How Did George Lucas Get 'Mission: Impossible' to Add a Spaghetti Scene?

One of the things I love about Hollywood is the hidden stories and fun facts you get that shed some light on how your favorite movies come together. Recently, one of the coolest I've heard is about George Lucas and his influence on the Mission: Impossible movies. And it involves a term I have never heard before, but will use from now on. Let's dive in. George Lucas's Spaghetti Scene In the above video, Josh Horowitz is interviewing Emilio Estevez, who was in the original Brian De Palma Mission: Impossible movie. Now, if you've seen the movie, you know that Estevez's character does not make it deep into the movie. This was a fun Brian De Palma idea where he would kill off most of the famous people in the first 20 minutes of the movie, throwing the audience off and setting up the high stakes of the story, and everyone would dive in. Estevez was on set for a month and explored the whirlwind pace of the shoot, where it really was his first experience on something that size and that budget level.He recalls that it was a big deal to even get 11 shots in a day. During the shoot, Estevez said George Lucas stopped by to check it out, and immediately asked where the "spaghetti scene" was in those early shots. Nobody knew what that meant, but Lucas elaborated that there should be a scene with the whole crew sitting around and eating, and discussing whatever comes next. And then you can get all the exposition about who each person is out in the world. This scene was totally needed in order to love the people who were about to die and to see Ethan Hunt's place in the world. It was necessary to test his loyalty and trust. So they actually did reshoots to add that scene into the movie in order to expand on that Lucas idea and to spend some time getting to know and love the crew, before you kill them all off. I love this term and this idea. It's such a smart way to get people to buy into the movie and to show who Ethan Hunt was when we met him for the first time. I'll be using this in my new spec script, and I'll probably make them eat pasta, too. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Apr 25, 2025 - 02:16

How Did George Lucas Get 'Mission: Impossible' to Add a Spaghetti Scene?

One of the things I love about Hollywood is the hidden stories and fun facts you get that shed some light on how your favorite movies come together.

Recently, one of the coolest I've heard is about George Lucas and his influence on the Mission: Impossible movies.

And it involves a term I have never heard before, but will use from now on.

Let's dive in.

George Lucas's Spaghetti Scene

In the above video, Josh Horowitz is interviewing Emilio Estevez, who was in the original Brian De Palma Mission: Impossible movie.

Now, if you've seen the movie, you know that Estevez's character does not make it deep into the movie.

This was a fun Brian De Palma idea where he would kill off most of the famous people in the first 20 minutes of the movie, throwing the audience off and setting up the high stakes of the story, and everyone would dive in.

Estevez was on set for a month and explored the whirlwind pace of the shoot, where it really was his first experience on something that size and that budget level.

He recalls that it was a big deal to even get 11 shots in a day.

During the shoot, Estevez said George Lucas stopped by to check it out, and immediately asked where the "spaghetti scene" was in those early shots.

Nobody knew what that meant, but Lucas elaborated that there should be a scene with the whole crew sitting around and eating, and discussing whatever comes next. And then you can get all the exposition about who each person is out in the world.

This scene was totally needed in order to love the people who were about to die and to see Ethan Hunt's place in the world. It was necessary to test his loyalty and trust.

So they actually did reshoots to add that scene into the movie in order to expand on that Lucas idea and to spend some time getting to know and love the crew, before you kill them all off.

I love this term and this idea. It's such a smart way to get people to buy into the movie and to show who Ethan Hunt was when we met him for the first time.

I'll be using this in my new spec script, and I'll probably make them eat pasta, too.

Let me know what you think in the comments.