On the set of Blackjack, Woo received a call from Tom Cruise, who wanted the director to work with him on a sequel to Mission: Impossible (1996)[1]
Cruise maintained that he wanted each Mission: Impossible film to have a different director and style from the previous
After Woo stated that he would only take the job if the film had a non-science-fiction story that appealed to him,[2] several scriptwriters, including Wesley Strick, William Goldman, Michael Tolkin, and Robert Towne made numerous revisions to the script in order to fit Woo's style[3]
However, the movie started production without a finished script, and Towne, the sole credited screenwriter, worked on even more changes during the editing of the film in order to create a coherent plot from the filmed action scenes[4]
Cruise, a producer on the film, insisted on performing as many of his own stunts himself, scaring Woo in a particularly dangerous stunt where he hung from a cliff by his fingertips after jumping over a chasm[5]
Production was plagued with problems, including inclement weather and crew changes (such as cinematographer Andrew Lesnie)[6][7]
It went over-schedule and over-budget, as production costs exceeded $100 million from its initial estimate of $80 million[8]
Mission: Impossible 2 was released to mixed critical reception[9]
David Ansen of Newsweek thought the movie was "oddly dull", believing that film's tone did not suit either Woo nor Cruise's strengths[10]
Writing for the BBC, William Gallagher enjoyed the action scenes; he was annoyed by the film's insistence on explaining the plot to the audience as well as the "painfully silly romance" storyline[11]
Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post said the movie was "such a feast of outlandish pleasures it'll send you home steam-cleaned and shrink-wrapped", though he thought the story was incomprehensible[12]
David Hunter of The Hollywood Reporter also deemed the plot incomprehensible; he liked Woo's action but said "his use of slow motion becomes tiresome, and the motorcycles-and-kung-fu finale gets pretty hokey."[13]
A. O. Scott of The New York Times stated the stylistic differences between Woo and previous director Brian De Palma accounted for the "weird discontinuity" between the first film and the sequel[14]
Only two scenes used heavy CGI for safety and scale reasons: a helicopter jump stunt where Cruise crashes through a roof and slides down a shaft, and a scene where Cruise jumps from a roof with a parachute[15]
Woo: "We had to use CG to increase the scale and backgrounds in order to do those stunts safely [...] But even the scene where Tom jumps down the shaft was a real stunt—80-foot-high platform for that shot."
