14 September 2023

Tom Cruise and the IMF gang are back with another Mission: Impossible blockbuster, set to hit the screen in July. And not only that, it’s going to be epic – Dead Reckoning is just Part One of the seventh film in the franchise – you’ll have to wait nearly a whole year for the second part to drop.

In the meantime, what can we expect from the soundtrack, and what’s made the music from Mission: Impossible’s previous scores and soundtracks such an essential part of the MI experience?

Plus, Scottish composer Lorne Balfe – who will become synonymous with Mission: Impossible following his work on Fallout and both parts of the upcoming Dead Reckoning –has been working with us. Balfe’s exclusive collection of music means you can get ahead of the competition by licensing that ‘Hollywood sound’ for your own projects…

• Mission: Impossible (1996)
• Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)
• Mission: Impossible III (2006)
• Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
• Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)
• Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two (2024)

Mission: Impossible (1996)

The original Mission: Impossible was a TV series that ran in the US from 1966 to 1973. It was revived in 1988 for two seasons, but it was Tom Cruise’s reboot that really put the story of a covert team of secret government agents on the map in 1996. Not to mention kick-starting a franchise that’s earned over $3.5 billion to date globally.

Cruise plays Ethan Hunt, an agent of the Impossible Missions Force (aka the IMF), tasked with taking down some of the world’s biggest bad guys. The first film was directed by Brian De Palma (Scarface, Carlito’s Way) and used Lalo Schifrin’s iconic original ‘Theme from Mission: Impossible’, together with a score by composer Danny Elfman. The latter composed new themes for the characters of Ethan Hunt, Claire and the IMF.

Mission: Impossible music of course has to begin with one of the best-loved theme tunes of all time. U2 bandmates Larry Mullen Jr and Adam Clayton were fans of the original TV show and knew the theme well. Clayton put together a version, as did Mullen – Polygram were thrilled with both, and ended up with seven tracks (including remixes), which appeared on a limited-edition vinyl release.

Mullen revealed that, ‘The initial request came for U2 to do a version of it and we couldn’t because we were in the middle of recording Pop. Adam and I thought it might be worthwhile having a bash at it (alone). There was no reference to U2, so it took the pressure off us on one level and the expectations that this was going to be some rock track, basically giving us the licence to do whatever we wanted.’

Clayton’s way into the theme was that, ‘it’s got to have that slightly exotic feeling of going to a foreign place and being in danger. It’s got to get your heartbeat going. Certainly, the music that Lalo wrote fitted that bill. Even when I was a kid, I’ve always been able to remember it.’

U2’s version, as well as Schifrin’s version, as performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, were nominees for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance.

The full soundtrack album contains 15 tracks, as below; however, only five are heard in the movie – the theme music, the Cranberries’ ‘Dreams’ and the three Danny Elfman score suites.

1. ‘Theme from Mission: Impossible’ – Larry Mullen & Adam Clayton
2. ‘Spying Glass’ – Massive Attack
3. ‘I Spy’ – Pulp
4. ‘Impossible Mission’ – Danny Elfman
5. ‘Headphones’ – Björk
6. ‘Weak’ – Skunk Anansie
7. ‘On and On’ – Longpigs
8. ‘Claire’ – Danny Elfman
9. ‘Dreams’ (Radio Edit) – The Cranberries
10. ‘You, Me and World War III’ (‘Big’ Single Remix) – Gavin Friday
11. ‘So’ – Salt
12. ‘Trouble’ – Danny Elfman
13. ‘No Government’ – Nicolette
14. ‘Alright’ – Cast
15. ‘Mission: Impossible Theme (Mission Accomplished)’ – Adam Clayton & Larry Mullen

In the final scene, as Ethan flies home having saved the day, a flight attendant approaches him and offers him a new mission… Cue theme – heralding the start of a billion-dollar franchise going forward.

Want to know where it all began? The original Mission: Impossible theme composer Lalo Schifrin revealed to CNMS Archive that for the TV series, he suggested, ‘one theme only, like a paramilitary operation with a suspenseful march’ to emphasise the team aspect of the show. His brief from the director was ‘something very exciting; something really light, not like the background music, which is really serious.’ He wanted a theme with ‘a lot of rhythm, vigour… something rhythmically exciting’. There are Latin jazz influences (Schifrin was a jazz musician who played with Dizzy Gillespie), together with its distinct percussion and odd 4/5 rhythm.

Mission: Impossible II (2000)

The second Mission: Impossible outing was directed by action maestro John Woo (Hard Boiled, Face/Off) and added Ving Rhames to the IMF crew, playing computer-hacker Luther Stickell. Ethan Hunt joins forces with professional thief Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandiwe Newton) to find a genetically modified disease held by rogue IMF agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott).

