Analysis of Mission Impossible The film "Mission Impossible", directed by Brian De Palma, was released in 2001 with actors of the caliber of Tom Cruise, Jon Voight and Emmanuelle Beart. It is an action thriller, based on the story of an American agent who, under false suspicion of disloyalty, must discover and unmask the real spy without the help of his organization. The film stars Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt (protagonist), part of a team of intelligence agents, based on the 1960s TV series. It incorporates large amounts of action within a complex and intelligent plot. The audience the film is aimed at will most likely be younger people (13-26 years old) or people with a modern lifestyle as the content of the film is fast-paced and exciting, as well as being technologically advanced. The film's PG certification also impacts this audience segment as younger viewers must be considered. The film begins with a title sequence consisting of all the main characters, shots of a lit fuse representing a lack of time in conjunction with the film's theme, and a selection of intriguing action shots from the film. The opening scene of the film directly evolves you as the audience into a current mission of a secret organization where a victim is lured into a fake situation and then drugged by the agents. This allows viewers to immediately be part of the action of the film's theme. Hero portrayal plays an important role in this action thriller and is used for a number of reasons. In this particular story the hero is the character “Ethan Hunt” who displays a collection of typical heroic characteristics throughout the film as well as playing within the typical “hero” storyline. The character faces a series of challenges throughout the film, surviving them all and ultimately achieving his goal. The hero is always portrayed in such a way that the audience becomes attached to him and the story allows the audience to develop hatred for those who work against the hero. Some symbolic techniques are used in the film to demonstrate