Mission: Impossible – Fallout
5 stars
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Stars: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames
Duration: 147 mins
Class: 12
KRS Releasing Ltd

At the beginning of Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Impossible Missions Force (IMF) agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is given a copy of Homer’s Odyssey and what unfolds for him over the next few days can pretty much equate to what Ulysses encounters on his 10-year voyage home in terms of epic exploits and, to a certain extent, personal journey.

This mission – which Hunt clearly chose to accept otherwise there would be no movie –  is a complicated one. An IMF mission goes horribly wrong and Hunt and his colleagues Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) lose a cache of plutonium. Tasked with retrieving it, Hunt bluffs his way into a meeting with the mysterious philanthropist (and arms dealer) known as the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby), who can help him buy back the plutonium. Only her price isn’t cash – she wants him to free anarchist and terrorist Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) – last seen in custody at the end of the last film.

Faced with some impossible choices, Hunt learns that many of those around him believe he’s a spy – and to make matters worse, some faces from his past turn up throwing him into further turmoil.

Cruise and company have raised the bar to impossible heights

Fallout is the sixth instalment in the Mission: Impossible series and there was not a sign of franchise fatigue to be found. It is the perfect summer blockbuster and writer / director Christopher McQuarrie has fashioned a fun, funny, fast and furious adventure that features a fairly complex plot, well-drawn characters and a series of action sequences that run the gamut from the sublime (Hunt and CIA agent Walker look down from the back door of a plane into a beautifully lit stormy sky before leaping from said plane) to the ridiculous (a final sequence involving helicopters which has to be seen to be [not] believed.)

And so, throughout the film’s 147-minute running time we are treated to some high-octane, mind-blowing, tension-filled car chases across Paris; and pursuits on foot in London. There are gravity and death-defying fisticuffs on a mountaintop in Kashmir along with a bloody battle set in the whitest bathroom ever seen. 

Each scene is more intense and implausible than the one before, and yet, so incredibly well-choreographed are they – each executed with surgical precision in the action by the actors and stunt team and shot with up-close-and-personal focus by McQuarrie’s cinematographer Rob Hardy – that in the moment you believe it.

Aided and abetted by Cruise, of course – he famously does all his own stunts, which goes a long way towards making the implausible completely believable. The 56-year-old actor’s commitment to the role, his infectious enthusiasm and his unrelenting athletic prowess are a marvel – clearly nothing is impossible for him, and this all increases the viewer’s enjoyment a hundredfold. “Why don’t you just die?!” an adversary grunts at Hunt at one point. Because that would ruin our fun, I would opine.

 The action lets up long enough for some nice character exposition to come through, without ever letting the pace flag. Hunt gets his knuckles rapped for a split-second decision which costs him the plutonium at the outset. But, it’s a decision which saves Luther’s life and the jocular banter that passes between them and Pegg’s Dunn is an effective sign of the trio’s close and personal relationship.

While, in one of the film’s quieter moments, Rhames excels as he talks about the kind of man Hunt is; Harris’s Lane adds layers to what could have been a one-dimensional lunatic hell-bent on nuclear-bombing the world. And Henry Cavill’s smug and by-the-book agent Walker is the perfect foil to Hunt’s more relaxed and trigger-happy demeanour.

But it certainly isn’t just a men’s club – the ensemble is enhanced by a superb quartet of women who effortlessly make their mark, including Rebecca Ferguson’s cool and intense MI6 Agent Faust, on a mission that clashes with Hunt’s; Kirby’s enigmatic and sensual White Widow; Angela Bassett’s no-nonsense CIA director Erica Sloane and a returning Michelle Monaghan as Hunt’s wife Julia, who adds much heart to the story.

Sixth time round, Cruise and company have raised the bar to impossible heights. And I, for one, can’t wait to see what mission they will accept in order to scale it in the inevitable Part VII.