All I know of this is that it's a CyberMaster set.

Looks like he’s flying the Gullfire over Leningrad

Never seen this before, and I was alive back then, poring over every entry in the LEGO Shop @ Home catalogs that regularly came to my house. I remember a Cybermaster set that was a giant car of some sort that came with a CD-ROM game, but it wasn't called "The Mission". That CGI figure in the cockpit looks dubious as well. Time to do some investigating!

One of the very few Technic sets that I've bought since the end of my dark age. Pretty cool-looking covert military-ish plane indeed. I still have it assembled, buried within a cardboard box though.

I just realized that guy flying the plane is not real, and his expression is kinda freaking me out.

Also, dark turquoise parts!

This is a really cool looking set, especially given the age. Now I'm hoping I'll be lucky enough to find one of these in a bulk lot or something...

Interesting looking set. Sadly some old sets doesn't have more quality images.

Looks kinda like a Znap set. but a cool, edgy one.

@SentientSam said:
"The Mission. In theaters next Friday. "

Sorry, but your date is in another month (or maybe a year, since Minions 2 was pushed back to 2022)

Surprised technic hasn't done a licensed Gulfstream 5

Very good choice thanks for part breakdown...

Lego Technic Cyberpunk. Now that would be an interesting theme.

@PurpleDave said:
"
@Lego_Lord_Mayorca:
Check the Bricklink listing for a more accurate image. The figure isn't included, and the color scheme looks quite different under normal lighting. You might recognize it after all."

Thanks for the tip! I went and checked it out and while I am impressed with it more so with those pictures, I am now 100% confident I never saw it back in 2000 when it was released. I would've remembered that striking turquoise coloration and all the "cool tech factor" of the inclusion of a CD-ROM.

With the art, it's hard to tell what's in the set at first glance.

Who else came here because of Special Ed?

I never saw this set, wow

There's a clearer picture at https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=8450-1T=S&O={%22iconly%22:0} showing all the turquoise beams.
The dark box art and mission mystery CD are probably to distract from a not very good plane where the large holes in the wings really need someone to invent some panels as in 9394. The main technic feature is the wings rotate vertical to provide more lift? Also the undercarriage lifts. There is a B model helicopter but has no rear propeller so likely to be more unstable than the plane.
The main reason for buying was to combine with 8482 to build an ATV as shown here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLo71IytL8c

I'd love to get my hands on this theme some day. I absolutely love obscure themes from the 90s and y2k, the aesthetics are super intriguing.

What was on the CD-ROM?

I've wondered about this set for a while, ever since I stumbled upon this set in my random browsings of the database. The image is fascinating, but it gives very little clue whatsoever what it's, you know, actually all about.

Does anyone have any backstory to this, know what "The Mission" actually was? Was it something like you got with the Spybotics sets of a couple of years later?

Image from Brickset database (see above) shows cover art of the CD-ROM.
The sets box is mainly silver-grey with yellow edges. Its size is (ca.) 20% less than box from 42080 .
About 'the Mission':
The inner side of the box flap has infomations on that:
https://brickshelf.com/gallery/rothw/technic/Stuff/wrn_210309_141554.png
Some tasks are related to small moduls that connect to the jet plan, others seem to be within the software.

@Isabella_and_Lego_Liker:
Seriously? Well, at least we got a basic set of all the important characters with the first two sets (Otto hasn’t been identified before, so he doesn’t matter until the new film releases). However, this does pose one problem. With the current slate of sets being highly unlikely to last that long, there won’t be any sets with Gru available when the film does land. I’d also have to look through the set listings to see if Kevin/Stuart/Bob will all show up again in basic overalls (excluding Bob’s polybag).

Huwbot, nooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!! We’ll never get to know what it’s mission was!

I wrote an explanation of this set (and the preceding 8482 Cybermaster partner set) in a post at the end of this Eurobricks review post here:

https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/79234-review-8450-the-mission/&page=2

I remember when this came out when I was a boy, I wanted it badly as I already had Cybermaster and to this day, the plane still looks great. It wasn’t easy to find in shops and I think my parents ended up buying it from Shop @Home, which was only available over the phone in those days. It still has pride of place amongst my display shelves. More recently I have even purchased the extra parts and stickers required to have the plane and 8482/8450 combined ATV model built simultaneously.

It looks sleek, but kinda false advertising in that a Technic fig is shown but isn't contained in the set.

It’s bugging me that “The” doesn’t appear anywhere in the actual product images; just “Mission”.

So what exactly is the mission?