Mission: Impossible – Fallout Review

Mission Impossible is one of Paramount’s most lucrative and popular franchises and proves that Tom Cruise is still a credible action star in his mid-50s. Now a sixth film is out it is one of the best the franchise has to offer.

Two years after the event of Rogue Nation the reminding members of the Syndicate have reformed to become a group called The Apostles and act as anarchists and terrorists for hire. They have also stolen three plutonium cores which they could use to make a nuclear bomb.

After a mission goes wrong in Berlin the IMF attempt to redeem themselves by infiltrating the organization, but have to take a CIA operative, August Walker (Henry Cavill) with them. The IMF soon find themselves sucked into a complex web involving weapons dealers, European Intelligence agencies and traitors within their organizations.

Since Mission: Impossible III all the films have had a connection of some sort and Fallout manages to tie them all together beautifully. Since the third film of the series Ethan Hunt (Cruise) has had a troubled love life – he married Julia (Michelle Monaghan) in Mission: Impossible III but this puts her in danger and since then Ethan has stayed away to protect her. Fallout builds on this, opening with a dream sequence and Julia is used as a way as a weapon against Ethan. He is still haunted by his love.

Fallout is the first direct sequel in the Mission Impossible movie series. Whilst I find it hard to believe The Apostles are anarchists they do work as a shadowy organization which means the IMF don’t know who to trust and difficult to infiltrate. The Bond series could learn from Mission Impossible on how to do to portray this type of manipulative body.

Fallout marks the first time in Mission Impossible series to bring back a villain, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) and this time he has a grudge against Ethan. His inclusion gave the film an added dimension to the plot. Fallout has the best villainous plot because it combines personal drama and a global threat. The subtitle, Fallout, has a double meaning – as well as referencing to the nuclear fallout the title refers to the fallout from Ethan and his team’s last mission.

The plot in the fourth film Ghost Protocol had a plot of a madman who wants to start a nuclear war and Fallout taps into this. The Apostles want to bring about a nuclear disaster so it could cause panic and start a new world order. It is what many action films need.

Christopher McQuarrie returns to the franchise as the writer and director and he is a man who has a strong working relationship with Tom Cruise. McQuarrie previously directed the first Jack Reacher film, has done rewrites on films like Edge of Tomorrow and The Mummy and has acted as a consultant during the film of Ghost Protocol. He won an Academy Award for The Usual Suspects and one of the most in-demand screenwriters in Hollywood. His credentials are second-to-none.

Fallout brilliantly ties together the previous films since Mission Impossible III due to the inclusion of Julia. Rogue Nation was a standalone film and McQuarrie was able to continue it as a part of the bigger picture – it was better than what the Bond series did when it tried to connect Skyfall to the rest of the Daniel Craig films. Plus some scenes did reference actions in the first three films. However, McQuarrie had a tendency to overcomplicate the film because of the shifting loyalties and multiple factions – it was like a Pirates of the Caribbean film.

Another feature in McQuarrie’s screenplay was the ability to refer to seemingly minor information and bring it back into the film. Fallout was one of the entries in the Mission: Impossible franchise McQuarrie was still able to inject a little humor and because of Cavill’s role as an outsider to the IMF he was dismissive of the team’s use of masks, making the joke self-referential.

All the Mission Impossible films have had impressive action scenes and Fallout is no exception. The big stunt was the HALO jump which Cruise trained for a year to do. It was done as a long continuation shot and it was intense. Other sequences were a chase in Paris, Ethan running across London (the obligatory Tom Cruise running scene) and the finale which allowed all the characters a chance to shine. Most of the action was done with in-camera effects, there was little CGI which added to the impact of the HALO jump, the car and bike chases, and the fights. McQuarrie and his team pushed the PG-13 rating to its limit – some moments were surprisingly bloody and full-on.

McQuarrie was able to form an incredible team. Eddie Hamilton returned as the editor and Rob Hardy acted as the cinematography. Hardy is best known for his work on Ex Machina but I fell in love with his work because of the historical drama Testament of Youth. Hardy was able to step up to working on a blockbuster, using a lot of contentious shots and wide angles, allowing audiences a chance to see the action.

Lorne Balfe is the latest composer to handle the music for a Mission Impossible film and I would argue his score is the best in the franchise. Balfe gave the film a big booming score and it was wonderful.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout is what you would want from an action blockbuster – big action sequences, a villainous plot that could change the world, and a personal element making it a fantastic spectacle.

Q