See Tom Cruise propel his motorcycle through a wall of flame, spinning on one wheel while spraying bullets!

Shudder as he dangles from a sheer rockface by his fingertips high above the ground!

Gasp as he burns rubber off a nose-down wheelie!

Yes, Hollywood's $20 million man did most of his own stunts in "Mission: Impossible 2," which opens Wednesday, but it is director John Woo who makes the spy sequel more than just a big-budget actioner.

The Chinese-born auteur - who achieved cult status with the balletic violence of his Hong Kong action films and later directed mainstream hits "Face/Off" and "Broken Arrow" - says modern audiences demand more from their blockbusters than high-tech special effects.

"Even though I make an action movie, the romance and drama is very important in my film," he says in his halting English. "First of all, I've got to have very strong characters and story, and I also like to use love as a theme.

"Actually, the action in all my films is based on a story - it's not action for action's sake." Woo says he wanted "M:I-2" to have "a poetic feel."

And so he uses slow-motion sequences to trace Cruise's courtship of Thandie Newton's alluring international thief, most notably in a scene featuring a graceful, vehicular pas de deux.

He even manages to bring a certain elegance to the bone-crunching fistfights.

"You see the hand of someone who has an entirely different way of shooting when it comes to action stuff," says Dougray Scott, who plays Sean Ambrose, the villain who squares off against Cruise.

"John's brought his own extraordinary vision to this film, and filled it with great characters."

Woo watched the original "Mission: Impossible" TV series just once. "What we needed was to try to keep the same spirit," he says. "After that I'm on my own."

And he learned what not to do from a single viewing of Brian de Palma's big-screen version.

"I felt the first 'Mission: Impossible' was a little cold, and I didn't find any interesting characters," Woo says. "And, also, there was not much about love. It wasn't that human to me."

Most of "M:I-2" was shot in Sydney, using a predominantly Australian crew. The filmmakers also cast Aussie actors John Polson and Richard Roxburgh as sidekicks to the two protagonists and featured local band Powderfinger on the film's soundtrack.

"Sydney is a beautiful city, very romantic, but there was too much rain," Woo says.

Inclement weather and difficulties with certain locations caused production delays that pushed back the film's release date by six months.

It was a frustrating time for Woo, who believes that the bigger a film's budget, the bigger the headache.

"The more money, the more people involved, the more confusion and political problems there are," he says. "Someone wants to do it this way, someone wants to do it another way, someone wants to save money, another wants to spend more money.

"For myself, I never care about all those sort of things - no matter whether it's a big or small budget, I just want to do everything based on my own vision."

Fans of Woo's early collaborations with Chow Yun Fat will be pleased to learn that, when he's finished shooting "Windtalkers" with Nicolas Cage, the director plans to work again with the action star on two projects.

He's drafting a script for an unnamed film and is producing a live-action version of the cult comic "Bulletproof Monk," starring Chow as the title character.

Woo, who became the first Asian film-maker to direct a major Hollywood feature with the 1993 hit "Hard Target," believes the cultural invasion he spearheaded has benefits for everybody.

"I've learned a lot from the West; now I can see some people get some ideas from my movies," he says. "I think we influence each other."

Woo certainly has a chorus of Hollywood's finest singing his praises.

John Travolta hails him as a genius, Quentin Tarantino cites him as his chief inspiration and Jean-Claude Van Damme calls him "the Martin Scorsese of Asia."

"I never feel myself as a king," Woo says. "If you feel yourself as a king or a god, you'll be pretty lonely.

"I hope people see me as a friend, that would make me feel much better."

Great Scott: He's Hollywood's hot new villain

He was signed up without a screen test on the strength of his work in "Ever After" and the low-budget Welsh film "Twin Town."

"I met with John, talked to him for three hours about life in general, and he offered me the part - simple as that," Scott says in an accent as thick as porridge. "It was the easiest part I'd ever got.

"Then I met with Tom. We hung out, had a laugh, then went and played golf."

The 32-year-old joins a string of Scots, including Robert Carlyle, Alan Cumming and Robbie Coltrane, who have risen to prominence playing bad guys in Hollywood action flicks.

He says Cruise and Woo were not particularly looking for a Scottish actor to play good-spy-gone-bad Sean Ambrose.

"Originally, they were thinking about making the character American or German," he says. "Then they just thought, 'Why not have him be Scottish?'"

Scott is in no danger of going Hollywood. Having just wrapped a multimillion-dollar film with two of the town's biggest players, this working-class boy seems oblivious to how the movie might alter his life.

"I'm really busy and not really thinking about that," says Scott, currently shooting Michael Apted's thriller "Enigma" with Kate Winslet. "I'm just happy to have been in it.

"If it makes a difference professionally, all well and good. Hopefully it won't affect my private life."

Scott is almost ferociously protective of his privacy, but his girlfriend and toddler twins must have been on his mind when he tackled the risky stunts on "M:I-2."

"I did a lot of the fight stuff and the motorcycle chase myself, but I had a stunt man," he says.

"I'm brave but not stupid."

Dougray Scott: Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to bask in the limelight as Hollywood's newest heartthrob.

The Byronic Scottish actor, who played Drew Barrymore's Prince Charming in 1998's "Ever After," is bound to set female pulses racing with his starring role as the steely eyed villain in "Mission: Impossible 2."

Scott, who was born and raised in the industrial mining town of Fife, was head-hunted for the role by producer and star Tom Cruise and director John Woo.

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