Review
JAMIE EAST AT THE MOVIES
Latest Mission: Impossible is superb — make more films like this, Tom Cruise, and we won’t Fallout
The incredible locations are only surpassed by the setpieces taking place in them
HERE’S a test for you. Name a film franchise with more than three films that just keeps getting better.
There’s Harry Potter and, arguably, Fast and Furious. But you’d be hard-pushed to find one that ups its game and keeps offering as much bang for your buck as Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible series.
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We’re back for the sixth episode of Ethan Hunt’s continued battle against the bad guys and, bloody hell, if it hasn’t just gone and delivered the best action film of the year so far . . .
We begin in Belfast, where Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is having a nightmare about his wife and sworn enemy Solomon Lane, the brilliantly evil Sean Harris who, if you remember, is the anarchist now in custody after the previous escapade in Rogue Nation.
Fallout is pretty much a sequel, with Christopher McQuarrie being the first writer/director to return to the franchise.
Solomon’s Syndicate is now using some stolen plutonium for nefarious purposes and the Impossible Missions Force are in charge of thwarting an exchange, which doesn’t go particularly well.
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The chase is then on, taking them around the world where they bump into some friendly — and many not-so-friendly — faces. Among them is August Walker (Henry Cavill), the CIA operative in charge of keeping his eye on Hunt.
We meet a group called The Apostles, the White Witch broker who, truth told, don’t add much except as bullet fodder and glamour. But it’s all about the moral dilemma and race against time here, folks.
How far will Hunt go not to blow his cover? Oh man, it’s exciting — so damn exciting.
We even get the phrase, “I murder women and children with smallpox . . . I have no line,” uttered with such a straight face, you gasp and clutch your pearls rather than chuckle at the absurdity. Its honesty, and the complete investment from the actors, are what makes this such a good film — it completely believes in itself.
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It’s also confident enough not to rely so much on Cruise’s big setpieces, although they are still the highlights. Instead, it offers a pretty expansive gang movie where characters such as Benji (Simon Pegg) and Lisa (Rebecca Ferguson) add more to the plot than your usual romance and comedy sidekicks.
MOST READ IN FILM
The incredible locations are only surpassed by the setpieces taking place in them. And Tom wheels out his greatest hits.
There’s freefalling from planes, motorbikes going like the clappers through Paris, helicopters defying physics and the piece de resistance — Cruise bombing across the Millennium Bridge.