Mission: Impossible - Fallout: Tom Cruise Must Have Sold His Soul To Satan

Take some notes, people who are responsible for Jurassic World movies. Actually take a second to pay attention to how one franchise, really the only franchise doing it at the moment, knows what its audience is clamoring for - knows how to deliver that - and knows how to improve upon its predecessor. In short, the Mission: Impossible movies are somehow getting better. It's a rare feat that a franchise that's run this long (22 years so far), with the same leading guy (he's probably a robot), is actually improving upon itself with each addition. Sequels have this weird tendency to need to TOP the action in the previous movies. The sequels feel that in order to impress an audience it needs to be bigger and louder and more expensive and all of that, yet the stories and the characters suffer because of it (cough, cough Jurassic World). These movies don't try to top the previous entries, they just try to make them fun and exciting and entertaining and something the audience actually wants to see - and they succeed every time. Even the Bond movies have a clunker every couple of films (I'm looking at you Spectre). The only other franchise that is doing something somewhat similar is the Fast & Furious franchise, but even they run into the pitfall of the toppers game. Seriously, in the last movie The Rock reaches out from the truck he's in and changes the trajectory of a missile with his bare hands. Fast & Furious movies are fun and dumb. Mission: Impossible is still smart, engaging, and an absolute blast.

I get that there are some action stars that transcend time. There are actors that can do this forever and we'll still watch most of their movies. Liam Neeson, no matter how old, can still draw a crowd. I just watched Denzel beat the shit out of like thirty dudes in The Equalizer II last week and actually believed he was physically capable to do so. Even Sylvester Stallone is still making Expendables movies well into his 70s. Tom Cruise is like 5'6'' with a dipshit face and a bit of an over-actor's mentality. Yet, for some reason, he's been able to keep a franchise afloat for twenty-two years and each movie makes more money than the last. It doesn't even seem possible. Hell, when the franchise started, the first sequel they made was so tonally off and unfocused (and absolute garbage) it looked like it was already the demise of the franchise. They couldn't even make the second movie in the franchise better than the first. So, how in the hell is the sixth movie probably the best one so far (and, let's be honest, the last three have been stellar). How is Tom Cruise doing what Sylvester Stallone isn't? And don't say it's because Tom Cruise still looks forty and Sly looks like a leather purse packed with pork. Whatever the reason is... these movies are fantastic and so very entertaining.

In a pretty cool move, director Christopher McQuarrie (who helmed the previous film) has decided to do an actual sequel to the last one. It's not JUST a new adventure, but the plot is a continuation of the last film, including bringing back the villain from the previous film, who is integral to the plot of this one. Most entries into the Mission: Impossible franchise don't exactly call back to the stories of the other movies and are their own individual adventures. This one is continues on with the story of villain Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) and his group of terrorists known as The Syndicate, who is looking to bring terror and destruction to governments and the world in order to bring peace (or something). After Ethan Hunt has captured Lane at the end of the last film, Lane's cronies have gone rogue - guns for hire - calling themselves now The Apostles. They've purchased some rare and expensive plutonium and have made some seriously massive nuclear weapons they can sell to the highest bidder or use to enact their vision of "peace". Ethan and his team - including Simon Pegg's character Benji, and of course, Ving Rhames' Luther - enact a plan to steal the plutonium and get the weapons out of the hands of The Apostles. Along the way, the CIA, who is now watching IMF's every move is sending along an agent to oversee the mission, Agent Walker (Henry Cavill). And, lastly, Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), manages to find her way into the mix.

Now, while every time a character in the movie said the word 'plutonium' with a serious face, it was hard not roll my eyes and giggle - the movie was actually very well plotted and planned. There's fun in the way the IMF team execute their plans as agents "in Halloween costumes" (as one character puts it), but in this film nearly nothing goes to plan and a lot of the action sequences come from characters having to improvise on the spot how to continue the plan, alter the plan, escape from a failed plan and everything in between. It's difficult enough to write an action movie with a clever plan enacted - what McQuarrie did was write a clever plan, give that plan clever obstacles, and write characters who have to change said plan in intelligent ways and then still get done what needs done. It's almost difficult to keep track of who is good and who is not and who is doing what in the film, but it's not a hindrance of the film either, it's part of the fun of watching the movie and trying to figure out the twists and turns.

The action sequences are something to behold as well. They're gorgeously shot and because Tom Cruise had to have sold his soul to the Scientology devil long ago, he actually does most of his stunts so the camera doesn't have to keep cutting away every 2.3 seconds and we get to see Cruise up close in the action. The difference between a Mission: Impossible movie and a Jason Bourne movie is in the latter the action is so frenetic and shaky because it needs to be stylized, but it also needs to conceal the stunt double. Tom Cruise is a fucking madman crazy person who does all his own stunts so the camera doesn't have to cut away. When he's leaping from building to building, we get to watch Cruise do it because he ACTUALLY DID IT. When he's hanging from a helicopter, we get gorgeous angles and shots we've never seen before in a movie because he's ACTUALLY DOING IT. There's a motorcycle chase in the movie that lasts a good ten to fifteen minutes that's particularly thrilling because it's Tom Cruise weaving in and out of traffic ACTUALLY DOING IT. The man is out of his mind (in the best way possible) and that's why we get these amazing movies from a franchise that, by all logic, should've died fifteen to twenty years ago.

There's also the smart moves the franchise has made with casting people who have good chemistry with each other. Your franchise is never going to get worse with someone as quirky and funny and likable as Simon Pegg. He always adds a breath of fresh air to any film he's part of. Ving Rhames isn't doing much outside the franchise, but as a part of the IMF team (an OG member) he's still perfect - and actually gets a couple of moments to show off those acting chops in this film as well. Rebecca Ferguson, the best female actor ever written into one of these movies, is back to showcase her badassery and hang in the boy's club - and even after two movies they STILL haven't tried to make her Ethan's love interest. She's such a smart character that's devoid of all woman-in-a-spy-thriller tropes. The only person who kinda stood out like a sore thumb, to me at least, is Henry Cavill. The dude has a hokey American accent. And while it works as Clark Kent and it worked in The Man From U.N.C.L.E., it's off-putting here. Physically he's a hulk of a man and his presence in action scenes is great because he's terrifying, but whenever he speaks it's a little more than awkward and feels forced where everyone else feels natural. I also did miss the presence of Jeremy Renner, who I felt fit in with this group of agents quite nicely, but his ties to Marvel unfortunately kept him out of this one. I did like that they didn't try to explain away his absence, because it's never a good explanation.

Everything about this movie is a blast. It's thrilling, it's fun, and even if you despise Tom Cruise, you're going to be seriously entertained. The set locations only add to the beauty of the action sequences, and there's plenty of those throughout. One in particular is fascinating because there's no music to accompany it. There's a lengthy car chase scene that has none of that cliché action movie music attached to it. There's only the roar of the engine and the screeching of the tires and it somehow made the chase MORE intense and thrilling. The movie feels like one long action sequence, yet McQuarrie is still able to quiet things down for a bit and give us three dimensional characters that don't bog down the pacing of the film. And while there's no clear "set up" for another film, there are some unresolved issues in this film that will allow the franchise to continue. After four fantastic films in a row - with completely new and original storylines that don't repeat themselves - I'm on board for twenty more of these movies. And I think audiences will be as well. I can't wait to watch it again.

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