I guess from this point on, there can be no more discussion about how surprisingly strong the M:I series is or about how it’s a “stealth franchise” or even how it plays second fiddle to other, blockbuster spy movies – for today, my friends, today is when Ethan Hunt becomes, not just a Bourne beater, but a Bond beater too. That’s right, I said it.
Yes, Goldfinger, Dr No, The Spy Who Loved Me, Goldeneye, Casino Royale and Skyfall are not just great Bond movies but stone cold classics in their own right that can go head to head with sny other genre who chooses to throw down with them. But get this: Mission: Impossible: Fallout equals each and every one them, be it action for action, gadget for gadget, or butt tightening tension for butt tightening tension – the movie is that good.
So, buckle up, brace yourself and engage in whatever nerve-calming actions you need to take before franchise figurehead, Tom Cruise, engages in yet more death defying shenanigans in the name of getting bums on cinema seats – because this is one Mission you’re absolutely going to want to accept.
Due to the usual type of chicanery that starts these kinds of movies off, three plutonium spheres are in the wind and it’s Ethan Hunt’s fault – even worse, an offshoot of the shadowy secret terror organisation formally known as the Syndicate has now rebranded themselves as the Apostles in the wake of their leader, Solomon Lane being captured (Terrorist factions be loving those names, right?). It’s their hope to use the plutonium to wreak havoc on the old world order and Ethan, of course, feels personally responsible having flubbed the mission in order to ensure all members of his team get home alive.
However, due to his well meaning fuck up, the CIA has decided to stick its nose in and has appointed living, lantern jawed moustache, August Walker to oversee IMF as they concoct ever more complex heists in order to get the plutonium out of play.
Their way is through a mystery man by the name of John Lark and if they can somehow replace him as he plans to parlay with flamboyant arms dealer, the White Widow, Hunt hopefully reasons that the mission will end there. Got to admire your positive thinking there, Ethan, but this isn’t Mission: Inconvenient, it’s Mission: Impossible and soon the complications start adding up.
Walker, by all accounts, is a bit of a bastard; favouring blunt force over finesse, while the sale with White Widow isn’t as easy as simply handing over money. However the most vexing issue is the resurfacing of Ilsa Faust, ex’British agent who not only is proficient at turning Ethan Hunt’s head, but routinely has alligences muddier than a rugby player’s socks. As the hurdles mount and Ethan and his team have to up his game, the payment for the plutonium may actually prove to be more destructive than the materials themselves as the going rate is the freedom of one Solomon Lane!
There’s a definite feeling with Mission: Impossible – Fallout, that all the pieces of the franchise have fallen into place to finally offer up the perfect template for the series as this sixth entry impressively doesn’t put a foot out of place on it’s way to action nirvana. Being the first director to helm two installments, Christopher McQuarrie already took an impressive swing at realising Ethan Hunt’s unreasonable workload with the fantastic Rogue Nation, but now that he’s familiar with the world of spies, stunts and alarming bursts of identity theft, it means that his work on Fallout somehow exceeds almost all of the action movies you’ve ever seen. It’s all tangible, solid stuff and most importantly, easy to follow. No unessesary shakey cam, no overdose of CGI, just incredible stuntwork, intelligent editing and a very real sense of danger thanks to the fact that Tom Cruise genuinely seems convinced that he’s unable to die. After a HALO jump through a lightning storm segues into a stunningly brutal two on one, bathroom obliterating brawl, matters move on to not one but two successive flinch inducing car/motorbike chases through the heavy traffic of Paris, which then leads to a frantic footchase through London (which legitimately snapped Cruise’s ankle like a twig) which finally cumulates in a frankly gonzo helicopter chase in India. The fact that Cruise himself is front and centre, doing most of this shit in the very breakable flesh, makes the stakes even higher, especially when the fact that he’s flying a fucking stunt helicopter is no doubt making his insurance company shat their pants with every overzealous bank of the joystick. I mean, they must of – I nearly did!
Outside of the moments where Cruise attempts to meet God, Christopher McQuarrie owns every line and every frame just as good as Nolan or Spielberg (sometimes even better) but the most telling aspect of how steady a handle he has on the series is how he handles the fact that Mission: Impossible has/is/always will be the Tom Cruise show. If nothing else the M:I series is a literal line that follows his career, from smug, go-it-alone, original, to over confident, sophomore, all the way to weathered veteran, only Stallone with Rocky can boast a more accurate mirror as to who the man is. However, it’s in these later installments that truly let us actually get close to Hunt as his desire to keep his teammates breathing shows a sense of loyalty and empathy that gives the character a real, emotion centre to get to grips with.
Thankfully, his supporting cast is more than deserving of his efforts as Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, Alec Baldwin and Sean Harris (who have all been here before) certainly know their stuff, but a healthy sprinkling of newcomers add a fantastic dash of spice. I’ve always said Angela Bassett should be in everything and so here she is and Vanessa Kirby channels Vanessa Redgrave in her icy portrayal of arms dealer The White Widow – but then in strides Henry Cavill, proudly wearing the moustache that single handedly defeated the Justice League and cements the whole deal. As professional CIA muscle flexer and Hunt’s shadow Agent Walker is essentially a hammer to Hunt’s scalpel and as he’s armed with a sterling talent for making people un-alive, he has no patience for Hunt’s acrobatic, dangle on a wire, put on a mask bullshit and therefore is a credible threat to our teflon skinned hero. It really does feel like shit’s gonna go down…
The accumulated result is stupendous and marks a franchise defiantly hitting its stride despite having been around since the mid-nineties. If you need proof of this, the sheer relief I felt once all of Hunt’s desperate efforts paid off actually had feeling incredibly emotional, as if I’d actually gone through something similar rather than being sat in a cinema, teetering on the edge of my seat.
You really, REALLY need to accept this mission which takes the form of a perfect actioner that’s crammed with spills and thrills and a lead actor who quite literally will do anything to make this franchise one of the greatest blockbuster series of all time.
Mission: Accomplished Mr Cruise, Mission: Accomplished.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
We Have Issues 
2 comments