Mission Impossible : Fallout Review

Mission: Impossible – Fallout opens grungy, with Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) sleeping rough in a Safehouse, suffering apocalyptic dreams of his wedding, interrupted by a mushroom cloud. From the start, Fallout picks Hunt apart, trying to peer inside a character resistant to examination after five movies of mythic labors.

James Bond has gone through this introspective impulse before, most recently with Daniel Craig’s 007, who exposed the superspy’s tuxedoed sophistication as a thin veneer covering a wrecking ball. But where the Bond series has gotten down in the muck, exposing the brutality of its protagonist’s methods—MI6 not so much assigning him, as letting him off a leash—Mission: Impossible has taken the opposite approach, deifying Hunt as mankind’s unbreakable savior. At several points, Fallout presents dark possibilities, alternate scenarios for the consequences of failure. How (not if) Hunt defies fate and rewrites, with sheer will, the world’s future, becomes the primary narrative tension—the question not so much whether or not Hunt will triumph, but just how high a scenario can be stacked against him.

The plot is flimsy—we’re chasing nukes again—but writer-director Christopher McQuarrie, returned from Rogue Nation (PSA: unlike the rest of the series, Fallout is in close-continuity with the previous entry), is by now expert at knotting new complications into straightforward plot points. He stacks body doubles, mask twists, assassination attempts and goons, then resolves them all in the next spectacular action sequence.

Fallout has several signature action stunts, including a HALO jump over Paris and bone-breaking jumps, all helpfully included in the opening credits so you know what you’re getting. But it’s a fight in a well-lit bathroom that most had me clenching my hands like angry Arthur. Pitting Hunt and a partner against one man, the fight is body-slamming, tile-destroying carnage, with a choreographic intensity rarely seen outside of The Raid movies. The action throughout is of a similar caliber. Mission: Impossible – Fallout is an unrelentingly consistent action movie, with not a single sequence wasted before the next big stunt.

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