After over twenty years and six films, I have come to a conclusion:
Ethan Hunt just needs to go into business for himself so he could at least have an employer that trusts him.
Whether he is saving the world through the Impossible Missions Force (or IMF) or working outside of the government as a rogue spy, the guy has more than earned a little bit of love here and there from the country and planet he is morally obligated to protect. However, this “me against the world” thing makes for some pretty darn good moviegoing, and “Mission: Impossible Fallout” is no exception.
In this latest installment, Hunt (Tom Cruise) is in pursuit of three bits of plutonium that The Acolytes (formed from what is left of The Syndicate) want to construct three weapons of nuclear mass destruction. When he fails to secure them, CIA chief Erica Sloan (Angel Bassett) decides she needs to take charge of the operation away from Secretary Alan Huntley (Alec Baldwin) by teaming up one of her top agents, August Walker (Henry Cavill), with Hunt to ensure the mission’s success.
With chases, bullets, and espionage galore, this is nothing shy of cinematic eye candy worthy to have the “M:I” label put on it. This is also the first time in the franchise’s history that a director has been used more than once (much less back-to-back) with Christopher McQuarrie. Also returning to the co-writing chair, McQuarrie delivers another great script that rivals the previous film, and although I still prefer “Rogue Nation” just a bit more, this is still in the medal round. To the trained spy genre eye, most of the twists can be seen a mile away, but that does not take away from the pure enjoyment of “Fallout”.
It is a constant amazement that Cruise still is doing what he is doing, considering the fact that he is five years OLDER than Wilford Brimley was when he made “Cocoon”… (look it up, kids) and still doing almost all of his own stunts. It is well-publicized the injuries and delays that tried to plague this production, but they still managed to get it out on time, and boy did they. There is just something that feels at home seeing Cruise, Simon Pegg, and Ving Rhames working together again along with a few other familiar faces from this series of films rounding out the cast. Cavill is as great as he always is (and for those of you unaware, THIS is the film he could not shave his moustache for as it pertained to the reshoots for “Justice League”), and even though Bassett has a very small role here, she is still great and gives everything necessary to sell her role to the audience.
There will be all of the normal clichés used for this flim like “high octane,” “thrill ride,” “Cruise is on top of his game,” and “the action film of the summer” when the ads for “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” go into full blitz mode, but I cannot say that any of them are out of sorts to describe this film. With credentials that now have it rivaling the great action series of our time, I can honestly say that I enjoyed it so much that I am ready to see where the franchise takes us next, whether Cruise gives it one more go ‘round or we see the rumored passing of the torch to Jeremy Renner’s character. I’m pretty much good either way.