MovieChat Forums > Mission: Impossible (1996) Discussion > I still cant believe what they did to Ji...

I still cant believe what they did to Jim Phelps

posted 9 months ago by bozo_500 (13278)
3 replies | jump to latest

Been watching some of the 60s series now showing daily in UK on Legend Channel and its crazy to think that the central character turns out to be the villain on this, its just insanity ..and they actually wanted Peter Graves to do the movie and betray the MI team! lol (see trivia), with the original series cast being the team that get offed at the start leaving only Cruise (I imagine that team would've consisted of Martin Landau, Greg Morris and one or two more from the 60s along with a couple of younger ones: Landau talks about it here https://web.archive.org/web/20091228001842/http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2009/10/29/martin-landau-is-not-interested-in-appearing-in-a-mission-impossible-movie)

Its also perplexing there's no info on if Leonard Nimoy was offered a cameo for MI3/4 (esp his connection with JJ Abrams) unless he was and like Landau turned it down for similar reasons (I imagine that was the case)

Anyway I keep waiting each movie for it to be revealed that it wasn't the real Jim but like a fake doppelganger or something so to restore Phelps/Graves legacy ,but never happens. we'll see with MI8 (considering it has Kitteridge again)

[–] Truthtalker (2010) 7 months ago

agree with you, i was a fan of the 90s tv series

[–] Ismailov (168) 4 months ago

As someone who doesn't mind the movie's plot twist, actually having the original cast return would be overkill IMO. I think having Jon Voight as Phelps and having a different team from the original series allowed for a necessary distance between the show and the movie. Having Peter Graves and original cast members reunite only for the latter to be murdered by Phelps (and the only survivor being some new team member played by Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise) would generate a lot more criticism among moviegoers.

[–] Pellam33 (420) 3 months ago

Simple, Voight didn't want to return for more sequels so he bit the bullet. Happens all the time.