Trivia

According to Robert Towne, much of his script was written around action scenes that director John Woo told him he wanted to able to direct in the movie.

The role of Nyah was written with Thandie Newton in mind.

The song playing during the rock-climbing scene at the beginning is “Iko Iko”, which also plays over the opening credits of Rain Man, also starring Tom Cruise and scored by Hans Zimmer.

Inflicting injury by cigar-cutter, and disguising one of the bad guys as the hero so that other bad guys will kill him, are devices in this film that both previously appeared in Darkman.

Shipped to theaters under the fictitious name “Doll House” to deter potential thieves.

During the shoot out at the Biocyte Towers, Ethan orders Nyah to “stay alive” and promptly dives out of the building through a hole in the wall. This appears to be an homage to the scene in Last of the Mohicans when Daniel Day-Lewis orders Madeleine Stowe to “stay alive” before promptly diving off the cliff through a waterfall.

Dougray Scott was originally slated to play Wolverine in X-Men, but had to pull out when M:I2 shooting went overtime.

Oliver Stone was the first director attached to this film in the period after the first film’s release. He reportedly wrote a treatment but backed out due to scheduling conflicts due to Tom Cruise’s prolonged stint on Eyes Wide Shut.

For the “knife-in-the-eye” scene, Tom Cruise insisted that a real knife be used, and that it stop exactly one quarter inch from his eyeball, instead of somewhere vaguely near his eye, as John Woo suggested. The knife itself was connected to a cable that was measured carefully in order to achieve the effect and Cruise insisted that Dougray Scott use all his strength in the ensuing struggle.

Two references to Stanley Kubrick: The sentence “so you are sorry and I am sorry” (the president’s phone call in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb) and the killing of the virus, with light and display warnings, like the killing of the hibernating astronauts in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Sean Ambrose’s line about the perils of imitating Ethan Hunt (“grinning like an idiot every 15 minutes”) is reminiscent of dialogue exchanged between Castor Troy and Sean Archer, who both disguised themselves as each other in Face/Off.

Nyah Nordhoff-Hall is named after writers Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall, who are famous for their based-on-a-true-story novel “Mutiny on the Bounty”.

Anthony Hopkins’ character becomes the first person in any Mission Impossible episode or movie to actually use the phrase “mission: impossible”. Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga also wrote the screenplay for Star Trek: First Contact which featured the first use in dialogue of the phrase “star trek”.

The part of Mission Commander Swanbeck was originally offered to Ian McKellen. He was not able to accept the role, due to a prior theatre engagement in London and the part eventually went to Anthony Hopkins.

Luther Stickell’s line “It’s that simple, huh?” after hearing Ethan Hunt’s explanation of what he thinks “Chimera” is was a joke about Mission: Impossible, which was widely criticized for having an overly complicated plot.

Tom Cruise’s then-wife Nicole Kidman suggested Thandie Newton (Kidman’s co-star in Flirting) as the love interest for Ethan Hunt. She was cast before the script was written.

The scene where Ethan meets Nyah for the first time is inspired by a similar scene in West Side Story where everything blurs away except for the two main characters, staring at each other. Time slows down and, for a moment, it seems like the lovers are the only two people in the room.

At Hunt’s meeting with Anthony Hopkins, Hopkins offers him an espresso or cappuccino. At the preliminary meeting with Jim Phelps in Mission: Impossible, Hunt asked if they could get a cappuccino machine.

Both Tom Cruise and John Woo attended a test screening of this movie in Warrenville, IL.

Director Trademark: [John Woo] [guns] Ethan Hunt uses a gun in each hand.

Director Trademark: [John Woo] [slow motion]

Andrew Lesnie was the film’s original cinematographer. He left less than a month into shooting, due to “stylistic differences” with director John Woo.

The famous rock climbing sequence was filmed at Dead Horse Point in Utah. Tom Cruise was on cables which were then digitally removed. Ron Kauk was the climbing double and the overhang stunt was performed by main stunt double, Keith Campbell. John Woo was so scared each time but “Tom insisted on doing it”.

Directors Trademark (John Woo):[Doves]

Directors Trademark (John Woo):[rainbow]

Stuart Baird did uncredited re-editing work on this film and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider for Paramount in order to get the job of directing Star Trek: Nemesis.

Triumph Motorcycles supplied the Speed Triple and Daytona models used as Tom Cruise and Dougray Scott’s rides respectively.

John Woo’s final cut of the film clocked in at 3 1/2 hours. The studio balked at this length and told him that the final length could not exceed 120 min. This could explain why there are so many plot holes and continuity errors in the theatrical cut.

This was is the first movie that the band Metallica ever agreed to write a song for. The band also contributed a song to the soundtrack of South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut, which was released before MI:2.

The scene where Tom Cruise “peels off his face” to reveal Dougray Scott was achieved in one shot by shooting both actors against a green screen. Cruise, not wearing a mask, was simply told to place his hand in a pre-arranged position under his chin then pull his hand across his face. Scott wore a plain mask with sensors that could provide a computer with a three-dimensional view of his face. He then peeled off this mask to finish the scene. Cruise’s face was superimposed on the mask as it is pulled away and the two images morphed together in the computer; the background of the 747 cabin was added in to replace the green screen. (Watch the scene with frame advance and you will see a slight transitional ‘swirl’ on the mask halfway through the scene). Kevin Yagher contributed some more traditional latex mask effects for other face-peeling scenes.

The movie initially was rated “R”, but was re rated “PG-13″ after many action scenes were cut and the violence was trimmed down considerably.

Picture editor Tony Ciccone was badly injured in a motorcycle accident on his way to work and was unable to finish the movie. It took almost a year of physical therapy for him to regain full use of his hands.