Okay, let me tell you, that was him really climbing and really jumping, and we only give him the one safety cable for protection. The cable didn't help for the action but was there just for safety, and he still needs to do the real climbing and the real jump. The cable is in case he fell. So the cliff was 2,000 feet high, and it was really Tom and there was no protection on the ground. I mean for 2,000 feet high how can you get an air bag under there. And there was no transportation that could go down there. So Tom did it all, and I have to admit it really scared me. We were filming on top of a nearby cliff and that we could drive up to. We set up 5 cameras on the top but really only one angle to shoot it. We were using a crane to extend from out of the cliff to get the shot, and we also used a helicopter camera to get the climbing stuff. We had two cameramen extend half of their body holding the camera or hand-held to get the shot. It was all pretty critical.

For the one shot when Tom jumps from the wall to the ridge, I was set up for the stunt double to do it, and Tom refused and wanted to do it for himself. I said, 'Tom we will only be seeing your back and profile.' He said no, no, no; he wanted to do everything by himself. I was so scared; it was really dangerous. Because he feels that he has seen so many action movies and when you look at the film carefully, you can see which shot is done by the double and which shot is done by the actor, and you can tell the difference.

EVEN FOR JACKIE CHAN NOW.

Yes, even for him. So when we did the shot, I was so scared, and I couldn't bear to watch the monitor; I had to close my eyes and wait for him to do it and pray to God. I didn't want him to get hurt, and it's 2,000 feet high. And then after the shot was done and I yelled to my stunt coordinator, 'Hey, how is Tom?' He'd yell back that Tom is fine, and then Tom would yell back to me hanging in the middle of the cliff [louder], 'John, don't worry; I'm fine; I want to do it one more time.' Some of the cameras are hard to get the perfect shot, so he ended up doing it seven times until we got the perfect shot. Of course some of the shots when he was sliding off the cliffthere were a couple of moments when it was the stunt double, but the hanging stuff and the close-up of him slipping off the cliff, that was Tom.

HAS HE ROCK CLIMBED BEFORE?

I don't think he trained for it, but he had done some minor climbing before, but not like this.

YOU JUST MENTIONED TOM IS AWARE OF HOW YOU CAN TELL IT ISN'T A STUNT DOUBLE. WHEN HE DID THE FIGHTS, WAS HE INFLUENCED BY KEANU REEVES TRYING TO DO ALL HIS OWN FIGHT SEQUENCES IN THE MATRIX?

No, no. That was my idea. When we were working on the script, I'm thinking that the ending has to be a lot stronger; it's a battle between the good and the evil, and I need these two guys to be fighting like animals. I want to sell Ethan Hunt and Tom Cruise's strength and his power, so I was suggesting using a fist-to-fist fight. I suggested to Tom that after the fist fight at the end of the movie, 'you do the triple jump in the air,' so he can jump in the air and do the double kick on Dougray's chest and face. And so he goes, 'Great, great, good idea.' So then he mentions that he loved Bruce Lee and always wanted to do something like Bruce, and of course I thought that was great. So that is why I designed some of the kicks, the spinning kick, the scissor kick like Bruce Lee. He didn't have to do any special training for it. He is very athletic and maybe he has learned some gymnastic things. But every action, kick or flip, he just watched and would learn it on the set. He just watched the stunt coordinator and the stunt double demonstrate once how to flip, and then he would do it by himself.