Adrenaline Pumped- Mission: Impossible – Fallout [2018]

Spoilers Ahoy!!!

By the time a movie gets to the sixth in a series, no review is going to help you decide if you’re going to watch it or not. I probably wrote just about the same thing regarding The Fast and The Furious movies… and it’s also why some of those horror flicks can carry on for a spell (also because they’re cheaper to make and yield higher returns). For the Mission: Impossible films, there was always the benefit of having a rotating team of top end talent working behind the scenes; a different writer and director taking charge… until now.

And yet, despite having writer and director Christopher McQuarrie returning after his remarkably grounded instalment, this is a completely different beast. To maintain the shifting tone, McQuarrie is working with a completely different crew from cinematographer to production and costume designer, to give the movie a different look and feel, save for editor Eddie Hamilton. And it works.

Where Rouge Nation dispensed with ‘the big stunt’ early on and carrying on with one of the best spy thrillers we’ve had in a long time punctuated with some remarkable action set-pieces, Fallout hits the ground running with stunt set-piece after stunt set-piece punctuated with plot and story to logically thread the set-pieces togethers. The elaborately complex plot is a call-back to the first movie, and that’s not the only one. Cue the White Widow, played by Vanessa Kirby, a character related to another information broker played by another Vanessa over 20 years ago.

So, plot-wise, we pick up a couple of years after the events of Rouge Nation, and The Apostles have risen from the ashes of The Syndicate. In the opening gambit, they manage to grab 3 nuclear cores from Ethan (Tom Cruise) and his team, Luther (Ving Rhames) and Benji (Simon Pegg), with plans to make some bombs. So Ethan is hell-bent to get those cores back, but the CIA intends to have their own man on the job. So Ethan is saddled with bruiser Augustus Walker (Henry Cavill), a ‘hammer’ to the ‘scalpel’ that is Ethan, according to new CIA boss Erica Sloan (Angela Bassett) who took the job from Alec Baldwin’s Hunley, who took over the IMF at the end of the previous movie. As we’ve come to expect, the chase for these cores takes the team through several countries with the stakes climbing into the stratosphere. After all, we have nuclear bombs involved here. Taking action is key.

And action is what we get with at least four major set-pieces (all of which have been reported on in one way or another), and all involving Cruise in the heart of the stunts. From design to staging and execution, each of them surpasses what has come before, even in terms of presentation. The HALO jump in the first act, for example, had Cruise executing over 100 jumps before getting the single 3 minute take just right for the movie… and give a thought to the cameraman who had to make the jump with him to film the action.

And if you thought the vehicular stunts in Rogue Nation were intense, particularly the motorcycle chase in Casablanca, it gets topped here, along with a car chase, the usual yet brutal fisticuffs, and Cruise adding the helicopter to his repertoire of vehicles he can now masterfully control. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s going to pilot those jets for real in the coming Top Gun sequel. Of course, there’s the running, this time going up, over and across London, making the China run (in M:I-III) look like a cakewalk, given that he suffered a production halting injury in the process (and it’s in the movie too).

While all that is infused with a ridiculous amount of adrenaline, some of it is laced with humour as well, thanks mostly to Simon Pegg’s Benji, who finally gets to wear a mask after hoping for it over two previous movies. Ving Rhames remains stoic as the returning Luther, the only character other than Ethan who is in all the instalments. The returning cast do well, with an extension to Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust, the first female agent to make a comeback. Bassett makes an impression despite the few scenes she has, while Cavill finds ways to make sure his imposing character is not overshadowed by Cruise’s star power.

All of it is brought together in a story that brings about connections to all the previous instalments, be it by actual plot (mentioned above) or just a callback to some stunt-work. As much as the story plays out in an almost haphazard way, with Ethan muttering “I’ll figure it out” anytime someone points out a problem (my mind somewhat recalling Indiana Jones’ “I’m making it up as I go!” in Raiders), it resolves the main plot here but leaves room for another sequel. Although, it feels like they’ve quite clearly defined Ethan’s character by his actions here. It would be nice to bring Jeremy Renner’s Brandt back for one more round.

Some movies have been described as a “white-knuckle ride”, the kind where the action is so intense it has you gripping the armrests so hard, your knuckles go white. I’ve never described any movie like that, but this one is as close to earning that as there have been. Sure, I took in an IMAX (non-3D, disappointingly as none of our local cinemas have that) screening, and I probably did disturb a few other movie-goers with my exclamations at half the stunts going on, maybe verbalising what they might be thinking… but I do look at these movies with part of the creation process in mind too. Some of the extended takes are insane given how they are filmed.

All that makes this one of the best movies of the year, not just with the story or performances, but with the cinematography, the stunt work, the production design, the use of locations (gorgeous New Zealand doubling for Kashmir) and even that percussive score from Lorne Balfe, bringing a fresh take on the classic themes. Highly entertaining and enjoyable, this is the summer movie we’ve been waiting for.

Rating 🏍🛩🚁🚘1/2 /5

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie
Written by Christopher McQuarrie

Stars Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Vanessa Kirby, with Angela Bassett, Michelle Monaghan with Wes Bentley and Alec Baldwin

---

Get all three!
Barnes and Noble / ISBNSnet / Book Depository / Google Play Store
Learn more here.

---

---