Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning - Part One from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.
THE new Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One movie has been out in cinemas since last month, and like the previous movies, the stunts and action scenes are spectacular.
Like every movie, as well as the original TV series in the 1960s, it has the same iconic theme song, composed by composer Lalo Schifrin, and if you mention the term "Mission: Impossible", you would remember the theme as well.
But is it true that the theme song contains a "secret code"?
VERDICT:
TRUE
The main theme has Morse code written into it - a form of communication that uses a series of long and short signals, represented by dots and dashes, to convey letters and numbers.
In Morse code, the letter "M" is represented by two dashes (--), while the letter "I" is represented by two dots (..).
So, when these dashes and dots are converted into musical notes, the main theme starts with two long notes followed by two short notes, which correspond to the Morse code signals for the letters "M" and "I" aka "Mission: Impossible"!
The stars from the latest movie, Simon Pegg and Rebecca Ferguson, also confirmed this cool trivia.
In an interview with NME, the actors shared that they were recently made aware of the secret while appearing on the Today FM show Dermot & Dave, hosted by Dermot Whelan and Dave Moore.
“This is an amazing fact. Dave from Dermot & Dave, an Irish Radio show, told us that when Lalo Schifrin wrote the original music, the theme, (he put in) two dashes, two dots (which translates to) ‘MI’,” Pegg explained, while sounding out the tune.
“Stop it, it’s true!” interjected Ferguson, who was equally as excited to share the little-known fact on NME.
If the Morse-code revelation did not blow your mind, here is some trivia about the theme song that would:
- When he was asked to compose the theme for the TV series in 1967, Schifrin took only three minutes to write it.
He was quoted by the New York Post as saying, "Orchestration's not the problem for me. It's like writing a letter.
"When you write a letter, you don't have to think what grammar or what syntaxes you're going to use, you just write a letter.
"And that's the way it came."
- The jazzy theme was also written in the 5/4 time signature, which is unusual but popular in classical music.
Schifrin wanted to create a theme that captured the excitement, tension, and adventure of the TV show while also reflecting the sleek and sophisticated nature of espionage.
Interestingly, he was quoted by the press saying that he chose 5/4 time because "the people in outer space have five legs and couldn't dance to our music, so I wrote this for them."
Do catch the latest installment of the M:I franchise while it is still screening in cinemas, or read the spoiler-free review here as well as Cruise's motivation to do that cool motorcycle stunt in the movie here.
And don't worry, after reading this article and if you choose to share it with your family and friends, it will not self-destruct in five seconds.
Sources:
https://www.slashfilm.com/1335836/mission-impossible-theme-song-doubles-as-spy-code/
