Having received a variety of rave reviews (read ours here and here and listen to the podcast review here), it seems as though there is still some life and fun to be had in the Mission: Impossible franchise.
Early reports had it down that Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, the fifth in the series, would have a soft opening, much like the last movie, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, which only opened to $12 million. Similarly, Tom Cruise’s last blockbuster Edge of Tomorrow also failed to light up the box office. But this was a different story.
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation opened this weekend to a superb $56 million domestically, destroying all the competition, including the much-hyped Vacation reboot. The film also made another $65 million overseas, giving it a total of $121 million worldwide.
This is only slightly the second highest opening weekend of the franchise, behind John Woo’s Mission: Impossible II which opened to $57.8 million. Reports suggest that a sixth film in the series could start next summer, and this news can only intensify those plans.
With the IMF disbanded, and Ethan (Tom Cruise) out in the cold, the team now faces off against a network of highly skilled special agents, the Syndicate. These highly trained operatives are hellbent on creating a new world order through an escalating series of terrorist attacks. Ethan gathers his team and joins forces with disavowed British agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), who may or may not be a member of this rogue nation, as the group faces their most impossible mission yet.
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation is set for release on July 30th, with Christopher McQuarrie directing Tom Cruise alongside fellow franchise veterans Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames and new additions Rebecca Ferguson (Hercules), Sean Harris (Prometheus) and Alec Baldwin (Still Alice).
Originally published August 3, 2015. Updated November 29, 2022.
