“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” vs “Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning – Part 1” = some very interesting coincidences.
WARNING: The following has some mild spoilers from both “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and “Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1”. Although I try not to give away too much of the story from either movie.
The recent movie releases “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and “Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1” are completely different movies. They both have completely different plots. They’re even set in different times (1969 for most of Indiana Jones, current time for Mission Impossible). However, there are several somewhat odd coincidences that connect the two movies.
The first thing is that both movies are the latest in a franchise of movies and TV shows. The latest Indiana Jones movie is the 5th movie in a franchise that also had the short lived “Young Indiana Jones Chronicles”. The latest Mission Impossible is the 7th movie in a franchise that was originally a TV series.
The stars of both movies’ franchises are ALMOST EXACTLY 20 apart in age. Harrison Ford was born on July 13, 1942. Tom Cruise was born on July 3,1962 (10 days shy of being 20 years later) Some people say that both actors are a little too old to be in action movies (Harrison Ford in his early 80s might be much more than “a little” too old). Also, both men are two of the best actors in the movie industry yet neither have won an Academy Award. Harrison Ford was nominated once, Tom Cruise was nominated 3 times (and has 1 nomination as a producer on a best picture nominee). Another coincidence is that the next movie for both actors that are scheduled to be released in the summer 2024 are now on hold due to the strikes. Harrison Ford is almost finished with “Captain America Brave New World” (I think filming may be done on that movie, but I’m not sure) and Tom Cruise is almost finished with “Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning – Part 2” (I think there is still a little bit of filming left).
You’re probably thinking that all of the above is sort of interesting but what does that have to do with the two different movies. (Warning – some minor spoilers are coming if you haven’t seen both movies). The first similarity in both movies is that they both have a flashback scene where people look younger. In “Indiana Jones” it’s a rather long scene at the start of the movie. According to reports, they used digital technology to make Harrison Ford look younger. They took footage of him from past movies and digitally replaced his current face in the shots. Also according to news reports, they were thinking about using the same technology for a flashback scene in “Mission Impossible” – some news even say they were considering having Julia Roberts “de-aged” for the same scene – but they decided to just have brief flashback shots and I believe they mostly used makeup and maybe some prosthetics to make the actors look younger in the brief scenes. There’s a possibility that the part 2 movie might have more flashback scenes in it.
The second similarity is that both movies have a long scene on a train. In “Indiana Jones” it’s at the start of the movie and in “Mission Impossible” it’s at the end of the movie. Both scenes include people standing on top of a fast-moving train (I never knew it was that easy to stand on top of a speeding train but that’s another story). Both scenes conclude with the train crashing due to a bridge exploding. Once again, I think the “Indiana Jones” scene included a lot of digital effects while – according to reports – they didn’t use as much CGI in the “Mission Impossible” train crash.
The third similarity is an extended chase scene in both movies. I will admit that the chase scenes are in different cities and in different types of vehicles. The scene from “Indiana Jones” has Indy and a couple other people chasing someone while other people are chasing them. In “Mission Impossible” Tom Cruise and another person being chased by several people.
However, both are extended chases scenes down several streets and a few stairways. The scenes seem even more similar if you went to the CinemaCon convention earlier this year (which I did). At the Disney presentation at CinemaCon, they showed the chase scene from “Indiana Jones”. Then at the Paramount presentation they showed the chase scene from “Mission Impossible”. I even heard one person at the convention remark “the scenes looked identical”.
The one final similarity of both movies is a brief scene in a subway. In “Indiana Jones” he’s on a horse running through a subway (you can see the scene in the trailer for the movie). In “Mission Impossible” his car has crashed onto the subway track. Both escape the subway tracks seconds before a subway car will hit them.
If you look at the movie releases there’s even a few more similarities. They were both postponed a few times due to the COVID pandemic and then they ended up being released within 2 weeks of each other. They both are the longest movie in their respective franchises, and they have similar running times – “Indiana Jones” is 2 hours 34 minutes and “Mission Impossible” is just 9 minutes longer at 2 hours 43 minutes.
Finally, their current domestic box office totals are somewhat similar. As of today, the domestic box office total for “Indiana Jones” is $169 million while “Mission Impossible” is $144 million. However, the latter movie is doing better internationally. “Mission Impossible” current worldwide total is $453 million. “Indiana Jones” is trailing by about $100 million because with a current worldwide total of $358 million.
Personally, there’s one final similarity. Those 2 movies are the ONLY movies I’ve seen TWICE this summer. I saw “Indiana Jones” in Dolby Vision (where the digital de-aging did not look good) and then I saw it again in IMAX (where it looked a better). I also saw “Mission Impossible” in Dolby Vision and then I saw it not too long ago in a regular theater (since “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” have taken over all the best movie theater screens).
I want to stress again that other than the above coincidences, the two movies are very very different. They both have good scenes and their bad scenes (one of the “Mission Impossible” scenes is VERY bad – see my other article). I liked both movies for completely different reasons, but I didn’t love either movie. A small part of why I didn’t love them is because studios seem to be repeating some types of scenes in several movies like chase scenes. There’s a whole movie franchise – Fast and the Furious – which has several different chase scenes in every movie.
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