acid reflects

Mission Impossible: Fallout
Written and Directed by Christopher McQuarrie

Granted it does not have the same narrative complexity of the series’ best Ghost Protocol (2011,) I thought the series was heading into the doldrums after the less impressive Rogue Nation (2015.)

But lo and behold, here we have Tom Cruise running and jumping and doing stunts like it was the year 2000.

Taking off from the events of Rogue Nation, Hunt receives a mission to intercept plutonium cores from landing into the hands of global terrorist organization The Apostles. The mission is unsuccessful after Hunt chooses to save team-member Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) instead of securing the cores, and the plutonium is whisked away by Apostle agents.

Left to right: Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust and Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT, from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.

Left to right: Henry Cavill as August Walker, Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt and Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT, from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.

Alec Baldwin as Alan Hunley in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT, from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.

Angela Bassett as Erika Sloane in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT, from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.

Sean Harris as Solomon Lane in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT, from Paramount Pictures and Skydance

Left to right: Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt and Vanessa Kirby as The White Widow in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT, from Paramount Pictures and Skydance

Left to right: Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn and Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT, from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.

Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT, from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.

Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT, from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.

Left to right: Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn, Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust, Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt and Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT, from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.

Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT, from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.

Photos from Paramount Pictures

The blunder is felt in Washington, wherein alpha-boss Erika Sloane (Angela Basset) takes over the operation from IMF overseer Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) and installs lead CIA agent August Walker (Henry Cavill) to ensure the mission’s success.

While in pursuit of the Apostles’ mysterious leader John Lark, Hunt’s team encounters the group of undergound powerbroker The White Lady (Vanessa Kirby,) who promises to lead Hunt – who is pretending to be Lark – to the remaining plutonium cores in exchange for Syndicate leader Solomon Lane (Sean Harris.) However, former MI6 agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) shows up with a separate agenda for Lane in mind. But the plot goes ever thicker when Hunt’s former wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) is somehow thrown into the mix.

#MIssionImpossible: Fallout is relentlessly nail-biting AF from beginning to end, with impressive practical sets and practical stunts that CGI-inflated films could dream of.

Rogue Nation had several action pieces set at night, including a London chase, and seeing Fallout do a souped-up version of these pieces many in daylight (and IMAX) further enhances the verite feeling of experiencing the real thing where it happens. Another thing about Fallout: (I think, or at least it feels like) it has a lot fewer scenes of people sitting and fewer high-techitysm (yeah, I’m coining that propensity to show off imagined new tech.) It definitely feels more kinetic and tactile.

Great cast. Cavill is okay – but the rest is exceptional. I think Cavill works best with this agressive, in-the-gray-area character than his manicured gentleman versions as Napoleon Solo in The Man from UNCLE. I still feel that he has a limited range of emotions to display, though. The rest of the cast shine, including Simon Pegg as techie Benjie Dunn, who gets into more action scenes of his own.

I also like the updated mix based on the original theme by Lalo Schifrin and the techno version by Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. Delicious photography of Paris and London, with a few how-did-they-shoot-that moments. Looks great on IMAX.

There’s no denying that the film is a Tom Cruise showcase, but that is not to say that the film accomplishes its franchise’s usual promises of non-stop action.

The spy action-thriller is very much alive and its name (right now) is Ethan Hunt. That Cruise could still do this in 2018 since the first Mission Impossible in 1996 is PHENOMENAL.

This Mission is accomplished.