Like a spy with many masks, the Mission: Impossible series, for a while, redefined itself with each adventure. It started with Brian De Palma’s cerebral tale of spying and deception, before flipping tone to the cartoonish gun porn of John Woo. A flashy but insubstantial instalment from JJ Abrams and the high-tech gadgetry of Brad Bird followed. But after 2015’s Rogue Nation, from writer-director Christopher McQuarrie, was praised as the best mission to date, we now have the first M:I movie to see a director return for a second go.
Two years after Rogue Nation, the terrorist Syndicate has re-emerged in the form of splinter faction the Apostles, with a motive along the lines of ‘let’s kill a lot of people’ and a plan to set off some large bombs. When an attempt at keeping plutonium out of the wrong hands goes awry, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team set off on a globe-hopping adventure which takes them to Paris, London and Kashmir, and back into conflict with now-imprisoned Syndicate leader Solomon Lane (Harris). Alongside his usual support unit of Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg, Hunt’s joined by CIA assassin August Walker (Cavill, plus now-notorious moustache), though Walker distrusts Hunt and has objectives of his own, as does MI6’s magnificently named Ilsa Faust (Ferguson), returning from Rogue Nation.
Those who skipped the previous film may be briefly confused by those throwbacks; Fallout does one major thing the M:I series hasn’t done before, in that it’s a full-on sequel. There’s also a guest appearance from Ethan’s ex-wife (Monaghan, last seen in 2011’s Ghost Protocol) and a new character related to Vanessa Redgrave’s villain from the very first movie. Swot up with some Wikipedia plot summary-centred revision beforehand, and this can be very rewarding. The series has settled into a solid continuity rather than having Hunt throw away women and friends after just one fling, and Fallout manages not to make these returnees feel crowbarred in but to properly develop all concerned.
But what we’re all here for, let’s admit it, is the grandstanding set pieces, another aspect in which Fallout ups the game. If you’ve seen the much-trailered shot of Hunt clinging onto a cargo rope beneath a helicopter, that’s just the start of a sequence that gets more brilliantly ludicrous as it goes on – wait till you see what happens when the other chopper gets involved. Other highlights include a brutal road chase through Paris and a punch-up in a nightclub toilet which is weirdly clean until Hunt’s finished with it. This balls-through-the-wall action is countered nicely by the cleverer, more deception-based espionage – there’s a great “oh, that’s what they were doing” moment when Hunt’s team get the upper hand on a villain – meaning that the two-and-a-half hour running time actually flies by.
And among all this, there’s a thematic thread about Hunt’s devotion to protecting innocent lives, whatever the cost. It’s slight, but that’s kind of the point – this is a series that refuses to be too introspective, and the character development is there to add a bit of depth to the action rather than detract from it. The Daniel Craig Bond movies may have taken Bond from rookie double-O to old-timer whinging about his knobbly knees in just three films, but twenty-two years in, Ethan Hunt shows little sign of ever slowing down.
If there’s one word that sums up Fallout, it’s ‘confident’. It has no desire to do anything new or polemical, but it gives us fans what we want – Tom Cruise hanging off of things, the team back together, quick-witted deception antics, and a heavy dose of charm. Accept this mission.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT / CERT: 12A / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: CHRISTOPHER MCQUARRIE / STARRING: TOM CRUISE, HENRY CAVILL, REBECCA FERGUSON, VING RHAMES, SIMON PEGG, SEAN HARRIS, MICHELLE MONAGHAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Expected rating: 8 out of 10
