Mission: Impossible – Fallout **** (2018, Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Angela Bassett, Vanessa Kirby, Alec Baldwin, Michelle Monaghan) – Movie Review

As you’ve probably gathered from all the ads and trailers, Tom Cruise is back for his sixth Mission: Impossible, starring once more as Ethan Hunt, who rejoins his sturdy, stalwart little IMF team of Ving Rhames as Luther and Simon Pegg as Benji to do the impossible after a mission goes wrong. IMF’s motto is the difficult we do immediately but the impossible takes a little loner – we’re working on it.

Bethnal Green’s Sean Harris has the enviable task of playing the bad guy Solomon Lane, returning from Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015), and makes a thoroughly good nasty job of it, mean as mustard. Is that a thing? No of course it’s not, it’s keen as mustard, and Harris is keen as mustard. (Mustard is thought to be hot and extreme, hence keen as mustard.)

But I digress.

Cruise is keen as mustard as well, keen to prolong the Mission: Impossible franchise that started in another millennium back in 1996, his star career and his action career, and that is working surprisingly well for him. So, working surprisingly well, is he, running, jumping and standing still – and grinning and grimacing – like he did 25 years ago. Even fd some of the stuff must be fake CGI, and some stand-ins and stuntmen, it looks like he’s doing a whole lot of the stunts himself. Wow!

Did I mention that he was 56 on 3 July 2018, and the uncanny thing is, he looks like he did 25 years ago. On the huge IMAX screen, we get a lot of time to check out people’s faces in ridiculously large close-ups. I don’t want to be mean, but he looks – and acts and seems – years younger than Simon Pegg, who is 48. Well, good for Tom. It would be wrong of me to speculate why Tom looks 25 going on 30, it would just amount to envy anyway.

Anyhow, some familiar allies turn up – Rebecca Ferguson as Ethan’s love Ilsa and Michelle Monaghan as Ethan’s ex-wife Julia, now married to Patrick (Wes Bentley), and Alec Baldwin turns up too as the head of IMF, sweaty Alan Hunley, who is having a little ding-dong with bossy CIA boss Erica Sloan (Angela Bassett), who sends in Superman, er I mean August Walker (a grungy looking Henry Cavill – doesn’t this man ever shave?) to keep an eye on Ethan, who has threatened the whole world, bombs wise, by putting Luther’s life first in a planned exchange, money for bombs, the mission that went wrong in the first place in the pre-credits sequence.

Post credits, it is entirely a globe-trotting race against time to get the bits of several bombs to save the world. I hope I have done some justice to writer-director Christopher McQuarrie’s ingenious plot, simple and complex at the same time, without giving any spoilers. McQuarrie is ingenious and a bit of a genius too. This epic blockbuster, juggernaut, two hour and half movie is absolutely non-stop from its James Bond-style opening sequence till the very end, with the wrap-up, jam paced throughout with action.

Rebecca Ferguson as Ethan’s love Ilsa.

This kind of movie is supposed to slow down for a bit after the pre-credits sequence, then have action highlight set pieces dotted throughout, interspersed with slow bit, then conclude with a great big action finish. McQuarrie is after something else – actually non-stop action, all through the movie, like the whole movie is the Bond pre-credits sequence. And, do you know?, he does exactly that, pulls off this incredible feat.

If he wants the odd change of pace, it’s just to change the jaw-dropping action for breathtaking fights. It’s nice to have old-fashioned fisticuffs back in a spy movie. And it’s nice that Mission: Impossible has somehow got in touch with the idea that it is a spy movie. McQuarrie does another, clever thing, he keeps his movie dark toned and dangerous, but adds a bit of spice, or maybe mustard, but he too is keen, with some low-key witty banter and campy humour. It is all judged perfectly.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout ends up in a brilliant place – better than any recent James Bond movie. I officially hate sequels, but Mission: Impossible – Fallout hereby gives Cruise and McQuarrie permission to do a seventh movie.

I like actors, and this is a good, slightly quirky team, well chosen. Ving Rhames is great as Luther, providing humour and warmth, and Simon Pegg isn’t irritating this time, keeping the comedy sidekick character work low-key. The movie is unusual in providing four strong roles for women, and Ferguson, Bassett, Monaghan and Vanessa Kirby as some posh rogue MI6 agent (the White Widow) are all class acts.

I suppose it is just about The Tom Cruise Show, but he is sensible enough to share a lot of the spotlight with his talented co-workers, and with his glorious Paris and London locations too. For those who have been getting bored with Cruise for a while, and have maybe felt they’d had enough Mission: Impossible, this movie will come as a pleasant surprise. It’s not just good, it’s excellent, thrilling even.

And, as a professional piece of work, it’s seamless and flawless, brilliantly written, executed and edited. Take a bow Rob Hardy for the startling cinematography and Lorne Balfe for the exciting score, making great use of the old, classic TV Lalo Schifrin theme (which must be nearly as famous and excellent as the Bond theme).

Now, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to go out and see it.

PS. For those seeking an explanation of the title. Solomon Lane says to Ethan: ‘Your mission, should you choose to accept it. I wonder, did you ever choose not to? The end you’ve always feared is coming. And the blood will be on your hands. The fallout of all your good intentions.’

The series so far is Mission: Impossible, Mission: Impossible II, Mission: Impossible III, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com