Mission: Impossible – Fallout | Film Review

The film franchise that doubles as Tom Cruise’s personal playground and workout center is BACK in Mission: Impossible – Fallout! A direct sequel to the last adventure, Rogue Nation, Cruise’s Ethan Hunt unwittingly facilitates the theft of three balls of plutonium, snatched up by a covert group (aren’t they always?) known only as “The Apostles”. Their mission: to distribute these as dirty bombs and trigger a catastrophic, global event which could reset life as we know it. Ethan’s mission, which he never fails to accept, is to retrieve the plutonium, identify the source known only as John Lark, and prevent untold destruction.

The sixth film in a franchise over 20 years old, Mission: Impossible – Fallout is not breaking any new ground in terms of plot or action spectacle. You take your seat, and you know exactly what to expect: dire circumstances, insanely unbelievable rubber masks, flashy stunts, double agents, a handful of gadgets, and a 93% chance Tom Cruise runs like a gazelle at some point before the final credits scroll. Much like writer-director Christopher McQuarrie’s script, this isn’t rocket science.

Speaking of the story, it IS ludicrous and preposterous, and I honestly couldn’t care less. There are films where plot points and continuity errors can crash a movie like this to its knees, but Mission: Impossible is exempt for me in this regard. In fact, I would have a hard time reciting ANY of the M:I plots outside of the first – and still greatest – film in the series. As with James Bond, Ethan Hunt is a character I want to see either escape or pursue, that is his nature.

So if the plot doesn’t matter, what does? Spectacle. Good, old-fashioned eye candy. No, I’m not talking about Henry Cavill and his humongous biceps as CIA assassin August Walker. It’s the visceral thrills contained within this 2-plus hours that will keep audiences on the edge of their seat for the duration. In this film alone, we have a heart-thumping HALO jump, a motorcycle chase through city traffic, the obligatory “RUN, TOM, RUNNNNN!” scene (where Cruise sprints further than that runway in Fast and Furious 6), and the electric finale with helicopters dueling mid-air while traversing a mountain range. Any one of these in another franchise would function as a centerpiece to build a story around. In Fallout, there simply isn’t enough time between set-pieces for a layered narrative, and that’s a perfectly acceptable reasoning.

Casting wise, the IMF returns in full (Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Alec Baldwin, and a pleasant throwback to a character from previous films), with the primary addition lying with the impressively massive shoulders that belong to Henry Cavill. August Walker is referred to as the “hammer” to Hunt’s “scalpel”, and this analogy simply boggles the mind. I’m exceptionally boggled. While Walker prefers the direct approach of using his lethality to confront issues, it’s not like Hunt is blowing kisses and hugging babies. They both take their problems to pound town, leaving gaggles of random terrorist red-shirts suffering severe musculature damage in their wake. Regardless, even though Cavill emotes as effectively as a random block of wood, his sheer stature posits him as a formidable conflict for Hunt to contend with.

That brings me to Ethan Hunt. After 20 years, Tom Cruise has used the magic of his genetic lottery winnings to great advantage as he once again insists on performing most of his own stunts. A lot of media attention is paid to this whiter version of Jackie Chan and his preference to test the limits of insurance payouts by performing in this manner at his age. The truth is, it works. I don’t know about you, but even with the technology we currently have, I can ALWAYS tell when an actor has had a CGI touchup or a stunt man has taken up his slack. You can call Tom Cruise whatever you want, as long as you preface it with “this guy would sever his own pinkie toe to make a movie more stimulating for audiences”. Because he proves it’s true, every single time.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout is an exciting spy flick that thrives on that summer movie spirit. If you can look past a story you’ve seen countless times and the weird way McQuarrie chooses to shoot Cavill and Cruise at cockeyed angles so “one” of them doesn’t appear to be a hobbit compared to the other; then strap in for one of the most thrilling films of the summer! I’m still not sure what the hell, if anything, really happened. But I do know Tom Cruise looked damn good saving us all.

Yet again.