Mission: Impossible is a 1996 American action spy film directed by Brian De Palma and produced by and starring Tom Cruise from a screenplay by David Koepp and Robert Towne and story by Koepp and Steven Zaillian. A continuation of the 1966 television series of the same name and its 1988 sequel series (canonically set six years after the latter), it is the first installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. It also stars Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Béart, Henry Czerny, Ving Rhames, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vanessa Redgrave, and Jean Reno. In Mission: Impossible, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) seeks to uncover who framed him for the murders of most of his Impossible Missions Force (IMF) team. Numerous efforts by Paramount Pictures to create a film adaptation of the television series stalled until Cruise founded Cruise/Wagner Productions and decided on Mission: Impossible as its inaugural project. Development initially began with filmmaker Sydney Pollack but most of the final screenplay was complete after De Palma, Steven Zaillian, David Koepp, and Robert Towne were hired; De Palma also designed most of the action sequences, while Cruise did most of his own stunts. Principal photography began in March 1995 and had lasted until that August, with filming locations including London, Pinewood Studios in England, and Prague (a rarity in Hollywood at the time). Mission: Impossible was theatrically released in the United States by Paramount on May 22, 1996. The film received generally mixed to positive reviews from critics, with praise for the action sequences, De Palma’s direction and Cruise's performance but criticism for the convoluted plot; cast members of the original television series negatively received the film. The film grossed $457.7 million worldwide, making it the third highest-grossing film of 1996, while the dance rendition of the original theme song by Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton became a top-ten hit internationally and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. The sequel, Mission: Impossible 2, was released in 2000. Plot After finishing a mission in Kiev, Jim Phelps and his latest IMF team are sent to Prague to stop rogue agent Alexander Golitsyn from stealing the CIA NOC list. However, the mission unexpectedly fails after the list is stolen and the team is killed one by one, along with Golitsyn, leaving Phelps's pointman Ethan Hunt the only survivor. Hunt is debriefed by IMF director Eugene Kittridge in a restaurant. Hunt realizes that