The box office success of Mission Impossible (1996) meant, of course, that a sequel was sure to follow. Directing duties fell to John Woo, one of the undisputed masters of action cinema when he was back home in Hong Kong (Ying hung boon sik/A Better Tomorrow (1986), Ying hung boon sik II/A Better Tomorrow II (1987), The Killer/Dip huet seung hung (1989) and Lat sau san taam/Hard Boiled (1992) are textbook examples) but following his move to the States in1993, the shine started to fade. Face/Off (1997) is a lot of fun but the likes of Hard Target (1993) and Broken Arrow (1996) had been less than spectacular.

We’re reacquainted with Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) in a heart-stopping free-climbing scene that would later be echoed in Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011) with the vertiginous Burj Kalifa scene. He’s soon investigating the death of his old friend, bio-chemist Dr Vladimir Nekhorvich (Rade Šerbedžija) who has been forced to develop a biological weapon, Chimera, for his employers Biocyte Pharmaceuticals. The company plan to make a mint by unleashing it and then selling the cure, code-named Bellerophon. But Nekhorvich had been abducted and murdered by rogue IMF agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott), who now has the only known samples of Bellerophon, and the IMF want Hunt to recruit professional thief Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandiwe Newton, then still credited as Thandie) to exploit her former relationship with Ambrose. Ethan calls in Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and pilot Billy Baird (John Polson), heads for Australia and infiltrates the Biocyte laboratories planning to destroy the virus before Ambrose can get his hands on it. With Nyah contaminated by the virus and only 20 hours to administer the cure, the race is on to find Ambrose and prevent a catastrophic viral outbreak.

His directorial impulses seemed tamed and subdued by Hollywood (he had a particularly tough time on Hard Target) but this was more like the Woo of old, full of crazy stunt and action scenes with his visual trademarks – people firing off two handguns at the same time, doves – well in evidence. The story is less convoluted than it was in the first film – it’s more like a classic heist film than the first Mission had been, with traces of The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) clearly visible throughout. Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious (1946) also seems to have been an influence on Robert Towne’s screenplay.

Woo rises to the occasion admirably, reasserting himself as one of the greats of action cinema. Each film in the series would up the stakes considerably, boasting increasingly inventive and outlandish set-pieces – here we get a tremendous car chase, an even better one on motorcycles and an upgrade to the first film’s “Black Vault” scene with Hunt abseiling into the Biocyte building from a helicopter. But it’s in the slow notion shootouts where Woo really excels, irresistibly reminding us of the similar scenes in his Hong Kong films. There’s no questioning how much money was thrown at the film – it’s all right there on the screen.

Though it must be said that the Impossible Missions Force themselves seem a bit cash-strapped this time round. There’s a rogue agent (IMF seem particularly prone to their agents turning against them) on the loose with a deadly bio-weapon that threatens to decimate Australia and all IMF can muster in response is a team of three and a civilian…

It seems churlish to point out that the characters are all one-dimensional. Of course they are. They’re jus there to service the mechanics of the plot and hurry it along to the next set-piece, but the cast does decent work with very little. Scott is a slightly bland villain perhaps, but Rhames is great (he gets all the laughs) and Newton is excellent, the best Bond girl ever, albeit in a non-Bond film, and it’s a shame she didn’t return for any future Missions (she was offered a role in Mission: Impossible III (2006) but opted to spend more time with her young family.) An uncredited Hopkins is terrific as the new head of the IMF, making most of arguably the best line in the entire series: “It’s not mission: difficult, Mr Hunt, it’s mission: Impossible!” John Polson gets to try out the same character role in the team that would go to Simon Pegg’s Benji Dunn from the next film onward, and Cruise is Cruise doing what’s made him one of the biggest stars in the world. Love him or loathe him, there’s no denying his extraordinary commitment to the film (and the franchise as a whole) – divorce yourself from his odd private life and he’s a decent enough actor whose charisma holds the entire series together.

One might try to make the case that the characters in a Mission: Impossible film or TV series need to be one-dimensional. These, after all, are people who earn a crust by turning themselves into anyone that they need to be to complete their mission. Character quirks or eccentricities could – and will in later films – put them in danger.

Mission: Impossible II was the high point of John Woo’s Hollywood career. He went on to make the unexceptional Windtalkers (2002) and Paycheck (2003) before returning to Hong Kong for the altogether better two-parter Chibi/Red Cliff (2008). The second Mission was another box office hit though complications meant that the third instalment would take another six years to appear.