The sequel became the highest-grossing film of 2000 and featured the kind of action sequences that fans have come to love – including that jaw-dropping free-climbing opener, at the end of which, Ethan receives his mission and then the theme tune and title sequence kicks in.

The trailer showcases Limp Bizkit’s punched-up version of the main theme; the film’s original score was composed by Hans Zimmer and features vocals performed by Lisa Gerrard.

The tracks by Zimmer are:

1. ‘Hijack’
2. ‘Seville’
3. ‘Nyah’
4. ‘Mission: Impossible Theme’
5. ‘The Heist’
6. ‘Ambrose’
7. ‘Bio-Techno’
8. ‘Injection’
9. ‘Bare Island’
10. ‘Chimera’
11. ‘The Bait’
12. ‘Mano a Mano’
13. ‘Mission: Accomplished’
14. ‘Nyah and Ethan’

Together with a track by Zap Mama, ‘Iko-Iko’.

The metal and rock-heavy soundtrack album features tracks by Metallica, the Foo Fighters and Brian May, Chris Cornell and Tori Amos.

1. ‘Take a Look Around (Theme from M:I-2)’ – Limp Bizkit
2. ‘I Disappear’ – Metallica
3. ‘Scum of the Earth’ – Rob Zombie
4. ‘They Came In’ – Butthole Surfers
5. ‘Rocket Science’ – The Pimps
6. ‘Have a Cigar’ – Foo Fighters and Brian May
7. ‘Mission 2000’ – Chris Cornell
8. ‘Going Down’ – Godsmack
9. ‘What U Lookin’ At?’ – Uncle Kracker
10. ‘Backwards’ – Apartment 26
11. ‘Karma’ – Diffuser
12. ‘Alone’ – Buckcherry
13. ‘Immune’ – Tinfed
14. ‘My Kinda Scene’ – Powderfinger
15. ‘Carnival’ – Tori Amos
16. ‘Nyah’ – Hans Zimmer featuring Heitor Pereira

Mission: Impossible III (2006)

Mission: Impossible III, or M:i:III, if you’re into abbreviations, stormed the box office in 2006. JJ Abrams, previously known for appointment TV such as Lost, made his directorial debut with the third installment. Tom Cruise was joined by Philip Seymour Hoffman, playing elusive arms dealer Owen Davian, Keri Russell, Maggie Q, Laurence Fishburne and Michelle Monaghan.

Way back in 2002, David Fincher was slated to direct, but departed owing to ‘creative differences’. Cruise was a fan of Abrams’ Alias, and he was brought on board to shepherd the production around Shanghai, Berlin, Rome, LA and the Vatican City.

The director wasn’t the only thing that MI switched up – the third composer to take on the Mission: Impossible score was Michael Giacchino, who’s since won an Oscar for his work on Up and has scored everything from Doctor Strange to Star Wars Rogue One, Jojo Rabbit and The Batman. And in another break with tradition, there wasn’t a soundtrack featuring the movie’s contemporary music – but there is a Kanye West track, ‘Impossible’, which also features Twista, Keyshia Cole and BJ.

1. ‘Mission: Impossible Theme’
2. ‘Factory Rescue’
3. ‘Evacuation’
4. ‘Helluvacopter Chase’
5. ‘Special Agent Lindsey Farris’
6. ‘Ethan and Julia’
7. ‘Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Wall’
8. ‘Masking Agent’
9. ‘Voice Capture’
10. ‘See You in the Sewer’
11. ‘Davian’s Brought In’
12. ‘Bridge Battle’
13. ‘Davian Gets the Girl’
14. ‘IMF Escape’
15. ‘Disguise the Limit’
16. ‘Shang Way High’
17. ‘The Chutist’
18. ‘Hunting for Jules’
19. ‘World’s Worst Last 4 Minutes to Live’
20. ‘Reparations’
21. ‘Schifrin and Variations’

Abrams wasn’t playing with the cold open for M:i:III, which cranks the tension and mystery up to 100% within the first three minutes:

The third outing ends with Ethan and wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) heading off on their honeymoon – complete with suitably romantic music – and Ethan pondering a job offer from the White House on his return.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)

The fourth M:I film was directed by Brad Bird, in his live-action debut. The IMF are shut down after being publicly implicated in a bombing of the Kremlin and must clear their names.

The trailer promises all the explosive action and fight sequences we’ve come to expect, with Eminem’s track featuring P!nk, ‘Won’t Back Down’, crunching into a beats-loaded version of the theme.

Michael Giacchino once again took on scoring duties, having worked with Bird on The Incredibles and Ratatouille. The soundtrack has a Russian influence, tying into the plot, and the theme tune was reworked, with Bird asking the composer to make it as ‘modern and hip and energetic and oppressive as you possibly can, and that will just keep the audience busy.’

Variety said that, ‘Giacchino once again supplies jazzy, propulsive riffs on Lalo Schifrin’s classic theme’.

