Mission:Impossible - Rogue Nation/Dir. by Christopher McQuarrie/Paramount/Rated PG-13/131 min.
Movie trailers have a horrible habit of showing the best jokes and the biggest stunts months before the release of a film. There are far too many times that I find myself in the theater watching a movie for the first time and trying to force a laugh for the gag that I've already heard 15 times or generate a thrill about the action sequence I've seen in it's entirety for weeks.
I was a little worried that this would be the case with the newest Mission: Impossible movie because the studio has been spotlighting the heck out of a pretty darned impressive stunt: Tom Cruise hanging from the side of an airplane in flight. There have been commercials, making-of commercials, interviews, all focusing on this admittedly jaw-dropping stunt. Imagine my surprise when the movie starts with that scene. Yes, within five minutes, they showed what I had already assumed to be the movie's most impressive action sequence, so where could they go from here. Oh my, where could they go indeed.
The first Mission: Impossible movie was serious and dark. Something a little more akin to The Bourne series. The second was serious and ridiculous. Something a little more akin to the more absurd moments of the Brosnan Bond movies. Then, the third movie did something unexpected. It made the characters just as important as the stunts. It made the plot just as important as the exotic locales. In an odd way, numbers 3, 4, and 5 all feel like a complete trilogy, almost completely separate from the first two. They're fast paced, character driven, and each one has embraced a lighter tone than the installment that proceeded it. Not that M:I is turning into Rush Hour style action-comedy, but they are definitely enjoying the dividends that sharp, smartly placed humor can reap.
Picking up with the mission that was revealed at the end of Ghost Procotol, Rogue Nation finds Cruise's Ethan Hunt searching for a mysterious organization uncovered to be responsible for all of that film's mayhem known only as the Syndicate. Unfortunately, the last film ended with a nuclear bomb (albeit disarmed) causing havoc in San Fransisco, and the government sees it as the last straw. The proof that the IMF is an outdated organization that has operated without oversight for far too long. At the head of the anti-IMF campaign is the director of the CIA (Alec Baldwin). After an oversight committee dismantles the organization, the remaining agents are absorbed into the CIA and Hunt is declared a rogue agent, much to the chagrin of his friends Brandt and Benji (Jeremy Renner and Simon Pegg respectively, two actors who should appear in every M:I movie that Cruise has it in his ability to produce).
The Syndicate, which the CIA still doesn't believe exists, seems to contain a beautiful British agent named Ilsa Faust (terrifically played by Rebecca Ferguson), who seems trustworthy because she keeps saving Hunt, but seems untrustworthy because, well, she kinda seems to be trying to kill him too.
As previously mentioned, the movie kicks off with an amazing action sequence with stunt work that not only proves that Tom Cruise is in better shape at 53 than most people ever have been, but also that he is completely, indisputably insane, but his insanity has resulted in some amazing movie set pieces, so, shhhh, no one tell him.
It would seem that there's no where to go but down from there, but each action scene ramps up the stakes and Cruise plays these scenes not as an indestructible superhero, but as a human who could possibly die at any moment. This not only makes the scenes more intense, but it also makes the character of Ethan Hunt more impressive. He survives not because he's invincible, but because he simply will not quit.
This game of "who can you trust" is in play more than it has been in any of the other M:I movies and it is employed well. McQuarrie does a great job keeping the pace moving and throwing in twists right when they're needed. The plot does go to the happy coincidence well, but not anymore than any other spy movie. It also has one laugh-out-loud unintentionally funny scene. It involves death by a seemingly unassuming woodwind instrument. Actually, after seeing that typed out, it's certainly possible that it was intentional. After all, all of the other bits of intentional humor land beautifully. I've certainly never laughed during a Mission: Impossible movie more than I did Rogue Nation.
This movie is one of the best action movies of the summer and a terrific installment in this long-running series. If the quality of this one is any indication, we're going to see Tom Cruise running like an Olympian and risking his life as a stunt man for years to come.
Grade: A-
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