Nothing new but a lot of bang for your buck
AFTER a mid-air collision, two helicopters, now sheared of their rotary blades, roll down a snow-covered mountain and teeter on the edge before toppling over – to wedge themselves in a crevice.
At which point Ethan Hunt and his similarly invincible adversary extricate themselves from the wreckage to continue their battle to the death.
The title of this pedal-to-the-metal action franchise is almost prescriptive.
The mission the characters – and their substantial audience – have decided to accept is not incredibly difficult, it’s IMPOSSIBLE.
Our contract with the filmmakers is clear even before the credits roll: the suspension of our disbelief no matter how far they push it – so long as the spectacular thrills deliver.
The stunts in the Mission: Impossible franchise have more in common with a magic act than anything even remotely resembling human capability.
One of the major set pieces – an exquisitely choreographed car chase through the streets of Paris – is a case in point. Eventually cornered, Hunt extricates himself by way of an impeccably timed confidence trick (neatly referencing the ’60s TV series upon which the franchise is based).
Tom Cruise is a good deal smaller than Dwayne Johnson, who recently executed a series of similarly pre-
posterous high-altitude stunts in Skyscraper.
But what he lacks in height and mass, he makes up for with physical intensity.
One of Hollywood’s longest-surviving action heroes gives his all – which in this case resulted in a broken ankle that delayed production for almost two months.
You can see the work he puts in on screen. Hunt’s actions are not effortless but effortful and that helps Cruise to sell his performance.
In Fallout, the sixth film in the consistently performing spy franchise, Hunt and his Impossible Mission Forces pals team up with CIA assassin August Walker (Henry Cavill) in a bid to locate three stolen plutonium cores before a bunch of terrorists known as the Apostles deploy them in simultaneous nuclear attacks on the Vatican, Jerusalem and Mecca.
Their primary target, the faceless arms dealer John Larkin, swiftly leads them back to Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), Rogue Nation’s anarchist mastermind. One of Fallout’s strengths is its ability to weave in many of the storylines from previous films to create depth but not confusion (you don’t need to have seen all five earlier films to piece the narrative together).
Rebecca Ferguson, reprising her role as M16 agent Isla Faust, again stands out – this character deserves her own franchise. Vanessa Kirby (best known as The Crown’s Princess Margaret) makes the most of her screen time as the White Widow, who can trace her lineage all the way back to the first, 1996 film, helmed by Brian De Palma.
Rogue Nation director Christopher McQuarrie consolidates on his work on Rogue Nation, with a solid, wellconstructed follow-up.
Fallout doesn’t break any new ground, but it does give its audience an extraordinary amount of bang for their buck.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout opens in cinemas today. .