MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE FALLOUT
★★★★★
OUT NOW CERT 12A / 147 MINS
DIRECTOR Christopher Mcquarrie
CAST Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Henry Cavill, Alec Baldwin, Simon Pegg, Angela Bassett, Ving Rhames, Sean Harris
PLOT An Impossible Mission Force mission goes wrong, so Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team must protect the world from a fresh nuclear threat. But with the CIA’S Agent Walker (Cavill) sent to keep an eye on him, Ethan will face an uphill battle to show he can still save the day.
THE KEY WORD for this franchise is not “impossible”. Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and his team always find a way. It’s “mission”, because these films are all about the job. Ethan Hunt barely ever pauses to let his love life interfere with his work, nor does he take time to swot up on his wine knowledge or choose a new bespoke suit. But each time he chooses a mission, what follows steadily are adrenalin-triggering exploits, loosely strung together by double-crosses and chicanery. And at the heart of it is the biggest movie star on the planet, still, a man who risks life and limb each time he steps up, to accomplish stunts we’ve never seen before. Tom Cruise probably climbs the Cliffs Of Insanity before breakfast and rappels back down using his own discarded M:I-2 hair. He’s sort of breathtaking.
The plot sees Hunt face a terrifying nuclear threat courtesy of the acolytes of imprisoned anarchist baddie Solomon Lane (Harris, still on supremely creepy form). Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust crosses his path again, on a conflicting mission of her own, while CIA agent August Walker (Cavill, with moustache) is foisted on Hunt as a minder. He’s a hammer to Hunt’s scalpel, as CIA chief Erica Sloan (Bassett) puts it, and despite the effectiveness of their partnership, the two immediately clash.
Ferguson was the breakout star last time, and she remains effective here even if the film struggles a little to explain why she and Hunt would not immediately team up. Vanessa Kirby also makes an immediate impression as party girl/ psycho Alana Mitsopolis, aka the ‘White Widow’, a power broker who has a sneaky connection to a piece of M:I history. But the cast member who comes closest to running away with this film is Cavill. He twists those patrician features into a sneer that’s less superman and more übermensch, and his hulking physicality makes the perfect contrast to Hunt’s highly trained, highly controlled approach.
But while the cast are superb and writer/director Christopher Mcquarrie’s character scenes quick but effective — Hunt’s personal life gets perhaps ten minutes in total here, though that packs a punch — the film comes alive in its jaw-droppingly effective action. There are car chases, fist fights, rooftop races and a helicopter pursuit against stunning scenery. Such descriptions boil the thing down to a nub: this Paris set-piece is a car chase in the same way that Mad Max: Fury Road is basically a car chase. A bathroom brawl becomes a visceral, bruising struggle to the death. Mcquarrie and Cruise push each scene a little further than you think they can,
adding an unexpected flourish or upping the stakes in a way that feels fresh, so you can never quite predict Hunt’s limits. If the first hour seems a little slow in retrospect, that’s only in comparison to a virtually flawless finale.
It’s also really clever. The villainous plot to use the nukes, and Hunt’s response, only more-or-less makes sense, as with any of these films. But what’s deeply satisfying is the way Mcquarrie layers character moments in the unlikeliest ways: bonding over bomb defusion, or an expression of purest trust when faced with the highest stakes imaginable. Even an old-fashioned escape by boat becomes a moment of delightful ingenuity, and a celebration of Hunt’s ability to plan his way past the creaking limits of his own endurance. It’s also nice to know that that endurance does have limits: Cruise isn’t scared to show physical and emotional vulnerability here, and however much he has honed his body and his skills, he still takes a pasting when engaged in one impossible task after another for more than 20 years. Then he pushes himself back to his feet and goes after his target for the umpteenth time anyway, because Ethan Hunt never lets a little thing like human limitations stand in his way.
Every Mission: Impossible film and TV episode poses its hero the same offer: “Your mission, should you choose to accept it…” is as close as the series comes to having a catchphrase. Here, Mcquarrie finally asks what sort of man keeps accepting those missions; what drives someone to put their life on the line again and again? For Hunt, the answer is simple. He can save people, and therefore he has a responsibility to act. For Cruise — and Mcquarrie
— it’s an eternal quest to outdo the last effort. They’re only making the next one difficult by succeeding this hard. HELEN O’HARA
VERDICT A combination of thrilling stunts, insane daring and clever writing make this a stunning piece of action cinema. Just be sure to take your heart meds first, and hold on tight.