The Mission: Impossible series is America’s Bond. The two globe-trotting spy-fi series are only separated by the fact that the Mission Impossible series are at least notionally ensemble affairs, with a four-or-five strong team attempting to thwart the global terror plot/implausibly well-resourced supervillain/delete as appropriate.
But of course in all the Mission: Impossible films Tom Cruise is front and centre, carrying the franchise with his engaging screen presence, persistent star power and reckless willingness to undertake much of his own stunt work.
This time around, those qualities are pressed into service against a plot to use three stolen balls of Russian plutonium to (at first) destroy Jerusalem, Mecca and Rome with nuclear fire and (later) something worse.
Like Bond, Mission Impossible is cinematic comfort eating. You always know more or less what you’re getting, and as long as you liked the other films you’re going to love this one. All the elements are in place – non-stop action, cunning twists based around very convincing masks, and endless cliff-hangers.
Alongside Cruise as team leader Ethan Hunt, the film features returning IMF agents Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames, the only other actor to appear in all the M:I films) and Banji Dunn (Simon Pegg joined the franchise in the third film.)
Rebecca Ferguson is back as the somewhat ambivalent former MI6 agent Ilsa Faust and Henry Cavill, known to his friends as Superman, in on board as a CIA agent who clearly has his own agenda.
More or less from the outset, things are happening. What little exposition we require is delivered breathlessly in the middle of car-chases, as the protagonists are seeking cover from gunfire, or falling off enormous mountains.
Director Christopher McQuarrie, continuing in the style he established in 2015’s Rogue Nation, has no interest in stopping to look at the scenery.
Every scene, every shot, is a frenetic rush through narrow European streets or across rooftops. The infamous moment when Cruise leapt between two buildings and broke a rib is there on screen, as are dozens of other moments where current CGI technology might normally have been employed to keep the insurance premiums lower.
It’s exhilarating and almost exhausting to watch. There are plot holes you jump a motorcycle through, and everyone involved appears to be having the most tremendous fun.
If you’re in the mood for a film that keeps its foot on the accelerator and your brain in neutral, look no further.
