Tom Cruise accepts his next mission with more impossible odds…
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Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt is ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’ (image belongs: Paramount Pictures, used for illustrative purposes only).
Spoiler-free review
Starring: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Alec Baldwin, Sean Harris, Michelle Monaghan, Angela Bassett
Directed and written by: Christopher McQuarrie / 147 minutes
What’s it about?
Tasked with retrieving three nuclear devices stolen after a botched mission, Ethan Hunt and his team are coupled with a CIA overseer as they race to prevent the death of millions…
In review
As many critics have already cited, it’s rare for a film series to continue to go from strength to strength after so many instalments but the Mission: Impossible franchise once again proves unstoppable and relentlessly enthralling with the newly released sixth entry, Fallout. Returning writer/director Christopher McQuarrie pulls out all the stops as superstar Tom Cruise performs more death defying, pulse-pounding and vertigo-inducing stunts that keep audiences coming back for more.
Serving as a direct sequel to Rogue Nation, Mission: Impossible – Fallout sees Impossible Mission Force Agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) called upon to undertake another daring assignment, this time to recover three nuclear devices which have fallen into the hands of a terrorist group that has arisen in the wake of the capture of Solomon Lane (the ever-raspy Sean Harris). With the mission ending in failure, Hunt and his team – Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) – are forcefully coupled with CIA chief Erica Sloan’s (Angela Bassett) top agent August Walker, played by Justice League’s Henry Cavill, in a race against the clock to prevent global chaos.
As always, the cast is great (although the absence of Jeremy Renner this time out is initially felt) – not in the least Tom Cruise who, bar his passionate and unwavering commitment to the action, also brings that human quality to the character of Ethan Hunt, a man who will stop at nothing to protect everything – and everyone – he cares about. Mission: Impossible really is nothing without him. As Agent Walker, Henry Cavill is a force to be reckoned with pulling no punches (often literally) in his scenes with Cruise and is quite a powerful asset to the film and the ‘interference’ of the CIA in the IMF’s operations facilitates some neat dramatic moments, between Cruise and Cavill as well as Bassett and Alec Baldwin, who reprises the role of Secretary Alan Hunley.
Hunt’s mission becomes all the more personal as he crosses paths with some old faces. Harris’s Lane notwithstanding, we see the return of Rebecca Ferguson’s MI6 spy Isla Faust and Michelle Monaghan as Hunt’s ex-wife Julia. Ferguson in particular is a highlight (as she was in Rogue Nation) and again has strong chemistry with Cruise but the inclusion of all three returning actors, coupled with call-backs to the earlier films and homages to Bruce Geller’s original television series provides a sense of history that’s rewarding for fans of the franchise.
Christopher McQuarrie’s screenplay provides Mission: Impossible – Fallout with plenty of intrigue, spectacle and drama that’s enhanced by numerous twists and turns that will keep viewers on their toes and the edge of their seats. Tonally, there’s a bit of a darker edge to Fallout that gives it a slightly different flavour from previous instalments which helps keep things fresh and ensures the tension remains high throughout.
The action is truly first class and easily meets expectations from a brutal bathroom fight to rival Casino Royale to set-pieces that range from a sky diving jump, chases on foot, by motor and by river to the incredible and prolonged helicopter pursuit that forms part of the breathlessly exciting finale. Spread across locations including Paris, London and Kashmir, it’s all handled with relative ease and skill by director McQuarrie, deftly executed by Cruise and the rest of the cast and made all the more appealing by the exemplary cinematography.
If you’re a fan of these films and the action genre in general then it’s a no-brainer so strap yourself in for one hell of a ride.
The bottom line: The Mission: Impossible series continues to thrill in an exciting, intelligent and arresting action blockbuster that’s a cut above the rest.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout is in cinemas now.