M:I-2 (idea)

I don't believe this is an established fact, but it is definately the case as the two films have particularly similar plots and scenes.

I saw M:I-2 when it was in theatres, and took it as another John Woo action film. Which is what it was. I mean, that's what he's good at. He loves creating big-ass all-out unrealistic bangs, and to be honest, it's all good. Yeah sure, he's done other stuff, but let's be honest: he was born to make films like Face/Off. And why not? It's fun. 2 or 3 years later I was watching Notorious on good ol' tv and the penny dropped at a gradual rate. The first inklings came when Ingrid Bergman's character (the daughter of a U.S. intelligence officer) is used to capture some baddy in some exotic place because the two used to be an item. "Hey, that's just like M:I-2," I said to everyone who wanted to listen to me more than the movie. Then when Cary Grant's character (smooth talking U.S. agent man, in charge of making sure the op goes down) falls in love with Ingrid, I just had to point out, again, that it was remarkably in sync with M:I-2, plot wise. When the baddy, the agent, and the babe all met up at the horse races, I finally realised what director John Woo had done.

I remember a film-freak-friend of mine reading an interview with Mr. Woo, and sharing with me the knowledge that John Woo was a big Hitchcock fan. With that in mind, M:I-2 deserves more credit than it I gave it. I imagine (and I may be so, so wrong to give him credit for this, for many other people involved in the making of M:I-2 may have been the brainstorm behind it) that John Woo was given the task of directing the sequel to Mission:Impossible, then he happily obliged, and decided that if he were to be making a mostly mindless action film for the masses, why not have a little fun doing so? Thus, he created a perfectly straight-forward action film, and at the same time made one big allusion to an old favorite film of his. Notorious was not an action film. I'm not even sure if a gun goes off once in the whole damn film. But I believe that's a good thing. M:I-2 isn't merely a remake. It's a genetically-modified robo-film in tribute to one of the greatest and most original directors ever. And if you don't give a badger's bottom, you can just sit and watch the explosions and bullets fly by.

Equivalents:
Instead of Notorious' Rio setting, M:I-2 takes place in Australia.
Instead of the Uranium-235 that the Nazi's want to build bombs with in Notorious, the bad-people in M:I-2 want to have the only cure for a certain disease so they can corner the market.
Instead of the baddy's mother who warns him against the sudden return of 'Chick', the main bad-boy in M:I-2 has a fellow bad-guy who doesn't trust her.
The car scene in which Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman have a chat and ultimately have a fight in, is represented by a typical John Woo-esque car chase which results in the cars interlocking and spinning uncontrollably to the edge of a rather scary-looking cliff.

The times, they are a-changin'.