Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
Plane sailing…
Ethan Hunt’s fifth impossible mission starts with its much-publicised money shot: Tom Cruise clinging to the side of an Airbus A400M. For real. It’s a crazy stunt, and to front load the film with it is equally ballsy. But if you want to know the true circumference of Cruise’s cojones, it’s evidenced in his decision to trust in storytelling, lovingly crafted set-pieces and suspense rather than wedge himself into a bombastic, CGI-bloated 3D jamboree. Rogue Nation has its hi-tech gadgets, but it’s a pleasingly old-fashioned affair.
The coherently tangled plot sees Ethan obsessing upon the existence of the Syndicate, a SPECTRE-like organisation comprising supposedly deceased agents. Stick a pin in an international tragedy and it’ll tell tale of the Syndicate. But CIA Director Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) thinks Hunt is paranoid, the Impossible Missions Force out of control. And so Ethan, not for the first time, goes rogue, growing an unfeasibly bushy beard and calling on his trusty co-workers ( Jeremy Renner, Ving Rhames and an impressive Simon Pegg, whose tech-head Benji is given much more to do) to track down his only link to the Syndicate – whispering nutjob Solomon Lane (Sean Harris).
Naturally Ethan’s quest takes him to such far-flung places as Paris, Casablanca and London, while his modes of transport – always moving at breakneck pace, sometimes in reverse, or slaloming through traffic, or jolting down vertiginous steps – include cars, motorbikes and, of course, his own two feet; Cruise’s upright, arm-pumping run is as now iconic as John Wayne’s hip-roll slouch. There is double and triple-dealing galore, much of it via mystery lady Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson in a terrifically poised performance.)
Indeed, the Grand Guignol sequence in which Ethan and Ilsa first cross paths as two silhouettes working the wings and rigging of the Vienna State Opera while an assassination attempt plays out to ‘Nessun Dorma’, is M:I5’ s highlight. Director Christopher McQuarrie ( Jack Reacher) is a classicist, and each of his set-pieces, including a breath-snatching underwater heist, possess a pleasing purity.
Rogue Nation doesn’t quite have the scale of Brad Bird’s M:I4, its villain can’t match Philip Seymour Hoffman’s franchise stand-out ( M:I3), and Ethan Hunt continues to be little more than a startlingly capable cipher. But this is a fun entry in an enduring series that’s never failed to deliver a lively night out, and you should accept it, gladly. THE VERDICT Christopher McQuarrie keeps the franchise fuse fizzing with machinations a go-go and some precision action. › Director Christopher McQuarrie Starring Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Sean Harris Screenplay Christopher McQuarrie Distributor Paramount Running time 131 mins
‘Christopher McQuarrie’s setpieces possess a pleasing purity’