Mission Impossible: Fallout Review: Mission I'm Possible

Have you ever stumbled upon those cheesy Pinterest boards that are filled with plasticky-‘inspirational’ quotes? If yes, then you may have read, “Don’t think anything is impossible - the word itself says I’m Possible”. Perhaps, the two examples that came to the mind of the writer of this cliched quote are the Mission: Impossible franchise and its bulging superhero-type protagonist without a cape, Tom Cruise. Because through all six instalments of the MI franchise, these missions, should IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) choose to accept them, border upon the psychotic.

The previous directors of the franchise - Brian De Palma, John Woo, J.J. Abrams, Brad Bird and Christopher McQuarrie - have always blurred the lines between outlandish and slick with gay abandon. And I thought that MI6 would be no different. Set entirely around the backdrop of nuclear proliferation, the film revisits and follows the interactions of Hunt and his team with the brilliant Sean Harris as the menacingly creepy Solomon Lane, a former agent of MI6 who went rogue and became the supreme leader of the terrorist organisation, the Syndicate.

There’s also a whirlwind of new characters - Angela Bassett as the catty and impulsive CIA director who makes Hunt’s life hell. Then there’s Henry Cavill (avec moustache), playing August Walker, a mysterious shadow with questionable intentions. They all get intertwined into the story when the Syndicate’s reformed version, the Apostles, are buying three plutonium cores for their latest client - who is under the alias John Lark. The plot follows Hunt and his team (the usual suspects - Simon Pegg as Benjio and Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell) as he traverses around Belfast, Paris and London - all culminating in a show-stopping climax set around the snow-capped Himalayas.

Cruise, as usual, is in top form. But the thing that unravels the sixth instalment more than any of its predecessors (except the whole-heartedly awful Rogue Nation), is that director Chris McQuarrie has no idea what more to do with this gargantuan talent. He keeps layering and layering, until there is no more room to add more emotion to the already ambiguous Ethan Hunt persona. So, we see that he’s gotten soft - the villains can get a punch in much easier than they ever could in previous instalments. But, since this doesn’t fit Hunt’s smoldering image, it is immediately lost upon both us and McQuarrie, who never revisits it throughout the film’s 2 hour 28 minute runtime. Simon Pegg as Benji is in top form. He cracks hilarious one liners that break the tension. His character has always parodied and mocked the film he inhabits - breaking the ‘supposed’ tension with a observational line. Because, once MI6 gets too heavy and perhaps outlandish, it is either him or Ving Rhames as Luther who play the jester. Here, their talents aren’t utilised enough - and for the most part, they take a backseat to Hercules, who rides motorcycles through Paris like they’re going out of fashion, drives old vintage cars while simultaneously getting shot at and ultimately flies a helicopter through the snow-capped Himalayas, because ‘it looks easy enough’.

The film, is no doubt, much more logical and well-planned than its predecessors. Smartly enough, Sean Harris as the menacing Solomon Lane is used again to send shivers running down your spine. The talented Harris succeeds in doing so, living up to the likes of Javier Bardem in Skyfall (2012). He and Cruise play off each other nicely - recreating some (some being the key word here) of the Joker-Batman magic. And that’s where Fallout lost me. It is too derivative of other films that it takes inspiration from, until it all unravels. But lucky for it - Cruise doesn’t. He, aided by Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby and an especially good but short-lived Michelle Monaghan, drives the narrative as impulsively as he does those gorgeous cars.

He is the reason that Mission: Impossible is an ethereal franchise, that while ridden with twists and eccentric turns, is forever engaging, prompting audiences to buy one more ticket for this guilty pleasure. When this team soars, the film does, making the notion that six films in, you can still be fresh and ‘possible’ in a sense. MI6 is overlong, clocking in at 2 hours at 28 minutes, and especially after the meticulously crafted helicopter sequence, feels rather tedious. But the constant adrenaline that the premise instills within you, makes it worth your time.

I’ll be honest. MI6 doesn’t have that show-stopping sequence, like that beautiful Burj Khalifa climbing scene in Ghost Protocol, but it doesn’t need it. Because, singularly, without any pre-dispositions, it towers just as high as that building - taking complete flight in certain places. A welcome improvement over its prequel, Fallout is a super-sized punch. I’m going with 3.5 stars out of 5 for Mission Impossible: Fallout. It’s an adrenaline rush.