Mission: Impossible

The Basic Plot: In the words of Mr. Cranky, this is another "get the disk!" film. Everyone is frantically trying to get their hands on this computer disk that supposedly has half of a list of all the IMF secret agents, their code names, their location, all that.

My Basic Ramblings:

THE MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE TEST

Part I - Multiple Choice
 1. The room where the needed half of the list has a pressure-sensitive floor, sensors that go off if the temperature rises one degree, laser beams over the air-conditioning vent, and sensors that go off if it gets too noisy. If you were the architect of this room, what would you say next?

a) "Gee, it's pretty good, but maybe we need some motion detectors."
b) "Don't you think those air vents are a little big? Anyone could crawl through them."
c) "Perfect! This room is impenetrable!"

2. You are a computer hacker who looks remarkably like Ving Rhames. You can hack into any system, cause all the havoc you want. You need to set off an alarm in Sector 11 of the CIA building, so Tom Cruise and the other guy (the one in The Professional) can get the other half of the list. What do you type into your computer?

a) A complex list of instructions and details that you began to prepare the night before.
b) A perfectly-timed sequence of keystrokes that you uncovered through your years of computer knowledge.
c) "ACTIVATE THE ALARM IN SECTOR 11" (in an easy-to-read font, right under a graphic of Sector 11)

3. You are Tom Cruise. Early in the movie, Emilio Estevez gives you a special stick of exploding gum, which you use in a restaurant not that long after it's given to you. At the end of the movie, you're stuck between a high-speed train and a helicopter, and it would be nice if you had another stick of that gum. You are:

a) Screwed, because you only had one piece of that gum and you used it already.
b) Perfectly fine, because you miraculously have another piece.

Part II: True or False.

1. Emilio Estevez should get a new agent.

2. Brian DePalma belongs to the "camera at an angle equals tension" school of film.

3. "Typing on the keyboard" scenes are really tense.

Part III - Essay

1. Explain why Tom Cruise was able to hang on to the roof of a high-speed train using only his hands.

2. Explain how Tom Cruise got his hands on a Jon Voight mask (while on the train) on such short notice.

3. Explain how Jon Voight's wife could mistake Tom Cruise in a bad rubber mask for her husband.

4. Explain why they needed that special spray-stuff on the guy's head at the party when all they really needed to do was keep an eye on him.

EXTRA CREDIT:

Explain the entire helicopter/train/fireball sequence without using the phrase "deux ex machina".

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