The highest-grossing film in the franchise to date featured Jeremy Renner as intelligence analyst William Brandt, and new IMF field agent Benji Dunn, played by Simon Pegg.

Track Listing:

1. ‘Give her my Budapest’
2. ‘Light the Fuse’
3. ‘Knife to a Gun Fight’
4. ‘In Russia, Phone Dials You’
5. ‘Kremlin with Anticipation’
6. ‘From Russia with Shove’
7. ‘Ghost Protocol’
8. ‘Railcar Rundown’
9. ‘Hendricks’ Manifesto’
10. ‘A Man, A Plan, A Code, Dubai’
11. ‘Love the Glove’
12. ‘The Express Elevator’
13. ‘Mission Impersonatable’
14. ‘Moreau Trouble Than She’s Worth’
15. ‘Out for a Run’
16. ‘Eye of the Wistrom’
17. ‘Mood India’
18. ‘Mumbai’s the Word’
19. ‘Launch is on Hendricks’
20. ‘World’s Worst Parking Valet’
21. ‘Putting the Miss in Mission’
22. ‘Mission: Impossible Theme (Out with a Bang Version)’

The opening scene features a dramatic killing in Budapest by an assassin (Lea Seydoux), followed by a prison escape orchestrated by computer expert Benji (Simon Pegg), including Dean Martin’s ‘Ain’ that a Kick in the Head’ soundtracking a massive running brawl through the corridors. ‘Light the fuse’, Ethan tells his colleague, ushering in the theme.

The standout scene is undoubtedly the stunning Burj Khalifa sequence, which showcases an almost Bond-esque soundtrack, Giacchino’s ‘A Man, A Plan, A Code, Dubai’, which also brings in elements of the classic Schifrin theme.

The final scene has Ethan revealing to Brandt that he faked Julia’s death to keep her safe, with a solemn piano and strings score (‘Putting the Miss in Mission’) as he watches over her from a distance.

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)

Anti-IMF The Syndicate, an international black ops terrorist organization composed of rogue government agents from all over the world, are the team’s newest enemy in Rogue Nation.

The trailer uses an ominously re-worked version of the Fugees’ ‘Ready or Not’, as well as the theme, and introduces a fabulous plane stunt to hook you from the get-go.

And when that plane sequence is the first thing out of the Rogue Nation blocks, you know you’re in for a wilder ride than ever before.

The fifth installment was directed by Christopher McQuarrie, with Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames all returning to the fold, joined by Alec Baldwin, Sean Harris and Rebecca Ferguson.

The musical score was composed by Joe Kraemer, who’d previously collaborated with McQuarrie on The Way of the Gun and Jack Reacher. Three tracks, ‘Escape to Danger’, ‘A Matter of Going’ and ‘Finale and Curtain Call’ all interpolate Puccini’s Nessun Dorma aria from Turandot in the key opera house scene, which definitely ranks as one of the best uses of classical music on the big screen:

Kraemer wanted to put his own spin on Lalo Schifrin’s theme by paying homage to the original TV show: ‘So, I went back and looked at the pilot, then many episodes from the early seasons. And decided that I would make a score that could have been recorded for the pilot, in the sense that I didn’t want to use any sounds that weren’t available to Lalo Schifrin when he scored it. Which meant no synthesisers, no drum machines, no techno loops. Everything was done with acoustic instruments recorded in a symphonic setting. Which is essentially how Lalo did the pilot. What I felt was that it would help me sound sort of retro, but it wouldn’t limit what I could write. It would only limit how I could achieve it.’

For the rest of the score, Kraemer was inspired by minimalist composers like Philip Glass and Steve Reich, using instruments in unconventional ways to create new sounds. For an underwater sequence, for example, he used a piano with an extra octave at the lower end and muffled the lowest string with a towel to produce a repetitive thumping sound like an engine.

Track Listing:

1. ‘The A400’
2. ‘Solomon Lane’
3. ‘Good Evening, Mr Hunt’
4. ‘Escape to Danger’
5. ‘Havana to Vienna’
6. ‘A Flight at the Opera’
7. ‘The Syndicate’
8. ‘The Plan’
9. ‘The Torus’
10. ‘Morocco Pursuit’
11. ‘Grave Consequences’
12. ‘A Matter of Going’
13. ‘The Blenheim Sequence’
14. ‘Audience with the Prime Minister’
15. ‘A Foggy Night in London’
16. ‘Meet the IMF’
17. ‘Finale and Curtain Call’

The final scenes show the team outwitting Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) and capturing him, then Ethan saying farewell to MI6 agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), which includes elements of both Turandot and the theme.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)

Christopher McQuarrie was back to both write and direct the sixth installment of Mission: Impossible, in which Ethan and the IMF go head-to-head with the Apostles, a bioterrorist offshoot of the Syndicate. The first director to return to the franchise delivered what fans and critics hailed as not only the best installment, but also one of the best action films of the decade. It also became the highest-grossing film of Tom Cruise’s career until Top Gun: Maverick.

