Think about this for a second—all with the background of Hollywood history—Mission Impossible: Fallout is the best film in the entire six-film series.
Not only was star and producer Tom Cruise on to something personally iconic when he took the 60s classic television series, and brought it to the big screen in 1996, he is part of a film franchise that gets better with age… much like the star himself.
The sixth edition of Mission Impossible finds the moniker meaning more than it ever has prior—and exponentially for that matter. Writer-director Christopher McQuarrie has crafted a story where the stakes could not be higher. Plutonium is loose on the world and it is Cruise’s Ethan Hunt’s fault. A villain with a vendetta (directed firmly at Hunt) has the chance to make three nuclear weapons with the toxic stuff, inching closer with each passing minute in the movie.
It’s a hair-raising premise and one made almost unwatchable without putting hands over eyes repeatedly throughout. Something keenly gleaned from watching Hunt over five Mission Impossibles, is that he will fix this or die trying. The same can be said for the actor behind the legendary role. What Cruise does to entertain us is nothing short of literally putting everything on the line for his audience. Doing his own stunts is one thing, but what the actor does in his latest is nothing short of mesmerizingly death-defying. It pays off…immensely.
Cruise is of the belief that first and foremost, the audience is removed from being emotionally vested in an action film when a stunt performer takes over for the star. Therefore, he must do the stunts. Secondly, to keep his audience engaged in these films, the action must elevate from Mission to Mission. He’s climbed and leaped from the tallest building in the world (Ghost Protocol)—1,700 feet in the air. The superstar clung to the outside of a military aircraft, soaring up well into the sky in Rogue Nation.
What’s a guy to do to get higher?
How about jump from an airplane—30,000 feet above Paris—all while trying to save Henry Cavill’s August Walker as they careen towards the rapidly approaching earth.
That’s just the tip of the action iceberg in Mission Impossible: Fallout. There are so many jaw-dropping sequences, it’s hard to know where to start. Several are teased in the phenomenal first trailer that may just be the best teaser released all year. But those mere moments do nothing to deflate the stunning and sensational envelope-pushing stunts that McQuarrie and company achieve throughout this two-and-a-half-hour dazzling delight that is easily the best summer movie in years and perhaps (must marinate more on its historical place) the best action movie sequel crafted since Mad Max: Fury Road—or maybe even the king of follow-ups, Terminator 2.
As we journey through the streets of Paris to London to Kashmir, the pursuit of the man at the center of Hunt’s ire (Sean Harris’ Solomon Lane) gets more powerful and palpably perilous. He and Hunt have history (Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation) and that only adds to the powder keg of possibilities where the breathtaking drama and chills will take us. Harris and Cruise have quite a cross chemistry that is as good as any Bond villain/hero collective as exists. These two souls are on a collision course, two films in the making, that will rock you to your core. It is largely due to that fact that this 150-minute movie never feels long. In fact, we could have used another half-hour!
One thing remains constant in Mission Impossible movies and that is how Hunt has his devoted team of action enablers getting his back, time and time again. Simon Pegg’s Benji Dunn gets a bit more to do in terms of his facing danger head on department, details will not be discovered here. Ving Rhames’ Luther Stickell is the man as only Rhames can portray and in many ways is the moral compass/soul of this outfit, now more than ever. Isla Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) brings an Oscar worthy pedigree to the series and continues to awesomely impress as the MI6 agent with a mysterious mission herself. Ferguson is once again (after Rogue Nation) a true MVP (beyond of course the chilling Cruise brilliance in a role he was born to play). She brings layers to Faust that not only add much needed emotive energy to an actioner, but an astute and equal clandestine character that matches Hunt professionally and most importantly, in espionage intellect.
Angela Bassett—one of our best actresses working today—is a marvel as a CIA director, Erica Sloan. With the stakes so high, an imminent nuclear weapon attack, she takes no chances and forces Alec Baldwin’s IMF leader Alan Hunley to add Cavill’s Walker to Hunt’s team to keep an eye on him and to be his judge, jury and executioner should things go south. Both actors are terrific additions to the Mission family and as mysterious as CIA agents can be, their true modus operandi is never truly revealed into the meat of the story is well behind us.
It’s nice to see Cavill for once play a character that gives him material worthy of his talents.
Cruise, what more can be said at this point with him and this film franchise. If he keeps bringing progressively better Mission Impossible films as he gets older, could this thing go to eight, nine or maybe 10 chapters? There will most certainly be a seven.
Whenever it’s release date is announced, after the pure hellfire journey (meant in the best way) that is this exercise in summer action movie mastery, that date will circled in red.
Grade: A+