Writer: Christopher McQuarrie
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
*** THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS ***
The latest movie in the Mission: Impossible franchise sees Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and the IMF team on the trail of three missing plutonium cores which some very bad guys intend to use in nuclear bombs. In addition to the usual team, buff, perma-scowly CIA agent Walker (Cavill) is also along for the ride.
Hunt's path will also cross not only with that of old foe Solomon Kane (Sean Harris) but also on/off MI6 agent - and cool, classy kicker of arse - Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson). What do these two have to do with the plot? I think I know, having watched it, but to quote some dialogue directly from the movie it's "f***ing complicated".
Opening with the classic self-destroying message being delivered to Hunt, MI: Fallout then takes off at a fair old clip and somehow manages to pick up the pace from there, delivering turn upon twist upon double cross upon betrayal as it races from location to location courtesy of a series of dizzying and ever more frantic action set-pieces.
The fact that the movie almost never stops for breath means that you rarely have time to process the quite frankly bonkers plot. Even when Hunt stops off for a drink with shady arms dealer White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) it soon turns into a punch-up. You get the feeling that Ethan Hunt doesn't even get any peace when he goes to the bathroom.
Actually, he doesn't get any peace when he goes to the bathroom as there's a fight in there too which destroys most of the place. You get the feeling that the best thing for Ethan Hunt to do would be to get on his motorbike and take a leisurely ride around the streets of a European city.
Except that the European city is Paris and he's just hijacked a convoy which was transporting a very, very bad guy and now he's getting chased by what seems to be half of the police force there. Oh, and he's going the wrong way around the roundabout at the Arc De Triomphe. What he needs is to see the world from the air, away from all of that chaos on the ground.
Except that he's got himself aboard a helicopter which is chasing another helicopter because on the other helicopter is...I think you get the idea now.
If you saw Mad Max: Fury Road, do you remember just how much action was in it? We're talking those levels here and most of it centres on Cruise in all of his HALO jumping, running, climbing, driving, riding, shooting and thumping glory. It's absolutely bloody exhausting just watching him go about his work.
So, as an action flick this is chock-full of the stuff and there are very few chances to catch your breath even though this is the longest Mission: Impossible film, clocking in at a bum-numbing 147 minutes. In fact, there's so much that there is a slight risk of fatigue setting in. However, Fallout routinely outdoes itself in terms of eye-saucering stunts and, for good measure, throws in a climatic race against the clock where the stakes suddenly become even higher for Hunt.
Yes, it's Cruise's movie but the supporting cast generally get their own moments in the spotlight, even if there's never enough of Ving Rhames. Rebecca Ferguson, so good in Rogue Nation, makes a welcome return to the fold, kicking some serious arse in the process. Simon Pegg has the reluctant geek-turned-field op routine down pat and Cavill makes an impact, both figuratively and literally. The scene where he and Cruise attempt to capture a bad guy in a rather posh (for about 20 seconds) bathroom is a hyper-kinetic, bruising encounter and would be the highlight of most other movies but in this film it's just one of half a dozen sequences vying for that title.
I now feel sorry for any action movie that's released from this point onwards - and that includes the next chapter of this franchise - as it'll almost certainly be judged against this one. For now, choose to accept this mission. This review will self-destruct in five seconds...
4...
3...
2...
1...
....nah, it won't.
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