Mission: Impossible – Fallout, 2018.
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie.
Starring Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Henry Cavill, Angela Bassett, Alex Baldwin, Sean Harris, Vanessa Kirby, Michelle Monaghan, and Wes Bentley.
SYNOPSIS:
Ethan Hunt and his IMF team, along with some familiar allies, race against time after a mission gone wrong.
So here we are, 22 years after the first Mission Impossible film turned Tom Cruise into an action superstar and this jaw dropping series shows no signs of slowing down. This time around Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team are trying to retrieve three plutonium cores that they lost during a botched mission. Jetting across the globe, the team have to race against the clock to stop all out nuclear war.
Fallout is one of the best action films ever made. Its pace is unrelenting from the first set piece through to the more emotional moments and a finale that has you on the edge of your seat. Tom Cruise continues to blur the line between actor and stuntman by packing in a ton of adrenaline fuelled set pieces. From the halo jump that everyone is talking about through to a chase scene over rooftops in London to dangling off a cliff in Kashmir, they are simply breath taking. In a time where CGI is used for almost everything, it’s amazing to see the commitment of Cruise, the director and the crew to say screw that, we’re going to dangle you off a cliff with one safety rope and film it. The stakes feel real as you know that Cruise is jumping between buildings with nothing but one safety cable and that you’re not watching a bunch of pixels dancing round the screen.
With Fallout, Christopher McQuarrie becomes the first person to direct two Mission: Impossible films. In the previous Rogue Nation he set up the romance between Ethan and Ilsa Faust (Ferguson), created the villain Solomon Lane (Harris), added lots of allies and started building the foundations for the sequel. With Fallout he doesn’t drop a single plot thread and ups the tension to eleven. Fallout feels like the culmination of Hunt’s journey as he has to deal with the consequences to his actions over all the films. There’s a nice subtle call back to the first instalment and Hunt’s relationship with his ex-wife (Monaghan) is explored as well. Somehow, McQuarrie has made Fallout feel like the most impossible mission Ethan has had so far and does so with slick direction and a terrific cast.
At the helm Cruise is phenomenal as Ethan Hunt and in Fallout he gets to do equal amounts of emotional acting, mixed with his penchant for pushing his body to the limits. Back again to support him is Benji (Pegg), Luther (Rhames), Ilsa (Ferguson) and a few familiar faces. New to the team is August Walker (Cavill) who makes an impact on the film in numerous ways. His giant physical presence compared to Cruise’s small frame is an interesting juxtaposition and their various fights throughout are electrifying to watch. The chemistry between the entire cast is flawless and it feels like they’ve been working together for years. Gone are the replaceable supporting characters from the first three instalments (with the exception of Benji and Luther) and instead we get characters who are fully formed and who we care about.
As with all Mission: Impossible films, the plot is a bit convoluted but not to the extent that you can’t follow it. Fallout is what an action film should be – great characters who you can relate to and action sequences that make you care and make you want more. Fallout could be the last in the Mission Impossible franchise, but if at age 56 Cruise is still happy to jump out of planes and break his ankle jumping from a building, then I’m more than happy to see the next instalment.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Helen Murdoch