The core cast was joined by Henry Cavill, Angela Bassett and Vanessa Kirby, with Sean Harris returning as Solomon Lane.

Composer Lorne Balfe was brought in for Fallout, and created an epic, inspiring score, with many comparing it to Hans Zimmer’s The Dark Knight Rises. For our money, it’s one of the best Mission: Impossible soundtracks.

The Scottish composer has worked on everything from movies to TV and video games, including The Lego Batman Movie, The Dark Knight, His Dark Materials, Dopesick, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and FIFA 19. Balfe has collaborated with Hans Zimmer on a variety of projects, including Tom Cruise’s other epic blockbuster, Top Gun: Maverick.

Light the Fuse podcast interviewed Lorne in his studio about composing the score, and how he’s been thinking about different things to do with the theme (‘one of the most memorable themes of all time’), as he’s watched each film in the series, together with the challenges of writing at the same time as Fallout was being edited:

Balfe brought in choral elements to the main theme for the closing credits, taking inspiration from a Tavener piece, with the vocals sung in Latin; the score overall shows off a much ‘darker’ side of Ethan, as the stakes get ever higher. (Do stakes get much higher than the nailbiting final sequence as Ethan and the IMF battle to stop a nuclear explosion?) Lorne Balfe ups the ante with a percussion-driven piece, ‘Cutting on One’, as there’s a call-back to Mission: Impossible 2’s rock-climbing sequence.

Track Listing:

1. ‘A Storm is Coming’
2. ‘Your Mission’
3. ‘Should You Choose to Accept’
4. ‘The Manifesto’
5. ‘Good Evening, Mr Hunt’
6. ‘Change of Plan’
7. ‘A Terrible Choice’
8. ‘Fallout’
9. ‘Stairs and Rooftops’
10. ‘No Hard Feelings’
11. ‘Free Fall’
12. ‘The White Widow’
13. ‘I Am the Storm’
14. ‘The Exchange’
15. ‘Steps Ahead’
16. ‘Escape Through Paris’
17. ‘We are Never Free’
18. ‘Kashmir’
19. ‘Fate Whispers to the Warrior’
20. ‘And the Warrior Whispers Back’
21. ‘Unfinished Business’
22. ‘Scalpel and Hammer’
23. ‘The Syndicate’
24. ‘Cutting on One’
25. ‘The Last Resort’
26. ‘Mission: Accomplished’

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

When M:I director and writer Christopher McQuarrie, who, let’s not forget, oversaw Tom Cruise jumping out of a plane over 100 times for Fallout, tells Empire, ‘If we’d known the challenges, we’d never have done it’, you know Dead Reckoning Part One is going to be the most ambitious Mission: Impossible yet.

With each Mission: Impossible, the action stakes get ever higher, and for this seventh outing, McQuarrie and Cruise are promising end-to-end, edge-of-your-seat thrills:

The core cast is joined by Captain America’s Hayley Atwell, Guardians of the Galaxy’s Pom Klementieff and Esai Morales playing villain Gabriel. Ethan and his IMF team embark on their most dangerous mission to date: to track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands.

Dark forces from Ethan’s past are also closing in, resulting in a deadly race around the globe, and he’s forced to consider that nothing can matter more than his mission – not even the lives of those he cares about most… This summer’s biggest movie? You wouldn’t bet against it.

Plus, composer Lorne Balfe returns to take on scoring duties.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two (2024)

The Dead Reckoning sequel was shot back-to-back with Part One, but you’ll have to wait ‘til the end of June 2024 to see it on the big screen. Will this be Tom Cruise’s final outing as Ethan Hunt? By the time the film’s released, he’ll have been playing the character for over 28 years; everyone’s expecting this eighth outing to be the last.

So far, all we really know is the cast list, with everyone from Part One returning, together with Mark Gatiss, Janet McTeer, Hannah Waddingham and Lucy Tulugarjuk, in undisclosed roles. Plus, Lorne Balfe will be composing another incredible soundtrack.

The Lorne Balfe Collection

Curated by blockbuster film, TV and video games composer Lorne Balfe, this is the real sound of Hollywood.

Experience hybrid orchestral music on an epic scale, recorded at the world’s finest studios with industry-leading musicians, and created in collaboration with the collective behind scores for Top Gun: Maverick, Mission Impossible, Black Widow, Black Adam, His Dark Materials and more.

The Best Soundtracks in Cinema

Want more deep dives? Check out the biggest-selling movie soundtracks in history; the best love songs in cinema; the names to know in terms of movie composers and some names to rival Mission: Impossible for fantastic action movie soundtracks.