20 Things You Didn't Know About Mission Impossible 2
Celebrating 20 years of Tom Cruise hanging from a rock.
Ah Mission: Impossible 2, for many the black sheep of the MI franchise. Released in 2000 to huge commercial success, it wasn't so popular with critics and 20 years (and four more impossible missions later) it is largely considered the only bad installment in the saga.
It's hardly a terrible movie but between the poor pacing, lack of substance and the god-awful Limp Bizkit music, it hasn't held up well.
That being said there's a lot to like about MI2 and it has turned out to be hugely significant for the rest of the franchise. After all, it was this movie that popularised the Tom Cruise hangs from something cliche, the Tom Cruise rides a motorcycle cliche and the Tom Cruise has long hair cliche.
And its influence reaches way beyond Cruise cliches, with production problems having some unexpected but hugely impactful consequences for the entire entertainment industry.
Your mission should you choose to accept it, is to discover 20 things you may not have known about Mission: Impossible 2....
20. The Highest Grossing Movie Of 2000
Despite its critical detractors, MI2 was a huge hit at the box office. So huge that it ended up topping the worldwide box office of the year 2000 with a gross of $546,388,108, far ahead of its nearest rivals Gladiator and Cast Away.
Looking back, it is surprising to see these three films at the top but don't forget this is the year where What Women Want outperformed X-Men, so anything was possible.
Within the MI franchise, it's one of the more financially successfully movies and it wasn't until the release of the sixth installment, Mission: Impossible - Fallout, in 2018, that it was surpassed at the North American box office.