Director: Christopher McQuarrie.
Cast: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Angela Bassett, Michelle Monaghan, Alec Baldwin.
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| Anyone can fly a helicopter from inside the helicopter. |
Read my full review of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol here.
The rarely disappointing M:I series has become notable for the increasingly crazy stunts Tom Cruise is willing to undertake. As such, those nutbag feats of daredevilry have become shorthand for the movies themselves.
So there's the one where he hangs from the ceiling, the one where he goes free climbing, the one where he jumps off a building in Shanghai, the one where he climbs the Burj Khalifa, and the one where he hangs onto a plane during takeoff.
This one will be "the one with the helicopter chase". Which is an insanely awesome sequence by the way, #oscarforstunts.
But this all exemplifies what's good and bad about the M:I films. They are exceptional action films, with gripping sequences that give us stunts we haven't seen often or ever before. However, that is often the only thing we remember about the movies, despite their usual solid plotting.
In Fallout, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his IMF colleagues are hunting a terrorist named John Lark while trying to get to three stolen plutonium cores before he does. Adding to complications is the fact Hunt and his team have already let the cores slip through their fingers once before, leading the CIA to add their own moustachioed man mountain Walker (Cavill) to the IMF group to oversee proceedings.
Throw in Ilsa Faust (Ferguson) from the previous film, plus an array of cashed-up supervillains, and you've got yourself another impossible mission that Hunt will choose to accept.
As is typical of these films, the plot is a complicated but well constructed mix of double-crosses, last minute saves and seemingly zero-sum scenarios. This is both the blessing and the curse of the M:I movies - they're great in the moment, and will have you on the edge of your seat, but ultimately they're strangely forgettable. Hence we remember the films not for their plots, but rather their stunts and spectacles.
In some ways, this puts them in the ballpark of 007 films, but without the charismatic and increasingly complex character of James Bond (or the glory of being first). This raises the other dichotomy of M:I - Tom Cruise. He's both a reason to watch the films and a reason they kind of wash over you.
Ethan Hunt is basically Tom Cruise In Action Mode, interchangeable with any of his other Action Mode characters, such as Jack Reacher, The Mummy's Nick Morton, or Night & Day's Roy Miller. Hunt has no defining character traits beyond his stoicism and the fact he cares too damn much, goddammit. It obviously makes him the perfect cypher to be inserted into any espionage plot, but it goes some way today explaining the forgettable nature of the individual films, and why you rarely hear anyone proclaim the M:I series is their favourite franchise (feel free to tell me otherwise in the comments).
Thankfully this is all somewhat offset by the presence by Rhames' Luther and Pegg's Benji, who have personality in spades, and inject a bit of much-needed humour into proceedings (the worst bits of Fallout are when Cruise attempts to say something amusing)
As mentioned, M:I Part 6 is a really solid actioner, with a tight and surprising plot, and some killer stunts (including another rooftop run, this time in London). It feels slightly mean to pick at the film for its weirdly forgettable nature, because in the moment it's great.
But if, like me, you've ever wondered why you rarely hear anyone pick this excellent franchise as their favourite, here's your answer: see if you can remember what this film was about in a year's time.
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