Mission: Impossible is sneaking onto Tubi soon
The first Ethan Hunt movie still moves like a trap snapping shut in slow motion.
Remind MeBefore the masks, motorcycle stunts, and increasingly wild global set pieces became franchise tradition, there was Brian De Palma’s 1996 spy thriller. Mission: Impossible turned a classic TV property into a sleek, paranoid movie machine and gave Tom Cruise one of his defining roles.
This is the one with the vault. The wires. The exploding gum. The sense that every phone call, hallway, and friendly face might be part of the trap. Ethan Hunt is framed after a mission collapses, and the movie turns his fight to clear his name into a precision-built game of pressure and misdirection.
Mission: Impossible arrives on Tubi soon, which means it is time to get ready for the chapter that started one of action cinema’s most durable obsessions.
The Cast
Tom Cruise
Cruise plays Ethan Hunt at the exact moment the character becomes a legend. He brings nervous intensity, physical precision, and that particular Ethan quality of thinking three steps ahead while everyone else is already reaching for the trigger.
Jon Voight
Voight gives Jim Phelps the gravity of an old-school spy who has seen every version of betrayal. His presence makes the mission feel bigger than one operation, like Ethan has wandered into a game with rules nobody bothered to explain.
Emmanuelle Béart
Béart plays Claire Phelps with a cool, guarded energy that keeps every conversation slightly off balance. She is central to the emotional pressure of the film, moving through the chaos with a calm that makes you keep watching her eyes.
Ving Rhames
Rhames makes Luther Stickell instantly essential. He brings dry humor, sharp focus, and a grounded intelligence that cuts through the paranoia. The movie gets a jolt when Luther enters, because suddenly Ethan has someone who can actually keep up.
“Trust no file, trust no room, trust no friendly face.”
Sneak Peek
Why Watch It
Mission: Impossible is worth having on your list because it plays spycraft like a magic trick. De Palma builds tension out of silence, glances, reflections, and rooms where one wrong breath can end everything. It is action with nerves, not just noise.
It is also a blast to revisit as the origin point for Ethan Hunt. Cruise is already throwing himself into the danger, but this version of Ethan is more cornered, more uncertain, and more fun to watch because he has not yet become the unstoppable force we know later.
If you like twisty thrillers, clean practical tension, and heist sequences that make your shoulders climb up to your ears, this is the drop to keep an eye on. Mission: Impossible is coming soon to Tubi.
More details
Brian De Palma
Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Béart, Henry Czerny, Jean Reno, Ving Rhames
Coming soon to Tubi