Movie Review: Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Director: Christopher McQuarrie

Starring: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Angela Bassett, Vanessa Kirby, Michelle Monaghan, Alec Baldwin

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 147 minutes

Before we dive into discussing Fallout, I just want to let everyone know I binge-watched all five of the previous Mission: Impossible movies for the first time in one day so that I’d be able to go out and see this movie opening weekend to put out a review (and if you want to see how I felt about the rest of the franchise, check out my rankings here). No one can say I’m not dedicated to this job. Now onto the review.

Three years after the release of Rogue Nation comes the sixth installment in the Mission: Impossible movie franchise. Set two years after the events of Rogue Nation, Fallout finds our hero Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) cleaning up the remnants of Solomon Lane (Sean Harris)’s secret organization The Syndicate. Now known as The Apostles, these rogue agents are committing terrorism around the world even with their leader now in custody. And after losing three plutonium cores to The Apostles in a botched job, Ethan and the rest of the Impossible Missions Force (IMF) are forced to partner with the CIA to retrieve the plutonium before The Apostles can create nuclear weapons with them.

Of course, with the M:I films being spy/action films, there is a great deal of subterfuge throughout the plot, so I don’t want to detail too many of the events of the movie for the sake of spoiling the full enjoyment. What I can do is try to explain the best I can why this is easily the best movie in the franchise.

Something essential to the franchise (especially in the original television series) is the importance of teamwork to complete each of the missions. And while some of the previous installments have made it feel like Ethan Hunt against the world, since Ghost Protocol there has been a strong emphasis on the other characters being essential to the success of each mission. Especially here, Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) feel just as essential to the series as Tom Cruise, and I couldn’t really imagine the series without them. Rebecca Ferguson also reprises her role as (probably my favorite character in Rogue Nation) Ilsa Faust, and like the other three mentioned before she’s quickly become a core member of the franchise. But it’s not just the team that works in this movie; Henry Cavill gives a spectacular performance as August Walker (quite possibly my favorite role of his to date), and Angela Bassett and Alec Baldwin, while not prominently featured, deliver their scenes and lines like the pros they are.

Another key element of the series is, of course, the spy antics. From the elaborate infiltration missions, constant misdirection and double-crossing, and my personal favorite trope of the series in the impossibly realistic masks, M:I has plenty of spy elements incorporated throughout that make it more than just an action film series. However, while in some of the past movies this can get a bit convoluted and even ridiculous at times, this film manages to make each mission is exciting and thrilling, every double-cross surprising and enjoyable, and even boasts one of the best uses of the masks in the franchise.

And finally, of course, everyone loves the stunts. The amazingly entertaining and increasingly insane stunts that Tom Cruise always performs himself, and what probably are the most well-known aspect of the franchise. Each film has bigger and better stunts for Tom to perform, from scaling the tallest building on Earth in Ghost Protocol to diving off a 120-foot ledge and holding his breath underwater for 6 minutes in Rogue Nation. But Fallout has some of the best stunts in the franchise, such as the halo jump near the beginning of the film (Cruise is the only actor to ever have performed this feat), and the helicopter sequence towards the end (Cruise also learned how to pilot a helicopter for this scene). Not to mention all the motorcycle and vehicle chases throughout the movie, as well as the famous Tom Cruise run making multiple appearances in this installment. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the combat sequences as well; the fight choreography in this film is amazing, in particular, the bathroom sequence early in the film.

There’s just so much to love about this film, not just as a M:I film but as an action film in general. I have no doubt that people will bring this movie up in the discussion of “best action film of all time” from now on. I had so much fun watching this movie, and it was worth spending 10 hours of my day watching five movies in a row to get here. This is easily in my top five movies of the year right now, and it could quite possibly be my favorite film this year so far.