Mission Impossible: Fallout is the sixth Mission Impossible movie and the series just keeps on trucking. Tom Cruise continues to ingest the N-Rays from Lord Xenu, performing his own stunts, running faster than anyone his age should, flying a helicopter, and generally high-fiving himself for 2 1/2 hours. But the guy wants to entertain (and stay relevant) and if he keeps making movies like this, then I say let him…
Fallout continues some of the story from the previous film, Rogue Nation. It’s not so entangled with that movie though that if you hadn’t seen or it or only saw it that one time and can’t remember the details (raises hand) you’ll be lost. The same villain is back and the MI6 female assassin who looked so good in her ball gown and sniper rifle (Rebecca Ferguson) are back from that movie.
So the plot is very Mission Impossible spy plot… which is to say it kind of doesn’t matter that much as long as they get in some good suspense, action, and stunts. In this movie, terrorists are trying to get their hands on some stolen plutonium (or possibly uranium) and Ethan Hunt’s team must get their hands on it first. This involves prisoner rescues, HALO jumps, masks, dramatic mask reveals, double agents, betrayals, really fast running, car chases, and all the usual things these movie have. Really, it just has to hold together and not be dumb and it does that just fine.
Because the real star are some pretty great action scenes, suspenseful moments, bomb deactivations (cut the red wire!), helicopter shootouts (great violence are done to the choppers), fist fights, shootouts, etc. This is all filmed with great care and clarity which is very important – and increasingly rare – in modern action flicks. Very little obvious green screen or CGI is used – it all looks real (even when you kind of say, “Oh, he’d be dead in that fall!). I will say there’s an extended car and motorcycle chase scene throughout Paris… ALL of Paris it seems. It goes on a little too long, never being bad, but kind of over-staying its welcome. It’s impressive, but you can only remain impressed for so long.
There’s not a lot of room for character moments but what there is is good (or good enough). There’s a particularly good scene full of unstated thoughts between Ethan Hunt and his ex played by Michelle Monaghan. It’s a great bit of facial acting as neither wants to give up what’s really going on to the clueless people around them. Other than that’s there’s also a decent amount of comedy but it’s a rare modern act film that knows the difference between when to be serious and when to deflate the room with some jokes.
Oh, and Tom Cruise runs really fast in that special Tom Cruise way and, get this, rides a motorcycle. What a first!
Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg are back as Hunt’s support team and get the usual amount of screen time. Angela Basset and Alec Baldwin play rival bosses, also with limited screen time. Really, the only guy who gets a decent amount of screen time (besides Cruise) is Henry Cavill, playing a blunt instrument CIA agent. He’s a curious case because his character seems to be remarkably incompetent early on. Also, not a very good actor… though maybe Cavill had Superman on his mind in those scenes because he does get better later in the flick.
So, yeah, one of the best action flicks of the summer. It’s not world-changing or earth-shattering… but what it is, it is with extreme confidence and solid action film making. It’s a good modern spy/action flick and, for the 6th film in a franchise, holds up remarkably well. Probably because Tom Cruise refuses to get old or act his age… and because he wants to learn to fly helicopters and give us a good time at the movies.
Score: 87