Mission: Impossible: Fallout review

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE: FALLOUT:

TOM CRUISE RETURNS FOR ANOTHER STUNT-FILLED MISSION THAT’S WORTH ACCEPTING!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** ½ out of 4

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Henry Cavill, and Rebecca Ferguson in Mission: Impossible: Fallout

            Tom Cruise (Rain Man, Minority Report, Edge of Tomorrow) is back as IMF agent, Ethan Hunt in the sixth installment of the long-running Mission: Impossible film series. Hard to believe the first film came out back in 1996 and Tom Cruise continues to dish these movies out, take the series to new heights with each new installment, and make box-office profits, it truly lives up to its “Impossible” name.

            Now, Cruise collaborates once again with Rogue Nation director, Christopher McQuarrie (The Way of the Gun, Persons Unknown, Jack Reacher) and producer, J.J. Abrams (Lost, Star Trek (2009), Star Wars: The Force Awakens) in Mission: Impossible: Fallout, and no, it has nothing to do with the Fallout video game series. This marks the first time a director of a previous installment directed more than one film in the Mission: Impossible series, if John Woo came back there would have been a lot more doves.

            Every Mission: Impossible movie that came before had a different director which gave all of them their own unique style, some of them better than others, not gonna lie. McQuarrie is the first director to return to the franchise, so I was curious to see how Fallout would play out compared to its predecessors.

            Not only is Fallout debatably the best installment of the series but it might be on par with Die Hard, The Matrix, and Mad Max: Fury Road as one of the best action movies of all time. Sure, plot wise, it’s pretty formulaic, but seeing Tom Cruise actually perform all these stunts live and in front of the camera with very little CGI is undeniably impressive not just from a stunt perspective but also from a cinematography and production design standpoint.

            Fallout is here to remind us and Hollywood how action movies are done, we live in a time where CGI and green-screen stunts dominate most of the cinema. Seeing practical effects and real stunts happening are more impressive and adds more to the excitement, you look at Tom Cruise jumping off buildings, crashing a helicopter, and climbing up a mountain with a loosening winch without a single scratch you can’t help but say “Wow”.

            After a mission gone wrong in Berlin, Ethan Hunt and his IMF team, technical field agent, Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg-Cornetto trilogy, Star Trek (2009 trilogy), Paul), former MI6 agent, Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson-The White Queen, Life, The Greatest Showman), and IMF agent, Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames-Pulp Fiction, Lilo & Stitch, Dawn of the Dead (2004)) are pitted in a race against time to obtain three plutonium cores from a terrorist organization called The Apostles, consisting of former members of The Syndicate. Director of the CIA, Erica Sloane (Angela Bassett-Boyz n the Hood, What’s Love Got to Do with It, Black Panther) sends Special Activities operative, August Walker (Henry Cavill-The Tudors, DC Extended Universe, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) to the IMF and instructs that he shadows Ethan during his attempt to retrieve the plutonium.

            When Ethan interrogates Syndicate leader, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris-Prometheus, Southcliffe, Macbeth) for information regarding The Apostles, he realizes that what he does with the best intentions can come back to haunt him and the end he’s always feared is upon him. The plutonium cores are apparently being used to power a nuclear weapon that will contaminate the water supply of Pakistan, India, and China, therefore wiping out a third of the world’s population.

            Ethan and his team must do the “Impossible” to stop The Apostles, defuse the weapons, and save the world.

            The film also stars Alec Baldwin (Beetlejuice, The Departed, 30 Rock) reprising his role from Rogue Nation as IMF Secretary, Alan Hunley, Michelle Monaghan (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Source Code, Patriots Day) reprising her role from Mission: Impossible III as Ethan’s ex-wife, Julia Meade, and Vanessa Kirby (Great Expectations (BBC), Everest, The Crown) as White Widow.

            Overall, Mission: Impossible: Fallout delivers everything that makes a great action movie, lots of over-the-top thrills and stunt work, a splash of humor, and an intelligent story that makes you think and treats you like an adult. It’s the Mission: Impossible equivalent of The Dark Knight mixed with Mad Max: Fury Road, that’s literally what the movie is in terms of plot.

            Ethan Hunt is interrogating Lane, the villain from Rogue Nation, and what’s his plan? To spread anarchy and chaos, yeah, sounds familiar doesn’t it. Though I think Lane may have surpassed Ledger’s Joker in terms of defining anarchy, this guy’s literally trying to poison the water supply of a third of the world’s population, I’m pretty sure he’s done plenty of that in Batman cartoons and comics, but I digress.

            The action sequences are some of the best in the series as well as the best all summer, you got your foot chases, a motorcycle chase, and a helicopter chase to name a few, and unlike a Michael Bay film you never get tired of watching it. The way they’re all planned, filmed, and executed make them so exhilarating to watch whether IMAX or standard, I could literally watch a compilation of every action sequence on a continuous loop, that’s how good they are.

            Tom Cruise continues to do his usual shtick and I think he’s at his best when he’s working with other people on-screen. Which is why I consider the later installments of the franchise to be the strongest because it’s not just Tom Cruise performing stunts, he’s got talented co-stars with him to work off of and they all have great chemistry for both humor and drama, not to mention we got Cruise fighting bad guys with an indestructible Henry Cavill, how is this not the best summer blockbuster of the year?

            Mission: Impossible: Fallout delivers all the goods, surpasses every previous installment of the series, and makes for a fun night of summer blockbuster excitement. And you almost forget that this movie was responsible for killing the Justice League movie last year.