Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
Directors: Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Jeremy Renner
131 mins; Class 12;
KRS Releasing Ltd

In my review of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol I called Tom Cruise a supreme show-off for that stunt in which the actor casually hang off Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.

Well, am not quite sure what to call him now, for the actor certainly outdoes himself in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, the fifth instalment in the hugely popular franchise, with three eye-watering sequences that stand out – hanging on the door of a cargo plane as it takes off; carrying out some derring-do underwater for longer than should be humanly possible; and chasing his quarry down a highway in an adrenaline-fuelled motorcycle sequence.

Cruise is clearly not content with being a movie superstar with some creditable dramatic performances to his name mixed in with the higher profile action-adventure ones.

No, he not-so-secretly wants to be a stuntman when he grows up, as his behaviour, which seems to get more exhibitionist with each passing film, attests.

That is no way meant to be a criticism. Cruise can do all the showing off in as many death-defying stunts as he likes as long as they remain as highly entertaining as this. He is no fool.

A veteran of the industry, the actor knows what makes summer blockbuster audiences tick.

And, by following the same format as Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation offers two hours of relentless action, so creatively done, so revved up in its velocity that you are so caught up with it that you never really have a chance to figure out what the plot is all about. Not that it really matters.

For what it’s worth, the film unfolds as Ethan Hunt (Cruise), top agent for the IMF (Impossible Mission Force) tries to hijack a dangerous cargo that is on its way to a mysterious and well-financed terrorist agency known as The Syndicate.

This – the first of many – mission accomplished (courtesy of the afore-mentioned plane stunt), Hunt soon finds himself alone and on the run as the IMF faces the threat of closure by CIA director Hunley (Alec Baldwin).

Hunley accuses Hunt and his team of chasing ghosts; positing that The Syndicate does not in fact exist and that the IMF needs to be dissolved, being an agency of chaos.

So Hunt has no choice but to accept the impossible mission of his own making and stop The Syndicate with the help of the handful of agents still loyal to him, and one mysterious woman.

That’s the plot at its barest and, as the story unfolds, we are told of the nefarious plans of a group of missing, presumed dead secret agents from all over the world; the essential retrieval of a top-secret digital journal that only the prime minister can decrypt and blah blah blah.

No doubt, plans are already afoot for the next instalment in the series

Seriously, it doesn’t matter a jot. Like his predecessor on the previous instalment, writer/director Christopher McQuarrie provides enough of a plot to sustain the action, which is where the true entertainment lies.

And kudos to him and his cast and crew for carrying all the action off with such effortless aplomb, the major stunts described above coming in between other scenes of sheer fun set in different points across the globe.

And so we travel from the familiarity of London’s cobblestone streets to the sun-baked narrow roads of Casablanca via Vienna’s magnificent Opera House, where one of the film’s extraordinary action sequences takes place against the dramatic tones of Puccini’s Turandot.

And, believe me, nessun will dorma during this or any other part of the film, as the action never lets up as one scene hurtles to the next.

Neither does the film’s star show any signs of slowing down. The 53-year-old is as charismatic and determined as ever; and, truth be told, as tough and buff as always as he fights his way out of impossible situations with consummate ease

Popular Brit comedian Simon Pegg cracks wise and constant as Hunt’s friend and fellow agent Benji, team clown and team genius who also has a moment or two when the popular British comedian displays some dramatic heft.

The rest of the team in Ving Rhames’s and Jeremy Renner’s Brandt are present and correct while Sean Harris is an ice-cold antagonist.

The female gender is represented by Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson as the mysterious Isla, a strong, no-nonsense woman who kills and thrills her way through the plot, kicking as much ass as Ethan, often besting him and leaving him in the dust (literally, at one point).

She keeps us guessing throughout whether she is an agent, double-agent or possibly a triple one. Rogue Nation will, in all likelihood, set the international box office alight.

That mission accomplished, I have no doubt plans will be afoot for the next in the series.

For, as it has shown so far, for Cruise and the IMF, nothing is, in fact, impossible.