by Liam Heitmann-Ryce-LeMercier
Sydney-based film aficionado James Roberts, moderator of the popular James Bond Downunder social media channel, is bringing Brian De Palma’s Mission: Impossible to the big screen for a special 30th anniversary celebration.
Though best known for his screenings of James Bond films, the move towards the Mission: Impossible franchise is not as a radical pivot as it may seem. Roberts is confident that his followers will agree. “There is a natural crossover and synergy to show this film in addition to my long run of showcasing the Bond films. I think most are similarly wired with an appreciation and love of both series, and the spy genre overall.”
To be sure he was on the right track, Roberts presented a small Mission: Impossible test screening in Brisbane earlier this year, adding to his confidence in veering away from Bond after a successful Christmas screening of Die Hard with a Vengeance last year.
Thanks to some careful planning, the upcoming screening of Mission: Impossible will take place within two days of the film’s original Australian premiere in June 1996.
Marking the 22nd time in which he has screened a film at Palace Central in Sydney, Roberts acquired the license to screen the film via Park Circus, who also manage the Bond catalogue.
Previous efforts to screen the Sydney-set Mission: Impossible 2 for the film’s 25th anniversary were thwarted by the embargo placed on previous entries in the series due to the release of MI: The Final Reckoning in 2025.
“So I was very happy that this screening of the first film could go ahead,” Roberts says, especially at Palace Central Cinemas. “It’s a great boutique cinema complex with the right capacity and comfort for my film screenings, as well as a perfect central CBD location, so as many fans can access it as possible. It’s a cinema I’ve grown to love over many years, as it brings a sense of escapism amongst the hustle and bustle of Sydney city.”
This first entry in the long-running Mission: Impossible series stands as Roberts’s personal favourite, thanks to its combination of De Palma’s direction, the stellar cast, and “material that Tom Cruise could sink his teeth into. I appreciate how much of a labour of love it’s been for him,” Roberts says, “over such a period of time of cinema and our lives.”
As much as he loves the film today, Roberts is still somewhat pained at having missed its original cinema release, thanks to the meddling of an auntie who told his mother the film wasn’t suitable for a ten-year-old. This was in spite of the fact he had seen Bond film GoldenEye in cinemas the year before. “I’m still a little sore about that one,” he says.
Almost at the point of running out of Bond films to screen, Roberts anticipates more events in future that extend beyond the 007 franchise. As a lifelong film fan, he says that keeping the cinema experience alive with these independent screenings is “the most enjoyable aspect of it all.”
