--- title: "Mission: Impossible II" year: 2000 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/mission-impossible-ii" fi1m_score: 55 critics_score: 50 critics_reviews: 15 published: "2026-09-19T12:36:52.845050+00:00" updated: "2026-09-19T12:36:53.417706+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Mission: Impossible II (2000) Directed by John Woo · 2h 03m · MPA PG-13 · Adventure, Action, Thriller **Fi1m score: 55** · Critics 50 from 15 reviews *In a sentence:* A shampoo advert with a body count, and two or three stunts worth the ticket > John Woo turns the series into a one-man romance with doves and slow motion, and for half an hour, in Utah and Seville, it works. Then the plot arrives, Dougray Scott sulks through it, and two fine set pieces are left to carry the rest. ## Synopsis A scientist, Dr. Nekhorvich (Rade Šerbedžija), boards a flight carrying an engineered virus and its only cure, and the agent escorting him is not the man he appears to be. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is called down from a rock face in Utah and told that Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott), a former colleague, has the virus and means to profit from it. First Hunt must recruit Nyah Hall (Thandiwe Newton), a professional thief, in Seville, which he does over a locked safe, a flamenco festival and a car chase; then he learns why she was chosen, and that she is to be sent to Ambrose in Sydney. Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and Billy Baird (John Polson) join him there, against Ambrose’s lieutenant Hugh Stamp (Richard Roxburgh) and a drug company chief, McCloy (Brendan Gleeson). ## Review Brian De Palma’s *Mission: Impossible* in 1996 was a film about a team, and the first thing John Woo does with the sequel is get rid of the team. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) spends the first half hour more or less alone: on a cliff, in a car, in a bed. Robert Towne’s script, from a story by Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga, takes its shape from the old spy pictures, in which one man is sent after one villain and a woman is passed between them, and takes nothing else. There are no gadgets to speak of, no briefing room, no committee. There is Cruise, his hair, and a great many doves. For a while this is a pleasure. Jeffrey L. Kimball shoots the opening climb in Utah against red rock and a blank sky, and Cruise hangs by his fingertips over a drop the camera keeps reminding us about; we felt it in our stomach, which is more than most openings manage. Seville is better still. Nyah Hall (Thandiwe Newton) is a thief, Hunt is sent to recruit her, and Woo stages the recruitment as a flirtation that runs from a locked safe through a flamenco crowd to two sports cars circling each other on a mountain road at night. Newton plays her as a woman amused to be chased, and she and Cruise have a real charge. Hans Zimmer scores it with Spanish guitar and holds Lalo Schifrin’s theme back until it can do some good. Then the film tells Nyah what she is actually for, and the plot and our patience begin to part company. Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott), a former agent, has stolen an engineered virus and its only cure, and Nyah used to be his lover, so she is to be sent back to him in Sydney as bait. Towne writes this as a moral problem and the film treats it as a delivery schedule. Newton is left to stand about Ambrose’s house looking worried while men explain things to her, and the only person on screen who seems to mind is Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), who has two decent lines about it and is then put in a van. Scott is the larger trouble. Ambrose is written as Hunt’s dark twin, the same training with the manners removed, and Woo underlines the idea with masks, mirrors and a good deal of face-peeling. But Scott plays him as a sulk. He glowers, he clips a colleague’s finger off with a cigar cutter, and he never once seems to be having the fun a villain in a film like this is owed. Richard Roxburgh, as the lieutenant Hugh Stamp, gets more done with a raised eyebrow, and Brendan Gleeson gives McCloy, the drug company chief, a sweaty pomposity the film could have used more of. The set pieces are why the film is remembered and they are the best argument for it. The break-in at McCloy’s tower, Hunt lowered from the roof into a white laboratory while the clock runs, is cut by Steven Kemper and Christian Wagner as tightly as anything in the series, and it ends in a firefight staged the way Woo staged them in Hong Kong: two guns, a slide across the floor, glass going everywhere. The motorbike duel that follows on a coast road is silly and we did not mind. Then the two men leap off their bikes and collide in mid-air, and we laughed out loud, which the film had not planned for. That is the difficulty with Woo’s slow motion here. It is asked to make everything mythic, and about a third of the time it makes it ridiculous instead. Thomas E. Sanders gives Woo clean, expensive rooms to break, and Timothy Everest and Lizzy Gardiner put Cruise in long coats and sunglasses that the wind always seems to find. It looks expensive and it is slow in the middle. At 123 minutes it has a stretch in which people watch other people on monitors, and the doves, when they arrive, arrive in a warehouse for no reason anyone explains. Woo made [*Hard Boiled*](https://film.one/film/hard-boiled) and [*Face/Off*](https://film.one/film/face-off), films in which the excess served a story; here it decorates one that would fit on a postcard. Most critics landed around the middle and so have we. See it for Seville, for the tower and for Newton, who deserved the film the first half hour promised her. The rest can be watched with one eye, and there are stretches where the film seems to be doing the same. *Fi1m score 55, published 19 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (15) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (80/100, inferred): John Woo lavishly displays his mastery of movement and chaos once the action ignites with shattering glass, erupting flames and flying doves, making Cruise one of the film's strongest weapons in a spectacle of irrational transformation. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-may-24-ca-33278-story.html) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (3/4): The film is more evolved and confident than its predecessor in marrying minimal character development to seamless action, making Ethan Hunt a 007 for our time. It is efficient and global but lacks the pure fun of Bond pictures. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mission-impossible-ii-2000) - **Total Film** (75/100, inferred): The retrospective embraces the film as the series' odd one out, celebrating its distinctive style and over-the-top elements while acknowledging its differences from other entries. It highlights the director's action flair and Cruise's commitment as standout positives. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/mission-impossible-2-retrospective-tom-cruise/) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Hunter (70/100, inferred): The critic views it as a commercial slam-dunk with tons of action, high-tech gadgetry and spectacular sequences from Woo, singling out Thandie Newton as the movie-stealing standout amid a convoluted plot lacking humor or broad appeal. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/mission-impossible-ii-review-movie-2000-1293996/) - **Sight and Sound**, Andrew O'Hehir (50/100, inferred): The critic views it as a successful action-adventure with Woo's signature slow-motion flourishes and beautiful moments, but finds it compromised and muddy compared to the director's earlier films due to the franchise formula, lacklustre script and star constraints. [Read](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/447) - **The New York Times**, A. O. Scott (50/100, inferred): The film is a grand opera of passion and betrayal with first-class action choreography but little interest in suspense, and it goes off the rails once the hero falls in love with the jewel thief. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/24/movies/film-review-mission-improbable-but-the-pigeons-are-nifty.html) - **Empire**, Mark Dinning (45/100, inferred): The review sees the sequel as overly focused on Tom Cruise's star power at the expense of team dynamics, gadgets and plot, resulting in an indulgent, Bond-like affair with a dragging mid-section and premature climax despite stylish Woo touches. It singles out Cruise's physical performance for praise but criticizes the excess. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/mission-impossible-2-review/) - **Evening Standard** (40/100, inferred): The critic finds the film easier to follow than the first but still formulaic moviemaking by numbers, with excessive set-pieces that ultimately feel empty despite visual gloss and Woo's trademark action. Praise goes to the strong production values and spectacle aimed at undiscriminating audiences. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/mission-impossible-2-7433703.html) - **The New Yorker**, Anthony Lane (40/100, inferred): The movie is a Tom Cruise enterprise that feels like a mountainous degree of the star's touch on every frame, with the unpalatable truth that if you love the guy this is your picture but otherwise it is not for you. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2000/06/05/in-your-face-3) - **Time Out**, TCh (40/100, inferred): The review calls it an elaborately silly exercise in treading water whose hysterically hyper visuals and gimmickry cannot hide the emptiness of the enterprise and unconvincing plot. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/mission-impossible-ii) - **The AV Club**, Keith Phipps (35/100, inferred): The critic calls it a substantial letdown from the first film, with a story that pares things down to a simplistic Bond-like tale and only the later action scenes showing Woo's signature style, ending on a strong note but not worth the price of admission overall. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/mission-impossible-2-1798192394) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (30/100, inferred): The sequel is a pretty good ride but flashy, slick and sweat-free with few surprises. It is pure action devoid of real risk, real sweat or real danger. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2000/jul/07/1) - **Variety**, Dennis Harvey (20/100, inferred): Even more empty a luxury vehicle than its predecessor, the film pushes flashy packaging with no substance inside, its overcooked slo-mo action inducing laughter and lacking any character, ingenuity or humor. [Read](https://variety.com/2000/film/reviews/mission-impossible-2-2-1200462090/) - **Film Stories**, A J Black (55/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a flawed but fascinating aberration in the franchise, with strong action set pieces and mythic ambitions undermined by a thin plot, unconvincing romance, and dated style. Woo's direction brings craft and duality themes that elevate some sequences despite overall disappointment. [Read](https://filmstories.co.uk/features/mission-impossible-revisited-john-woos-mission-impossible-ii/) - **Paste**, Jesse Hassenger (55/100, inferred): The critic finds the film deflating compared to expectations from the first entry and Woo's prior work, with the story drifting from the team-based spy concept into a one-man show focused on Cruise's romance and action. It has some strong Woo set pieces, Hitchcockian riffs, and enough material to explain its later reclamation as underappreciated, though it feels very much of its 2000 era with dated elements like misogyny and nu-metal cues. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/tom-cruise/mission-impossible-2-tom-cruise-john-woo-25-years-later) ## Details - **Director:** John Woo - **Director:** John Woo - **Screenplay:** Robert Towne - **Story:** Brannon Braga, Ronald D. Moore - **Cinematography:** Jeffrey L. Kimball - **Editor:** Steven Kemper, Christian Wagner - **Music:** Hans Zimmer - **Production design:** Thomas E. Sanders - **Costume design:** Lizzy Gardiner, Timothy Everest - **Producer:** Tom Cruise, Paula Wagner - **Cast:** Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt; Dougray Scott as Sean Ambrose; Thandiwe Newton as Nyah Hall; Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell; Richard Roxburgh as Hugh Stamp; John Polson as Billy Baird; Brendan Gleeson as McCloy; Rade Šerbedžija as Dr. Nekhorvich - **Runtime:** 2h 03m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13 - **Release (the US):** 24 May 2000 - **Genres:** Adventure, Action, Thriller - **Budget:** $125 million - **Box office:** $546 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSPtsCQq52k ## Where to watch in the US - Paramount+: streaming, hd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd *Checked 2026-09-19.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, AZ, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, KR, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, TR, UA, US, VN. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Notorious* (1946), Fi1m 92: Hitchcock sends a woman back to her old lover as bait, and actually cares what it costs her. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/notorious.md) - *Hard Boiled* (1992), Fi1m 86: Woo’s Hong Kong hospital shoot-out, where the two-gun slide and the doves earn their keep. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/hard-boiled.md) - *Mission: Impossible* (1996), Fi1m 81: De Palma’s original, with a team, a vault and a suspense scene built out of silence. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/mission-impossible.md) - *Casino Royale* (2006), Fi1m 86: The spy romance done with weight; the fights hurt and the woman has her own reasons. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/casino-royale.md) - *The Villainess* (2017): A Korean motorbike duel that makes Woo’s coast road look like a Sunday ride. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. 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